USED CARS

Wanganui Chronicle, 26 January 1948, Page 4

USED CARS

MARKET DWINDLING REDUCTION OF IMPORT TAX NEEDED Although the holiday period has found almost anything on four wheels out on the highways, there has not been the seasonal demand for used cars which was expected. This side of the motor trade is not as predictable a it was a year or two ago, and some dealers are beginning to wonder whether the car sales Klondyke has almost ended. Certainly there have been some signs of a fail in the values of some models at a time when they would normally be rising. Several factors have influenced the used car business within the past year. Many new cars have come into the country and, while the market is far from satisfied, customers wanting cars for urgent reasons have mostly been supplied. Dollar restrictions which have prevented large-scale importations of new cars from America and Canada have also meant that comparatively recent models of such pre-war cars have retained their inflated values. On the other hand, many motorists who might have been regarded as potential customers for such cars have discovered that the comparatively easily obtainable medium-sized British car is a n efficient substitute. Immediate, or almost immediate, delivery can be had of several makes of small British cars, but these are likely to disappear from the market within the coming year as the new British production schedules, reflecting the lifting of the horsepower tax, come into force.' At present, only one firm is planning to continue with a lin e of popularly-priced small cars. “Popularly-priced” is, however, something of a misnomer, for the current prices of the smallest new cars are comparable with pre-war luxury car prices. Just how the New Zealand market will be affected by the abolition of the small British car remains to be seen. Agents generally consider that there will always be a demand for such cars, particularly in view of the recurrent possibility of petrol rationing. British manufacturers are endeavouring to keep the price of their new models—ranged from 11 to 16 horsepower—in the vicinity of the price of the present light models, but the heavy import duties levied on arrival in New Zealand take the cars into the luxury bracket. For instance, one manufacturer is to concentrate on a line selling at about £320 (plus sales tax) in Britain. Local agents, however, expect that the retail price in New Zealand will be in the vicinity of £725. The only way in which the prices of both new and second-hand cars may be decreased in New Zealand will be to decrease the sum payable in import duties, the dealers consider. There is, however, little optimism regarding this possibility, so that would-be owners of modest means are left with the alternative of taking a gamble in the used-car market or of going earless ana reflecting wistfully on the days when a type of eight horsepower car was a “drug on the market” at £l7B new. Such cars, incidentally, are now 14 years old and can command over £2OO if they are in reasonable condition.