Evening Star Newspaper, February 1, 1925, Page 64

Complaints of Puzzle at Car Owners Service Stations Wide Range of Troubles With Slight Bas Many Purely Imaginary, Is . View of Psychologist. BY WILLIAM ULLMAN. What has the n bile driver ind in? come an automo- with his suc- ners stion h to the way of late by stations, yusly conside puzzled the hoa hands same wide the of e 1o time th ary, and s are being esent for service r way out ondition ar owner es have s of as Example. strated 1 from the rec- t he had his car s whe e was new yuble was not t of a car of its assumption with gine tr Tep the this service t was ima imed to ver he com trouble he and it awa in would get over it thought was emature particular suggest the ary be a owner matter is that the nary trouble > becom- ler- as a decided rap - whole thing was ntal odc but not > trouble to delve r. That is how owner admitted trouble with h this fact was e ry simple for the son throug 3 st, throu ouble it happened tha having v forme tablished sycholog tion of a repetit he took rious tests with whether it would he was bringing himself in trying to wher the whes the 1 knock trouble avoid it “Motor Abuse™ The tests he m motor 1f piston-pin troubl have had it with the new c It has been noticed by paire hat certain m the sam of trouble with their cars, re of the make. This demonst influence of mental car success and of a complete s mo- upon the Cause. were, in had never he would never ny ts re- have sort rdless the s in value utch trouble owned just be- s upon slipping it when & 1 high gear as but he a the to see whether 1 its predecessors. nd there is a foolhardy day one of the cars he tch that is im- bill that throu . able withstand in this conne n Some 1 ntal attitude oto! off with men | his | concluded that | new car with the idea that they are going to have trouble, and they are ldom dlsappointed. ~Mental proc- € s get to working in queer ways with them. With one owner it may take the form of belng overanxlous to forestall trouble, while with an- other owner the destructive thought may be to the effect that so long as trouble will come anyway there is no sense in trying to prevent it. Wears Out Car “Fussing With It It is a common thing to find an |owner so eager to prevent trouble that he literally | fussing with it. One dealer says that it one of his customers had been a little less fearful of possible trouble he would never have town down the e and thus never would have had the trouble which the major re- pair work itself developed Some drivers are entirely too con- scious of the condition of the vari- ous units of their cars, while others are oblivious to a point where they entirely miss those little cues which ire the wise motorist’s golden oppor- tunity to avoid real trouble. Persons who can feel their car sway because it is equipped with bal- loon tires or who can tell You which wheel they think Is stopping first | when the four-wheel-brake system {s applied are due for all the trouble which the automotive engineer makes a business. Th other extreme—the man who believes that nothing will happen—Iis just as bad, for here the mind leads the motorist into an entirely new set lof troubles and makes a fallure of | what might otherwise be successful ar ownership. On the whole, psychologists are | discovering that the people who get the most use from their cars with a | minimum of trouble are those who are “motor balanced” mentally. These are the motorists who are trained to | hear no more than is good for them and who are never so optimistic as to pass a “trouble cue” without tak- ing heed They do not repeat their mistakes by trying too hard to avoid them. They do not make trouble by fussing too much over the little things that are temporary. | Mental vagaries are junking thou- sands of cars annually. Don't let your mind run away with your car. (Copyright, 1925.) » SOAP SAFEST—' CLEANER. | Kerosene Likely to Cause Rotting of Running Board. The temptation to use gasoline or | kerosen for cleaning the running boards is always strong, for nothing cleans them as quickly nor as thor- oughly. But the wear on the boards does not justify this treatment, soap and water being far more practical in the long run. Kerosene or gasoline will cause | cracking and rotting of the running board material, particularl. if this is rubber. And where the oil touches the splash pan or the fenders the paint will, in time, be damaged. CAR RATED AS ‘LIVING ROOM.’ The enormous increase in the num- ber of small apartments is interpreted to mean that the average man figures his car as a living room. By dis- pensing with the formal room for rec- reation he is able to motor without financial burden. In summer the car frequently serves as pantry, while at any season of the year it is the sim- plest. means of conducting the family to the dining room, which Is so versa- tile as to be anything from a ‘“one- arm” to the Ritz. Times have changed! Pay What You Will STUDEBAKER You Can Buy No Finer Car Regardless of the car you buy or the price you pay, there is no greater value than a BUICK STANLEY H. HORNER 1015 14th Street Main 5296 wears out the car | 3,261,682 PASSENGER AUTOS MADE IN YEAR Canadian and U. S. Figures Com- piled—Truck Output for 1924 Placed at 375,396. Production of American - made motor vehicles in 1 , including those manufactured or assembled in Canada, amounted to 3,261,682 pas- senger cars and 375,396 trucks, a cording to figures compiled by the Department of Commerce Since not all the Canadlan produc- tion was formerly included In the grand total, the figures for 1924 fre not comparable with those for pre- vious years. It is anticipated, how- ever, that segregated satistics f the United States and Canada will be issued soon. The 1924 production flgures are based on information re- celved from 166 manufacturers, BALLAST AND BUS, TOPIC. If the light car seems to ride de- cidedly better when there is a pas- senger in the rear and if the extra passenger is very rarely carried it is ‘sometimes practical to add some weight to the rear by packing some heavy material under the rear seat. This does not necessarily result in greater gas consumption, as the wheels get better traction and waste less gas because they spin less. DECIDED TREND 1S NOTED TOWARD “INDIVIDUAL” CAR Exhibitors in Recent Auto Show Discover Varied Tastes of Purchasers in Matter of Painting and Shaping of Models. unusual interest in car show which Owing to the the annual motor closed formally at Convention Hall last night, virtually all the dealers will transfer thelr displays to their salesrooms and continue the show in separate units throughout the week, acoording to\ an announcement by Rudolph Jose, chairman of the show committes of the Washington Auto- motive Trade Association. It is peinted out, however, that many of the motorists who purchased the cars exhibited are postponing de- livery reluctantly, thus giving the man who is still looking for a new car no assurance as to how long some of the special models will be avail- able for close Inspection. “This vear,” Mr. Jose state is a declded trend toward greater In- dividuality fn bodles and- paint jobs, with the result that most of the man- ufacturers have a comparatively large line of models. With the Spring demand coming on, and stimulated by “there {displays will, the great popularity . of the motor show, it will be virtually impossible for most dealers to keep a complete line of cars for display purposes. Recordbreaking Attendance. “The last few evenings of the show were recordbreakers Iin attendance, and, while this was a source of en- couragement to local dealers, it was felt that many persons who were in- terested in particular models did not have an opportunity to inspect them as carefully as they would have liked. This accounts for the last-minute de- cision to extend the show at the va- rious showrooms throughout the city. “It {s important.to note that these fn many instances, be complete auto shows in themselves and not just what the motorist would expect to find at the average automo- bile salesroom any time during the year. Many dealers have - signified their intentions of keeping their best (Continued on Tenth Page.) Excels All Other Fours By Right of Excess Values Stated in the simplest terms, the reason why the new good Maxwell deserves to outsell all other cars in its field is because it offers the greatest value on the market. It took a great organization, great plants, great facilities and resources to create such values took the engineering genius of the Maxwell-Chrys of gasoline. No otherfour produces power with so little effort, with such a complete vibration. Noother fourcarries you 8o cor e No other four handles eo easily. but it also ler staff to develop in a four<ylinder car the qualities you find in the new good Maxwell. No other four has ever been able to combine 58 miles an hour, an acceleration that Te Car, $895; Club Coupe,3995; Club Sedan, $1045; Standard Sedan, $1095; Special Sedan, $1245. All pricesF.O.B. Detroit. Tax Extra. Maxwell Showroom H. B. LEARY, Jr., & BROS., Distributors. 1331-23 14th St. Northwest sweeps the car from 5 to 25 milesin 8 seconds, a fuel econo- my that carries you an aver- age of 25 miles with .a gallon somuch absence of atall speeds conditions. These excess values that set the new good Maxwell apart -from all other fours cover every MAXWELL-CHRYSLER Salesrooms Opén Evenings and Sundays orth 4206 phase of performance and ownership. Many of .them.a single ride reveals. :Showroom - Gen. Office and Service Department 1612-23 You St N.W. SAYS AUTOMOBILE CHAINS HAVE DAMAGED STREETS Baltimore Highways Engineer Re- ports Many Rodds “Eaten Away” Following Recent Snowstorms. BALTIMORE, Md., January 31 (Spe- clal)—Considerable damage, as yet impossible to estimate, has been done to city streets by autdmobile chains in recent snowstorms, according to Highways Engineer Bernard L. Cro- zier. Asphalt streets and macadam roads suffered most, he said. Wher- ever ruts in the snow caused motor- {sts to drive continually in the same path, both asphalt and paving blocks wWere eaten away by the chains, Damage was partieularly evident on streets with car tracks, he pointed out. BUILDING UP “JUICE.” Most battery trouble can be traced to the fallure of the driver to build up the battery when he has an op- portunity. Instead of driving at the speed for maximum charging when the battery is low, he speeds up, low- ers the charging rate and then al- lows his. lights to burn full when he has no need of it. Driver Must Know Own Car To Obtain Satisfactory Use Each Car Has Individual Peculiarities and No Two Are Operated Under Same Conditions—Study Saves Trouble. BY FREDERICK C. RUSSELL, Thousands of motorists are just coming to discover that it is highly | important to know their own frs | intimately. Raised on the idea that | all cars of the same make and model are given to the same characteristics, | they &re rapldly switching over to | the conolusion that there is often & | vast difference between serial 555,555 and No 3 The difference Is the varying use | of the cars and care they get rolled | into one. No two cars will ever be | the same until drivers measure up to | the same standards and use their machines in exactly the same way. Knowing this, any car owner has | taken the first big step toward dis- covering the peculiarities of his own car and reaping the benefits thereof. Too often ignorance of the causes of this difference in cars leads owners to suspect that they are burdened with particularly unworthy cars. The man who t about having acquired a “lemon” is usually the sort of motor- ist who never raised the hood, looked into the depths and exclaimed, “So this is MY car!” ch Haws Faults, Every make of car has its particular faults; that kr all who have used cars of a certain make for any length of t and then switched to another. But it alto true that these faults bother owners in varying degrees For in- stance, one high-priced make of car has a habit of shaking the steering wheel when the car goes over rough roads. There are some owners w use these cars so extensively for city motoring as never to have the mat- ter brought to their attention, while others who drive in the country may or may not notice it. One owner who insista upon keeping cord tires above tha normal pressure finds the steering gear of the part lar car very amnoying. He complains of it frequently and may dispose of the car in favor of some other make if he does not discover his own contribu- tion to ths trouble in the meantime. Another make of car is prone to develop sticking valves, yet the trou- ble different owners have as a result of this weafness is quite surprising. Some seem to require valve grinding every few thousand miles. Some seem to need mechanical aid to enable them to get started. Others drive 10,000 miles or more without ever having trouble with the valves. These for- tunate few are those who discove at an early date that the car has thi particular weakness., They compen- sate for the trouble by means of specific care. Find Out What Is Wrong. The first thing any motorist ought to get posted on when acquiring new car is a description, of the things that are wrong with it. Once he knows these he will be on the broad highway to car ownership that is as satisfactory as it Is economical How can the owner make these dis- coveries? Should he consult his friends who own similar cars? Should he make a personal inspection of his own car? The wise motorist is justified in de- siring to know how to go about thi business of saving trouble by getti acquainted with his own Y he should consult his friends, becaus they can point out weak and strong own wn to No. | € 555,55 = | to ered w ular car differs points as they 1 but he m inspection, him where from the One motorist points made a illustrate t One of ¥ also n v the part make ar rubbe gnment At the servi ar of the overed that the off the front tire ydel di wearing sted stati had right by the exce to the f stop neces: thi tional i service station it along to his troubles ar ber from the Designed for Cooling. Several years ago, of car put with an L-head moto and rear ends of the va ment there openings, the idea ¢ through ing the valve tendency, however verse. When an cr oughly hea hot air throt dry off any on the valve the radiator w to get exces then stick. People who drove car in cool cl trouble on this were In the ha cleaned out every went thing with never experfenced result of the opening: ers, however, found the valve stems qu In high speed hill the sticking blesome to a the owners traded and too 1 well h of inftiat he and troubls as Other ow: drying e an a: ance. limbing and hard thus any a the use enough twice as serviceab will take the troul through its innar uation a bit, valves gave the t remedied the matter 1 pleces of felt In the open valve compartment. The va and their operating would then stay moi a long time and ur heat st it in the way of « the trick. A lot of the chronic trouble cars develop are due to th are_driv his somet (Continued on Tenth remedy WILLYS<-OVERLAND FINE MOTOR CARS Wardman Motor Car Company, Inc. +rnnn 1108-14 Vermont Avenue Main 4340 FRANK 1515 14th Street Justice Motor Company N. JUSTICE, President W Franklin 5174