Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-06-27
BUYERS NOW WANT
USAb[E . VALUES
Useless Appliances Recognized by
Consumer, Who Knows He
Must Pay For Them
BY G. III. Bryant, Advertising Manager
Velie Motor Vehicle Company


Developing field for automobile
presenting real usable value in the car
than anything else. Glowing specifi-
cations and glittering generalities are
thrown away on the average reader of
automobile literature, and automobile
statesmen are relegating this kind of
talk to the dim and dizzy distance.
Why should discussion of specifi-
cations play very important part in
the sale of the rar? Buyers every
where know that If the manufacturing
company is in business on solid basis
1t must build a good car. rs
There can be no great difference in
the motor dimensions and other speci-
fications of the driving and running
gear in cars selling at practically the
same price. Out of all you will prob
ably get very nearly the same amount
of power and the same amount of
speed.
Usable Value Needed
Real usable value goes long ways
back of the bore, stroke, the number
of speeds, on the type of rear axle
used. 1t finds its foundation in the
first car built by the manufacturing
company; it furnishes its own proof
in the subsequent development of this
Car years VI Is
into the present day product.
Real usable value means giving
everything to the buyer that is of vital
importance to him in the satisfactory
operation of his car, and then charg-
ing him q fair price.
It is folly to incorporate into the
car some spectacular feature as a
selling argument and then sacrifice In
real usable value of the car and lower
the standard of quality and strength
in some vital feature in order to main
tain a popular price.
Wise automobile buyers know what
they want and what they do not, and
spectacular features are discounted
even before the purchaser has gone
into the details of the car itself. And
because of the limited demand of such
features, due to the fact that the con-
servative manufacturer has found
them of no real value, the cost of
building them into the car increases in
much greater proportion than the cost
of building into the car real vital,
usable features.
Devices of No Value
Thousands of devices to be used on
automobiles are being brought out
every month and a tremendous small
percentage of these are of real value,
yet Ine TldJOTlty OI tHeIu get uScO
somewhere. This means that the buy
er who is not careful to examine every
feature of his car finds that he has
something that he cannot use, the cost
of which has made 1t necessary for the
manufacturer to take away from some
other part of the car.
OF course, such features as electric
| lighting and starting, speed indicators,
etc, are requisites of the properly
equipped automobile. but the number
of these requisites is limited. If fea-
lures which were not of actual usable
value to the owner did not creep into
the working parts, but were confined
merely to accessories, there would
probably be much less chance for
the average owner to pay for some
thing for which he is not getting ade-
quate returns; but inventors and man
ufacturers are constantly working out
schemes to alter standard types OF
cars and present alterations that offer
possibilities for breakdown or require
an unusual amount of attention with
out proving themselves of actual value
! or real merit.