Car Tours.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 6, 1 April 1909, Page 194

Car Tours.

Motor car tours have become popular with American passengers by the Cunard Company. It is only necessary for a passenger by a Cunard boat to send a Marconigram at any time during the voyage, and when he arrives at Liverpool he finds a Daimler car to take him wherever he wants to go. "We are sending two types of car to meet arrivals at Liverpool," says an official. One is a 42 h.p. open car, known as the "Rugby," which holds six persons with the driver, and carries three extra tyres, four spare tubes and a hood. The second is the ' ' Hampton, ' ' of the same horse-power, which is a closed car splendidly upholstered in drab cloth, and carrying the same number of passengers. We charge £21 to send one of these cars to Liverpool, with a driver, to bring back passengers and luggage to London. For

touring we have a regular tariff, and charge £30 a week not exceeding 500 miles, and £100 for a month not exceeding 1750 miles. The majority of our American customers appear to prefer England for tours, and more especially the Lake District, but several recent arrivals have taken our cars to Scotland." More than twenty American families were touring the country in Daimler cars on the hire system.

A gentleman who signs himself "Agreeably Surprised" writes to us after a most enjoyable trip through the country eastwards from Dannevirke to Napier and Taupo and back to Wellington. He has much to say about the country and what he saw, and he is eloquent of the causes of his enjoyment. All of which, though new to our friend, is well enough known to our readers. The special new thing that struck him was at Hastings. There he was much impressed and delighted with Sampson and Co.'s garage. It struck him as the largest country garage in the Dominion, and the most commodious. There are four pits, the best brazing plant, and a vulcanising plant. There is a large assortment of cars always on hand moreover, Stewarts, Enfield, Vauxhalls, and F.I.A.T.'s. The Sparklet tyre inflator is much in evidence, and there is an electric plant which lights the place very effectively.