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Show roads average more than seven years of age. Most of them need replacing. In fact some 3 million of the badly wounded jalopies have gone off the highays for junk since 1942. Surveys indicate that most people peo-ple having more money than ever before earmark an automobile as one of their early peacetime purchases. pur-chases. But we might as well face it now auto prices are going to be up about 25 per cent' above prewar rates. That's due to higher labor costs and materials costs with the big cost factor, labor. It's YOUR Business.. . We were standing outside the church a week or so ago, before the services, when a 1938 sedan of a popular make whirled into the driveway to unload one of those last-minute families. The car looked well kept. It was still tidy but we remembered when the man driving it thought he was shamed if he couldn't trot out a new model every spring. Therefore we weren't surprised when the o.wner bounced up to us with that "buy 'em" glint in his eye a minute or so later to tell us that he'd read where the big auto companies were in civilian production produc-tion again and how he was all set to trade "Old Faithful" down the river. A While Yet . . The truth is that it is going to erybody that wants a new car will have one. Most auto plants will follow the lead of Ford, Packard and Buick in setting their postwar post-war production quotas between 55 per cent and 65 per cent over their prewar levels. These increased quotas mean an annual output of some 6 million cars for the industry. indus-try. And that rate won't be reached reach-ed until 1947 because most Detroit officials are now forecasting the 1946 volume at less than 3 million units. It will be nearly 1950 provided pro-vided we have labor-management peace in the industry, before Detroit De-troit rolls off some 20,000,000 cars hich many observers estimate as the pent-up demand. Gently, Brother! '. . Meanhile we'll go on treating our present vehicles the same way Father handles the old uncle with the oil well in his backyard tenderly. ten-derly. The 23,500,000 cars now on the |