The Choice of Motor Accessories

Progress, Volume IX, Issue 11, 1 July 1914, Page 1157

The Choice of Motor Accessories

By ROBERT WHITSON

While many, or perhaps most of the motor-cars that are purchased by buyers from stock, in the Dominion, are sold with full equipment of everything from hood to tire pump, there is still a large section of the public, composed mostly of those who have previously owned cars, who much prefer to purchase the bare car, and select those items of equipment that they have tried out and know for the new machine at their leisure.

Every man who has once owned and fitted out a motor-car knows "all about it," or probably imagines he does, and is quite content to worry along within the limitations of such knowledge as he does possess, but in these days when hundreds of master minds are concentrated on the production of every type of useful and mechanical device, for adaptation to car use, even the trade themselves are hard put to it to follow the latest developments.

In the matter of the latest items of equipment, we are particularly handicapped out here, for we really have only two sources from which to draw our information. These are the overseas motor papers, and those of the trade out here, who are agents for, and stock, certain lines of accessories. Dealing first with the motor papers, no private individual can afford to spend sufficient time to thoroughly go through the large number of papers dealing with motors that are now published, and even if he could, the information he would gain would mostly be so conflicting on the various items that beyond grasping the fact that some new convenience was on the market for the motorists' use, he would really be no further on in the selection of the definite type that would best suit his requirements.

In depending on the agents' advice out here again, we have" the knowledge that even his information is not first hand, but that he in turn is being advised, probably by his foreign buyer, and just in exact proportion to the keenness of his buyer, and his capability of selection, will be the usefulness and durability of the items of equipment that are offered for our selection.

The glorious opportunities enjoyed by the private owner in England and elsewhere of spending days at the big motor exhibitions viewing the actual accessories and their various methods of adoption to the different types of car, are of course denied to most of us, but seeing that (failing a personal knowledge of some friend's experience) we are compelled to make our choice between direct purchase, or the employment of an agent, the latter course would seem to us the wiser for several reasons. We already know of two private owners, who, carried away by well-written advertisements, and a conviction that they could import below the local agents' prices, have imported electric starter and ignition sets, with the result that they both

have, for their type of car, perfectly useless pieces of equipment. There is nothing wrong with the sets themselves, they are of recognised makes, that are as far as we know elsewhere giving complete satisfaction; the whole trouble lies in the fact that unless very extensive and expensive alterations were made to the chassis of the two cars, it would be utterly impossible to make an efficient mechanical job of the adoption. When an owner has made up his mind that some expensive item of equipment is desirable, the wisest course is surely to incur as little expense and responsibility as possible. This is when the agent is of service. In the case in point, had the buyer of the starting set, after selecting his type, consulted the agent for that type, or failing him, the agent wo represented his particular car, he would probably have learned at once that the set chosen was of no use for his requirements, and would either have been saved the expense and worry of importation, or else would have been correctly advised as to a type that would fill his wants. The buying public are very apt to consider the agent, merely in the light of a dealer who makes a clear profit on all goods that pass through his -hands. So he probably does whenever possible, but at the same time the public are also apt to overlook the risks an agent has to run. We hold no brief for agents, but we do know that in these days of what are practically "hire-purchase systems" of selling cars, together with the everlasting outcry against garage accounts' and repair bills, the agents have not the margin of profit that they are supposed to work on. However, doubtless they are well capable of looking after their own interests, but the point we wish to make is that the public do not make use of the agents, as they might, by making them carry their due share of responsibility. The buyer who purchases direct, not only probably makes a costly venture, but, if the goods are not up to expectations, he has no recourse against anyone except the seller overseas. This is where the evident advantage of dealing through a properly accredited agent comes in. His function is not merely to sell the goods and make his profit, but he represents the medium between buyer and seller, and if he knows his business, no safer avenue of purchase can be found, for if he recommends a certain item of equipment for a particular class of car, the responsibility of its adaption is his, and his the expense and loss, should the item prove unsuitable after importation on his advice. Possibly to the layman the agent's price will not compare favourably (on paper) with the price at which the article is being retailed in the country where it is made, but when one realises that in dealing through an agent, the agent carries all the risks incidental to importation, adaptability and possibly non-payment for the goods, it will be seen that at least a working margin must be allowed.