IN spite of the fact that most of the 1985
cars have already. been on view throughout the country in the showrooms of dealers for over a month; km view, sold, on the road, and in some eases even already in the second- hand market, there will still be left a few really new can at Olympia. Not quite every Maker has abandoned the old tradition of displaying his new season's goods at the Motor Show, and for those enthusiasts who quite rightly feel that they have not got the utmost out of the exhila- rating business of buying a new car the ultimate choice will probably not be made until some time towards 'October 20th. It is a wise plan, I think, for any but the man who has definitely made. up his mind,.. such 'as he who automatically renews his ear every year, sticking always to the same make, to wait until he has seen the very last of the new cars before deciding. It is all part of the game to find something new on the stand which has not been mentioned in the advertisements for the past six weeks, and your enthusiast will get a very definite satisfaction from the knowledge that he4.at any-rate, has bought his new car with his eyes wide open.
Between now and show-time is an . important period which. the not-too-well-off should devote to narrowing , down the -choice of possibles to two or three. Most of these new cars can now be tried on the road in demon- ' stration form and the exhausting and generally bewilder- ing business of distinguishing at Olympia between the cars which you might, buy and the cars that. you worild not be seen dead in will be made much easier. Make arrangements to try all thepossibles andall the probables and even, for your full satisfaction, Oneor two of the others, and get them and their qualities- fixed in your mind,-the pros and the cons, and in their order of prefer- ence. You will certainly have several surprises of both ' kinds,-and the exiaerienee yori Will gain during the next fortnight will be really valuable. You will be _able to go to the Show with a reasonably working idea of what you want oriel...you mill_ not. be:So. liable to the mesmeric , effect. of. either sparkling. show. finish or the persuasive -eloquence of the shoWinen.' ; I There are four main essentials which it is wise to bear, in mind when considering the choice of a new car costing anything under £300. The first of these is, as you may, suppose, quality. Cars get better every year if not in every way at least in the most important ways, better. materials are used, the design is as a rule more intelligent and the finished job is, at its regular appointed intervals,' certainly superior to that of its predecessor. Yet it still holds good, as it did thirty years ago, that the better the quality the cheaper the car. It is more economical to pay more for this quality and less for other things even including the three essentials which come next. Quality, gives you not only pride of possession, an important asset for anybody who is of a mechanical turn of mind, but almost invariably means that you will get a better price for the car second-hand than you would for the car that appears to be practically the same but costs considerably less.
The second essential is comfort, and comfort chiefly means enough room. I do not necessarily mean accom- modation for several people, but that each occupant of, a car whether it holds two or five should be able to sit with plenty of room for his legs to find new positions, and, above all, to be able to shift, if only a little, without touching- his neighbour. Comfort of this kind is only another word for safety. Nobody who is uncomfortable at the steering wheel is really driving safely, or at all events not for very, long. Nothing distracts one's attention from the business in hand so effectively as even a small degree of dis- cOmfort. Some of the little cars which were inflicted upon the public a year 'or two ago would, -under an ideal Ministry of Transport, have been condemned as unsafe except for dwarfs. Average sized people wedged themselves into those cockle-shells and at the end of an hour or so were beyond doubt potential sources -of disaster.
_The _third 'essential " Always 'get the ear with the largest engine- you can afford, sacrificing most other things for this. Power_ means speed, and speed, or rather the ability to go fast, is 'one of the-essentials of safety.. For-this reason : you are never in 'a hurry, if you are a reasonable being, in a fast car: You can afford to drop back and allow the ibad-hOgs to do their worst, to go very slowly where a slow speed is the only safe one, beeause When the road is open again you know that you can in a very -few minutes make up any lost time. You are always driving in comfort_, because you know you have that reserve under the bonnet and., moreover, your engine has a happier lire and most certainly a longer. one than its smaller sister which will put up as good a performance, but at a higher -revola-- tion rate. . One of the most subtle pleasures to the good driver is -doing -about forty - miles an hour in an eightp:mile:an-hour car.
The -fourth essential is simplicity of design, 'par- ticularly if you are looking after the car yourself. The most important adjustments should be as simple and accessible as. possible, beginning with the .brakes. I hold no brief for any particular form Of brake,. but I must admit to a liking- for-the- hydraulic type, ;just because it is the- simplest of all to beep in trim. - There is no reason .WhY- brake _adjustments should be as complicated- or as MaedesSible as "'they sometimes are. A car I bought in 1927 had ,a simple arrange- ment by Which all four .pedal brakes' could be taken up together and equally by a large and .handy control projecting .through the floor, and the_ side-brake by knob at the top ; and both adjustments could be made while the car was running. That is another element of safety: When you have satisfied ,yourself that the car or cars of your possible choice have these essentials youcan consider desirabilities. For example, a good desirability is, again remembering comfort, plenty of luggage space. The new models have nearly all got extremely neat luggage boots of the more or less concealed type, but not all of them; particularly in the smaller 'models, really hold very much. Those that are claimed to carry luggage in the rear panel generally have the flap made to carry luggage as on a grid, and as a matter of feet are not much better than a disguised luggage-grid. They are certainly a great improvement on the Old type, but I have seen several this year which accommodate scarcely any more suit-cases. This means that as a rule only one quite moderate-sized suit-case can be shut up for the journey, which of course is not nearly enough unless -you always travel alone. For the rest of the party you fall back upon the exposed flap and you have still the same old bother of strapping things on and covering them with tarpaulins. The consequence is that you will, in nine cases out of ten, put half the luggage inside the ear, where it destroys the upholstery and halves the -comfort. Keep a look-out for a car whose luggage boot will really hold a reasonable amount when it is shut up and the contents protected from the weather.
This sort of boot naturally means a good deal of -overhang—now unfortunately fashionable on account of the mass of extra " tail "—and for that reason it is highly desirable that the car of your choice should have some form of permanent jacks. One of the most painful jobs connected with the modern car fitted with an " body is jacking up the rear axle. , The skirt or tail may come down to within lesS than a foot of the ground, the axle itself being considerably higher and, particularly if you have disc wheels, completely invisible.
You will probably not have to worry , much ;about accessible and easily detachable oil filters today, but it is well to make sure that when the time comes for this most important component to be cleaned it will not be necessary to put the car over a pit -or'to grovel. ineffectually beneath it.
JOHN PRIOLEAU.
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