WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS
SIR,—Henry Awbry comments on the failings of British cars at home. Their failings abroad are apt to be more serious. The cheaper ones are under- powered by North American standards. They have small, fussy engines which are abused by a majority of our drivers who will not bother to change gears frequently in order to keep up the revs. Their bodies and suspensions are too flimsy for our secondary roads. Mechanics often don't understand British cars and dealers often don't carry adequate stocks of spare parts. I have had the experience of com- plaining about a fuel pump and being told that it was not made by the car manufacturer and was therefore not the dealer's concern! None of these deficiencies is inevitable. The Volkswagen has proved that it is possible to build a small car which will travel its three and four hundred miles a day between our cities at an average of severity miles per hour, without engine strain, and which can be taken over the worst roads. Volkswagen has also been able to dot the country with mechanics who know the car. The trouble is that British car manu- facturers are living in the past when the rest of the world bought British because there was no other choice.
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