MONEY IN MOTORS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 150, 3 September 1941, Page 3

MONEY IN MOTORS

rapid rise in values

AFTER-WAII PROSPECTS

Your old car looks like being one of your most profitable investments. While it lias been laid up in your garage or while you've been running it round the houses on your basic ration of petrolj it has quite likely doubled in value, writes P.M. in the London Daily Mail. When tlic Avar began motorists rushed to sell their old cars. They went for ludicrous prices, especially the big models. Now the position is just the opposite. The demand and prices have leapt up, in some cases even over the original cost price. Here are a few examples:— To-day's Cost Price Price 1939 14 li.p. .. .. .. £465 £330 1939 10 h.p £265' £195 1939 8 h.p £185 £139 There's even money to be made in old crocks fit for nothing more than the scrap heap, for the simple reason that there's going to be a shortage of spare parts. And even apart from the spares which can be used again in other cars, there's still plenty left of value. Old cars yield steel, cast iron, aluminium, copper and safety glass. And now what about the shape of cars to come? The new car you'll have when the war is over. A guide to what you may eventually. see on Britain's roads is afforded by the latest American models. Vast improvements have been effected in American cars. Radiators have, disappeared, o:\ at least, are covered by a wellshaped skirt. Cumbersome geat levers have been displayed by fing-er-operated controls or are vacuurooperatcd so _that the gear can be flicked into mesh. But gear-changing is rapidly disappearing from American motoring. So, too, is the clutch pedal'. The lazy motorist can sit in an armchair seat, press a starter switch and guide away regardless of clutch ! or gears.