Closed Cars

Created originally to stimulate Winter driving and enable the automobile manufacturer to keep his plant going the year round, the closed car is very obviously no experiment, but a permanent fixture in the automotive industry. From comprising only 10% of the output of the industry in 1919, this type of car now represents 35% of annual production. Motor car leaders attribute this striking increase in closed models principally to their greater comfort in poor weather,their greater cleanliness at all times, their distinct economy in the long run, their generally better appearance. The increasing tendency for state officials to keep the main highways open the year round is also held to have stimulated the buying of closed cars.

Last week, at the closed car show in Manhattan at the Grand Central Palace, about 200 different models of closed cars were exhibited; the sedan predominated.

For all the prosperity which has come to automobile manufacturers this year, there is every evidence of keen competition in the business. Price cutting by Ford, Willys-Overland and others has been announced. After the widespread publicity given by the Buick to its adoption on 1924 Models of the four-wheel brake, Studebaker is now advertising extensively that front wheel braking is dangerous and will not be employed upon its cars. Evidently leading car manufacturers look forward to 1924 with the realization that competition will be even stiffer then.