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Show j STANDARD CAR IS PREDICTED I " Elimination of Various Manufacturers Man-ufacturers of Autos Expected U arc not going to seo any dra.vti.. changes in motor cars in the next year, motor-wise observers tell us. Ex-' Ex-' cept for higher hoods, which seem to be becoming more stylish, even though they do not Increase the "visibility" from the driver's sent. It Is predicted that the models lire going to be pretty much the same all the way through. "A few refinements In body design or equipment will constitute the major portion of what chnnges there will be," predicts Prank A- Meckel In The Oklahoma Okla-homa Farmer Also, he predicts- Wo arc going to havo fewer differ- I ent makes of cars than ever before, and those cars Which are left are gotnur to be :nor standardized and depi-nd able. The marke d reduction In prices all along the line In the automotive Industry have brought about a competition com-petition so keen thut concerns which have not had efficient methods of production service and sales organizations organ-izations capable to meet the situation are going to be forced out. Thoy are. going to be compelled to step aside and let some one run who knows how , to run. The time lias passed when a sales- ' innn would come to you with a cer- tain make of car which differed from I another car only in having two inches more whecl-ha.se and a mirror ovr tl." windshield and try to represent it us being tar superior to the other car. People know better. There are u Mm-Ited Mm-Ited number of automobile engine I manufacturers, and folks who are buying automobiles know that any I car with a Continental motor li Just about identical with any other carl which mounts a Continental motor of ' the same size. Motors arc becoming standardised Likewise, springs, roller- j bearings, rear axles, front axles and j bodies ore made in larpe quantities j by concerns specializing in these i products, and motor cars aro using t ):.-. i'l' dncts pretty generally. There are very few, H any, motor car manu-! fn turcra who make their own roller-) bearings. Very few make (heir own: rear nles, and a great many so-called competing cars use parts that aro identical In every reapect There are going to be fewer "talking points" Sn the future, and cars are going to bp sold because they will deliver the goods and because they have been ! proved. , The proof of the foregoing Is found In the 'orphan" llsf of obsolete motor cars. This list is made up of the ' makes of cats, manufacture of which! bOS i n discontinued and thor aro j more than CJ"0 cars fao Mated This Information In-formation comes from the man in charge of sales promotion of ono of , the country's largest tractor manu-facturlng manu-facturlng plants. He also states that 1 the trend Is the same In tractor. There wero a year ago more than 2 no ' iiiferent makes of tractors Today there are about one-half that number. num-ber. Ther. simply is no longer any space for the freak in cither motor car or tractor, and It Is simply a case of the survival of the fittest. Those manu-Ca manu-Ca turers who have a pood car, manufactured manu-factured under efficient management and distributed efficiently, are going to remain in business. The others aro quitting It Is Jftio same with tractorj, and from now on the purchaser of a car or a tractor may know that he is getting something fairly standard for hits money and something that it put out by substantial manufacturers. 1 They must be thai or they could not hang on through tho times which the automotive Industry has been weather- ! lng for the last two years. Perhaps the greatest sensation In the automotive Industry this year han been the taking over of the Lincoln car by Henry l-'ord This means that Ford will be making the two exact opposite types in motor cars: The . small choap car with the price the main consideration, and the large , high-priced car In which quality Is considered first of all and in which the price is secondary. Many persons: look for a marKet price reduction 111 tho Lincoln car, but ford has an- nounced that he Intends even to 1m -prove the present Lincoln, and he contemplate! no immediate cutB at least. He plans to make it America's quality automobile Literary Digest. |