U.S. Used Car Markets Offer Much For Little

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 60, 7 November 1949, Page 7

U.S. Used Car Markets Offer Much For Little

United States used car markets today could easily provide a promised land for the starved New Zealand motorist. Just 7000 miles away, a mere £4o—sometimes less—• will buy a 1936 Chevrolet or Ford in tip-top running condition, or a trifling £350 a brand new model fresh from the Detroit assembly lines.

Recent New Zealand advertisements have given prices bought for used Fords and Chevrolets of the 1936 issue at from £3OO to £350. Yet in the United States where the used car bubble burst after new car production started overtaking the demand last year, such bargains as ’36 cars for £4O are commonplace. And cars of under ' 1934 vintage no longer cram United States used car lots. As their owners replace them with later-model or new cars, they are sold directly to auto wreckers for a handful of small change. “Hotted-Up” Wrecks

A few find their way to ownership by America’s speed-crazed set —the high school boys—who “soup up” the motors “strip off” the mudguards and all unnecessary weight and use them as “hot rods” capable sometimes of over 100 miles an hour. If these dilapidated wrecks were sold in New Zealand, instead of to “hot rod” fans or wreckers, they probably would command prices ranging up to the £IOO mark, and would be kept on the roads for years to come.

Used car sales in the United States today are almost back to “blue book” value. (The blue book is an authorised publication by used car dealers, which defines yearly depreciation and sets annual prices for standard makes of cars).

An average bargain from a used car lot in the / United States is a 1940 Ford sedan for £125 . . . but in New Zealand the same car is bringing up to £4OO as its re-sale value. x

For a mere £25 more, a buyer with dollars in his pocket in the States can take his choice for a, 1941 Buick or Oldsmobile sedan or fiveseater coupe with radio, heater and all imaginable accessories. Yet 4n New Zealand, an intending purchaser will probably be dismissed if he is unwilling to expend £SOO. Post-War Bargains

Post-war Fords lined on American used car lots these days bear prices ranging around £2OO, compared with the £450 average their sales would bring in the Dominion, and 1947 and 1948 model cars are available for sometimes under 1000 dollars' (about £250 N.Z.). Re-sale value of these American cars in New Zealand averages well beyond £650. With the cash equivalent of a new Morris 10 h.p. in his pocket in the United States, a new car buyer can purchase a 1949 Buick five-passen-ger convertible, with hydramatic drive, a radio and heater, and electric push buttons to operate the windows, hood and automatic jacks.

And for £ISOO the United States car buyer can order his own Lincoln Cosmopolitan—acknowledged as the best automobile money will buy in America. Before it rolls off the assembly lines, seats and upholstery will be designed to the buyers’ specifications, and for an extra charge, a portable cocktail bar can be built into either the seats or luggage boot.