FUTURE PROSPECTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 11, Issue 25, 7 May 1947, Page 7

FUTURE PROSPECTS

BRITISH MOTOR CAR INDUSTRY j METHODS TO MEET COMPETITION The British system of basing motor taxation upon horse-power and cubic capacity had protected the home car manufacturing industry but had “cut our throats” in the export field by turning the British car manufacturers into tax dodgers, said Lord Lucas of Chilworth, in the House of Lords. He contended that the time had come for the Government to free the hands of the British motor designers and enable them to meet, as he was sure they could, the impending spate of American competition in overseas car markets.

The only remedy was to scrap any mechanical basis for taxation and substitute a uniform registration fee; plus a tax on petrol. He urged the House not to believe that in order to compete with American car designs British manufacturers must build juggernauts of 30 horsepower. The bulk of American cars in the future would be between 18 and 20 horsepower, and British manufacturers, if given a chance, could produce 16 horsepower models which would compete with American cars anywhere.

The White Paper expressed the opinion that British goods must be able to compete with those of the rest of the world in price, quality and design, yet the same hands which wrote the White Paper, decreed that one of Britain’s greatest exporting industries should be prevented from doing any one of these things.

The Marquis of Willingdon said British motor taxation was seven times as high as that in America. Replying to the Government Lord Nathan said he took note of the unanimity of the House on the subject and would impress their Lordships’ views on the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

; The New York Herald-Tribune European edition reported that the American automobile industry now expects the present home sellers’ market .in the United States to fall off sharply within the next six months. The view was expressed at a recent conference of the Automobile Dealers’ Association held at Atlantic City that high selling costs generally would cause the sellers’ market to disappear much more quickly than had recently been anticipated, and that before long the dealers’ major problem would be to find new customers and hold them.

Southern dealers predicted that in less than one year the buyers would be able to get immediate delivery of the majority of the popular makes, and dealers from the Midwest reported the same trend. It was already being pointed out in Britain that when the present sellers’ market in the United States disappeared American manufacturers would be bound to press for an increase in the present export quota of six per cent., and that this was already pointed out in British car exports.