MOTORING

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 9 April 1927, Page 15

MOTORING

ROAD SERVICE. AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION’S YEAR. During 1926, the guides of the National Roads and Motorists’ Association in Austiaiia. coieied 233,tXJU miles on their motor cycles, m answering motorists’ calls for assistance, ano they renderew assistance in 87 ,o(X> cases.

The assistance rendered ranged from help in serious accidents and breakdowns to the most trivial, trouble. Hie most prolific causes of tiouble to motorists, particularly those who had had little practical experience of driving repairs, were with carburettors and ignition. A great many new drivers found themselves stranded for the time being with mysterious stoppages which the guides speedily traced to water or other impurities finding their way into the carburettors, or to spark plugs with points which were eitlier dirty or not pioperly adjusted. A tally kept by the N.R.M.A. touring department gives tne enormous total or 7,360,0(10 miles, m addition to many hundreds of thousands of miles covered in answer to telephone calls for information concerning routes. The recent* holiday season was easily the the busiest in the history of the department. During-the year 130 hotels were registered, and already many scores or service stations have been included in the newly applied system of registration. The history of the National Roads and Motorists’ Association during the year is due to expansion in all departments. Both the office and the outdoor staff have been considerably augmented, and it is intended to bring the strength up to full requirements during 1927, in order to meet the rapidly-increasing demands of the heavy membership. The membership of the association itself creates a record for a motoring organisation in any part of Australia, as the year closed with a total of 24,500, making an increase of more than 100 per cent, during 1926—from 12,000 to 24,500.

SECOND-HAND CARS.

GLUT IN GREAT BRITAIN. In Great Britain at the moment there exists a. giut of second-hand cars which is causing considerable concern to the trade. The really well-made British car, such as the Rolls-Royce, Daimler, Sunbeam, and Star, is .almost indestructible, and even when advanced in age possesses a verdancy and vim that is most appealing to the connoisseur. Tne owners or such cars often yield to the fascination of modern coachwork lines and to the utility of new mechanical devices such as four-wheel brakes, and purchase anew. But their old models show a distinct inclination to go on for ever, and when refreshed by new paint and tyres offer a serious rivalry to the modern cheap car. A study of the second-hand columns of the great British motor journals gives a faint indication of a situation which becomes more difficult every day. There are, of course, those who refuse to part with their old and trusted cars. The editor of a London weekly, for instance, possesses a sixteen-year-old landaulette which has made its daily run to town, and its week-end jaunt, with a regularity that is almost proverbial. When involved in a somewhat serious accident lately, owing to the vagaries of a sidecar, his family conducted an ardent campaign for a vehicle of a more modern appearance as an outcome. But entirely in vain. To-day, that ancient but freerunning machine is still to be seen in the neighbourhood of Covent Garden. It has established a friendship between man and machine that almost rivals the affectionate comradeship which so often exists between man and horse.