LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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Why Bother the Buyer with Detail ? Prospects at Cippenhatn.
HO'W FAR is the 13ritivsh buyer really concerned with the more intimate technical details of chassis specification ? Is he not almost exclusively concerned with the questions of proved economy of maintenance; and of consumption, guaranteed horse-power and haulage capacity, accurate-dimensions as to• loading gauge, overall width and length, and exact particulars as to loading
space ? These few sautstanding characteristics, together with a nice choice in the matter of coachwork, appear to be the only items that concern the buyer nowadays when he is 'negotiating for a machine at one or other of the leading makers. These points, together with as nearly realistic an estimate of delivery as may be, are really all that count. \ It may be different when sales once again are from stock, • but this is not likely.
-.. What the Buyer Wants to Know.
The average buyer is mighty little concerned with the number of teeth in the crown wheel, as to whether the teeth •themselves are epicycloidal, the shafts made of speciffeation " A " or "B" nickel, whether the gearbox is aluminium or cast-steel, or whether , the average piston speed of. his engine differs much from that of another inak-e. The truth is that the average maker -who has been at the gaane any time at all is now producing a machine which is nearly detail perfect, and the buyer no more thinks of worrying about the further details than does anyone who is purchasing, shall we say,' a sewing machine. Singers, to my recollection, do not issue a specification of each and every part, and of the metal
• it is made of, with each machine they sell on the
• hire.,p.urchase system, and yet the-sewing machine is quite as clever and important a contrivance in its way as is the modern motor lorry. The day has gone by when one should burden the buyer with a mass of -details on the solder line.s of complete specifications, nor is it neceasary for the man who is trying to sell such a machine that he should be driven to recite the, advantages of ql the many technical peculiarities of the Vehicle in which he is interested Buyers Will Take Good " Standards " if the Maker is Firm.
One buys a machine of any of the known makes nowadays, a four-tonner Or a, three-tonner, fore hours or overseas service, and the maximum of choice, other than as to overall dimensions, load .space and
• coachwork design, is, more often than not, limited to that between bevel, worm, or chain final drive. What would be thought nowadays of the customer who marched into the sales department of any lead • ing lorry manufacturer and insisted that his new machine should have 36 ins, front wheels and 40 ins. back ones, or if he had a preference for a 7 ins, frame as against the 6 ins. standard ; or even, perhaps, if he were sufficiently daring, to ask that he might have substituted, for the standard magneto, a battery and coil ignition system, and yet such requests were quite common in the earlier days.
Except Municipal Authorities; and They Will Soon.
It is only very rarely one comes across the average business man to-day who will attempt to insist upon variation of manufacturers' standard practice, unless it.be in the case of municipal authorities, who seem to retain even to-day a•n inexhaustible proclivity for exhaustive specification. Before the war, the Navy and the Army to a less extent, were inclined to lay down the law very drastically in such matters. They were, neither of them, too considerate to the manu e36 facturers who asked them to accept standard machines. But that day is over, so far as GOvern/tent requirements are concerned, for all but very. special services, and it is too, very nearly, for civilian requirements—and a very good thing too I
Prospects at Cippenham.
The story of the sale of Cippenham's mammoth depotis an old one so far as the numerous reports of it go, I know, but I was amongst those who had very early information of the negotiations and of their ultimate settlement. Even now, few of us know quite what 'is at the back of the whole thing. At-the moment, of course, there is a good deal of money to be made by the purchase of second-hand examples of known makes of machines, their effective repair, and their sale in the open market.. Machines of this kind, however, unless of the very best...makes, offer very little, if any, temptation to the bigger and more important users, but there is, of course, quite a largo number of smaller trading concerns as well as a few of the larger ones who are new to commercial-motor' ,transport, who are prepared to take such risks as exist in acquiring vehicles that do not start Jife afresh with a. manufactdaer's clean, guarantee -such as that given with a new vehicle.
The Government—or at any' rate the officials who, after all, are the only visible evidence that there is such a thing as a government—have with therr usual ingenuity, succeeded in presenting a case which, on HZ face of it, at least, suggests that the State h-as, after all, managed to turn a. particularly foolish venture into a highly profitable ispeculatien, but, to those of us who know Government methods and who are familiar, for instance, with the ease/with which questions put to Ministers in the 'Rouse can be anaswered withal* giving away any essential information, there is little that is convincing in the official statement that the country is to net a very considerable profit as a result of the deal now completed. No one knows, and we very much doubt whether the officials themselves know in detail, what is included in the sale. No one knows exactly what-the Cippenham experiment ha S cost, the country. It is perfectly safe, however, to assume that, on balance, the country has not made a profit. it must be admitted, in the case of astute business 111M, such as those who are mentioned in conaection with this series of negotiation:a, that even so tricky a problem as the satisfactory disposal of vast quantities of miscellaneous typee of disabled and second-hand motor vehicles, and the turning to account of a factory of very great area, in a by no means suitable district, has a much better chance of satisfactory solution than had the problem remained one to be solved by a galaxy of semi-military and semi-commercial officials.
Cippenhain depot has been sold, and is, probably, in the hands of men who will do as well as anybody with their opportunities. How far -the effect on the industry as a whole will be beneficial in the long run, it is almost impossible to hazard a gum at this date. We shall know nothing of results for a year or two. At any rate, there should be some very good employment now coming for some very goad men on a very big task. Certain it ia that the new proprietors will not jeopardize their venture by retaining the services of inefficient men or amateurs, and the country, -at any rate, knows in this matter that there will be no question of throwing more good money after ban. There should be plenty of employment for experts for the next few years to examine and report upon second-hand vehicles!