SELLING MOTOR SERVICE

Taranaki Daily News, 2 August 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

SELLING MOTOR SERVICE

THE REGULAR OVERHAUL

UiUi'.'lN-TiX'U MAI XTENANI r

Regular lubrication and .periudi'.ml inspection and adjustment: lie at.the root of satisfactory car service. Your friends car, which has given re-ulfs so nnwii octter than your own, Ims been more, satisfactory simply because it has nad moie constant attention. Possibly he is foi ■■ tunate in being mechanically-mmded, and is able to make, ail the minor adjustments himself. If you do understand the mechanism of your car you will appreciate the need for regular inspection, and fur the correction of minor faults while they are still minor ones. Just as certainly as neglect of bodily ills will lead to complications and expensive illnesses, so will neglect of the cur engine lead to expensive repairs. Seme little time ago the writer mentioned the way in which certain American mirages sold ‘‘preventive maintenance” on a flat rate plan, and suggested that, in part, their metlii ds were applicable to our conditions.

Speaking generally, garages exist to ojve service to motorists, but when we come to analyse the position we find that in New Zealand there are .generally one or two specific reasons for. the existence of every garage. When aJ man holds the agency for any make of car he must ha.vc sufficient facilities to giie service. If he does not have those facilities he -will never’ make satisfactory sales. It follows, tnen, that theie will be garages in existence merely because sales are made. A second type of garage is that owned by the skilled mechanic, which concerns itself solely with repair work. No cars are sold, but all types are “serviced.” There is a third type, that which holds the agency for one or more makes of cars, but which conducts a highly efficient garage and gives excellent service to all makes. PROFIT RELATED TO SERVICE. Whether we like it or not, the fact remains that a garage exists for the purpose of making a profit, and like so many other businesses, it is often the garage which makes the best profit, that gives’ the greatest service and charges the most reasonable prices, the type of garage which exists Solely as an oilshoot of a car agency, and which does not realty want any more car repairs than it has to take because of that agency, ■very seldom gives really satisfactory service. Often the profit in a business of ■ that kind comes from the sale of cars, and not from repairs. Provided the skilled mechanic owning a garage has sufficient labour-sav ing machinery to carry out work expeditiously, he’ will give good service at a reasonable price. Often it happens that the bi" mirage, because of costly labour-sav-ing .machinery, can do repairs more quickly, and ’ therefore, more cheaply, than a small and less efficient one. Service has reached a very high pitch of perfection in the United States, laigely of course, because of the intense competition in this field. There car sellers with efficient garages’ make a. point of selling, what they call “preventive maintainance,” and encourage the buyer of any of their cars to bring it to them foi regular inspection and for pci iodical oi er haul. Their idea is' that a motorist will not mind paying for peace of mind, and that by attending regularly to the minor faults major repairs will be rendered unnecessary for a considerable time. ... • • i This is the idea which one provincial town garage Is now’ carrying into effect, and which could be extended with profit both' to the garages and ’the motorists. The owner is encouraged to bring the car into the garage every 2000 to 3000 miles, and while it is there it is given a thorough run over, the tappets being adjusted, carbon removed, brakes tightened, and the car being given a general tighen ' up. If it seems to the mechanics that some further repairs are needed, the owner is notified, and he can have these ' carried out or not. an he wishes.

Every motorist who has owned a car for some years will realise that if his car were taken in every 3000 miles and inspected much better running would be secured, and the over-all cost of ropaii s reduced considerably.

OWNERS’ PRESENT METHODS. The new car owner at present is content to keep the car running until some odd noise draws his attention to the need for repairs. In many cases the noise has to be fairly bad before it attracts attention, and by that time enough is wrong to / mako the repairs a fairly costly item. Year in and year out his car is treated on those lines, and very often it fails to give him the satisfaction he should receive from its use. Because of the expensive repairs—solely caused through neglect —he will perhaps refuse to buv the. same make again, and the agent’ loses a later sale, principally through lack of effort in servicing. The importance of service is now being recognised by many of the principal distributers, and adoption of the “preventive maintenance-” idea is only a matter of time. As a matter of fact, if the new car buyer advanced the idea for his own case, the garage would often be only too willing to adopt it, and once a reasonably large number of cars was being serviced in this way, the system would be generally recognised, ami the way made clear for more satisfactory motor-

ing. What does (he inspection cover, how often is it done, and what does it cost, arc three questions which naturally arise. Here are the details of a ■•preventive maintenance’’ scheme which covers , a complete run over every IWJ miles. The electric system is tested and adjusted, engine oil is changed, and complete lubiication of the chassis carried out. The engine is timed up, lappets and timing chain adjusted, and all benzine pipes and filters cleaned out. If necessary the carbon is removed. The front wheels are aligned, clutch pedal adjusted, brakes tested and tightened, and any steeling play taken up. In addition laere- is a general tightening up covering oil and water leaks, looseness in either chassis or body, etc. Itorthcrmore tb.e par js given a run tui I’m road. aim n ;<

further repairs are needed the owner is

notified. . If a garage could bo certain of securing large’and regular patronage on these”'lines the business could be made profitable. As the service includes changing the oil, which would have to be done in°aiiy case, the over-all cost of periodic::]'maintenance of this nature works out ut about l-12d per mile—a' very modest charge indeed. It would mean greater motoring satisfaction to thousands of car owners, less expensive repair biils, ami regular work for the gar-am-s. To the garages which were agents it 1 would also mean that their patrons would secure maximum service and be satisfied users of ineir Citi'-.

DELAYING DIA'K ILS. Sl'tJl’k Fun INVENTORS-. U.omloi! vJutor Correspondent.) Car thefts are on the increase, . but' so far no one lias come forward .with a really satisfactory device 'to foil the car thief. Automobile semneo lias advanced enormously during the past twenty years, but it has not managed to throw up some simple metnod of preyeiitiim the stealing oi aw. Juse as medical science cannot yet cure a common cold, but must, let it run its normal course, so automobile scicuco caniwt eflictiycly prevent , the merer thief from running off with the car ne fancies.

Ab far as the prevention oi theft of small afticles stored in a car is concerned, locking a car even in a car park seems of no avail. Such a preventive measure is in any event probably illegal, while leaving articles m an unattended car is simply to invite larceny. 1 speak from personal experience. for on two recent occasions 1 hate hud articles stolen —the first time in a car park where I lost a good leatiier coat and the second time in a quiet street where a suitcase was removed with its contents within the space of half an hour’s absence.

An far as I know locKlug the doors of a car is still contrary to the law in a public thoroughfare anywhere in England, because the car must be left in such a way that it can be moved by the attendant or by the police if necessary. Obviously it is dangerous to leave an unattended car without the hand-brake on, so the motorist finds himself in a vicious circle. I myself have broken this circle by storing my car in a public garage because, having already made tw r o claims on my insurance company in quick succession, I siniply dare not risk another. It is not that the insurance company would not pay up, but that I should be too ashamed to fill in another claims form until a decent interval has elapsed. LAUGHING AT LOCKSMITHS. But to return to the theft of whole cars. Some makers give us keys to lock the ignition or other components, but the weakness of all locking methods is that the modern car thief laughs at locksmiths. As 1 write 1 have before me a suggestion recommended by a reader of one of the semi-technical journals, as a cheap and simple device. His plan is to drill a hole, in the clutch pedal arm in close proximity, to the floorboard and pass a padlock through it. As if an up-to-date car thief would permit such a trifle as a padlock tn trouble him.

What is required is some device that will render a car temporarily immobile at the will of the owner. As far as I can see th> can only be achieved by putting out of action for the time beina ° fi ome vital part such as uie magneto or the carburettor, or remivin<r some other essential component. I confess I cannot see iww it is to be doie without wasting a good deal of tl:mto put the car into commission again when the owner, comes back. Nor'does the suggestion that a vita! component should be removed commend itself. The average motorist**' knowledge or mechanics is not sufficiently great to permit him to take liberties with the engine, I suppose the easiest way to foil the car thief would be to detach "he steering wheel, but f do not see maiy car owners making a social or business call with a steering wheel tucked mder their arm, or for That matter, with a carburettor or a magneto in their pocket, pocket.

BAFFLING PROBL E.U. The problem, frankly, is a baffling one, ami the only advice that can be rd ven is to hamper the potential thief a<3 much as' possible by some simple means within the capability of every driver. A good way m to turn off the petrol or detach the leads to the sparkiim plugs. It only takes a moment to restore “them. If thief-proof locks are provided it is better to use them, because it Is just possible that the car thief may not have the particular kind of key that -will lit, and. in any event, it takes longer to run off with a. car that must be unlocked than one tnat is not locked. _ ■ . • , Many car owner still seem to tnliii that the theft ol tAeir car, especially a car that has lost its first bloom, is a prospect that they can afford to view with equanimity. They imagine . that, if their car is stolen one day it will be reo’a.-ed the next by the insurance company with a new one, failing which they will receive a substantial cheque. Such motorists labour under a delusion. In the first place,' a car that is irretrievably lost will be . assessed by th • insurance company strictly upon its market value. The company will only ■uiv what the car could have been sold at'in the second-hand market. Thus if a local car agent is only! prepared to rrive £l2O for a car that originally cost °£3l>o tb.e company will not give much more. while the probability is that it will give less, for the local agent usual- ] - fixes his price on . the basis of a I part-exchange transaction. 1 insurance points.

There are other, and deeper, pitfalls for "the innocent, who hopes to benefit n’t the whole from the loss of his car. xrn mav find, for instance, that his ear policy, lay, do.™ that th. car must be protected from theft wibi reasonable care. I am not at all certain tb.at if a man loaves his car un••Atomb'd in th'? street ho can claim to j, J -roa-unable, protection

against theft, the more so as leaving a car unattended, without even the protection of a car park attendant, probably constitutes a breach of the law. Insurance policies vary in this respect. Another point is that very few cars are irretrievably lost as a consequence of theft. What usually happens is that they are found abandoned somewhere or other, in a worse state than before they vanished. Insurance companies never meet a claim for a lost car until a sufficient interval elapses to permit, of its possible recovery. The result is that the car owner may have to do without his car for weeks and then have the stolen car restored to him in a iruch worse state than before. Of course the insurance company will make aood any visible damage resulting from 'the theft, but the consequences <<■ reckless driving on the part of the thief, and the rough handling which the car may receive at his hands, are not always at once apparent, and the owner | may have restored to him a car which | is even worse mechanically than it has.j ever been. It pays therefore to do all, that is possible to prevent ones cm from being stolen. GENERAL NOTES. It mav be .of interest to motorists to know'that it takes an entire year’s output of latex from ..eight rubber trees to make a set of -four Dunlop tyres for pan. average sized, ear. The world averI age production per rubber tree, states i tije : Dunlop Perdriau Company, is ap- ; .proximately J pounds and the rubber i in a standard sized motor cover ranges | from-approximately lOlbs. and upwards, I according to size. It is claimed that brake squeak can ! be prevented without loss' of braking ' efficiency by painting the- surface of I tne shoes with a mixture’made of- a i little powdered graphite in petrol. At I the first or second application of the i brakes after this treatment they may J-not be fully effective ’ but thereafter it I is said that their power will, if anyl thing, be increased, 'whilst' squeaking will completely disappear. ENGINE TEMPERATURE. SOME WINTER EQUIPMENT. Inexperienced motorists often complain that as the first yellow'leaves of autumn come drifting down from the trees the running of their engines is no. longer so satisfactory as it was on the long, warm summer days, states The Motor.

It annoys them, when starting off in the morning, to be compelled to listen to a chorus of spits and bangs from the carburettors, and to feel the thumping, irregular motion of the engine. They notice, too, that although it is kept cooler by the colder weather the oil in the crankcase rapidly deteriorates while the fuel consumption also increases. Even after running a considerable distance, when the radiator feels quite warm to the touch, the car does not seem to pull as it should on long hills, while the acceleration is nothing like so good as it was in warmer weather. All these faults can be traced to too low a running temperature. In order to ensure adequate cooling of the engines on mountain roads and in the heat of summer, car manufacturers usually send out cars with large radiators. The .result is that unless they are protected ffoni cold winter winds they cool the water surrounding the cylinders far too much.

When this happens the fuel from the carburetter is improperly vaporised, or may condense on the walls of the induction pipe and may even reach the. cylinders in liquid form. If this occurs liome cylinders receive a greater proportion of explosive mixture than others, and lienee there is lumpy , and irregular running, Acceleration is- affected by the mixture reaching the cylinders, as it were, in uncertain gusts, some of which are laden with globules of fuel, while others are practically only of air. At the worst, when liquid fuel reaches the cylinders the oil is washed off the walls and the pistons are thus ineffectively lubricated. Moreover, the fuel leaks past the piston rings into the crankcase, where it dilutes the oil, detracting considerably from its ‘lubricating properties. This alarming list of misfortunes which may follow in the train of running the engine too cool can be guarded against in a number of Ways. The simplest cure is probably to stick an old newspaper over the front oi the radiator, where it is held by the pressure of the, wind or the suction of the. fan. The most expensive method is to have a beautiful set of radiator shutters automatically controlled by a thermostat in the engine. 1. In between these two extremes tlierje is a wide range of useful devices. There are metal plates, fitted in a few momjents, which blank off sections of tnie radiator; there are .waterproof muffs, which can be adjusted to admit mori; or less air to the cooling surface; tneu there are radiator shutters, controuea either by hand through rods or Bowaen wire or operated automatically by' a thermostat, which is a device in which mechanical movement- is obtained its a result of certain metals or gases expanding through heat The protagonists of the radiator shutter urge in its favour that, as cold air is prevented from reaching the radiator and the inside of the bonnet, a summer temperature is always maintained round t'he engine. Thus is there no special need of a hot-air intake, if the shutters are controlled by a thermostat. the engine will warm up rapidly for the shutters will remain closed until the temperature has risen sufficiently for them to start opening can be obtained which can be adjusted ot give any desired running .temperadura.

‘ The flexibility of an engine in cold weather can be greatly increased, in many cases, by the fitting of a suitable hot-air intake or water jacketing the carburettor, and no doubt the ideal arrangement in winter is to have a hotair intake as well as some device for keeping the cooling water at the right temperature. One particularly ingenious device is the Autostat, which, by means of a thermostat, regulates the temperature of the air entering the carburettor, and the ideal conditions are thus always maintained. CARE OF THE CAM. POINTS TO WATCH. Bo not pour cold water into an overheated engine. If the radiator is steaming when you take off the cap, do not immediately pour cold water into the I'adiator, or the cylinder jacket or head is likely to crack, and a very expensive piece of repair work will become necessary. Let the engine stand 15 or 20 minutes to cool off. At the time you; may think this is a waste of good time, but if tiie cylinder jacket is cracked vou’will think differently. If there is a

supnly of real hot water available this can be put'in at once without danger. The small stone cuts in the tyre easin- should be kept filled with some good tyre filler. This will keep out water aid oil. two ot th. worst enemies tyre fabric, and puts hundred*, or extra miles on every casing. . Oil will ruin an inner tube in a week. Never throw the extra inner tuoes in promiscuously with the spare tools and oil can. Wrap them carefully m cloth, or, better still, get a couple or. good strong cloth bags for them. _ When the gears of the electric staiter become stuck, turn off the ignition ewitch, put the car into top gear and then gently roll the car backward and forward, this will release the starting motor gear from the fly wheel gear, and the starter will then turn the engine wobbly rim is sometimes mistaken for a loose wheel. Inspect the rims first, and if they arc found to be out of line loosen the lugs and take them up again, giving each a turn in sucoeasion to equalise the alignment. Discoloured celluloid window lignts can be cleaned with alcohol. The most common causes of spark plug trouble are: Points spaced toe far -apart,- points too close together, points with' soot, & cracked porcelain,.a defective spark plug casket, or leaky threads in the shell.