Evening star., 1931-04-23
STORAGE OF AUTOS
AFFECTS NEW SALES
300,C10 Cars Estimated
Withdrawn to Save License
and Registry Fees.
BY ]. C. ROYIF-

There are thousands of automobiles
today in the United States in dead
storage. These cars are not worn out
and have not been abandoned by their
owners. They simply have been with
drawn from active use because of the
expense involved in their operation and
for registration and license fees.
The official registration figures, which
have now come into the Government
departments, indicate decided falling
of in the number of automobiles reg
istered. Detail inquiry shows that
these cars are stored for the time being.
However, they continue to exert a very
decided influence on the sales of new
cars and the automobile companies
have encountered this sales resistance.
which up to the present time they have
been unable to account for.
100000 Cars Withdrawn.
Government officials attribute the
situation to Withdrawals from two
sources. One of these is the multiple
car owner, who in times of prosperity
operated two or more automobiles. Now
one car is regarded as ample. The
other sponsors of the Withdrawals are
the large fleet owners who. because OF
reduced freight and passenger traffic.
have had to put a part of their fleets
into storage until business demands
WdIIdHL LIlGlE IeluIIl W dCLlNlIl.
1t is estimated that there are at least
100000 vehicles thus Withdrawn. That
means that there will be 800 900 fewer
replacement sales in 1891 than normally
might be expected. The automobile in
duStry usually determines replacement
sales by deducting the gain in regis
tration during the year from the do
mestic sales for that period. On this
basis replacement in 1929 amounted to
about 2,700,000 units out OF total do
meStlc sales of around 800 900 vehicles.
If this same method of computation
were followed in the case of 1887, it
would indicate that all domestic wles
during that year were replacementS.
This, of course, cannot be accepted as
true. But the fact remains that there
was practically no increase in registra-
ton from 1880 to 1881. Registration for
the passenger cars and trucks for the
48 States and the District Of Columbia
totaled 26,601 ,443 at the beginning Of
1890 At the beginning OF 1891 the
registration was 26,523,779.
Gas Consumption Up.
The factories Of the country in 1890
turned out 3.354,0 900 cars, of which
$4,000 were exported. New passenger
car registrations in 1881 totaled 1885,
900. as compared with domestic sales
of 2,652,000 passenger cars. 1t appears
from these figures that production was
very closely held to retail orders in
1880 and that this production was more
completely translated into registration
figures than in any previous year. It
also must be taken into consideration
that part of the 1880 registrations came
from the larger stock of cars in deal
ers' hands at the end of 1929.
Gasoline consumption of automobiles
in the last year served to give a possi-
BILE index to the use of cars during the
year. as compared with 1929. The con-
sumption in 1880 was approximately S
per cent greater than in 1929. This
compares with a gain of Is per cent
in 1929 over 1928, according to the fig
ures reported to the Bureau Of Mines.
These figures are substantiated by the
data based On gasoline taxes.
This gain of only 5 per cent in gaso-
line consumption in the face of heavy
car usage of fuel caused by the trend
toward larger motors and the increased
use of trucks and busses, lends support
to the assumption that there were no
more cars on the road in 1880 than in
1929.
(Copyright. 1917