GETTING FOND OF THEM

NZ Truth, Issue 1174, 31 May 1928, Page 17

GETTING FOND OF THEM

Cars, Like Horses, Have Character JN exactly the same way as the character of a man endears him to his fellows, so it is that the character of a car endears it to its owner.

QOME cars retain their character until they are almost ready for the acrap heap, others lose it within a few weeks or months of going on the road. . . To a very large extent character is built into the car by, its. maker, and it is the faithfulness of the work put intc the engine that determines it. The most expensive, well-built cars usually have character m abundance but even the cheapest mass production car frequently has a personality of its own, and ig not exactly: like any othei of the same make. ■ . . . ' The men m big factories -who . take the new machines out on the road , state that' never' by any chance are two machines exactly alike. '.."'.. There is always some shade ol difference, < some slight difference m engine, tone or. performance under varying circumstances that renders each .car different from its fellows When one has become used to driv-

-1 ing a certain machine the change- over » to another is -at first quite disconcerti, ingf, and the car for a while seems to > be "hard m the mouth," to use a horsey expression. s With the old car one knew exactly : how far it would go on a certain hill, > and how fast it would pick up m a traffic block m order to get through 5 an opening. It is not until the new machine has l been driven for some weeks that the s driver knows just what it can do m any r set of circumstances, and if it is a machine with "character" it will do the same thing m the same way every time. Generally speaking; two machines of about the same horsepower, one a mass-built production and the other a hand-nnished job costing- double the price, will give somewhere near the : same performance, -but the more exs pensive car will possess a : personality i all its own that the other lacks,, and ■ which; as a rule, makes the owner of . such a machine an enthusiastic • "booster" of his mount.