178 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



May, 1 9 10 



^^S 



AUTOMOBILING 



The Modern Low-Priced Car 



By Roger B. Whitman 



HE automobile buyer faces no such ques- as is possible in the production of any other mechanism, 



tions in 1910 as confronted him a few The moderate price at which an automobile may be 



years ago, when all that was expected of bought is not due to the use of poor material and cheap 



a car was that it would run. At that time labor; on the contrary, the low-priced car of to-day is better 



the gasoline engine was not understood as in quality than the highest grade cars of six years ago. 



the engineer understands it to-day, and all In the early days of the automobile industry, the manu- 



of the parts and appurtenances were facturer was under the necessity of making all of the parts; 



undergoing a process of evolution that resulted In vast dif- to-day, the factories actually making even 75 per cent, of 



ferences between the models of 

 two successive years. Each 

 make had some peculiarity of 

 design, and the selection of a 

 car was complicated by the dif- 

 ficulty of getting definite infor- 

 mation on performance. 



There were reliable cars, of 

 course, but their initial cost and 

 the expense of operation made 

 their ownership possible only to 

 the very well-to-do. The car 

 that could be bought by the man 

 of moderate income required 

 close attention, and the adjust- 

 ments and repairs that were a 

 constant necessity left him little 

 time for anything else. If these 

 were in the hands of a repair 

 man, the monthly bills were out 

 of all proportion to the mileage 

 covered and the pleasure ob- 

 tained. Automobiling at 

 that time was unques- 

 tionably a diverson for 

 the rich, and it is popu- 

 larly supposed that such 

 is still the case; but as a 

 matter of fact, the man 

 of moderate income can 

 to-day purchase and use 

 a car at an expense that 

 is well within the bounds 

 of reason. 



The primary cause for 

 this is found in the rela- 

 tively close understanding 

 of engine and car design 

 that obtains to-day. The 

 systematic experimental 

 work that has been 

 carried on in the large factories has 



A 20-H.P. runabout; price, $1,000 



A 10-H.P. single cylinder runabout; price, $485. 



the parts that they use are m 

 small proportion to the number 

 of producers. A few years ago, 

 when a manufacturer purchased 

 his engines, change speed gears, 

 or other parts, he concealed the 

 fact; to-day, a constantly in- 

 creasing number of firms make 

 It no secret that their cars are 

 assembled in whole or in part. 

 It is to these changes in policy 

 that the excellence of the 

 medium-priced automobile is 

 largely due. 



The manufacturer of a com- 

 plete car Is under the necessity of 

 maintaining an experimental de- 

 partment in which he can try out 

 suggested improvements on all 

 parts of his chassis. This is ex- 

 pensive work, and a proportion 

 of the cost of the department 

 must be included in the 

 price of every car sold. 

 The maker of an assem- 

 bled car is under no 

 such handicap, for each 

 of the firms with which 

 he does business will 

 carry on only such ex- 

 perimental work as is re- 

 quired for his special 

 line, and the expense Is 

 borne by so great an 

 output that the in- 

 dividual proportion is 

 negligible. 



There was a time 



when an assembled car 



was undoubtedly open to 



suspicion, for however 



desirous the makers of its parts might be to do good work 



resulted in a re 



finement in design and an approach to a standard that they had neither the knowledge nor the facilities that would 

 place automobile manufacturing on as economical a basis make it possible. These same companies now possess 



