THE PRICE OF SPEED

Southland Times, Issue 23182, 24 April 1937, Page 20

THE PRICE OF SPEED

FIRST LIFE OF A TWELVE That it is one of the original questions asked about motoring does not affect the fact that a simple inquiry as to how much a modern £3OO 12 h.p. car ought to cost to run is as pertinent today as ever it was. It is as pertinent, as easy and as difficult to answer as ever, says a writer in The Observer. As ever, you could compose a dozen answers to it and still find that you had left points untouched, sources of expenditure unmentioned. There is, so far as I can see, only one difference between the question as it was asked thirty years ago and as it is asked today, and that is that now you are perfectly safe in, replying that the less you use the car, the less it will cost. This remark is not intended to be caustic. Thirty and more years ago there were cars that cost large sums to run, however little you ran them, cars that in fact could only be said to be economical when they were not being used at all. Those were the days when you went out for the shortest run fully prepared for a series of breakdowns, the days when as you left the house for a destination ten miles away you were sped on vour way with the remark, “We shall expect you back when we see you.” The Wild Days Those were the days when practically every conceivable portion of the machinery was on the verge of failure at all hours of the day or night from ignition to back axle, from brakes to carburetter. One after another, and sometimes two or three at a time, these and other organs would let you down, and no man knew at what hour, or even perhaps on what day, he would coax the machine back into its motor-house. Very few of these things happen today in any decently built car that is properly looked after. We still have in certain cases crops of extremely irritating electrical troubles from ignition to screen wipers and from lamps to traffic signals, but even here I am becoming more convinced that the fault is 'as much ours as the makers of the gadgets. For there is no doubt at all that the modern battery is asked to do far too much. If you count up its work you will find that it is responsible for a minimum of seven lights in a closed car (but it probably has at least two more), signalling apparatus, a doublescreen wiper, one, if not two, horns, in all probability a gauge or two, dashboard lighting, ignition, pumping the petrol from the tank to the carburettor, and the last bale of the heaviest straws, starting the engine. I do not think we should make so much fuss when our pretty tpys cease to work. Apart from these f cautiously assume that the average car costing £3OO is in all its important respects thoroughly reliable. Its possible unreliability in the more mechanical directions is closely connected with this flaming question of cost. If the maker’s instructions are faithfully and conscientiously carried out with a little over for good measure and if he always drives well within the power of his engine, there is no reason why for a very considerable time the owner of a modern £3OO car should be faced with a bill for repairs. A considerable time, of course, should read a considerable mileage, as a car has no age but only a work record. Judging from personal experience and the records of friends and friends of friends, I should say that the average car in this class should remain in fit and efficient condition for at least 30,000 miles. , This means that during that period it will not need more than routine attention, such as valve grinding and decarbonization. At the end of what might be called its first life, that is to say between 30,000 and 50,000 miles, even a wellcared for car will probably need a good deal doing to it, and that, of course, is the moment when the other evergreen problem arises—to renew or to buy new? This, however, is a subject that demands individual discussion and has no place here. l am only concerned for the moment with the answer to the bulk of the inquiries. What should a £3OO 12-h.p. car cost to run for three years? A Rough Estimate Taking, then, those three years as 40,000 miles, which I consider to be a fair average mileage for a car that works all the year round, I think you need only add to the insurance premiums, the tax and the bill for fuel and oil (the ordinary 12-h.p. car should average, year in and year out, at least 28 miles to the gallon of petrol and 1000 to the gallon of oil), the cost of a new set tyres for each 15,000 miles. And at this point comes the crux of the whole matter. The life of tyres, as the life of the whole car, depends almost wholly upon how they are treated. For every moving part in the car, including the tyres, speed is the greatest source of expense. In the case of the tyres themselves, there are other considerations, such as maintaining proper pressure at all times, never, except in cases of urgency, using the brakes to pull the car up dead, and never borrowing the kerbstone as an additional brake. The failure to observe these precautions is extremely destructive. In a well-designed and well-built car there should be no need for renewals at such points as steering gear connections, springs, or any part of the running gear with the exception of brake linings, and the last also vary a good deal in their durability. It is quite on the cards that you will complete your 40,009 miles without new linings, and equally on the cards that you will have to renew them at least once, especially if the car is used in hilly country. Add, therefore, £lO, and another £lO for the unforeseen.

Finally, and once again, I am not ashamed to remind you that it is speed that costs more money than anything else.