oc-plain-dealer 1921-08-24

DEPENDABILITY IS REAL MOTOR VALUE CRITERION An Automobile Is Valuable Only to the Degree That It Is Dependable; Mechanical Features, Engineering Excellences, Speed and Flexibility Are Simply Elements That Make for Desirability. By O. K. HAAN President and General Manager Cadillac Garage Co. Santa Ana Ever since automobiles first became practical, there has been a constant search for a criterion of motor car value, a sound and clearly defined principle upon which to judge a motor car as an investment. To this day, the question most frequently asked regarding automobiles is—"How can I tell a good automobile?" The answers that have been given are almost as numerous as the inquiries. Some say the gauge of an automobile's goodness or desirability is its appearance; others, its economy; still others, its list of specifications, its special mechanical features, the quality of its materials, the accuracy of its workmanship, its engineering excellences, its speed, its hill-climbing ability, its responsiveness, its quietness, its flexibility, and so on. No one will gainsay the importance of a single one of these elements, but the fact remains that they are simply elements, and the automobile chosen solely because it excels in one of these points, will surely fail to render the all around satisfaction that a man has a right to the criterion which the public has been seeking. They are only a few causes that must be combined with many others to produce a sense of satisfaction. They are only a few elements that must be properly coordinated with many others to make up the one quality of an automobile that can be unhesitatingly named as the real criterion of value or desirability. And that quality is dependability. It can be stated as truism that an automobile is valuable only to the degree that it is dependable. In that respect, a motor car is exactly like a servant or other employee. No amount of brilliance in a single phase of his work can ever make the undependable servant worth a fraction as much as the reliable, trustworthy, dependable one. its special mechanical features, the quality of its materials, the accuracy of its workmanship, its engineering excellences, its speed, its hill-climbing ability, its responsiveness, its quietness, its flexibility, and so on. No one will gainay the importance of a single one of these elements, but the fact remains that they are simply elements, and the automobile chosen solely because it excels in one of these points, will surely fail to render the all around satisfaction that a man has a right to expect from his car. An automobile that has only its beautiful appearance to recommend it belongs in a show window to be admired. Its beauty will not carry its owner an inch of the way toward home, if it is stalled at the bottom of a steep hill, or mired in the mud or will not start. And of what earthly use is the most remarkable economy of gasoline if the car will not perform the tasks its owner asks of it? Again, the man who is constantly having trouble with his car, and is often deprived of its use, can derive very slight consolation from the thought that it is equipped with the cleverest and most ingenious mechanical devices. Engineering excellences do not atone for riding discomfort and other drawbacks. Speed is not an unmixed blessing if it is only had at the cost of constant tinkering and nursing and coaxing. Ability to climb hills loses much of its zest if there is always a doubt whether the car will start when it is needed. No one of these can possibly be make up the one quality of an automobile that can be unhesitatingly named as the real criterion of value or desirability. And that quality is dependability. It can be stated as truism that an automobile is valuable only to the degree that it is dependable. In that respect, a motor car is exactly like a servant or other employee. No amount of brilliance in a single phase of his work can ever make the undependable servant worth a fraction as much as the reliable, trustworthy, dependable one. An automobile is dependable when its owner knows that he can rely upon it to do the same things, in the same way, whenever and wherever he calls upon it to do them. He knows it will start; he knows it will go, no matter how swift the going; he knows it will respond with a rush when he presses down the accelerator. If the journey be one of ten miles, or ten hundred, he can count upon this same unchanging, uniform performance, from the joyous start to the fresh, fine finish. Every mile of those ten or ten hundred, or ten thousand, he is serenely sure of the same sense of ease and security. He drives his car into the garage at night, knowing it will meet him with the same splendid readiness in the morning. One characteristic that charms the owner of a dependable automobile is the train-like regularity with which it can be depended upon to keep up with pre-arranged schedule, on short, or long distance tours. The ... Studebaker "Light Six" To those who have graduated in the school of motor car transportation, nothing less than six-cylinder "Light Six" To those who have graduated in the school of motor car transportation, nothing less than six-cylinder performance satisfies them. The popularity of the six-cylinder motor has increased so fast that they now dominate the field of cars selling at $1500 or more. After a heavy expenditure by the Studebaker company three years ago, they have produced a car that combines the satisfactory performance of the "Six" with the economy of any light automobile. They proposed to build the "World's Greatest Light Six," and they have succeeded. Cord Tires are standard equipment. "This is a Studebaker Year." HARRY D. RILEY Distributor for Northern Orange County 151 So. Los Angeles St. ANAHE Arrival at destination at a speed clusively a matter of the speed at which the owner cares to drive. It will reel off the miles with clock-like certainty, with the same never varying smooth steadiness, at any rate he chooses, from the lowest to the highest. It will do it without balking or filnching, arriving at its destination the same cool, quiet, unflustered and unflurried car, as when it started. Nothing can ever take the place of this quality of dependability as a test of an automobile's value. And there is no better way of discovering which car possesses this quality to a marked degree than by watching and asking, to paraphrase the old Biblical injunction. Observe the cars on city streets and the country roads. Notice the car that is always running and never pulled up at the curb or along the side of the road while its owner tinkers with its mechanism. Notice the car that starts promptly when the owener wants it to start, and stops just as surely when he wants it to stop. Go into the garages and repair shops and learn what car gives the least trouble to its owners. Above all, inquire of your neighbors and friends regarding their car emphasizing always this quality of dependability. Your search is sure to bring you to the automobile, whose makers have insisted on dependability first, last, and most of all; whose engineers have drafted dependability into the design, and whose craftsmen have incorporated dependability into every minute part of the chassis. THE TRUTH THAT EMBODIES ALL TRUTH People are still going about with their eyes eagerly alight, hunting for the honest man and the honest product. When that search is rewarded, nothing but betrayal can break or lessen allegiance. It has been pathetically true from the beginning of time, that men admire honor in others even when they have smirched it in The process of discrimination between the sham and the solid, the superficial and the substantal, goes on, just as before, without interruption. That which is unworthy carries its own punishment, and its own penalty—its true character is inevitably disclosed in due time, even though a temporary prosperity comes to it from the caprice of the unthinking. When "the tumult and the shouting" dies down, the strong than, the strong institution, the true artist, and if the true workman, in any and every vocation, is more solidly entrenched that ever. Even though it be surrounded, and seemingly obscured by sham and pretense, nothing in this world is discovered so surely as solid merit. Nothing stands out so strikingly, by way of contrast, as genuineness and genius. No special and painstaking effort of hand and heart, or brain and brawn, that goes to the building of something superior, is ever wasted. Cheapness and compromise, substitution and surrender, these, in the long run, are the real sources of waste. The unceasing search of the mass of mankind for that which is good and enduring—this is the only law of supply and demand with which the superior craftsman need concern himself. Satisfaction of this restless hunsatisfaction of this restless hunger of the human heart and he can, if he will, remove himself beyond the reach of rivalry. This is the truth that embodies all truth; this is the truth that makes men free. BURGLES GARAGE OF SON "TO GET EVEN" CHICAGO, Aug. 24.—Frank Schoon, who was shot while robbing the garage of his son, Robert, 22, confessed to police tonight he did it "to get even." Robert, who had missed tools from THE TRUTH THAT EMBODIES ALL TRUTH People are still going about with their eyes eagerly alight, hunting for the honest man and the honest product. When that search is rewarded, nothing but betrayal can break or lessen allegiance. It has been pathetically true from the beginning of time, that men admire honor in others even when they have smirched it in themselves. Humanity may be a million years old in point of time, but it is as young as this morning's sun in its pursuit of the ideal. After two thousand years of disappointment and disillusion, the eternal verities and the eternal values still prevail. The elemental truths are still true; the man whose word is good is still the secret hero of our most hearts. We smile, perhaps, at the spectacular triumph of the trickster; but while we smile, we hate the trick by which he filched that sham success. Even in an era of unbridled extravagance, when, on the surface men appear to have lost all sense of proportion, that which is sound and good, and true, is more admired, and more desired, than ever. In such feverish times, the medico-recre and the meretricious only seem to be admitted to equality with that which is worthy, because they fall heir to the over- BURGLES GARAGE OF SON “TO GET EVEN” CHICAGO, Aug. 24—Frank Schoon, who was shot while robbing the garage of his son, Robert, 22, confessed to police tonight he did it "to get even." Robert, who had missed tools from his garage for the last month, lay in wait for the intruder today. Following a scuffle, the burglar was shot then Robert discovered he had fired on his father. "I was just getting even, like I had a right to do," Schoon, who is not seriously injured, said tonight. "When my wife got a divorce she and the boys took everything I had." Robert tells a different story: "Mother stood for father's cruelty until I was old enough to go to work. He said, 'Then she secured a divorce. I started a garage and made money until things were stolen every night.'" Robert told police he wanted to talk things over with his mother before deciding whether to make a complaint against his father. "No," said the mother. "I guess we don't want to do anything in court. After all, he's the father of my children." An insurance company which had paid the losses said it would prosecute however. A Want Ad in the Plain Dealer will Grind Results. the school of motor than six-cylinder car motor has increased the field of cars sellthe Studebaker comproduced a car that performance of the "Six" automobile. world's Greatest Light equipment. Year." RILEY Orange County ANAHEIM New Mod Wash Racks, Repair S Everything Under One Alexander Mot 247 NO. LOS ANGELE Phone 247 f LARGEST GARAG Dodge Brothers Motor Cars Will continue to hold ranking position in the field of light cars. The ever-increasing number of Dodge Brothers motor cars is proof of their popularity, operating economy and ability to meet the most stringent demands. Dodge Brothers Commercial Car is built to meet a "thousand requirements." Dodge Brothers Commercial Car is built to meet a "thousand requirements." "On display at the Mid-Summer Exhibit!" Charles H. Mann Dodge Brothers Motor Car Dealer, for 210 S. LOS ANGELES ST. Phone 43 Models-- New Prices Racks, Repair Shop, Lubricating System Anything Under One Roof for the Automobile Under Motor Car Company 10. LOS ANGELES ST. AUTOMOBILE ROW Phone 247 for Demonstration Largest Garage in Orange County