IMPROVING THE AUTOMOBILE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 2 November 1925, Page 8

IMPROVING THE AUTOMOBILE.

(By H. H. Bassett, president of the Buick Motor Company.) i ' Progress obtained by work of the hardest . kind has brought the automotive, ‘ industry within a quarter of a century from virtually nothing to a commanding place in ' industrial life. Now that first place has been attained, there should be no tendency to sit back satisfied. Tlii s attitude must not be assumed if the industry is to retain its leading position. , Commercial history is replete with My instances of manufacturers who felt that they had arrived and could rest content only later to be rudely awakened by some young, vigorous rival who recognised the principle that to succeed you must progress. Every year for. two decades the leading automobile manufacturers have brought out what they honestly believed was the best car in ids price class, and felt that it could not be excelled. Yet within twelve months their own engineers have proved that the product could be improved. And so it has gone on, each year seeing better automobiles and so it will continue as long as it is possible to make improvements. Years ago the Buiek Motor Company took for its slogan: “When better automobiles art- built, Buick will build them.’’ This was not selected as a vainglorious boast, but was predicated on the well defined policy that Buiek intends bettering its product by the adoption of such improvements as continuous experience may develop. Maybe the perfect automobile is yet to be built: No one can say how close or how far we are from the coveted results. Extensive research will reveal this, and this fact is recognised by the more progressive manufacturers, who are constantly .striving to make a better ear. It is a good thing for the industry as a, whole that there is a tendency to discard the habit of making changes merely for the sake of having a change. But this extended to the curtailment of real improvements from year to year would mean but one thing ultimately—that the automobile industry would start slipping backward, for. it is a truism that nothing stands, still; we must continue to go forward or go ' backward.