SOMETHING BETTER WANTED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18891, 13 December 1924, Page 12 (Supplement)

SOMETHING BETTER WANTED.

There is one respect in which I 6hould like to see the British car improved, in spite of the sacrifices that have been made in order to bring it to a low price, writes W. G. Aston.. in an exchange. This is the electric lighting and starting installation, for according to my experience this is apt to give trouble on the best and most expensive cars. Durthe summer and early autumn all is well, for one takes plenty of long country runs, the engine remains loose and easy to start, and the lights are not much used. But it is quite a different thing when the nights lengthen out. The batteries never get a chance of being over-charged, and sometimes they have to supply the sidelamps for hours on end. The result is that the next morning the starter will only groamngly turn the engine over, and good old elbow-grease v has eventually to« bo applied. I have absolutely nc toleration for this state of affairs, and it is far too common. If the electrical installation is not capable of starting the motor under the worst possible conditions (which is when one wants it most), it is not fit to be on the car. If the chassis makers cannot see their way to giving us adequate batteries or full-sized dynamos (which cut in at a low top-gear speed), then they ought to get over the difficulty in another way. They must give us a separate switch for each side-lamp so that we need only keep one burning when the car is stationary ; they must give us side-lamp bulbs of much smaller current consumption; and they must fix "priming" devices which will help the engine to start in tho morning.