MOTORS IN 1929

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 918, 11 March 1930, Page 6

MOTORS IN 1929

FAVOURABLE WORLD OUTLOOK

‘‘Reports from the 110 countries with which General Motors export division has trade connections give us an excellent picture of current world economic conditions,” says Mr. J. D. Mooney, president of General Motors export division. Mr. Mooney left New York recently for the Far East, where he will visit General Motors assembly plants in Batavia, Java, Bombay, India and Osaka, Japan. Commenting on the hopeful signs for 1930, Mr. Mooney said: “Manufacturers have created in the last five years organisations of unparalleled strength and extent, possessed of incomparable resources in the form of trained personnel, physical plant equipment, financial stability and dealer good-will, and hence are in a position to press hard upon any increased sales opportunities almost the moment they begin to appear. “The general -world financial position is healthy, one of the best indications of sanity and health being a noticeable retardation the last quarter of 1929 in the demand for passenger automobiles. I say this is healthful because I believe that: the world has absorbed passenger cars at a little too rapid a rate in recent years and has shown a -wholesale willingness to catch up with itself before moving forward with renewed vigour. “This temporary and in the long pull sense, relatively unimportant valley in the automotive demand, is not due to last long if history teaches us anything, because automotive products always have been the last to feel the effects of retardation and the first to stage a comeback. “The world demand for commercial vehicles lately has shown an important increase. The experience of the United States is proof enough that any appreciable move to motorise everyday business hauling cannot help but mean a raising of the general economic level.”

UNFADING COLOURS BRILLIANT NEW YORK SHOW “Low slung, rakishly painted, and equipped with all the newest gadgets for speed and luxury,” is an American summing-up of exhibits at the Ndw York Motor Show, which opened on January 4. Lowest of all were the new frontwheel drive designs around which crowds of visitors hovered. According to the report, colours were startling:, due to the development of a new finish which does not fade. Against a background of gorgeous tapestry, were exhibited a tourer car in pale tan, trimmed with brown and burnt orange; a sports tourer painted white, with yellow trimmings; a jade green limousine, a sapphire blue coupe, and a roadster done in checkers outlined in tan on a brown background. Engines were of all sizes and kinds, and included fours, sixes, eights and one 16-cylinder model.