“Never Anything Like It”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 342, 1 May 1928, Page 6

“Never Anything Like It”

English Motor Trade Booming This Year Writing a week or two before Easter, the motoring correspondent of the London ‘‘Daily News and W estminster Gazette” recorded an unprecedented rush to buy new cars. “Easter will be Britain’s record mechanised holiday,” he writes. “Car sales have been astonishing since January 1, and, on the figures of increased business done compared with last year, there will be on the roads at Easter approximately 1,400,000 cars and motor-cycles, not to mention charabancs. “If the sales continue as in the last three weeks, there will be at least 37,000 new cars and motor-cycles licensed by Good Friday (April 6). Motor-cycles represent a small proportion of this total. In round figures by Easter £ 7,500,000 will have been taken by the motor trades since January 1. London and the South have broken all records for the first ten weeks of the year. Three firms alone in London sold 1,000 new cars between them in a week. In the first ten days of March one agent took more than £5,000 a day for new cars, as well as breaking all his records in used car sales. Another agent sold by auction 139 used cars at the rate of one car every 20 seconds. In Birmingham and the Midlands there is the same tale of high business. In Birmingham more Bolls Boyces were sold in January than in this Midland district during all 1927. Nearly 4,000 a Week One extraordinary feature is that the sales of chassis, on which buyers want to place their own designed bodies, and two-seaters have bounded up. Some producing firms are not doing well, but all those with big names are flooded with orders and from now until Easter new car deliveries will be at the rate of nearly 4,000 a week. Among the well-known firms trade has risen from 40 to 100 per cent, this year, compared with the first quarter last year. MOTOR-RACING ORETI BEACH V. MURIWAI The opinion that Oreli Beach, Southland, is the best in New Zealand for motor racing is advanced by Mr. C. | W. F. Hamilton and Mr. S. Jones, in the April issue of “The Radiator,” the motor trade journal. Early in the year Mr. Hamilton drove at Muriwai races and secured second place in the New Zealand Motor Cup. He was the holder of this trophy in 1925 with an average of SO m.p.h. for the 50 miles. Oreti possesses the great advantage of accessibility, being only eight miles from Invercargill. After his experience in the South, Mr. Hamilton says: “Oreti is a great deal flatter than Muriwai and the sand is much firmer. Muriwai is much slower and for high speeds the surface is not satisfactory- lam looking forward to the inauguration of an Australian and New Zealand Grand Prix race of from 200 to 300 miles, and certainly Oreti is the only beach suited to the. purpose.” Mr. Hamilton also comments on the fact that Muriwai races rarely attract more than 3,000 people, whereas 12,000 turned out at Oreti. although Southland is more sparsely populated. FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE INTRODUCTION ON ALVIS Always a pioneer, the British Alvis Company has broken new ground by placing on the market a front wheel driven car—the first of its kind to be offered publicly outside of France. For some years now Alvis racing cars have been front wheel driven, and the experiences gained from these vehicles has made the company confident that front wheel drive will eventually become universal for motorcars. Advantages of this system, which eliminates propeller shafts, are the very low'-seating position, the low centre of gravity of the chassis—in the case of the Alvis only nine inches off the ground—tremendous acceleration, better suspension, lesser resistance, with resultant higher speed, and the fact that, as the rear wheels always tend to follow the front, skidding practically is eliminated. USED CAR VALUES What is the value of a used ear?* Having decided to trade-in his present car for a new one, the owner is often puzzled over apparent divergence of opinions, upon the part of the dealers, as to what the old car is worth. These valuation differences are explained in one word—competition. The value of the owner’s present car is exactly what it will sell for in the used car market. A large trade-in allowance is not always indicative of a good business deal. Often the apparently generous valuation, placed upon the present car, is warranted by the new car being excessively high-priced in its class. The merits of a new car should be considered in comparison with its price, including delivery and finance charges; and the buyer should bear the fact in mind that he is making a purchase —not a sale. Advice has been received by cablegram to the effect that at the opening meeting on Brooklands track, H. Le Vack won the 500 c.c. scratch race on a New Hudson at a speed in excess of 101 miles an hour. Biding from scratch he also won the unlimited handicap with a single-cylinder machine at 104 miles an hour. His fastest lap was 109 miles an hour. The new “Erskine Six,” a picture of which appeared in these columns a week or two ago, is an enlarged edition of the previous models, with roomier bodies, greatly improved and more attractive lines, a larger engine, and finer, more comfortable interiors, and all at reduced prices.