DOMINION'S MOTOR CARS

Thames Star, Volume LXI, Issue 17313, 28 December 1927, Page 5

DOMINION'S MOTOR CARS

APPROACHING SATURATION.

STABILISATION OF MARKET. VIEWS OF AMERICAN VISITOR. "Everybody tells me you are turning- the corner; there seems to be a happy feeling all through New Zealand that the worst is over. You have a wonderful country, and I think there are good times ahead for all." With these words Mr A. S. Murray, vice-pi-esident of General Motors Export port Company, New York, who is in Wellington, summed up his observations during a tour he has just made of the North Island and a part of the South Island. "Since my arrival in the Dominion a fortnight ago I have been over many of your roads, which I consider are in surprisingly good condition," he told a Dominion representative."

Discussing the motor industry, Mr Murray said that by entering a little more deeply into the commerce of the countries in which his firm operated they hoped to dispel the idea that they were a foreign enterprise. "Our policy," he pointed out, 'is to purchase more and more in those countries. That, of course, is a little difficult in New Zealand, because it is not a large manufacturing country. So far as the motor trade is concerned, South Africa and New Zealand have much in common.

"From my own observation, I believe New Zealand is rapidly approaching the saturation point, and that it wil soon become a stabilised market for replacement; the population cannot absorb many more motor cars. "The next development," he added, "will be toward an improvement in the existing cars rather than in the production of new models; I don't think we can look in the immediate uture for any new product. Our volume of trade in America, where there is one car to every five people, is not increasing very rapidly. The market there is just about stabilised. The changes are taking place among the manufacturers rather than in the trade itself."