BIG SHIPMENTS ARRIVING

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21986, 9 January 1937, Page 9

BIG SHIPMENTS ARRIVING

SATURATION POINT CLOSE AMERICA’S LEAD CHALLENGED The last computation of car ownership in New Zealand showed that there was ohc car to every six persons living in the Dominion. This places New Zealand about second in the world, America leading with one to four persons. But New Zealand seems to be issuing, a challenge 1 to America, for several big shipments of new vehicles have arrived since the, beginning of the year and more are expected in the next few weeks. Motor importers themselves acknowledge that the market has almost reached saturation point, and they state that the numbers of cars changing hands must be a record. One said yesterday that, in the selling of a new car. the handling of about three used cars is generally involved. If good fortune is with them, they might make sales to a high percentage of purchasers who are buying their first cars, but in most cases there is. a vehicle to be traded in, and this often involves the handling of several other cars. It would be a fair estimate, he said, that for every new, car sold three used ones were/ sold. The enormous activity of the motor market is evident then from the number of importations. In the last week or so nearly 2000 new cars have been landed in New Zealand. , At Auckland last week 500 American cars and the same number of English cars were landed. A few days later 900 were landed at Wellington. This means that for th'e country to absorb that number of new cars dealers must sell about 8000 cars, either new or old. Most dealers admit that saturation point seems to be very near, but they think the tightening of traffic regulations and the regular inspection of all motor vehicles will ease the position. They are looking for the Minister for Transport (the Hon. R.' Semple) to .carry out his oft-repeated threat to “clear the roads of junk."- Unless there is considerable scrapping of old cars within the next two or three years, motor dealers say they will be faced with the position of having innumerable used cars on their hands. Those motorists who believe in buyig new vehicles at regular intervals will continue to do so, it is said, but lower down on the scale there will not be the same trading in used cars unless many of those in use to-day are scrapped. Another dealer agreed that a fair number of cars were being scrapped voluntarily to-day, but their number was not comparable with the number of new cars being brought into the Dominion. Only the activities of wrecking companies and the sale of spare parts was likely to save the posi-; tion even this year if the present rate of imports continued.