The Washington times., 1913-04-26
SEES MONOPOLY OF
MEDIUM PRICE CAR
Motor Official Predicts 1t Will
Be Ultimate Product of the
Entire Industry.

In the opinion Of George Dunham. vice
president and consulting engineer of one
Of the largest motor car factories in the
country. the medium-priced car will be
the ultimate product of the entire au-
tomobile industry, or at least of the
greatest number of manufacturers
Il will not say that the time viii ever
come when only the medium-priced cars
will be built" said Mr. Dunham recent
ly, but l think l can show why the
medium-priced car represents the maxi
mum motor car value. II | can demon
strate this fact, the law of average will
back Up my prediction that cars of this
class will ultimately dominate the au-
tomobile market.
First, permanent success in the au-
tomobile business is now become a mat
ter of manufacturing. few years ago
all parts were high priced. comparative.
ly speaking. There were two reasons
for this. First, production was small.
The market was not sucn as to warrant
even a 5000 car output. This kept over
head expense away up.
Next practically all constituent parts
were bought Of speciality manufacturers
and merely assembled by the automobile
builders. This meant that each car paid
several profits in addition TO the build
er's profit. for parts makers are not in
business for fun any more than manu-
facturers in any line.
High Cost of Machine Work.
There was a third reason-more
or less a corollary of the other two
for the early high prices. This was
the high cost of machine work. special
tools and materials. But this was
largely an imaginary reason. for though
materials and labor are even more cost
" today car prices are lower than
ever before in proportion to quality.
THE change has come with the build
ing up of the big factories In which all
the essential parts of car are built
by the producing company; and with the
development of the automobile market.
More and more each season, the
buying public is inclining to the manu-
factured car as contrasted with the
older type of assembled product. The
reason Is not hard to find. A company
which has five or six millions invest05
in a plant would he nothing short of
imbecile to risk such a tremendous IN
vestment by. putting on the market an
experiment or an unfairly priced car.
Is Real Quality Car.
That the medium priced car is the
real quality car can be proved. In the
first place, the best of the medimum
priced cars are built in large quantities
in big modern factories. They enjoy all
the advantages which came from buy
ing raw materials in large quantities.
The high priced cars have to pay the
long price for materials simply through
limited production. because manu-
featuring cost already determined a
high price. that price is further justi-
fled by extreme luxury of equipment.
Medium priced cars may not 90 the
limit on luxury. but the best of them
offer all the practical comforts and con-
veniences one can demand.
"On this theory, you may say, the
larger the production the greater the
value in proportion to price. Not so.
There must be an economic limit. For
instance, a single pair of shoes may
cost you S.. Twenty pairs may be
bought little less. And you can prob
ably get a gross even cheaper But
eventually you must reach that limit
below which the producer would lose
money. The same Is true in buying
materials fOr motor cars.