Car owner

“ Most of them require little or no adjustment, and for the proper fulfilment of their functions the owner can but rely upon the skill of the designer and the honesty of the maker. Their proportions and relations are settled before the owner has anything to do with the car. Upon them, however, depends entirely the safety of the occupant of the car. ”

“ The automobile owner does his own work, like his wife, and on Sunday morning, instead of hustling for the golf links, he inserts himself into his overalls and spends a couple of hours trying to persuade the carbureter to use more air and less gasoline. The interest our automobile owners take in the internals of their cars is intense. ”

“ Information recently gathered from observation and interviews shows that the average owner who operates and cares for his car, invariably overlooks the springs and their connections while giving the car the bi-monthly or monthly tightening-up and greasing, while the balance of the car usually receives the required attention. ”

“ Vast and important as may have become the business passenger motor traffic, purely pleasure travel by automobile probably exceeds it. Of the more than ten million motor cars licensed in the United States perhaps 80 per cent of them were purchased not for their use in the business of the owner, although that might have been the final excuse that consummated the deal, but for the pleasure the purchaser and his family would get from owning a car. ”

“ Furthermore, if you actually oversee everything that is done—you know that your car is all right and you don’t have to hope that nothing has been forgotten by a man who knows that he is not going to be the one to suffer if his work is not what it should be. Also you know your car’s weaknesses and in driving can save them. I find garage men who take pride in their garages, glad and willing to serve an owner who takes that much interest in his machine. ”

“ Yet that is what many people are expecting, forgetful of the fact that a motor-car is a horse and carriage in one, that its stable bill is of the smallest, that it ceases to consume oil or spirit immediately it is at rest, and that although its tyre bill, and accounts for occasional repairs, may be high, it is not subject to half the troubles that worry the owner of even the best-conducted horse stables. ”

“ The salesman already knew that; he made it a business to ascertain such things so that he would not talk indiscreetly to persons who knew automobiles well.
“You don't have to know much,” he said. “The less you know, the better. The usual automobile owner tinkers with his car too much and gets it out of tune. ”

“ On the other hand, it is only right that the large class of automobile drivers who show every consideration possible for other users of the highway should not be held responsible because a horse misbehaves itself on encountering a motor-car. Horse-owners must recognise that motor-cars have a right on the road, and, provided that the motor-car be driven properly, its owner must not be blamed because a horse objects to it. ”

“ The police would be on the look-out for a pale-blue car, driven by a moustached young man in a leather-peaked motor-cap, while they would only see passing a dark-red car driven by its owner, a respectable-looking middle-aged man in a cloth golf-cap, gloves, and goggles. ”

“ No one in those days thought for one moment of a motorman from the viewpoint of good driving. The owner of the car, above all, desired to possess a good mechanic, for breakdowns were numerous and varied and half of the expenses of motoring were necessitated by renewals of parts or adjustments due to ordinary wear and tear. ”

“ Because a car must have the attributes of a hurdler and a tightrope [Pg 5] walker, be amphibious and fool-proof, have a beagle’s nose for half-obliterated tracks, thrill to the tug of sand and mud, and own a constitution strong enough to withstand all experiments of provincial garage-men, few merciful car owners will put it through the supreme agony. ”

“ After twelve years’ experience with the automobile, I find that only one-third of the present-day owners understand the mechanical operation, care and proper upkeep of their cars; the other two-thirds know little or nothing of their cars, and are unable to locate or detect trouble, or make the slightest adjustment necessary to remedy it. This fact remains as the chief cause of the present high depreciation in cars, and the loss of millions of dollars annually to automobile owners. ”

“ So long as the boiler is regularly 'blown down' it will not get furred.
Quite apart from questions of economy, the owner who studies his car and endeavours to get the best results out of it will find that his interest in the pastime is greatly increased, as he is provided with an interesting occupation the whole time he is driving, and never for one minute does the way seem long or the driver feel bored. ”

“ This is the only way to keep a car ready at all times for use. Every car on being delivered possesses certain faults which the owner should remedy. It is true that the faults are details, and consist of omissions by the makers on account of expense, in consequence of trade competition, which would make their car appear more expensive than that of some rival. ”

“ And the chauffeur worked readily with the wealthy man, often advising the purchase of the foreign machine upon which Uncle Sam collected a very large duty. But the foreign made car had its stamp of distinction, perhaps much easier to utilize in the form of extravagant, even snobbish, style of life that the owner of the foreign car elected to affect, and the United States manufacturer of cars was not at all prepared to put out a car that would correct the desire of Americans to drive around in an imported article. ”

“ The owner of a car is entitled, first, to the proper interest in his investment, that is, on the value of the car; second, to a proper amount for wear and tear or for repairs. The life of a freight car may be reasonably estimated at ten years, so that ten per cent. on its value would be a fair interest-charge. The average amount for repairs varies directly as to the distance the car moves, and may be put at one-half cent per mile run. ”

“ While, as a general rule, you will find all automobiles efficient and reliable, troubles and conditions are bound to arise that are somewhat puzzling; therefore, to assist the owner, we have written a chapter on trouble hints conveniently arranged in three columns, headed troubles, cause, and remedy. ”

“ The future of automobile accessories is possibly217 not subject to fluctuations in the same degree, nor as apt to reach the saturation point as might be the development in the automobile industry, for the reason that with the increase in the number of cars in use, the purchase of many accessories will be made by car owners, even though the manufacturers should not continue to buy an increasing, or even equal, volume. ”

“ Careful attention to these minor points will result in greatly lengthened life for the car, and in a much higher value when it is traded in for another car. The man who buys a used car would better inspect closely along these lines if he desires to45 buy something better than a bunch of junk. The owner should not trust to his chauffeur the care of these parts, unless he has found out that the man knows of the importance of lubrication, nor should it be taken for granted that the garage man is attending to them. Make sure yourself is the best rule. ”

“ I find myself unable to escape the conviction that a person who has lawful possession of a vessel, and exercises the authority of a master over it, either by appointment or consent of the owner or by operation of law, is to be considered the master pro hac vice, and competent to bind the vessel or her cargo by all acts without the scope of his apparent authority. ”

“ A person who could influence the sale of motor-cars would be likely to make a good commission, In the old days, after this brief reflection I should have put on a cheerful smile and my best hat and gone round to one of the big places in Long-acre to explain that I should like to sell cars for them, and the manager of that place, having discovered in twenty seconds that I knew nothing whatever about motor-cars, had no influential connection, and was about as likely to sell a motor-car as I was to sell the moon, would have shown me out—quite politely, because I happened to be pretty. ”

“ The people who use cars ought, I think, to remember that it is not sufficient merely to obey the letter of the law, but that they ought to use their motor-cars as they would use any other portion of their property, no doubt for their own advantage and enjoyment, but also with due regard to the comfort and convenience of the rest of the community. ”

“ Then again a man may have two or three pleasure cars, but in his business he may have use for two or three hundred commercial cars.
The business world is just beginning to realize the value of the commercial car. Not only does it cost less by the ton or trip to haul in a motor car than with horses, but more can be accomplished in the same time. The teamster may require six hours to make a trip that the motor car driver can make in less than an hour. Business men, great and small, will soon learn this, and the commercial car industry will grow accordingly. ”

“ That it will be awakened I cannot doubt, when motor-cars become cheaper, when the prejudice against them has died out completely, and when men find, as they soon will, that it is more economical to keep a motor-car, not only than a carriage and pair, but than a horse and trap. ”

“ The low price of cars and the thousands of used cars on the market has put them at the disposal of the butcher boy and the hod carrier and bell hop, and they seem to have the idea that the driver of a car possesses superior rights over others and must assert it. Out in the land where folks have a chance to open their lungs and breathe, a broader view of life is held. ”

“ Until the horse is accustomed to the machine, it is the duty—by law and common sense—of the automobile driver to take great care in passing; the care being measured by the possibility and probability of at accident.
The sympathy of every chauffeur must be entirely with the driver of the horse. Automobiles are not so numerous in this country that they may be looked for at every turn, and one cannot but feel for the man or woman who, while driving, sees one coming down the road. The best of drivers feel panicky, while women and children are terror-stricken. ”

“ As a matter of law, the automobile is a vehicle, and has precisely the same rights on the highway that a bicycle or a carriage has. The horse has no monopoly of the highway, it enjoys no especial privileges, but must share the road with all other vehicles. Furthermore, the law makes it the business of the horse to get accustomed to strange sights and behave itself This duty has been onerous the last few years; the bicycle, the traction engine, and the trolley have come along in quick succession; the automobile is about the last straw. ”

“ Everyone knows that on vehicles meeting the law is, Keep to the Left. Now Great Britain and Ireland are the only countries in which, so far as I am aware, this is the rule. In France, Germany, America, &c., vehicles meeting keep to the right, and until I took to driving an automobile I never gave the matter a thought, but now the reason is obvious. Take, for instance, a man leading a stallion or other horse on the public highway. ”

“ The car, he saw with the experienced eye of a connoisseur, was a recent model of one of the most expensive and popular foreign makes: built on lines that promised a deal in the way of speed, and furnished with engines that were pregnant with multiplied horse-power: all in all not the style of car one would expect to find controlled by a solitary woman, especially after ten of a summer's night. ”

“ I once owned a half interest in a sick automobile. It was one of those old-fashioned, late Victorian automobiles, cut princesse style, with a plaquette in the back; and it looked like a cross between a fiat-bed job press and a tailor's goose. It broke down so easily and was towed in so often by more powerful machines that every time a big car passed it on the road it stopped right where it was and nickered. ”

“ AUTOMOBILES. A Few Rules of the Road Which, It Is Hoped, Will Speedily Be Adopted By All Automobile Societies.
The automobile is the rich man's liquor and the poor man's chaser.
It keeps our streets full of red, white and blue streaks all the livelong day, and if the weary pedestrian is not supplied with a ball-bearing neck his chance of getting home is null and void.
Probably the safest part about the machinery of an automobile is the Chauffeur, because he knows which way to jump out.
Chauffeur is the name of the man who points the machine at you and dares you to get out of the way. ”

“ Perhaps four years of pretty constant automobile touring in Europe ought to count for something in the way of accumulated pertinent information concerning hotels and highways and by-ways.
Not all automobilists are millionaires. The man of moderate means is the real giver of impetus to the wheels of automobile progress. The manufacturers of motor-cars have not wholly waked up to this fact as yet, but the increasing number of tourists in small cars, both in England and in France, points to the fact that something besides the forty, sixty, or hundred horse-power monsters are being manufactured. ”

“ The proprietor’s glance wandered backwards and forwards from the car to his visitor.
“As good as ever,” he said. “Do you want to buy it?”
“No,” said Crewe. “I have one already.” He nodded in the direction of his car outside.
“She’s a beauty,” said Gosford. “But those Bodesly touring cars run into a lot of money. You paid a big price for her, I’ll be bound.”
“Oh, yes. You motor-car people are never reasonable—manufacturers, garage proprietors, repairers, you are all alike.” ”