A CAR FOR £50

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23884, 11 August 1939, Page 16

A CAR FOR £SO

GERMANY’S PLANS WILL OVERSEAS MARKET BE ; FLOODED? The £3O motor car. the “Strength Through Joy ” car, is now on view to the general public, to whom it has been promised for the past five years. It is the main attraction of the Berlin Motor Show, which is being visited by thousands of members of the German public, mainly non-motorists, a substantial proportion of whom will, however, become motorists when the “ Strength Through Joy ” vehicle goes into general production after 1940 (says a writer in the Manchester Guardian). - , ‘ ' r-'• There is nb question at all about the “ Strength Through Joy ” car s being a first-class production of its 'kind. It is extremely modern in its lines, closely resembling in this respect a commercial make sold at over three times its price, and not at all freakishlooking or even “cheap” in comparison with other inexpensive cars of light class. There are two models highly streamlined, and a limousine to be Sold at 990 marks (£SO at par, or £B6 at the official rate of exchange), and the, other a cabrlo-limousine at 1050 marks. Placing Orders The “Strength Through Joy” car is not yet; being manufactured; the factory in which it is to be built has not even been completed. The numerous models on show throughout the Reich are experimental vehicles, but the design appears to be final for the production programme to begin next year. The first deliveries are promised in 1940, but whether early or late in the year is not yet stated. Meanwhile 180,000 orders have, been received for the.vehicle. • They are placed in a rather unusual way and through the Labour Front’s ipactyntry, intending purchasers. who are at present virtually all" members of the Labour Front (though membership is apparently not obligatory to place an order), are saving up-for the car by attaching Starnes weekly to, special savings forms, much in the same way as people save with stamps for Savings. Certificates in Britain. To order a car the intending buver must be able to guarantee his ability to save five marks weekly (normally five shillings) towardl its purchase. This would enable him to obtain delivery of the vehicle within at least four years, payment having to be made in advance, unlike the practice in ordinary commercial car sales.

It is expected, however, that many people will be able to save more than live marks weekly, possibly through joint family contributions on the same card. Provision, however, is also made for taking orders from people who will take more than four years to save the purchase price, to which, in any case, delivery charges and third-party insurance have to be added, both apparently at specially low rate?. • An apprentice in a skilled trade, one who one day will earn wages which may enable him to run a car may begin to save smaller amounts than five marks a week. . 1 Nothing. can be done in Germany without the touch of bureaucracy being applied, and the form of application to save for the “ Strength Through Joy ” car does not. of course, escape. The intending purchaser has to slate his name, address, date of birth, trade, his scale of contributions to the Labour Front (which establishes his wages or salary), where employed, whether married. g widower, or divorced, whether he has children and how many, and, if so. how many children live at home and how many sse wage-earners. Potential Owners

It is stated that the great bulk of the applications to purchase the “ Strength Through Joy” car come from people earning less than 300 marks a month (presumably gross income is meant, in which case a good fifth must probably be< deducted for taxation of all kinds, inclusive of the social services,, leaving 240 marks net income). This sum gives a purchasing power of upward of £3 'weekly for the future motorist. How a car is to be kept, on the surplus over living costs at this income is a mystery which it is not believed the Labour Front of the German Government has solved. The motor car for the million seems a middle class or lower middle class notion, and it would seem that, because of running costs the permanent owners of the £SO car will be from these classes, and, so far as they will be owned by working people, the cars will be contributed to by the family of several wage-earners or will be used by people with working-class incomes as pan of their stock-in-trade. The Labour Front appears to envisage the wide use of the "Strength Through Joy’’ car by small farmers, whi} wall use it to carry' their produce in the week and for ah excursion on Sundays.l It is declared that with the production contemplated there will be no losses on the sales of the cars at £ 50. It may well be the case if the output proves large enough, in which case Germany may do in the light car field what Mi- Ford did for motoring generally in the United States, It, may be recalled that Mr' Ford at the peak of his success with the “T” model nearly 14 years ago was selling a much larger car, equipped with electric lighting and starter, for a little over £6O. But his output then, reached an annual figure which is not possible in the present state of world trade. It is undoubtedly Germany’s intention to export the “ Strength Through Joy car. It is said here that Germany hopes to motorise the Balkans and Eastern , and South-Eastern Europe generally with the vehicle, Germany hopes to build the roads in these countries upon which her cars are to run. It is declared here that Germany would find it profitable, or perhaps rather that Germany would find it worth her while because of her present shortage of foreign currency, to sell the car abroad for the equivalent of £3O worth of free foreign exchange. Will Germany then succeed in flooding Europe with the "Strength Through Joy” car as well as filling her own xoads?