"BUYING AN AUTOMOBILE.”
FEBRUARY 1 – 1911
The Busy Man’s
Magazine
MR. BLANK, begins Herbert L. Towle, writing in Recreation, has made up his mind to buy
an automobile. Can we help him out with some advice? Well, maybe. But first we
must ask some questions, doctor fashion, before we can prescrible.
What does he wish to pay for car, equipment and
extras complete? What are his ideas as to power, passenger capacity, and speed?
Will he use the car for pleasure only, or also for business; that is, to take
him to and from the station or office, or from the farm to town and back? Will
his wife drive the car? Will he employ a chauffeur? What is he prepared to pay
annually for up-keep? Will he use the car throughout the year, or lay it up
during cold weather? Does he expect to sell in a year or two, or to keep the
car longer? Has he had previous experience with automobiles? Does his territory
include bad hills, and are the roads good or otherwise? Will he stable the car
on his own premises or in a public garage? On the answers to these questions
will depend the selected type of motive power—electric, steam, or gasoline
engine; the type of transmission if a gasoline car is chosen; the power,
wheel-base, and body style, the tire equipment, and the extras as regards wind
shield, top, etc. The question of whether to buy new or second-hand will also
be determined by this information.
For restricted town use, such as shopping or making
doctors’ calls, and for running from home to business and back where distances
are short, there is nothing quite so convenient as an electric vehicle,
provided charging facilities are at hand and the necessary skill is available
to keep the battery in order. It is frequently profitable to install a charging
outfit on the premises, particularly as the skill available in small public
garages is often of doubtful merit. The chief drawback to the use of electric
vehicles for local purposes is their high price, $1,500 being about the minimum
for a small runabout. The cost of current at meter rates per house-power is
also quite an item compared with the half-cent or cent per mile paid for the
fuel of a small gasoline runabout.
As steam cars are numbered in the small minority
and are limited to a few makes, it will suffice to say regarding them that the
choice between steam power and a gasoline engine is mainly one of personal
preference. The steam engine runs quietly and its power is very elastic. It
takes a few minutes to fire up the boiler, but in most cases that is not a
serious objection. The principal drawback is that to hold steam and water under
a pressure of several hundred pounds necessitates more or less constant
attention to pipe joints and couplings, stuffing boxes, packings, etc., of all
of which the number about a steam car is rather large. The fuel, also, is in
some cars under pressure, and there is the possibility of some pipe or
connection springing a leak, and the escaping fuel being ignited by the fire
under the boiler. On the other hand, if one lives in a country of steep hills
or bad stretches of road, or where deep snow may be expected, one can get more
for his money in the way of ability to surmount such obstacles in a steam car
than in either of the other types.
Coming to gasoline cars, we find the greater
preponderance of choice in four-cylinder engines. The once common one and
two-cylinder runabouts have almost disappeared, owing partly to improvements in
manufacture which enable a four-cylinder car to be offered for what was once
the price of a one-cylinder runabout. Requirements as to power have also
increased and to-day the common type of small runabout has a twenty horsepower
four-cylinder engine. Such a car does excellent local and suburban service, and
it will perform with credit even in long tours if it is cleverly handled. Such
cars can be purchased to-day at from $900 up, depending on their workmanship
and on the type of transmission they contain. A genuinely high-grade
twenty-horse-power car would be worth from $1,500 to $2,000.
If the purse allows, a slightly larger car, developing
from 25 to 30 horse-power, and having a motor of 4 to 4 1/4-inch bore, is
better for touring. Such a car will negotiate hills and rough roads more easily
than a smaller machine, on account of its power, longer wheel base, and greater
weight. For equal speeds and mileage it will last longer, also, and for the
same reason—i. e., that it does its work more easily. As a matter of fact, its
owner is likely to expect a somewhat higher average speed.
The exact speeds reasonably attainable with given
cars will depend on the driver and the road. On good level or moderately
rolling highways, even a twenty-horse-power car will average twenty miles an
hour during a day’s run and have power to spare. With a thirty-horse-power
touring car, the average gait might be twenty-five miles per hour, and with a
light roadster of that power a thirty-mile average would be possible, though
not usual. Such a roadster will easily touch 50 miles an hour for short
distances—fast enough for safety.
As for larger cars and higher powers than these,
they are desirable only as luxuries. Up to a certain limit, the larger and more
powerful the car, the more luxurious is the sensation of riding. Beyond that
point, a heavy car rides so steadily that the sense of exhilaration is lost,
and one has to exceed speeds of thirty or forty miles an hour to feel that one
is going at all. The difference is similar to that between a knockabout and a
schooner yacht. In the small boat there is “something doing” every minute,
whereas it takes a stiff blow to give one a thrill when abroad the larger
craft. A big car is almost necessary for touring, as a small car driven all day
on rough roads racks its passengers to the point of exhaustion. But for home
use, for marketing, for taking friends to the station, and for short weekend
runs, the car of twenty to twenty-five horse-power certainly gives the best
return for the money.
Other things being equal, it is advisable for the
beginner to take a car of moderate power, certainly not over thirty
horse-power, and better somewhat less. If he can afford to hire a chauffeur and
pay the bills likely to result, his choice need not be restricted. But the
larger his car, the more completely will an inexperienced owner be at the mercy
of the chauffeur, and the more difficult it will be for him to master the
intricacies of the machine himself. A small car, on the other hand, is easily
learned; and when you have learned to look after your car—large or small—in
person, your chauffeur is not likely to fool you long.
If a woman is to operate the car, planetary
transmission is best, unless she has had previous driving experience. Under
other conditions, sliding gear transmission with three or four speeds is
preferable, and except perhaps in the smaller cars, four speeds are better than
three. An air-cooled motor has an advantage in severe winter weather, but
elsewhere water cooling is usually preferred. The ignition system is important;
a high-grade high-tension magneto is as good a choice as any.
As already indicated, $1,000 is about the lowest
price that one can expect to pay for a four-passenger car intended principally
for service. By this is meant regular travel to and from the station or place
of business, regular household service in place of a horse, regular calls on
patients, if the owner is a doctor, and so on. Indeed, the result is more
likely to be more satisfactory if the purchase price is a little higher.
If, on the other hand, one does not purchase with
an eye to service, but merely for week-end runs and cooling-off spins after
dinner, one may get along quite comfortably with a second-hand car purchased
for less than $1,000. This subject will be mentioned in a later paragraph.
Meanwhile, the reader is cautioned to bear in mind that, with an old car, a low
purchase price is apt to be followed by high repair bills, and that a $3,000
car purchased at the end of six years for $450 is a deal more expensive to keep
up than the same car would be if new. The worst possible purchases in the
secondhand line are worn-out cars of low first price and worn-out cars of
foreign make. The first are certain to go to pieces in one part after another
with harrowing regularity. The second, if of good original reputation, will
stand up fairly well while they last, but it will be nearly impossible to
obtain parts for them, and wholly impossible to get such parts at reasonable
cost. If one must spend from $500 to $1,000, it is better to get a small than a
large car, since, other things being equal, the former is apt to be in better
condition. For the lower figure, indeed, the purchaser will be lucky to get a
car of any sort, except the smallest runabout, which will not require an
expensive overhauling to put it in shape.
Going to the other end of the price schedule, one
finds, as is natural, a much more satisfactory range of choice. Here again,
however, the rule holds that high quality combined with high power commands a
corresponding price. A high-grade twenty-horse-power car which can be bought
second-hand for $1,000 would have cost from $1,500 to $2,000 when new. The best
thirty-horse-power cars cost to-day about $3,000, though it is probable that
within a year or two $2,500 will be the standard figure without loss of
quality.
Assuming decent workmanship and intelligent care,
what does it cost to keep a car? Unfortunately, this is a question which can
only be answered by citing particular cases, since everything depends on the
personal equation and on the extent to which the car is used. If a car is used
in moderation—say 2,500 miles per year— and is kept as long as it gives good
service, instead of being arbitrarily sold off at the end of the first or
second year, both the mileage expenses and the depreciation are kept low.
Assuming a car to be purchased either new or second-hand for a total cost of
$1,000, driven 2,500 miles per year for six years, and then sold for $250, the
yearly expense figures will be about as follows: Interest on car and garage,
$75; depreciation, $125; tires, $70; repairs, $60; gasoline, $15; license, $5;
sundries, $25; total, $375.
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