HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 April 1927, Page 14

HIRE-PURCHASE SYSTEM.

HENRY FORD’S OPINION. Definite opinions have already been expiessed i>y Mr. Henry Lord on the motor nire-purdiase system in America. He admits to at he is sti.l pessimistic concerning the future of tne system, stating that instead of being a const, notice measure it was neaiing the point of becoming a destructive device. 1 1 •. J’ord is responsible ior the statement that 10 per cent, or purchasers of motor-ears sold on the instalment basis during 1926 had to return the cars because . they could not continue t..e payments. American automobile dealers, who do big business on the instalment system, aie feeling worried at a recent L.S.A. Atipieine court decision that the Government has a right to confiscate cars used for carrying liquor, whetner they have been fu.ly paid for or not. Details of America’s automobile output for 1926. published bv the Ameriian National Automobile Chamber ol Commerce, show that no less than 70 per cent, of the total were closed cars. v)f 3,950,(XX) cars produced, 2,926,000 were coaches. Export figuies, too, are rather a, revelation, for 550,000 motor vehicles worth 95 million pounds, were sent out of the United States and Canada—an advance of 3per cent, over the previous (1925) record. This figure reptesents 12 per cent, of the business of the automobile factories, and tlie N.A. C.C. expresses the hope that it will shortly be raised to 25 per cent. In contrast, the number of cars imported into America from evorv other country was inly 820.