Evening star., 1924-09-21
FORD SALESL|KELY
TO MAKE RECORD
indications Point to Passing
of All Other Competitors
Combined in 1924.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, September 20.-Henry
Ford will probably sell more cars
this year than ever before, according
to the present situation in the auto
mobile industry. That claim cannot
be made so far as is known by any
other automobile manufacturer in the
world. The reason that Ford will
outstrip all other competitors in the
number of cars sold and probably ex-
ceed in sales the production of all OF
his American competitors is that he
has not had to raise prices.
Even If the Ford Co does no more
than hold its own, compared with the
outturn of 1923, this fact must be
recorded as a decided gain so far as
others are concerned. 1t is undeni-
able that business in the automobile
trade in general has been smaller
this year than last. No other manu-
facturer in a price field anywhere
near that of the Ford car is making
or selling as many cars as last year
and losses in comparison to date
make 1t improbable, il not impossible
that a Ford rival can approach the
banner figures of 1928.
Smaller Profits Noted.
Neither Ford nor the others in the
so-called cheap car" field are MAX
ing as much money as last year. Ac-
curate and dependable financial state
ments show that Ford is not making
within 33 u per cent as much per car
as he did year ago. But others
have been compelled to raise their
prices to keep their plants going and
show narrow margin of profit.
In 1923 Ford turned out close to
100000 cars in all his factories. The
Ford output for this month (esti-
mated will total 100000 cars. 1t is
fairly safe to count on an output OF
more than 100000 for the last three
months of the year. When these fig
ureS are assembled we have 1000
for the first half of the year, 140, 900
each for July and August, 10000
for September and 400 900 for Octo-
ber, november and December-a total
of l,S43,000 cars turned out in the
compared with 1,s15,o00 last year.
The production of the foreign plants
has kept full pace with those in this
country. so that the grand total has
every prospect of exceeding that of
1923.
AS compared with this. the Chew
rolet Co, which manufactured So0,-
900 cars last year, may turn out about
100000, and the Overland Co.. which
made 100000 last season, probably
will have a production one-third less.
The automobile industry in this
country now is full of ross-currents.
The general trend of production is
upward. but there are remarkable ex-
Ceptions, notably Dodge Bros. and
the Hudson Motor Car Co, which
have curtailed output recently. This
action, however, was not surprising
when 1t is realized that each has
run almost uninterruptedly at nearly
100 per cent of capacity since last
Winter, while other producers have
had ups and downs of output al
most innumerable. Neverth eless both
Dodge and Hudson are exceeding pro-
duction of September of last year.
Studebaker has resumed at about
20 per cent of capacity at the De-
troit and South Bend plants. 1t is a
significant fact that while demand
for other than Ford cars. is increas-
ing, the call in most cases has been
for the new models. Ford has not
changed models and has saved hun
dreds of thousands of dollars in costs
because he has not had to ''retool."
Copyright, 1924. by Consolidated Press.)