ENGLAND'S PETROL WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18861, 8 November 1924, Page 12 (Supplement)

ENGLAND'S PETROL WAR.

BRANDED V UNBRANDED. THE O VER^EA DRIVER. ;. (By our Special Motoring "Correspondent.} Oversea motorists are hardly likely to benefit by the petrol war which is raging in England now, and has brought the price of first-r 1 ass branded spirit down to Is. 6£d. a gall6n. It is only a local conflict caused by what are called " pirate " distributors of the essential fuel. Branded petrol is sold, of course, by firms who have a world-wide reputation for high quality behind every gallon they retail. These concerns aim at fixing a country-wide price, so that, whether tho motorist purchases in tho heart of London, or the wilds of Scotland, he pays the same Bum per gallon. .This means in practice that the Londoner pays, a little more than he might do in order to cover packing and transport charges foi the fuel, conveyed to distant parts of the country. The result, however, is a fixed national price. But there is also on the market what Is called unbranded petrol. It has no name. It is just petrol. Often it is the 6tuff which the big firms decline to purchase as not being up to their standard. Plainly, if this fuel i 3 sold only in the large centres, thus cutting out the expense of conntry haulage, it can be retailed profitably at less than the price of branded petrol.

The " pirates " have been reducing the selling price of this unknown petrol in the easily-reached, large-consumption areas, and this has forced the handlers of branded spirit to ccme down as well, even though they have to drop the countrywide ideal, and charge more in the remoter districts than in the London area. It is a fight between speculators in cheap petrol and the proprietors of the famous brands, which have a high reputation to maintain. I do not remember finding much unbranded petrol in the Dominions and - India. The competition there, if I recollect aright, is mainly between tho brands, and not between branded and ui - branded motor fuel. In any case, it is always safer to stick to a brand. You know at least what you are buying. With unbranded ! petrol you don't; and behind it there is no .reputation to .be damaged by inferior'stuff. ... I notice that Mr. Massao Bulat, tho well-known English motor .journalist, not only declares that he will have nothing to do with unbrarded motor fuels, but adds: ; " I want my petrol in a tin, and I want to see the unbroken seal before I accept each tin. . . . As for bulk installations, I'll have none of them." "In my experience, the oversea motorist need not adopt this attitude of supercaution. I have never had to complain : ! bf the Bowser plants oversea, most of which, indeed, supply only branded spirit. The manager of a big oil plant in South ■J Africa once told me that the cost of " wrapping it up " was one of the main 'obstacles to the lowering of the price of petroL His ideal was bulk distribution everywhere, and practically no "wrapping np" at aIL I do not suppose supplying "in tins can over be done away with entirely, but undoubtedly the extension of the bulk of supply system will do more to flower prices tnan anything else. But always buy a branded fuel. You get your safeguard there. A firm that spends large sums on making the name of its product known all over the world cannot afford to sell bad stuff. • • "V Examination for Drivers. A campaign against dangerous motor driving is going* on in England, and the. magistrates are making a practice of sending drunken drivers to prison, without the - ; option of a fine. Any motorist .proved to be under the influence of intoxicants gets a very rough time in the Courts—as indeed ne ought to. Indeed reckless motoring of any kind is more severely punished than was the case a few years ago.. Nor is this stiffening up of sentence i unwarranted. Hardly a day passes without somebody being killed in a motor smash. Yet average speeds in England are lower than they are overseas. I have travelled for long distances in Greater Britain at an average speed of 45 m.p.h., and in short bursts have touched 80 m-p.h. Probably the ordinary driver in the Dominions drives faster (outside the towns) than the ordinary driver in Eng- . land. The trouble hero is that, while the surfaces are conducive to pace, there are too many houses, too many people, too many side roads, hedges { drives, walls, corners and so on to make it even moderately safe. Oversea you can often eee the road for miles ahead, and there may be no cross-road 3 at all. The high accident rate has started an agitation in favour of putting drivers through an examination before issuing driving licenses. In Australia a fairly severe test- is imposed, and to my personal knowledge the examiners in Johannesburg demand a good deal of skill. Here anyone over 17 years of age can get a motor-driver's license, though they may never have even ridden in a motorcar all their life! On the whole I should say that the average motorist oversea is a better driver than the average motorist in England He is more self-reliant, and acta more quickly in a tight corner, thanks to his training' in dodging holes and -boulders and ruts. He has been brought up in a harder school. But the ordinary motorist oversea can learn one thing from his English contemporaries. He can learn the value of water in maintaining the appearance of a car. So many drivers in Greater Britain merely dust their cars. Of course, it is fatal to paint work. In England there is very little dust, oven in dry weather, thanks to the almost universal use of tar as a road surface-; and in a summer like the one just over there is none at all. But the English motorists washes his car, instead of merely wiping it down. The ordinary car in England is extraordinarily well kept. It always looks clean snd fresh. It is well garaged, constantly hosed down and polished, and more often than not covered over, even in the garage, with a little sheet of some soft material. It may bo that the English (motorist keeps his car much longer than the oversea owner, who has an' American love of buying new models. But English care pays, if only because it reduces depreciation. The well-cared-for car sells fc»tter second-hand.

/flexible) Bodies. The motor show is less than a month ahead now, but from what I have seen and heard of the new models, there will be no outstanding departures from present lines. There will be an increase in the number of car 3 with four wheel brakes as stock equipment. Indeed, soon only the cheapest models will not have this refinement. Still, I must confess that I should not myself make them a deciding factor in purchasing. The braking of many an old model was to my mind good enough for anybody. I have driven tLem at speed over roads on which watercourses and holes demanded frequent and sudden braking, and I have found them do all t.ney wer© collcd upon to do. However, they aro the fashion now, and manufacturers cannot altogether shut their eyes to fashions. It ou will also find that low pressure tyres are more freely provided on stock cars. Further, the flexible closed body is undoubtedly coming in. It is cheaper than the solid limousine type, and it stands English conditions well. How it will behave under tho strain of oversea work, with its frequent jolting and bumping, remains to be seen. Still, for use outside town, it is probable that the flexible b °dy will answer better than the solid and heavy limousino proper type. Even the most careful drivers oversea can hardly avoid a certain amount of tempot * ry j ame d'stortion over really bad bits of road, and the severity of these strains make flexibility m body work an advantage there will be more closed qprs oversea m the next year or two, and ' * '« tha flexible body will make P «tron g appeal. ' : v