What My Tour Has Taught Me

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 516, 20 November 1928, Page 7

What My Tour Has Taught Me

Mr. W. R. Morris Expects I. creased Car Sales In a recent issue of the “Morris Overseas Mail,” Mr W. R. Morris summarises his impressions of nis overseas markets as follows: “My recent tour. during which I ! covered some 37,000 miles, has definitely j convinced me that, busy though our export department is at the moment, we are only just beginning. The farther I travelled, the more I appreciated the value of the highly efficient British car to the scattered millions in countries . where motoring, even to-day, is in its infancy. “Here, perhaps, I should interpolate my opinion of roads. There is at> pe of Englishman, and I might especially mention a type of Englishman who sets up as an authority on export matters, who has an idea at the back of his mind that all Colonial, and most foreign, roads are bad. He fails to realise that the average user of a car will spend quite a large proportion of his motoring time on surfaces no worse than can be found in this country immediately the trunk routes are left. “The idea that a car to be suited to overseas conditions must be virtually a cross between a traction engine and a motor bus is entirely erroneous Although there are, of course, a few—farmers especially—who require a car more substantially constructed in some respects than the average car used in this country, there are millions more who enjoy motoring conditions only slightly different from our own in England. Wherever it was possible to do so, I travelled by road in a Morris car, and gave a preference to the lighter models. I can, therefore, claim that my road information, at any rate, has the merit of being first hand and up-to-date.

“In many countries the automobile is still looked upon as more or less a luxury for the affluent. Although in comparison with many commodities, American cars—and in some cases, very good American cars—can be bought at a fairly reasonable figure, their big engines render them an expensive proposition to maintain. There is, therefore, in many instances, a prevailing idea in the mind of the comfortably off, but not definitely affluent, man -in-the-street, that he cannot afford a car. He does not realise that it is only the American type of car that in maintenance, is beyond his means. This was noticeable especially in regions where fuel is expensive and where poor road surfaces demand careful consideration of the tyre bill. “My stay in Australia opened my eyes to the vast scope for the really economical car in this continent. America imagines herself saturated with cars now that one person in seven is a motorist, but I say without hesitation that a day must inevitably come when Australia will carry almost a car per person. “But I do realise that if the Mother Country is to supply this need, then th© Mother Country must help by taking all she can from Australia and New Zealand.”