Evening Star Newspaper, March 29, 1925, Page 62

THE 'SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. OTORS and DOWN THE ROAD—Lecoking for Trouble. “Kindness” to Autos Advised To Cut Depreciation Costs Excessive Repairs Necessitated by Care- less Handling—Fallacy of “Warming Up” Is Cited—Study Slightest Trouble. BY WILLIAM ULLMAN. Motorists finally are beginning to alscover that any automobile needs a littls encouragement if it is to pay tull dividends in transportation value. Just as courtesy has been found to be the answer to safety in driving, so Kindness appears to be coming to the fore as the answer to excessive car depreciation and repalr costs. The junk heaps tell the story There the investigator will find cars that have never delivered a tenth of their possible utility. There lle the discouraged brothers of the cars whioh, through kindness, are still gIVing service to thelr wise owners. On the junk heaps one finds the an- ewer to the question, *'W t does it matter if I abuse and neglect the car?’ Kindness was the keynote of good @riving In the days when Dobbin han- dled the family's personal transpor- tatlon. You had to treat Dobbin kindly or you walked. Thousands of motorists are doing an unusual amount of walking today, but they do not appear to know that kindness didn't go out of style with the horse and buggy. Cars WIll Grow Feeble. Tour car will stand for a lot. can slam on the brakes, let In the clutch with & bang, shift Into reverse Defore it stops rolling forward, race the engine when it's cold, run it without water, forget to lubricate the spring bolts or most anything else in the way of neglect, et it will prob- #bly be ready for you tomorrow. You could go a few days without feeding Dobbin, or even steer him away from the watering troughs and he would live. They are very much alike in this respect, and you will find that the similarity runs even deeper. Your negleoted car will grow old and fesble just as quickly as the abused animal. Imagine waking a horse out of a sound sleep, hitching him to an un- greased wagon and expecting him to dash up a steep, slippery hill with- out puffing. Sounds ridiculous. No sensible horse owner would think of it.© But what about the automobile and the automobile owner? Here are the pistons, cold and con- tracted. Compression is low, oil is congealed, bearings are dry. Without even the kindness to crank over the stiff engine a few times by hand- crank, the driver steps on the starter and lets in the clutch the instant the motor shows the first signs of re- sponse. Out he goes, tearing over the slippery strects, running in second because the engine would stall in high, heading for the steepest hill he can find, because he wants to “warm it up.” Get About Halt Service. Is it any wonder that the average car hae about six months in which to give good service and be happy? 1Is it any wonder that owners are not getting half the scrvice of which thelr cars are capable? Failure to treat cars considerately is largely a matter of misunder- standing. This is sald in the belfef that the average person would not be so foolish as to rob himself wil- fully of the pleasures and comforts the car can give him. Misunder- standing offers a satisfactory. answer to what would otherwise be a great mystery. Take the matter of warming up, re- terred to above. Nine out of 10 driv- ers think they are warming up their motors when they race them. This reveals plain ignorance of what goes on under the hood. Racing the en- glne stirs up the cooling system, and also enables the fan to blow more ©ool air over the block. Any frictio: cre by the bearings remains in the bearing to burn it out independ- ently, and is not transmitted to the engine itself in terms of heat. In to keep the engine running fast the driver invarlably advances the spark, not stopping to consider that the engine runs cooler with the spark that way. Sometimes drivers will even run up #o high speed as soon as they get started, believing that by so doing they will get the engine’s tempera- ture up to a good working degree. They do not stop to consider that many engines actually run cooler at 40 miles an hour than at 15. One make of car employs a fan throw- out so that above 40 the engine will be given an opportunity to run a little warmer. A few moments of idling or mod- erate speed will warm up the engine quicker than any other way, and such consideration for its handicaps will be returned to the owner in assur- ance of longer engine life and fewer repairs. An engine in starting is under a great handicap, and it is only logical to give it opportunity to ad- just itself. The man who handles his « You r gin- Willar SERVICE STATION 403 C St. N.E. Lincoln 9309 As EBONITE “Strings" to a Stick, MR. MOTORIST EBONITE is a quality gear lubricant, and is worth de- manding. Do not permit any dealer to switch you with that so-called “justas-good- product” because his profit may be ter. Deiund’re;lBONITE — No other lubricant can perform like it. One filling of the gear boxes will last all sea- son. Buy with your mind made up. Demand EBONITE Take no substitute. Mufar gamsens oon EBONITE checkarboerd pump only. "EBONITE (ITS SHREDDED 0IL FOR TRANSMISSIONS AND REAR AXLES BAYERSON D!L WORKS - COLUMBIA gerly at all times and who does not ask it to come across with all its resources {5 usually branded as a fusser, but the interesting part about it is that you will seldom hear him arguing with the garage people over a repair bill. The only repairs he has are those that prolong the car's life. Kindness helps him avold the necessity of trying to put the car back where it was. It is downright {gnorance, manu- facturers contend, that tempt a driver to do with his neglected car what has been done on the race track with a car of the same model that has been glven every assistance. Cars that under favorable conditions should develop a speed of 50 miles an hour without effort ara being abused over 35 simply because they are carelessly handled and half-starved on gas. air, ofl, water and grease. When the av- erage driver wants to go fast, even it the reason is legitimate, he will “‘stép on it” and reaches the desired speed as quickly as possible. This is a far ery from educating the car to high speed by letting it roll up to the desired speed through gradual in- crease of the gas being fed to it. Two Kinds of Kindness, Today one hears a lot about cars being killed by kindness, but repairers are beginning to find that kindness comes in two varieties: The genuine and the other kind. Any hour of the day you can find hundreds of cars in the public garage left there by people Wwho don't want to take their cars out into the rain, the cold, the hot sun, the dust, the snow, or whatever it is they imagine a car can't endure. These very considerate owners are the same people who slam the doors when it isn't necessary, who never think of scraping the mud off their feet when they step into the tonneau or who postpone adding a quart of ofl just because they're going to have the crankcase drained out and refilled tomorrow. The matter of kindness to one's car applies even to those people who are always tinkering with it. Watch some people clean a spark plug. In order to get a good brace they will often put one foot up on apron or fender. The tools are sprawled out over the running board. When the job s half done greasy fingers grops into the side pock- ets for a rag. By the time the car is treated to a little internal consideration it has been permanently damaged ex- ternally. Labors Under Handicaps. The reverse is true when the owner keeps the springs clean and dry, thinking he is doing his car a great favor. All the while he is making it labor under the handicap of dry epring leaves. The way some owners wash their cars reminds one of washing the dog by drowning 1t. The washing job 18 some- times so vigorous that the paint Is chipped off and the Ignition wires soaked. This sort of thing is kindness of a kind, but not the kind for people who want to get the most out of their cars over the entire span of their ownership. Anybody can get the most out of a car in the first few months. That's why so many g0 to the junk heap with THE WAY [T SEEMS WHEN YOU TAKE A RIDE WITH THE MECHANIC WHILE HE TESTS YOUR CAR— o \\ HINT ON “SHIFTING.” Precaution Suggested Against Hav- ing Car “Coast Away. If you find trouble shifting to sec- ond after stopping the car as a pre- caution against having the car coast away, try making the shift just be- fore switching off the engine. Saves using the starter to turn over the gears. Remember, too, that in trying to shift into second after parking, and when using the starter, the clutch should not be held down until you are just about to shift. If the clutch fs disengaged when using the starter the gears cannot change posi- tion e — frequent stopovers at the Tepair shops en route. When the car doeen’t seem to want to respond in the customary way the wise owner does not force it but con- siderately pauses to see what's wrong. Perhaps he has forgotten something. Perhaps it needs a helping hand. He figures that it's far easier to find out what the car needs than to discover that he needs a new car. (Copyright, 1025.) THE OLD MECHANIC SAYS: It's never too late to mend. Per- haps that sounds like mere repeti- tion of an old sayin’, but it's the very latest innovation in car ownership. I've just told an owner how he could save trouble with his springs by havin' them cleaned off and cov- ered, but he seems to think he's gone so far with them unoovered that there's no hope. “It's a good idea to cover the springs,” he admitted. “I'll order a set of covers for my next car when I get 1t That's the attitude. I took a lot of time to tell one chap how to prevent carbon from formin' in his engine, and all the satisfaction I got was that he would try my idea after he had the valves ground in and the carbon scraped out. He couldn’t seem to gather the idea that I was tryin’ to suggest a way by which he could postpone this sort of repair work. If 1 happen to run Across a new kind of body polish that seems to do the work, and I recommend it to some owner whose car is a sight, all I get OLDSMOBILE WODUCYT OF GENERAL MOTORS You Get So Much! If you insist on a singl e reason for the tre- mendous popularity of Oldsmobile’s Tour- ing Car—it is because it gives so much more for so little money. Think of it—only $890 for a powerful L-Head engine—Delco elec- trical equipment — Balloon tires —cowl lights —staunch body and staunch chassis. And, if you choose, twelve months to pay for this “best of the light-sixes” on General Motors’ liberal time-payment plan! I O ——— . BhMURPHY. Prssissnt DISTRIBUTORS 1835 14th St Potemac 1000 Ina in return s a promise to try some of it after the car is repainted. But that fsn't the point. I'm tryin' to save him the trouble and expense of a repaintin’ job by telling him how he can bring the old paint back to a fairly good shine. Sometimes trouble can be halted just at the last moment, provided the owner will bellev n the old rule that it's never too late to try to mend. I've seen worn universal joints give many more miles of service just be- cause the owner was willin’' to turn over a new I By going into ex- cess with the remedy he helped the joints by keepin' them fully lubri- cated all the time. 0., MARCH 29, 1925—PART 3. “PICK-UP” IS MISTAKEN. Method Shown That May Save Repair Bills. After shifting to high many drivers have a habit of racing the engine be- fore letting in the clutch again, This serves to glve the car a forward lurch and is often misconstrued as “pick- up.” It makes excellent material for repairers. If you want to pick up quickly after reaching high let in the clutch, retard the spark, feed a lot of gas and advance the spark gradually as the car's speed increases. At the start it isn't as quick as the other method, but it will get you there quicker in the end, and with far less chance of stopping at a repair shop en route. Automobile for Every Family InU. S. by 1940 Seen by Expert Consulting Engineer Believes Total Will Reach 30,000,000—Urges Careful Study of Problems and Adequate Planning. By 1940 the United States will have 30,000,000 motor cars, or approximate- 1y one for every family, according to J. Rowland Bibbins, consulting engi- neer and traffic expert. We are measur- ably approaching this point of auto- mobile density, In his opinion, motor car registrations having doubled within the last four years. Discussing the relation of city plan- ning to motor vehicle trafic before the Carolina Motor Club, Mr. Bibbins pointed out that “the clty Is var special problem quite distinct from highways, though related to them “City strects,” sald Mr. Bibbins, “are the terminal system of our high- ways as well as the local distributing 4 ¢ our city business. It is not realized that our nitics average about 1,000 miles of pa-ed streets per million population, some running to 2,000 miles. This enevmous capital burden requires far nere economlic planning and use of ewr street sys- tem than at present, Aut citles are backward in scientifle planning of their thoroughfares. Much Study Needed. “Just as in transit service, the rush hour problem is of greatest impor- tanes. We have got to develop traf- fle routing, organization and classi- fication of s mov a types of vehicles, w ccial fa ties for each best suited to thel needs. This is a complex problem of transportation governing the lives and welfare of more than half of our people, and not one of painted lines, or signs, or even of “Safety First,” as this is usually conceived We need more sound engineering and less abortive laws and experimen- tation; more study and less talk; more co-operation and less seliish exploita- tion. “For instance, street railway rout- ing and operation are quite as large a factor in the traffic problem as the motor itself. Commercial vehicle movement and freight-handling fa- cilities are a3 important as passen- ger traffic In many cities. Much reg- ulation has been imposed on the principle of slowing down traffic rather than moving it faster through the throats or gateways which al- ways control. Punitive legislation will never accomplish even an ap- proach to the needs of a sclentific traflic plan which every city needs. “The parking and storage problem has not been thought out intelli- gently, unselfishly, nor even remotely enforced in most cities We can easily treble legitimate parking fa- cilities, but we must meet the stor- age question In an economic way after the facts are gathered. Bus Terminals Needed. “In many citles the complicated sig- nal systems so often copied after Fifth avenue, New York, are misap- DPlied and unsuited to the real needs of traffic as a whole. Bus termin: are growing to be a real need. es De sially for intercity movement. “The plain fact is that our ofties have been backward in planning ahead their traffic and transportation facilities, and especially in relation to their suburbs and regional high- ways. No city needs this more than Washington, which was planned for defense rather than transportation. “Rome ' had & traffic director and Pompel! 1ts one-way streets. Broad- way had its bus traffic congestion and Harrisburg its no-parking ordinances during the Civil War. Yet Londo had to spend $30,000,000 for & mils o highway and Chicago is spending $22,000,000 for a mile of double-de ed street to correct obvious errors in planning that could have been fore- seen and provided for at a mere frac- tion of the cost today. Adequate Planning Urged. “The motor density of the United States is approaching one per family. The family is the political unit of cur land. The motorist has become tha base taxpayer. The responsibility for real leadershhip, therefore, rests di- ractly upon him as the head of the family “S0 what the public needs today is adequate planning and public leader- £hip. We uld start ow and plan and budget ahead for a city of twics the present size. “The first thing traffic movement A scientific anal #i5 of the resulte. Then the develop- ment of a competent traffc-thorough- fare-trinsit plan, wdjusted to the obvious requirements of the general city plat and of the region surround- ing the city proper. And finally » budget or financlal program for car- rying out the improvements shown to be necedsary by the survey. Trafia Is thus a somplex economic, not a political, protlem. It will never be solved by legislation.” ——— CARE SAVES CHAINS. Fast Driving Best Way to Cut Life of Set Quickly. The life of a set of chains depends largely upon the way they are used, not necessarily upon e mileags they are asked to del . The chief difference between chain economy and éextravagance lies in the speed the driver maintains when running over paving that offers the chains no layer of soft snow for prote tion. Fast driving with chains causes the links to slam against the pave- ment. It will also retard wear to use springs to keep the chains tight againdt the tires. Enduring Quality Assured As Well As New Superiorities The ityof the new good Maxwell, the ready acceptance of this finer four wherever automobiles are used, is not '0 win su e approval, ty:mmmt also be the certainty of en- during quality. The public Maxwell givesample . It knows recognizes that the new good f of the highest t this Maxwell- creation is truly a manufactured . car—that it is actually made in the great plants where it was conceived. Showroom Towuring Car . . Ciub . . Coupe $ 895 995 1045 We are pleased to extend the convenience of well’s attractive plan. Maxwell dealers and superior Thenew good Maxwell buyer knows that in addition to 58 miles an hour, 5 to 25 miles in 8 seconds, 25 miles to the gallon of gasoline and a riding ease such as no other four has ever count on soundness and the gree of precision, accuracy and he can est de- life. That is why the new good Maxwell is so0 highly regarded as an investment in finer motoring. We are eager to give you all the facts concerning the car’s design and manufacture, and to demon- strate Maxwell’s superior performance, Standard Four-Door Sedan - $1095 Special Four-Door Sedan - 1245 All prices f. 0. b. Detroit, tax extra + Ask about Max- H. B. LEARY, Chrysler JR, AND BROS. Distributors MAXWELL—CHRYSLER North 4206 1321-33 14th Street S -