THE KAISER CAR

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 13333, 21 December 1943, Page 3

THE KAISER CAR

NO CONNECTION WITH THE HOHENZOLLERNS

SUPPOSED TO SELL AT £ 25

Nothing to do with the Hohenzollerns! Howard J. Kaiser, renowmed for mass production of cargo ships, and now intent on 10,000 h.p. freight aircraft, has outlined his post-war plans to an American newshound. Kaiser estimates there are 10,000,000 Americans w T ho will be burning to pay cash for a new car as soon as the world reverts to normal. He has designed a four-cylinder car, rated at 16 h.p. and developing SO b.h.p. He hopes to boost this into lightning production immediately afthe peace declaration. It is to sell at 100 dollars —say, £25 in terms of sterling, and less than the •war price of an autocycle. Easy payments will not be accepted—the eager buyer must put his dollars down on the nail. All the 250,000 filling stations in U.S.A. will be automatically accredited agents. At first sight one is tempted to ask a lot of questions. For instance,

what will the other mass-production experts such as Ford be doing whilst Kaiser is scooping in the cash? What is to become of his plants and staffs as soon as this transient market has been saturated? The answer probably is that a good many of the American automobile magnates are possibly behind Kaiser, that he will not bump into any serious competition, and that when the cheap market has been fed the industry will be ready to launch its betterclass cars. But it is possible that Kaiser is really on his own, and has other secondary notions.

Prince Edward Island, with its 20mile beaches and profusion of everything the motorist can desire, including its low taxes, claims to have some of the finest of the world’s highways. Appropriately it is called a New World Utopia.