MOTORS IN THE WINDOW
By MAURICE EDELMAN, M.P.
TWO exhibitions have been taking place at the same time at Earl's Court—the exhibition of visitors' pre-war cars, stretching their dingy way, bumper to bumper, in the mean streets around the hall, and the exhibition of post-war models. To move from the streets indoors has been to jump at least five years in motor development, for whereas in the U.S.A. new cars evolved from older designs year by year throughout the war, the British motor industry during the war years was almost entirely devoted to war work. The 33rd Motor Show has demonstrated that, from a standing start, the British industry has taken a leading position among the world's automobile industries, measuring itself already by the standards of the more highly developed American industry, and challenging it in foreign markets.
Two decisive changes have affected the industry since 1945 ; the salesman has been controlled, and the designer liberated. Instead of being able to enjoy the lush pastures at home, the salesman has been told by the Government to go abroad, and the manufacturers have been given steel in proportion to their willingness and capacity to reach their export quota. At first, they didn't like it. " We can't sell cheaply abroad," they said, "unless we have a large and stable domestic market." As long as the old horse-power tax was in existence, which encouraged manufacturers to make small cars suit- able for the home market but unsuitable for sale abroad, the manu- facturers had good reason to grumble about their export difficulties. But when the Government introduced the flat-rate tax it gave designers the opportuniy of producing-medium-powered cars suit- able both for home and abroad, without the British buyer being penalised by taxation for acquiring a bigger car. At Earl's Court the first results of the new fiscal policy have been seen in the tendency of manufacturers to eliininate the low-horse-power types and to com- press their models into the 14 to IS h.p. range.
By concentrating on only a few basic designs, as in the case of Austin and Standard Motors, the manufacturers have been able to lengthen their "production-run," thus reducing overhead charges and eliminating the extra production-costs which .the batch manufacture of a multipicity of types entails. Sir John Black, of Standard Motors, eminent among those who have given Britain her position in the industry, has indeed simplified his manufacturing processes still further by making the same type of engine serve both the Vanguard motor-car and the Ferguson tractor. If there are complaints about the Government's taxation policy towards the industry, they come from the manufacturers of luxury cars, who do not use mass-produc- tion methods, and who find their domestic market almost entirely closed by the very high purchase-tax. If you want to buy a Daimler at the basic price of L4,500, you must pay £2,501 purchase tax, a sum adequate to discourage ostentatious luxury at home. Yet the " specialist " makers show little tendency to go out of business. On the contrary, such is the high qualify of the engineering and the skill in general workmanship used in making cars like the Rolls- Royce " Silver Wraith " that the overseas demand remains constant. A ton of Rolls-Royce or Jaguar represents a higher return in foreign exchange than, say, a ton of Morris Minor. That is a sufficient justification for providing the " specialist " firms with steel. But an even stronger argument for their existence is their technical distinc- tion, which gives British engineering its merited prestige abroad.
Remarkable amid the gawkers at the Motor Show have been the overseas buyers. For their convenience and pleastire the new models
were, alas, primarily designed. For them the regular breathing of an engine under a show-case, or the whispered " Yes " of a clutch, has not been an aesthetic experience merely, but the prelude to a possible purchase. Before the war American cars designed for travel on a contiikent with varying road- and climatic conditions found a ready sale abroad, both because of their general utility and of their rela- tively low price. With their powerful engines, good springing, high road-clearance and commodiousness, the Buick and the Chevrolet had a wide appeal outside America, particularly in rough country for which the small British cars were on the whole ill-adapted. Since the war British ears have broken into the Anieritan- conditioned " markets-in increasing numbers. " They have un- doubtedly been helped by America's domestic shortage of cars and restricted exports. But on their own engineering merits they have found ready buyers. As far as the external appearance of their cars is concerned, British manufacturers have tended to product a modi- fied form of what has become known as " American styling." The characteristically cubic of of the pre-war British car itas been superseded in many of the new models by the squat curves which the Americans evolved in the last few years. The Singer. SM Ism is a most successful instance of conformity to this fashion. But there is also much virine in the conservative lines of the new Rovers, and one wonders whether it would not pay the British motor industry better in the long run to develop a characteristic " external styling " which will compete on its own merits with the American style.
Americans at the Motor Show have continued to show interest in British cars for their-"domestic market, but it is an interest based on the need to import means of transport irrespective of price to satisfy civilian requirements. , When a leading American manufac- turer was asked about the future of British cars in the U.S. market he replied, " What do you think—viiith one of these new Hudsons (pointing to an elaborate maroon Hudson with 128 b.h.p. super eight side valve engine, available with optional automatic transmission) costing 3,000 dollars, and your Bentley costing 26,000 dollars ? "
There is little doubt that if the American motor industry satisfies its home market, and then devotes even to per cent. more of its pro- duction to export, the British motor industry will suffer a most uncomfortable opposition overseas. But in the mean time,- as the Motor Show has demonstrated, it is consolidating its position by rationalising and standardising its production—though all too slowly —in the interests of economy, by adapting its models to the needs of overseas customers, and by maintaining its high values in engineer-, ing. In front of the new models at the exhibition have stood the directors and the salesmen ; but behind them have been the crafts- men in the factories, whose skill is the greatest asset of the British motor-industry. They have perhaps been overlooked ; let them come forward.
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