BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19604, 5 April 1927, Page 7

BRITISH MOTOR INDUSTRY.

MEETING COMPETITION. MANUFACTURERS CO-OPERATING. The opinion that the outlook for the British motor industry is distinctly bright was expressed recently by Lord Montagu of BeaulieUj in an article in the Times. He states that in Great Britain the proportion of foreign to British motor vehicles has lately become less, and in both the most expensive and the cheapest types there has been a marked change in popular favour toward British cars during the last three or four years. The number of British cars exported in 1926 was about 28,000, as against 15,596 in 1924, and 3083 in 1922. As for imports, only just over 21,000 foreign cars were sold in Britain in 1926, as against 48,339 in the preceding year, and 22,504 in 1922, notwithstanding the great increase in the number of motor owners in Britain. British cars are already making headway in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The same tendency is apparent in every British colony and dependency, and the cheaper British cars, undoubtedly the best value for the price in the world, are beginning to make strides m public favour. As to whether British manufacturers can continue to sell at a price low enough to make their competition effective, and thus secure large sales, Lord Montagu says the large financial and productive resources of the United States are such that no individual firm in Great Britain will find it easy to compete. The British motor industry has recognised this most important (actor, and is taking steps to establish combined service organisations in different parts of the Empire, standardisation wherever it is possible to save multiplicity of parts, joint assembling plants, and cooperative advertising. Later it may become imperative to produce in each colony or Dominion certain component parts now exported from Great Britain.