MOTOR CAR PRICES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18016, 3 November 1920, Page 4

MOTOR CAR PRICES.

CABLED REDUCTION NOT CONFIRMED. NO PROBABILITY OF LOWER PRICES. No confirmation of the reduct io* A in prices of several makes of American motor cars, cabled recently, has been received m Wellington. Mr P. F- Cooper, di |rect representative of the General | Motors corporation, U.S.A, t who con itrols a number of manuiacturing con cents), informed a representative oi The Post that he had received a I cablegram from New York, dated '27th September, later than the pre . messages, in which it was definiu 1., stated that no reduction had b<-< ii made on any of the general motor products. He was of opinion tli.r there was no real foundation for ci.rumours circulated. There could b no hope of reduced prices uuiij lab our and material, which made up 9<i per cent, of the cost of a car. could oe obtained al a lower figure. Manufacturing costs could hardly be reduced uuless the Iwo main factors could be cut down in price. Of that there did not appear to lie much probability at the time he h-it New York on the 24th August. Th. so-called slump in priees in America amounted to practically nothing. A few of the dry goods people goi a scare and reduced their prices for a few days. They were soon back a: the old rate, and a bit higher, am | nobody benefited much. If then were any reductions in the prices o. cars the first people to get Ibe bene oil would be the outside markets, foi :it was the policy of the Americar manufacturer to look afler his exporl |lrade- Rises in cost of production j were not, as a rule, passed on to the buyer outside of America until the American public had already been paying enhanced rates. Mr Cooper did not think that prices would ever come down to their pre-war figures. Over-production was the only factor likely to bring them down, and there were no indications of that in the United States. Readjustment o; prices would in any case, in his opin ion, come gradually, as after previou; wars. Commenting editorially upon th subject, the Mercantile Gazette o October 6th lust, has the following t< say:— / “Some sensational rumours hav< been current during the last ten dayt _ that American manufacturers of motor cars have broken prices, having been' selling at discounts up to forty-five per cent. IV e have been shown cables from New York to local companies which report there is no truth in any such statements. Ona ' or two makers have, for reasons of their own. offered to sell some of their stocks at considerable reductions. but they are isolated cases where makers have strong reasons to effect sales, and the trade generally is quite unaffected through credit facilities being withdrawn. We are assured by th<? cables that the reduction has not been in any of the wellknown standard models. There are in America hundreds of so-called “makers” who buy the component parts wherever they can be obtained, assemble these at some central jjjue. and sell the cars when put together, and it is in this class that reductions have been made. The high-class cars, such as we have here, most ot which are made—every part of them —in the factory, could not possibly be sold at any great discount on present prices while material and labour are standing at the high rates ruling in America to-day, nor is it in the least, probable that car prices will fall before July next, if they then.”