MOTORING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 27 October 1928, Page 6

MOTORING

NOTES FOR THE OWNERDRIVER WHAT IS YOUR CAR COSTING YOU? INTERESTING INFORMATION Among (lie remarks made recently liv Judge Crawford, the English justice who does not believe in motoring for tlie great majority, was:—"The ownership of a car is not evidence of wealth —it may lie proof of folly.” The obvious retort is that the automobile ceased to be evidence of wealth two decades ago, and to-day it is certainly, in the hands of a man of quite moderate means, no more a proof of folly than the possession of real estate or stock bought on a speculative market. There is no doubt that the question which the potential motorist finds it most difficult to- get satisfactorily answered is; what will cost him to run the car which he has in mind? Motoring friends are usually full of advice on mechanical subjects and the pros and cons of various types of bodywork, but, as a rule, have not kept a sufficiently accurate record of what their cars cost them to run, and so cannot tell the novice anything definite regarding the financial side. Of course there are many items, such as repairs and depreciation, which cannot be assessed with accuracy. One man, for example, may use his car only at the week-ends and on main roads exclusively, so that his mileage will be low and the car will not be subjected to much wear and tear. Another man may be an amateur trials enthusiast, always endeavouring to climb country byways with atrocious surfaces, so Grat Iris tyres and his chassis will not stand up for so long. RUNNING COSTS AND STANDING CHARGES The expense of running a car can be divided into running costs and standing charges. The first of these includes petrol, oil and tyres, and expenditure in these directions can quite readily be worked out on a mileage basis. The miles which can be covered per gallon are easily ascertainable from the makers, and may range from 35 in the case of a light 10 h.p. car to 15 for a car of the 30 h.p. class. The consumption of oil can also be determined from the manufacturers, figures ranging from 1000 m.p.g. to 2000 m.p.g. being common.

As regards tyres, the mileage which can be run upon a set of four varies very considerably according to the way in which a car is driven, violent acceleration and braking having a very destructive effect upon the covers. The mileage will also depend upon the care taken of the tyres and upon the type of road surface commonly traversed. In exceptional cases a set of four tyres has been run successfully for 20,000 miles, or even more, under everyday conditions, but in order to obtain an average figure for general application 10,000 miles can be taken as a safe basis. Take then the cost of one year’s service from a light four-seater capable of 30 miles per gallon and costing in the vicinity of £350. A full year’s' mileage of 10,000 will be assumed and liberal allowance made for garage repair work. Petrol is taken at 2s a gallon, and tyres, 29in x 4.95 in in this case, are selling for £3 10s 6d. The result is:—

. Average per mile, 2.63 d. Total, 3.86 d. The above figures show an overall cost of less than 4d a mile. The following figures are the actual experience of a North Island motorist who has been running a 14 h.p. car for four complete years. The cost of thj car was £530 and the mileage in the four years totalled 22,000, of which 7046 miles were covered in the fourth year. In this case the owner reaped the benefit of doing his own repair work.

It is often argued that interest is hardly chargeable against a car since it is not customary to debit one’s recreations. Nevertheless the car is *a “wasting asset” and its cash value decreases even when it is in storage. The car does not earn money interest, and it wastes away in actual cash value, even if it is only stored up; in fact, the worst way to treat a car is not to use it. Usually it is said that if a ear he bought new and sold in the same year it depreciates in market value by 20 per cent. Nearly every article once bought loses its “shop” value, and this is quite reasonable, since its pristine newness goes, and its guaranteed condition may not be the same. TERM OF GUARANTEE A car guaranteed for six months only shows a lack of faith on the part of its manufacturers as compared with another guaranteed for three years, and it would seem in time inevitable that if one maker can give so long a guarantee all- others- might do the same. This moans a great reduction in the cost of motoring arising from deprecia.-

lion, as a car so guaranteed is more valuable at any time within this period for obvious reasons. Several of the higher-grade large cars have had such guarantees in the past, and recently at least one light car has been sold in a similar way. The practical result of such a guarantee is .to allow an owner definitely to calculate the cost of his car over, say, three ycyrs at so much per-week, as he will know pretty nearly the second-hand value at the end of> the period concerned. As an example, take a light ear costing £330 new this year, with a three-year guarantee on it. At the end of three years, with fair treatment, there will be nothing radically wrong with it. Therefore, it is quite fair to put the value of the car at not less than 33 per cent., or, say, £llO. The loss of capital, then, in three years will be £220, or the cost per week will have been £1.41.

Reckoned in terms of hours run to hours spent in maintenance the everyday ear probably compares favourably with any other piece of mechanism. A locomotive working under comparatively ideal conditions probably receives more attention per mile run than a motor car, thousands of which must do a weekly mileage of 500 with but half an hour’s attention on Sunday morning. SQUEAKS AND RATTLES When automobiles were not as quietrunning as they are to-day, body squeaks and rattles were not particularly noticed because the droning of engine and gears smothered the minor body noises. The quiet, efficient car of to-day glides along so smoothly, however, that the slightest body squeaks or rattle soon obtrudes itself, and becomes a source of annoyance to the sensitive motorist. One of the problems that the automobile manufacturer has had to contend with is the fact that a chassis frame is not absolutely rigid, and, consequently, there is usually a certain amount of movement between chassis and the foundation of the body. In this connection —and also in various other parts of the chassis suspension —rubber is being used with success by some manufacturers to reduce the vibratory movements that sooner or later bring to life those noises that, unless eliminated, lessen the pleasure of motoring. A COMMON CAUSE OF TYRE TROUBLE Tyre trouble frequently results directly or indirectly from the tube, says a tyre expert in the “Goodyear News.” Old tubes reduce tyre mileage tremendously. With the remarkable improvements made in the manufacture of covers in the last few years, many tubes will rot in the covers before they wear out. By using a rotting tube, the motorist is only causing slow leaks, which lead to underinflation, and ultimately unnecessary tyre wear. When leaks begin to develop on the rim side or when the rubber starts to deteriorate, the tube should he discarded. An old tube will always fail you. A new tube will pay for itself by preventing fast tread wear and fabric breaks in the body of the cover.

RUNNING COSTS £ s. a. Petrol, 10,000 miles 33 6 0 Oil, lOgals 4 0 0 Set 4 tyres 14 2 0 £51 8 0 Average per mile, 1.23d. STANDING CHARGES £ 8. a. Depreciation 70 0 0 Interest on £350 .... 17 10 0 Repairs 10 0 0 Insurance 10 0 0 Licences, etc 2 7 6 £109 17 6

RUNNING COSTS Three Years Fourth Year £ s. d. £ s. d. Petrol 51 15 0 22 8 0 Oil 6 18 0 2 2 6 Gear Oil .... 3 13 0 12 0 Tyres 24 O' 0 6 11 6 Springs 2 10 0 6 10 0 Spark Plugs — 10 0 Sundries 1 5 0 2 2 6 £90 7 9 £41 17 3 Average per mile 1.45d. 1.42d. Total running cost for four years £132 5 0 Cost per mile 1.44d. OVERHEAD CHARGES Four Years £ s. d. Licence and Plates 8 10 0 Driving Licences 10 0 Insurance ... 30 12 0 Depreciation .... 350 0 0 Interest on £530 .... 127 0 0 Interest on Garage .... 24 0 0 Total Overhead .... £541 6 6 Overhead per mile 5.90d.