THE HAULIERS' INQUIRE WITHIN.
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On Choosing a Vehicle; Shall it be New or Shall it be Second-hand ?
IT IS A curious fact that I often get a run of inquiries all of a similar kind, and, often enough, there is no apparent reason for this phenomenon. For example, during the last week or so I have had several letters from hauliers and others, all asking my advice concerning the purchase of vehicles. Some have quoted a load capacity, and asked me which make I recommend. Others have been a little more considerate, and have put forward a list of names from which they have asked me to choose the make of vehicle best suited to their needs. One went further in this consideiation for my comfort, and asked me to select one from two makes which he named, but he put me in rather a quandary by stating the difference in price between the two, and insisted that I should explain the reason for that difference, so that, ;f I recommended . the higher priced vehicle, then I should have to show good cause why I had advised him to spend more of his hard-earned cash than, apparently, he need, whilst, if I recommended the less expensive vehicle, I still had to reassure him that he was not going to lose, in the long run' by his fancied economy. Not much of a loophole for me there I
Now, although I have answered all these questions, and shall, if the demands come, answer others of a like nature, I do not altogether regard them as part ef my regular work. At the same time, the fact that so many of them come together is clear proof that there is some sort of a demand for guidance in the choice of a vehicle, and I may serve some useful purpose by discussing such aspecte of the matter in my contribution this week.
Now, in the first place, as regards new machines. If the purchaser confines himself to the well-known and reliable makes, he ,an hay any one of them, practically, without the slightest risk of making an unwise purchase. The simple truth of the matter is, that amongst those vehicles every one is, to-day, value for money. If a little more has to be paid for one than for another, then there is solid and real reason for it. Prices to-day arc as low as the manufacturers can make them. Profits have been cut to a minimum, for the sake of promoting sales. It is, of course, true that inefficiency of organization may have the results of making the price of a chassis made in one works rather more expensive than another, of equal value, turned out somewhere, else, where there is a more strict watch kept on the scheme of costing, but it would be very difficult even for the most expert to decide where that was occurring. Little guidance can be obtained from the reports of individual users, whether those reports be favoure30 able or otherwise, for while one man may secure excellent results with a chassis made by A, and find one by B beyond prayer, another man will be registering a vow that never again will he have a vehicle made by A, and that in the future his custom shall go to B, whose chassis has served him well and truly. One must, in this matter, as in that of calculation of running costs, take into account the average results only, and, as they are never published, we have to come down to that very intangible but, nevertheless, real factor, reputation.
The popularity of any specific make of vehicle in any particular locality is a good guide. If it be well spoken of, and if it be found in numbers in that locality, then the odds are that the reason is worth investigating. Not that I think that any particalar chassis is likely to be more suitable in any specific locality than any other, for I do not think anything of the kind, but the fact that the chassis does well there, finding plenty of buyers, goes rather to show that the motor agent in that locality who is handling it is a good man with whom to have dealings, he must be able not .only to satisfy his customers in the first place, but also to keep them satisfied. To use a bit of Yankee slang, expressive., if crude, he is able not only to sell these vehicles, but to make them " stay sold.'
This aspect of the matter is much more important to the user than he might at first be inclined to think, for he is liable at any time to require spare parts, repairs, advice on running, or service of some kind,• and where should he get it if not from the local agent? It is by rendering that service promptly, and at reasonable charge, that the agent builds up not only his own reputation but also that of the vehicle for
which he is agent. Hence the wisdom of buying a vehicle of a make which has done well in the locality with which the buyer is concerned. It will be realized that I have not much concrete advice to offer in this matter of the choice of a new vehicle. I cannot, with any fairness, advise any specific make. Even if I knew them all, and had had experience of each and every one of them, I could not do that, because the man to whom I was giving advice might handle things so much better than I do that he would make good with chassis which I had passed over. My general advice, in addition to what I have written about buying a make which is popular in your • locality is : buy the best that, you' can afford."
On the question of new versus second-hand, I am on safer-ground, and can perhaps afford some useful pointers. Here, again, it is possible to generalize and say : "never buy second-hand motor vehicles of any kind, for you are Gnly buying trouble liana' someone, relieving him, at a price convenient to himself, of a chassis of which he has had the best, and which he is now replacing, once more by a new machine." Those who have read the short series of articles on hire ears which I have just concluded will realize more precisely what I mean by that. At the same time we have to realize that many a man can face an expenditure of a couple of hundred pounds or so on a. second-hand lorry who would have to consider a long time before he could bring himself to the point of taking the liability of finding, even by instalments, the 2800 to 21,000 which is the price to-day of a 4-5-tonner.
The purchase of a second-hand machine is, therefore, a proposition which has to be faced, and we • may as well consider it in that light. I will take as an example a 4-ton chassis, the price of which, new, is 2800, and will take 2200 as a probable figure at which a second-hand one could be obtained. I am going to consider the matter from the point of view of cost, not first cost, but cost of the machine after it has been paid for. I will take the new machine first, and consider its cost of operation. The average cost of running a vehicle of this size has been given as 7.11d. per mile, made up as follows : —Petrol, at Is. 7id. a gallon, 2.78d. ; lubricants, 0.29c1. ; tyres, 0.95d. ; maintenance, 1.65d. ; and depreciation, I.44d. Those are averages, for all kinds of machines, operating under all sorts of conditions.
In the first place, the new machine ought to do eight miles per gallon, or even nine. Suppose we say eight and a half ; then the cost per mite for petrol will be, at is. 70. per gallon, 2.30d. There will be an economy in lubricants, for the double reason that modern chassis are designed to use less oil than older ones, and also because a new chassis is less liable to have loose parts through and past which the oil may leak away to waste. A mileage cost of 0.20d. per mile for lubricants will be involved in the case of the new chassis. The tyre Cost, wiil be, for both new and old vehicles, about what I have quoted for the average. Tyres wear according to the nature of the road surfaces upon which they run, and it is largely the improvement in our roads, coupled, I must also admit, with some not inconsiderable improvement in the material and -making of the tyres themselves, which is responsible for the lengthy lives which are the present-day owners' fortunate experiences with tyres of all kinds, including both solids and pneumatics. The figure for tyre cost will, therefore, stand unaltered at 0.95d.
The annual cost of maintenance of a new chassis is very low. I have lately, as it so happens, been investigating this particular matter and can state • that it is quite a usual experience, during the first three years of the life of a 4-tonner, for its maintenance cost to average but 225 a year including painting. This, too, with an annual mileage running into 15,000, so that tile maintenance charge, ;at such a case, has only amounted to 0.4d. a iniie. If, for our present calculation, we take 0.5d., we are allowing an ample margin for eventualities. As regards the remaining item of running costs—depreciation—it may safely be stated that the expectation of life of a new and up to-date chassis of good make is 150,000 miles. As the first cost has been taken to be 2800, and since we must take 250 off that for tyres, we have to spread the 150,000 miles over a net cost of 2750, which works out at 1.20d. per mile. The total of the running costa of our nfw 4-tonner will, therefore, be 5.15d. per mile. THE SKOTCH.