What Most People . _ Want
Motoring
FROM the bulk of a year's letters from The Spectator readers who ask for advice on the buying of new cars two facts of special interest emerge. The first is that the general standard of requirements is steadily rising and Pie second that it is becoming increasingly easy to suggeat, ears that will meet the majority of their needs. A third -Might be added; the • fact that this applies to readers who live overseas. Letters have reached me within the past six months from all the Dominions, from India, Ceylon, Malaya, Borneo, Latin America, Germany, Italy; Czechoslovakia and Poland, places where conditions and quality of the roads must vary -betvieen. the best and the worst, and with scarcely an exception they ask for bigger, better and more expensive cart than they Or their predecessors-did a couple of years ago.' - All prices are now quoted as permissible maximums, froM well over £1,000 down to £200, the average, on a rough cal- culation, being somewhere 'between £300 and £400. Con- • sidering that the majority still ask for low-priced machitUN, I think this a rather remarkable figure. Far more are looking for the £300 car than before-.4-' it seems to be the .favourite • price, which is lucky in view, of the numbers of British cars selling at that figure—while 'a surprising number want cars costing between MOO and £900, the only _ really , difficult category. • • • • • ,- • • - • ^-7-; A feature of the lettele. rtieularliAnterestjng, is the general absence 'id mechanical predilections. I Xery few people now bother to spiecity de number Of cylindent, ' for example, a point on which they were: u.Suatly adafliant' qude a short time ago. : There is no Imager the fa-slurs/lab% insistence on six or, the rWiisal of four, andifieight. are tioned at all it is usually in the inquiry as tb whether there is any advantage in them over six. Praeticaffy no interest at all is taken in springing, which perhaps shows how little independent suspension, one of the most important develop- ments of recent times, has appealed to the public imagination. Whether a car's valves are side-by-side or overhead is appar- , ently a matter of complete indifference to the average Owner, but be sometimes, though rarely, expresses a preference for one or other of the elutchless gears, the Wilson pre-se/cella or the plain with freewheel. Usually he asks whether they really make things easier for the ordinarily experienced driver. From which it may be gathered that coachwork oCenpies, as it "should do, the most important place in the choice of . car, and it throwi' auseful light on the general situation that practically everybody wants a bigger car than he can have fell the money. ., A dwindling request is for a list of cars which will carry five in-comfort, none of them to cost more than £225, - quite often•X200. to_tlieLbeiCafily knowledge these do not exist. There are several at various prices which are said to be." 4/5-heaters," a description that always reminds one of the house-agent's " five to' six lieifrooMs," but I have not yet driven One that has any real' right to the " /5." Above £25o ". there are some that. are real five-seaters, but as a rule part If the price you have to pajlor cheapness is restricted space. Now-that -v7e-have suds remarkably efficient small engines. with claims to high performanee, I mu in perfect sympathy with nik correlVondents. This -Cutting down of body _space iii oidet`tb increase' or produce the illusion of increasing speedliaagone altogether too far not only in the low-powered class but in the higher denominations`. Only a short. time ag_ o drove and was driven in a car that was capable of ninety milea an hour, cost; over £1,.500. and had less room for four People including the driver-than. a Twelve I had driven the week before' which Cost under £230. The difference was sliecially'finticeabk in elbow-room, the one point in 'which ydu would het'ye- thought the maker of the bigger car might have allieiv'sf fignself an inch or two Would those inches between the sides. phis a few more between the axles (six make an astonishing difference), knock as much as five miles an hour off those ninety, appreciably- spoil the acceleration' Is an engine of more than 100-h.p. so sensitive a thing? Has it really so little reserve ? Of course not. This sort or car, however, is not of general interest, whereas the little one is; the little one that must not cost snore than, sac, £250. It will do at least sixty miles an hour on top and probably forty on third. It is lively on hills and has accelera- tion that often startles the driver of a ear of twice the rower and weight. It would be wiser in these days of swelling traffie-congestion to put the power of this admirable little engine to more sensible use, to sacrifice a few of those maxi- mum miles in the cause of comfort. When you come to think of it doing sixty miles an hour in a small ear on any main road today is seldom easy and still more seldom agreeable. Nor can you do it for more than a fleeting instant. Gear that little car down- to fifty-five Or so, add those vital inches to length and beam, and you will have the car that most hard-up people really want. Hardly one of those who write to me these days demands speed, but nearly every one of them insists upon acceleration—and five seats. The two should be perfectly compatible. The demand for sliding roofs persists, which is curious if one considers how few one sees in use except when the car is standing still. In response to a large number of requests from readers for the dates on which various cars have been described I append the . list for the past year, that is, the twelve months after the motor show. In 1935, 20-h.p. Daimler, l'ipvember, , 8th ; 25,11.p. Morris, November 22nd;
Bentley and_ 20-h.p. Standard, December 20th. In -1938,
14-h.p. Wolseley and Oldsmobile-VIII, January 17th : 9-h.p. Singer .aid 24-h.p. Talbot, February /4th ; 12-h.p. ]umber and.IS-h.p:• Hayes-geared Austin, February .28til; 20-h.p. Hillman and 20-h.p. Vauxhall, March 20th; go-hi,. 0.4eYrniet and 124s.p.,Lanchester, March 27th ; 4-litre Banton and 4i-litre Lagonda, April 10th ; Studebaker and ,5-litre Mercedes, May 8th ; 17-11.p. Armstrong Siddeley and 2.4-11.p. Wolseley, May 22nd ; 7-h.p. Austin, June 5th ; and 12-h.p. Wolseley, July- 3rd ; 15-h.p. and 10-h.p. B.S.A. (F.W.D.), July 17th ; Chevrolet and 14,11.p. Singer (independent F.W.S.), July 31st; 14-h.p. Triumph and 14-h.p. Armstrong Siddeley, September 1/th ; 28-h.p. Humber and Straight-Eight Daimler, September 25th; 2-litre!
"M.G." 10-11-.p. Talbot, October 23rd ; Hillman" Hawk and " Roadrider " 14-h.p. Lanchester, November 6th.'..
JOIIN PRIOLEAU.
[Note—Readers' requests for advice from our Motoring Correspondent on the choice of new cars• should be aerompanied by a stamped and addressed envelope. The highest price payible must be given, as well as the type of body required. No adv.! can be given on the purchase, sale or exchange of used cars.]
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