WHO SHOULD OWN A CAR?

Evening Star, Issue 19712, 12 November 1927, Page 24

WHO SHOULD OWN A CAR?

A well-known. British judge (Mr. Justice Crawford) has slated that too many people with small incojnes own motor cars, and there has arisen a keen controversy on the point raised. “Like most judicial dicta/' asserts the London ‘Daily New’s/ “Judge Crawford’s declaration that no person with an income of less than £1,5000 a year is justified in owning a motor-car is rather out of date. It is no doubt true to say that many persons who own motor cars cannot really afford to do so ; it is equally true that many persons own horses and pianolas and prize dogs and other things that they really cannot afford to possess. “But to pretend that the possession of a private motor car is still the prerogative only of the well-to-do is to be blind to a very remarkable phenmucuon of civilised life. Uno may continue to describe the motor car as a, luxury. In the sense that a crystal wireless set is a luxury, a motor car is a luxury for the majority of ownero though not for alb

“ The time is fast approaching when it will ccaso to be regarded ae any more of a luxury than a* third-class scat in a railway train or a decent house to live in. In the United States of America ono person among every five inhabitants owns a motor car, and though last year tho proportion in tho United Kingdom was only ono car to 43 persons, these figures aro being modified daily. “The whole tendency of modern life is to make it both easier and more necessary to develop the motor car habit. Not only aro communities of houses being built in places where it is inconvenient for the householder to go to work unless lie has a small car, hut tho builders are sacrificing a room in the house to find space for the essential garage.

“At present it is tho £4OO a year or the £SOO a year man, who generally speaking, represents in this country tho lowest economic grade in tho great world of motor car owners. It is likely that he finds the ‘ luxury ’ something of a tax on his resources ; its running cost may vary from £3O or £4O to £BO or £IOO a ycar._ Ho saves less than lie would otherwise save, perhaps ; ho goes less to the theatre or tho picture house ; tho family practises certain economies for the sake of tho car. The family does this because it thinks tho sacrifice worth making. It probably is well worth making. “ What Judge Crawford really ought to have said is that it would ho improper for a £SOO a year man to buy a £1,500 a year man’s motor car, which is a very different thing.”