Britain Buys Luxury Cars

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 510, 13 November 1928, Page 7

Britain Buys Luxury Cars

More £2,000 Cars Sold • Than in America Although the prevailing belief is that small cars are the most popular, at no time and in no other country are to be found so many large and luxurious carriages as are seen in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to-day. Some friends visiting here from America informed the writer last week that the American motor manufacturers could not sell 1,200 cars costing over £1,200 apiece in any one yeax, and what surprised them more than anything else, although connected with the automobile industry, was the large number of carriages sold in Europe each year for £1,500 and over (says an English writer). If America is a land of millionaires, they evidently do not spend their money on the type of carriage which can be seen in great numbers every day in Bond Stret, at Goodwood, at Monte Carlo, and other fashionable resorts in Europe. It was a surprising statement, however, yet it explains a good deal why various business combinations are joining hands in the United States. DIFFERENCE IN BUYERS The fact is that the United States citizen, however rich he may be, does not care to pay more than £7OO or £BOO at the outside for his motorcarriage, whereas folk in Europe do not hesitate to pay £2.500 for their cars. That is one of the secrets of the success of the British and European motor industry which has often puzzled its rivals across the Atlantic. Wo in England have to be content with a comparatively small home market of something between 200,000 and 300.000 motor-vehicle .ales per annum, but out of that small total—as compared with the American production of 3,500,000 vehicles —a far higher percentage of high-price luxury carriages is sold in this country than in any other in the world. Also, carriage folk still have to have distinctive equipages and so, notwithstanding those pessimists who think the British motor industry is going to the dogs, and will be swallowed up by its large production rivals from overseas, these purchasers are still numerous enough to make it worth while catering for them. For this reason, therefore, the small manufacturer in England who builds for distinctive classes of buyers is still capable of holding his own against these big battalions t>f allied businesses that may threaten their market. BETTER MOTOR-CYCLES Just as there is no bad beer there seems to be no bad motor-cycles nowadays, writes "Carbon in Motor Cycling ” A year or two ago it was quit! a common thing for certain makes ?o have a bad name. Every rider knew, for instance", that the X.Y.Z. burst its tank after a couple of hundred miles, and that r the F.Q.R. did 50 miles to year of Sracethecustornirv rumours do not seem to be in cir cufation- chiefly, one supposes, because there is not\he slightest ground for them Even the very smallest ot what cynics call “backyard assemblies onnear to be really good jobs, and It is verv doubtful whether anyone couM point out an inherent fault in an. British-made motor-cycle to-day.

NOVEL DRIVING TESTS “DUMMY DODGING” IN FRANCE Judging by the success of the “dummy dodging” and “the gates” competitions conducted in France recently, there is undoubted scope for this motor sport in New Zealand. No well organised gymkhana should omit them. The competitions were incorporated in the international contest of driving skill, as it was known. For the “dummy dodging,” wooden ducks, pigs, cats, ninepins, and grotesque, and enormous dummies .marked a sinuous course over a gravel surface. The object of the competitors was to drive as fast as possible between the obstacles without touching them. In most cases the big cars had to reverse to get round some of the obstacles. Skids were general. In “the gates” each driver had to drive in a backward and forward direction through two barriers, which he had to open and close on each occasion. Various methods of covering the course were adopted, some preferring to get in and out of their cars each time, while others left their cars running unattended in first gear or in reverse. according to the direction e.f travel, and ran ahead to open the gates. Many French drivers removed their doors for the event. and thereby gained valuable seconds. But with their experience in negotiating gates, outback folk should need but little training to become champions.