The Washington times., 1913-03-22
AUTOMOBILES NOW
ARE STANDARDIZED
Purchaser Now Can Be Reason.
ably Certain Machine Will
Prove Satisfactory.

The automobile is an established in
stitution. That is self-evident. It
safely weathered the experimental stage
years ago. Wonderful strides have been
made since then. Today the automobile
is :. a finished product" When one
buys any motor car now he can be sure
it will serve him reasonably well. This
is due to the fact that the automobile
is becoming standardized. This simpli-
fies the process of choosing a car and
makes service the important considera-
ton.
There seems 10 be a great difference
of opinion as to just what constitutes
service. Every one seems to have an
entirely different conception and two
opinions rarely coincide. 1t seems,
therefore, that the first thing to do is
! to establish some definite interpretatio
Of the word service as applied to the
, automobile industry.
If a dealers intention is to give the
best service possible to motor car buyers,
both before and after they have become
car owners. he should find out first
what the public wants. In analyzins
this problem, the example of the biz
at the truth more readily. The success
of these institutions is due to the fact
that first of all they cater to nearly
every human need. They not only
! handle great variety of prices. so
that they are catering not only to the
! man of affiuence, but also to the man
who must invest every dollar where IL
will bring him the best returns.
Manufacturers have learned that they
achieve best results by concentrating
fnN,E mo ndnIg thnr han
In this way they are able to conserve
their manufacturing facilities. thereby
bringing together the advantages Of
quantity, ,: oduction and standardza-
tion. Therefore. 1t Is up to the dealer
to bring together cars of different types
| and different classes, In order to afford
the buyer the widest choice possible in
detail of construction and variety Of
price range.
OF course, merely selecting a line of
cars to fit a pre-arranged price scale Is
not enough. The dealer Who honestly
intends to render real service must go
a step further. He must select the
best cars possible in their respective
classes. He should have his own en-
gineering force to determine whether or
not the product of manufacturer is
satisfactory before contracting with
him.
But still this is not enough. Real serv-
ice demands that a dealer shall be able
to cater to every one OF a motorist s
needs In addition to the cars them
selves. he must have the facilities for
taking care Of those cars after they
are in the hands of the owners. His
equipment must include garage facili-
ties. facilities for repairing and ad-
justing ears, for the replacement OF
parts and for supplying such equipment
as every motorist requires from time
to time This demands a substantial
investment in plant and equipment
nf he aft,t M hnfu ~,
manufactured and consumer. the dealer
is really the buyers safeguard. The
progressive dealer can be of almost un-
limited service to the car buyer. not
only through his aid in the matter OF
adjustments on defective parts, but
also on equipment in which very often
he secures a considerable saving on the
motorists bills.