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Show PROPHETS ISSED THE PRICE IRK By Leon J. Pinkson Motordom's prophet's who read the handwriting on the wall that July would see a goodly number of automobile automo-bile offered the buying public and a relative materia drop in price certainly cer-tainly missed the mark entirely in i heir predictions, for in place of an . oversupply of cars and a reduction in values, the country today is practically Buffering from a motor car famine, and a general advance in prices has become effective with the trend still upward. Since the signing of the armistice last November there has been a steadily increasing demand for motor vehicles, but it la not this extraordi-I extraordi-I nary call for cars that is responsible for the advance in prices for cars. It i; due largely to the increased costs of the various units that go to make j up the finished automobile. The motor car manufacturers are today discovering that they cannot market their product at the prices originally set when production was started, and their only alternative Is to mark up prices to meet the in creased costs of labor and materials and prevent a loss which several builders have been reported as suffering suf-fering during the past three months From advices that have reached the coast from the motor car building centers cen-ters there is bound to be an increase in the price of all cars, and the companies com-panies that have not already announced an-nounced higher figures are merely de-ferring de-ferring the action until the exact amount of the increased cost of production pro-duction can be determined It is pointed out that prices for materials ma-terials are much higher, labor, too, costs more, and the labor differences at the various accessory plants which have prevented the automobile factories factor-ies from working to capacity, in turn has added to overhead expense and production costs. One large Indiana manufacturer is quoted as summing up his problems as follows. "Price situation at the present time is very unsettled, owing to the fact that it is impossible to get into full production with various accessory plants tied up with labor troubles. Thore has been a tremendous Increase In-crease in raw materials and labor is still advancing." The views of a prominent Detroit builder follow. "All existing conditions in labor and material markets indicate advancing advanc-ing tendencies, and it will take at least thirtv days for us to figure out exactly what action will be necessary for us to take." One of the leading local automobile trade authorities in discussing the situation takes the position of justifying justi-fying the general advance in automobile automo-bile values with the following statement state-ment . "The purchasing power of the dollar dol-lar has decreased in all lines faster than in the motor car. The dollar of today will buy more automobile pro portionately than shoes, sugar, cloth es or any necessity. And compared to luxuries which the motor car has demonstrated to the world it is not the prices for automobiles have remained re-mained at rock bottom, and the present pres-ent advance is not a case of profiteering, profiteer-ing, but a legitimate added production COST." With every factory facing the same situation, and with all of them eager to maintain the present quality of their respective cars, there seems no apparent chance to check the upward trend in prices now apparent. With costs of labor and materials advancing the manufacturer must add to his price, and there can be no reaction re-action until a stable basis is reached permitting the builder to produce to capacity and thus bringing his overhead over-head costs down to a minimum. |