No General Drop In Car Prices

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30368, 18 February 1964, Page 14

No General Drop In Car Prices

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, February 17. The drop of £4O announced today in the price of Ford Anglia cars is not expected in the motor industry to herald a general reduction of small car prices. From today the basic price of the Anglia is £745.

'The Anglia is a car which has been in production a long tune,” said Mr J. G. Autcn. general sales manager of the Ford Company of New Zealand, btd. "High demand, and other factors, have enabled production costs to be cut. By the time this gets to New Zealand, the saving is about £4o—and we are simply passing this on to the consumer. It seems to be the right thing to do.” Asked whether the change had any reference to the Governmentt's policy of providing for the import of more vehicles. Mr Auton said: “Naturally it will assist noremittance sales, but this was not the object of the exercise. Neither was it an attempt to get a bigger share of the market. The market is not big enough to justify such a change in the absence of other factors."

Other major car assemblers said that the reduction in the price of Anglias had no special significance. Recently there had been reductions in the prices of some foreign cars, notably a Volkswagen model. These probably occurred for similar reasons.

"When there are few major body or other design changes in some time, the costs tend to drop,” one agent said. “It does not mean you are being offered a less desirable car—merely that the capital cost of the various jigs and dies involved has been recovered, and a reduction is possible." Several firms pointed out that there had been downward adjustments with recent models. One General Motors car which had been reduced, in comparison with

other models, was the curren model of Holden.

Several small foreign cars have recently been reduced The Skoda Octavia is now more than £lOO cheaper. It is the cheapest 1200 cc vehicle. The Renault Dauphine has also had about £5O off. •