Horseless carriages -- 1928;

              30 H A S K I N S & SELLS April
Horseless Carriages—1928
IF one may rely on published statistics
for the year 1928, the number of cars
sold by American dealers during that year
was 6,980,000. This, obviously, includes
used cars the number of which was 3,760,-
000, or 53.8%.
Of every nine new cars sold five were
entirely financed, and the sixth one was
financed, graphically speaking, to a point
back of the front wheels midway through
the hood. Translated into stern statistics,
58.1% of all new cars were financed. Of
the used cars sold 60% were financed.
The amount of money invested in car
sales during the year 1928 reached the
fabulous total of $4,467,600,000.00—four
billion, four hundred sixty-seven million
six hundred thousand. To the credit of
those who bought cars, be it said that col­lectively
they provided 60% of the purchase
price and borrowed but 40% thereof. The
amount which they borrowed in connec­tion
with the financing was only $1,799,-
330,000.00.
One may look at the repossessions aspect
of the situation with some degree of
economic pride. Of 3,222,000 new cars
sold only 55,900 had to be repossessed, or
1.73% of the total. The collective loss
on these cars repossessed amounted to
33,343,000.00. This loss, compared with
the amount of $2,820,720,000.00 involved
in the purchase price is almost negligible;
.117 of 1%.
The loss per new car repossessed was
$59.80, compared with an average for all
cars, both new and old, repossessed of
$56.00. This loss per car was somewhat
higher than that for 1927, when the average
was $43.00 per car, but lower than that for
1926, when the loss per car reached $65.00.
Any one who is interested in reading
statistics and extracting significances there­from
may pick out a tale of keen com­petition
between two great motor car
producers by comparing Ford sales with
sales of Chevrolet.
Any one who likes to speculate concern­ing
the future may see from the statistics
available that while car sales are somewhat
concentrated (67.6% in 1928) in three large
interests, the remaining sales (30.8% in
1928) are somewhat thinly spread over
nine other interests identified by name,
with 1.6% (in 1928) grouped as "all
others."
The sales of the "all other" group have
decreased from 3.0% in 1925, showing that
1.4% of the sales have been absorbed by
specified interests. This business, obvi­ously,
did not go to the dominant interests
inasmuch as that group, from 1925 to
1928, lost 4.3% of sales to the nine interests
not included in the "all other" group.
Whether this wearing down of the "big
three" will continue, or the smaller com­panies
will resort to consolidation, remains
to be seen. The chances, it seems, are in
favor of the latter course.
Speaking of exports in 1928, the number
of passenger cars and motor trucks shipped
from the United States was 507,110; an
increase of 32% in number over the previ­ous
year. The value of the export ship­ments
was $354,895,862; an increase of
27.6% in value over the preceding year.
Out of these percentages the statistician
reads the story—"An increase in the num­ber
of lower priced cars." To prove it, he
divides the number of vehicles into the
value, with the result that the average
price per vehicle for 1928 is $699.00 as com­pared
with $723.00 for the year 1927.
Lest we be judged to our advantage,
but erroneously for our erudition and re­search
in the matter of motor-car statistics,