ENGLISH CARS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 25 June 1945, Page 2

ENGLISH CARS

NEW ZEALAND’S SHARE LITTLE CERTAIN YET Wellington, This Day. An aniiouneemLMit from England time British motor manufacturers are to be allowed to produce 200,000 private cars in the next 12 months, 40.000 of which are expected to he made before the end of this year, and that half the production is to be exported, has raised hopes that new cars may soon he on sale in New Zealand, but little further is known definitely about tlie effect the decision in Britain will have in the Dominion. No allocation of cars to particular markets has been made, but New Zealand having been an important purchaser of cars made in England, there is uo doubt that a reasonable proportion of the output will he available •for export to it. It has been suggested that new ears from the English factories will be iu New Zealand before the end of this year, but it is impossible to say yet when anybody in New Zealand will he able to buy’ a car of a particular make. It is pointed out by those interested in this trade that some of the most famous factories may not be able to produce motor-cars immediately because, even if they have finished with their war contracts, the work they have been doing during the war has been quite different from car manufacture and such factories will require time to change back to car production. No cars for private use have been made in Britain since 1942 and few were made between the. beginning of the war and that year. Some factories have been making motor-trucks and other vehicles needed in thousands by a modern army. Other factories have been engaged oh work nothing like motorcar making. None will he able to start making private motor-cars till their facilities are freed from war work, aud all the makers will not be able to return to civil production at the same time. Later, when agents receive up-to-date information from tneir principals the prospect may be clearer. Meanwhile the manufacturers will be seeking orders so that they may gunge requirements. Whether the ageuts in New Zealand will be able to give orders will depend on whether import licences will lie available and for what quantities. and whether there will be petrol and tyres in the country to encourage car ownership. It is generally assumed that the first cars to come from England to New Zealand will he iu pieces for assembly and completion here, as were most ‘of those imported before the war. Though the trend of English aiotor-ear engine design is expected to be changed by the recent alteration in the British system of taxation, it is not expected that the first ears to come out will be radically different from those being made when the war started.

Cars becoming available for importation again will raise some important questions for the Government, for exchange. manpower and the country’s consumption of petrol are all affected directly or indirectly. The extent of the trade, before controls and the cessation of manufacture overesas restricted it. is indicated bv the fact that in 1935, £6.074,035 worth of cars were imported, mostly from the United Kingdom. In addition there were petrol, oil, tyres, spares, road material and road equipment, much of it from foreign countries. Cars brought into use iu 1938 totalled 29.837. of which 16.610 were from the United Kingdom and 12,919 from Canada and the United States of America.