BUYING BY INSTALMENTS.

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 74, 24 September 1927, Page 24

BUYING BY INSTALMENTS.

As regards instalment plans, Mr, Reeves was very emphatic in denouncing any scheme which did not call for an initial payment of least 33 1-3 per cent, of the value of the car. Without this, he said, the owner acquired his ear on a payment which represented less than the initial depreciation which it suffered when first taken on the road. He said that approximately £600,000,----000 worth of sales were made on the instalment' plan annually in America, and that very few of these were cart ried out on a basis of loss than oiiethird of the money down. o A member of the audience asked Mr. Reeves what would happen in the

event of an industrial depression in America, considering that American incomes were mortgaged for some* time ahead on all sorts of goeds which were being bought on instalment plans; would it not be possible that these would be thrown back on the dealers' hands in big quantities? To this Mr. Reeves replied that the business situation was now so closely watched, anu so many statistics were published to show the trend in various trades, that he did not think that a period of depression couM occur without plenty of warning in advance.