NECESSITIES NOW

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 July 1927, Page 18 (Supplement)

NECESSITIES NOW

USE OF ACCESSORIES Accessories are no longer an accessory—they are a necessity. In brief, this describes the unusual development of the equipment field in the motoring world during the last few years. In some respects this change has been quite as radical as have been the changes in cars themselves. Yesterday the car was considered a luxury. To-day it is a necessary adjunct of home and business. In this transition, accessories have kept pace

with motor-cars, and we now find that proper equimnent is considered as essential as proper motive power. ACCESSORIES MEAN SAFETY, COMFORT This is true for two reasons: First, many accessories mean safety; second, accessories are essential for comfort. The safetjr feature is becoming more and more important as crowded traffic conditions make streets and roads more dangerous. Perhaps the first requisite for safe motoring is the speed and distance recording instrument. The speedometer is consulted more often than any other on the dashboard. So vital is it considered for safe operation of the car that in some overseas cites ordinances have been passed forbidding the use of a motor-vehicle unless it is so equipped. The demand for similar regulations in all cities and towns is growing.

Crowded streets of the cities demand the use of bumpers. The manoeuvring of parking and driving requires rearvision mirrors. Inclement weather necessitates windshield cleaners. Night motoring? :in some parts makes a spotlight essential. On the side of comfort there are the shock absorber and the car-heater. The shock absorber prolongs the life of the car, and makes for economy. It irons out the ruts in country roads, and the bumps in city streets. In 1925 56 per cent of the cars made in the United States were closed cars. The estimate for 1926 is 70 pr cent closed cars. The comfortable operation of these cars in winter calls for car-heaters. Because of the importance of accessories the motoring public has come more and more to demand quality and service in these products. There is the feeling that it is foolish to buy a good motor-car

and equip it with shoddy accessories. This change }ias been noted first by the salesmen of cars. They have found that the sale of a motor-car equipped with unknown or pooriy constructed accessories does not make for a satisfied customer, and they have learned that dissatisfaction because of the failure of any of these accessories breeds dissatisfaction toward the car itself. In consequence, the car dealer of to-day is as particular about the kind of equipment he sells his customer as he is about the automobile itself. The development of motor transportation in the future will take the trend of refinement rather than radical change, and consequently the accessory will play an increasingly important part in this progress.