The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-12-23
PURCHASER TO JET. STILL MORE VAL UE.
Competition Will Be Keener In PA, Says 0Idsmo-
 bile Official

Competition raised to the nth de- gree will feature the automotiye in dustry during 1924, with the result that the automobile buying public will receive the greatest dollar for dollar value ever known, A. B. c. Hardy, president and general man. ager of the Olds Motor Works, told 70 service managers representing Oldsmobile distributors from all sec tions of the United States and Can ada, at a meeting at the Lansing, Mich, factory this week.
 The cards are on the table and the picture for 1924 Is now set up," said MT Hardy. Tt does not require the abilities of a seer to visualize the path the automobile business will tread during the next 12 months. The man who runs may read.
 The present competition in the automobile business will grow hotter during the coming year. And, as in similar occurrences in other indus tries. the entire condition will re- solve itself into a question of eco monies. The company who can main tain production and eliminate every unnecessary cost, no matter how small, will be the one that will weather the storm.
 There are probably only few big companies that could do what the Olds Motor Works, aided by the Gen eral Motors corporation, has just accomplished in the re-equipping of it's immense plant to produce the new line of six-cylinder cars-the lowest priced siX-cylinder cars in the world. Ii meant a sacrifice of equipment that was but a few years old, but which had become obsolete due to new designs and advanced methods of manufacture. It means the ex- penditure of more than $2,000,o08 for new machinery so that manufactur- ing costs could be reduced. The re- suit is that we are using less plant space than ever before and are turn ing out more automobiles per day.
 Purchasers of automobiles are TO- ceiving more value for their dollar today than ever before. In fact, the. automobile is the only manufactured product that has kept pace with the price of a bushel of wheat, and to- day automobiles are selling lower than is wheat when prices for the past 10 years are compared"
 What the General Motors corpo- ration has done and is doing to re- duce the cost of producing automo- piles was described by B. c. Koether, director of the sales, service and ad- vertising sections of the advisory staff of General Motors. Through standardization" he said, "the num- Der of different small parts being used in General Motors cars has been reduced during the past few years from 13,O0O to 2,00o. This means a saving of many dollars during 8 years period, which saving was passed on to purchasers of General Motors cars.
 "The combined ages of the automo- bile divisions of General Motors give the corporation a total of 116 years of experience in automobile building, an industry that is hardly a quar- ter of a century old This expe- rience is being used for the benefit of each component part of the cor poration.'
 Mr. Koether also told the Oldsmo bile service managers of the various cooperating groups which give their services to the affiliated companies in quantity purchasing, experimental work, testing, chemical research and engineering detail.
 The service convention was in ses- sion three days and was under the leadership of R. M. Hatfield, service manager. The meetings are held an- nually and they result in material