FORD SERVICE DEPOT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 70, 24 March 1915, Page 11

FORD SERVICE DEPOT

A BOON FOR MOTORISTS. COLONIAL MOTOR COMPANY'S v NEW ENTERPRISE. /"TjUITE apart from, the merit* of the ' Ford car itself— merits which have made it famous nil over the world, so that with fche six hundred thousand now running in all parts of the earth it can justly be described as "The Universal Car" — the organisation which . serves the countless owners of Ford cars is hardly less wonderful than the organisation which produces automobiles at an average rate of nearly a thousand a day. The one is the complement of the other. The principle of Henry Ford, designer and constructor of the Ford Model T, and the guiding spirit in the great enterprise which has become one of the wonders of the world, .is nob only to satisfy the purchaser of the car in the first place, but to keep_ him satisfied. In Canada and the United States, where nearly half a million Ford cars are on the road, Ford Service Depots have been established in all the principal cities and towps, and these keep the^ hundreds of thousands of Ford owners in touch, as it were, with headquarters by attending to their needs' and wants as motorists. REAL INSTITUTIONS. These Ford Service Depots have be* come real institutions, and their use is extending at a surprising rate, in harmony with the ever-increasing popularity of the Ford car — itself one of the institutions of the motor world. The principle of the Service Depot has now' been thoroughly ' approved ■ by actual experience', and the Depot may rightly be said to have supplied the proverbial "longfelt want." The Service Depot is nofc the least of the advantages secured by the purchase of a Ford car. The Ford Service Depot is a place where the Ford owner can get everything he wants for his car and everything his car wants, at ■' the lowest possible prices, and where Ford repairs, overhauls, and adjustments are done at cost price. Such an institution is, of course, only possible where there are numbers of patrons to make it worth while. It is because Ford owners constitute so large a proportion of the total number of motorists that the Ford Service Depot makes its special appeal and finds its special use. Similar service would be out of the question in regard to the average motor-car. APPLIED TO NEW ZEALAND. For several years past the number of Ford cars used in New Zealand has been mounting up by leaps and bounds, and there are now in the Dominion far and away more Ford owners than owners of any ' other type of car. The Ford model T, is made in Canada, has proved eminently suitable for service in this other Dominion of the Empire, and bids fair to occupy tho same position here as it does in 'Canada and the United States. For these .reasons the Colonial Motor Company, of Courtenay-place, Wellington, has decided that 'the time has arrived when the principle o* a Service Depot, for Ford cars might v be adopted here with advantage, and, as sole New Zealand agents for the . Ford Motor Company of Canada, they have, taken ,the necessary steps to provide for the establishment of a Ford Service Depot in Wellington. A large area of land has been secured at , the corner of York-street and Taranaki-street, close to the company's present premises, and here .plans have been prepared and a contract has been placed for the building of a", Service Depot on a scale extensive enough to meet the needs of Ford ow&ers in tho .district. ' 0 PROVISION FOR EXTENSION.--The building is to be of two stories, covering a site 105 ft by 51ft, aad will have a flat roof. • Special provision is ; Being made by strengthening the walls and stanchions for the addition of two extra stories when required.' The g'i'ound floor will be used a-s a Ford Service Depot and Repair Shop, fully equipped for dealing with Ford cars, with overhead travelling crane, work-pit, turntables, washdow:ns, etc. A reinforced concrete first floor carried on steel girders and stanchions and concrete stairway and fireproof doors separate the floors and make the building as nearly fireproof as possible. The top story and the flat roof will be served by an electric lift capable of raising 2^ tons. The whole building is quite apart from the Colonial Motor Company's present premises, which themselves received important additions some time ago. These have been found wholly inadequate to cope with the requirements of a business which is showing marvellous expansion. The new building will be devoted to the special requirements of a Service Depot for the benefit of Ford owners, past, present, and future. MANY BENEFITS. ' ' The benefits to Ford owners from the new Service Depot will be manifold The Depot will not cater for the storage of owners' cars, but it js the intention of the Colonial Motor Company to arrange suitable accommodation for this purpose at a later date. The Depot will be open during ordinary business hours only for clients. The scale of charges will be based on the actual cost, and the company will make no profit whatever in j labour from Ford owners. In the case I of repairs effected in other makes of cars, the charge will include a fair»percentage of profit; in any event, Ford cars will always take precedence over | other cars. The workshops have been so designed that owners may inspect work being done to their cars at any time. This will be one of the special teatures of the Depot. It will thus be seen that the owner of a Ford car will have in the Service Depot many additional, advantages over and above those of ownership. It has always been one ot the main factors in Ford service to furnish spare parts at the principal agencies throughout any country where .bqrd cars are widely used, and, as the Ford car is one of the most perfectly standardised pieces of machinery the engineering world can- show to-day, there is practically no limit to its life, short of absolute destruction by accident, fire, or similar mishap. AIDS TO LONGEVITY. This factor and that of the care given at the Service Depot are invaluable aids to the longevity of a car In all parts of the world there are Ford cars running, and running well— with a mileage to their credit of over six figures. In Now Zealand there are 'several such examples and scores with records of' over thirty thousand miles The Ford Service Depot will constitute a further help to prolong the life of the Ford owner's car. Experts will be there to furnish advice on questions as to the maintenance and management of the car, and any little ttouble, such as may occur to any motorist, will- be treated promptly so as to save more serious consequences. , The motto of the Ford Service Depot for Ford owners will be "At your service," and it should prove an added inducement to prospective ownership that with it goes the guarantee of an active interest by the Colonial Motor Company in the welfare of the car after it is sold. The Ford Service Depot is being erected by Mr. W. L. Thompson, from designs prepared by Mr J. M. Dawson, of Wellington, and the building will be completed in the early spring.