| OCR Text |
Show MODERN CAR MAKERS CATER TO VANITY OAKLAND FEATURES TAKEN AS EXAMPLE (By Prudence Penney) Everything certainly seems to be coming: our way! Car dealers and manufacturers are considering our needs and desires, giving- us our favorite fav-orite colors in our favorite cars, putting put-ting in vanity cases, ash trays, everything ev-erything they can think of that might " please us. The woman driver is the queen bee of the whole automotive hive. In the mist of all this popularity, popu-larity, it occurs to me to wonder what we really do to deserve it. Are we playing the game to the great highways as squarely as the men do? Do tiey really like to encounter en-counter us In traffic when we are at the wheel of our own car. Are we as good drivers as the men, and if not, why not? Honestly, I do believe we are, or perhaps ever will be, as good drivers as men are, average for; average. We have not the sheer physical strength nor the physical training. And our nerves are uncertain in tight places. We have not played ball in our childhood, as little boys do, and learned to guage speeds and distances. dis-tances. On the other hand, we've a lot more caution we have to have. And we are not so competitive. Men instinctively in-stinctively lay back their ears when anyone else tries to pass them. At least we don't have the urge to start silly races for no reason at all. But, seriously, I'd like to see us influencing in-fluencing the driving .of cars as much '. as we do their enamel and upholstery. What about acquainting ourselves with the traffic laws, for instance, and obeying them? j Th men have certainly done their I utmost to make ears safe for us to derive. If women did as much for safety, we'd get along very well indeed! in-deed! The new Oakland All-Ameri-ean Six, for instance. They've thought of everything even a foot button controlling con-trolling the tilt-ray headlights, so that you can dim for an approaching car without taking a hand off the wheel even for an instant There's an instrument board devised especial-1 ly so that you can take in everything at a glance and have the controls all at your finger tips. And even the coupe has an adjustable seat, so that small women drivers are never handicapped by not having a good strong pressure on the pedals and yet their taller husbands are not cramped. There was an Oakland that I felt was my affinity, because it just matched my new winter coat. "But certainly," said the salesman, "didn't ' you know that General Motors has ! stylists in Paris who get advance news of the smart colors from the great costume houses, and then develop de-velop the car designs accordingly?" Imagine it! A car like the Oakland, with every mechanical excellence to talk about, ferent to the harmonic balancer and the rubber biscuit engine mounting that would certainly be all the selling sell-ing points any man would need; and I yet they take the trouble to find out i before hand what our winter modes ; " are going to ba, and match our coats! i ,Not, of course, that we are indifferent indif-ferent to the hormonic balancer and all the rest. We may not like to talk about machinery, but we do enjoy en-joy the vibrationliss riding. (Reprinted (Re-printed from New York American.) I n |
