Motoring The Economical Life of a Car A Spectator reader,
on the eve of the motor show, writes to ask me a question that is more and more discussed every year and, to the frugal or impoverished, is of the first importance. He asks for " the pros and. cons of changing one's car every year," adding that his present 10 h.p. works 200 miles ,a week throughout the year and that, although he bought it nine months ago, the mileage being Presumably about 7,500; he is' offered no more than 165 in part exchange for a new one It must have cost about £1.60 or £170.
It is really very difficult to answer this question, par- ticularly when the car is English. The leading characteristic of the English car is that it is built to last, the. more'eXpensiVe longer than the cheaper, but all of them a fairly defined period. It is impossible to assign a set life to any oar' for obvious reasons, of which the principal is that it depends enor- mously upon the manner in which it is treated. I have seen really first-class ears so ill-used that although you could not say that they were worn out, yet at the end of a com- paratively short mileage the neglect they had suffered was exacting heavy penalties in repair billsand it is the date of the first of these that indicates the " age " of a car. On the other side we have all known really cheap ears, WhoSe makers probably had no illusions about their useful Mileage in average hands, so well cared for that they yearly roll up Mileages that earn the respect and envy of " better " cars without costing more than a nominal sum for main- tenance.
The incidental expenses of running a car today are far smaller than they 'Were even only five years ago. Petrol is, of course; a fixed charge, depending, within very narrow limits, upon the mileage. If a good deal of town work is unexpectedly added to the normal country work, the monthly fuel bill will rise a little, for driving in traffic is even more extravagant than ,a head wind or wet roads ; but if the car's work is constant it will not vary at all, and you should be able to write down the figure in, your estimate with nearly as much certainty as those of insurance and tax. Oil is or
tan be a different matter, owing to the new bugbear of cylinder wear.
The new engines, particularly in the smaller sizes, are extraordinarily, efficient for their size, but they get their power from high revolutions and that means that, com- paratively speaking, the cylinder-walls wear sooner than did those of %their staider ancestors. Nbt all, of course. Not being a Metallurgist I have no idea' what alloys best withstand the immense friction imposed, but I am safe in guessing that, as a general rule, the more you pay for your car the longer it should go without a re-bore. Yet again one conies across instances where the cheap last extraordinarily well and certain of the, , do not. Leaving out such extremes as wilful neglec, running on too little or worn oil (still rather a common failing, by the way) and using petrol without lubricant, the owner's treatment of his engine in this regard cannot affect' its life, provided he faithfully under-works it. Oil-consumption is the unknOWn quantity, at least after a certain mileage. It may rise, fast or slowly, it may remain pretty much the same. It all depends, but
upon what it is impossible to guess. • •
You can control the life of the modern tyre with remarkable precision and success. Nothing in the adjuncts of the motor car has improved so much or so fait as the tyre has within the last few years. For a quarter of a century the nightmare of the driver and by far the biggest item in the expenses account (I remember, before the War; when medium-sized inner tubes cost £8, vulcanisation was in its disappointing infancy and patches were no more use then than they are today), the properly cared-for tyre is now as reliable as the battery and sometimes lasts nearly as long. At any rate, for the purposes 'of the present argument, a,,set of modern tyres, on any weight of ear, should give no trouble on any Pritish roads and on most of the .Continental ones for the. first 12,000 miles. I base. this moderate estimate on my own experience with a rather lively car, used al holm and abroad, and on that of certain of my friends. In considering the merits of the new-
car-every-year plan, this should be remembered.
It conies to this, then. Your new car should cost you nothing at all for expenses, except for petrol and oil, for the first year, call it 10,000 miles: 'After that you must be ready to buy a tyre now and then, certainly new plugs (few people realise what a real economy it is to spend £1 or 30s. , on a fresh set at regular intervals) and new brake-linings. You may have to pay for little renewals here and there, replace- ment of worn bushes, minor repairs to such gadgets as speed- indicators and their cables and a dozen other trifles, all mounting up to a surprising total. And, whatever the experience of your friends with the same make of car, you have to face the possibility of that re-bore.
The crux of the whole matter, looking at it from the purely economic point of view; is the amount allowed for the old car against the r r:ce of the new. At intervals an attempt is made by the trade to fix this figure, to prevent the small dealer allowing his customer too much, and just now special efforts are being made to see that this is enforced. The ethics of the ease are no concern of ours, but if standard maximum second-hand prices are established and enforced it will make the choice easier. In the meantime calculations have to be made, and they are not always easy, for the reasons I have given. Assuming that for a £300 car you are allowed £200 for your year-old one, you have to forecast your probable expenses during say another two years if you keep the old one. Will she cost £100 in repairs and replacements for the next two years ? Will the pleasure you get from owning a familiar and faithful friend—most of us hate new cars, at the bottom of our hearts, as most men hate new clothes—will that real pleasure be worth the fact that in three years' time, when the £100 is spent, the old friend will fetch, perhaps, 150 ? At that searing moment you will have no car and only £50 towards a new one. You must pay £250.
• On the other hand, if you have bought a new £300 car every year you will have paid .that 1100 every year. Figures are always liars, but you must admit that on paper the case looks black against keeping the old. Starting at the first year you pay £300. If you keep the car three years you pay about•£100 more' in repairs and then you pay £250 for a new deal. - Total £650: -With a new car every year you pay £300 and then £10.0 three times, Total £600. But the old one must be very bad or very unlucky if she. costs an average of I50 a year in repairs. I don't believe there is much in it, but I am. well prepared to. have my' figures not only disputed but ridiculed. They are suspiciously easy. JOHN PRIOLEAU.
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