Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/67

Rh of covered carriages in England, but not so in France. One of the most noticeable features of the Exhibition of December 1901 was a recognition of the fact that a motor is not a mere fine-weather phaeton, but a carriage to be used at all seasons.

Assuming, again, that the reader has decided on a petrol car, the matter becomes a question of cost. We have been told for a number of years that the motor-car would soon be very much cheaper, but so far this is only partially true. The day of fancy prices caused by the demand of very rich people for something of which the output is very limited is almost gone, but it is difficult to suppose that one will ever be able to buy a well-built carriage, drawn by a complicated and beautifully



constructed piece of machinery, for anything approaching the price of a mere brougham or victoria. Yet that is what many people are expecting, forgetful of the fact that a motor-car is a horse and carriage in one, that its stable bill is of the smallest, that it ceases to consume oil or spirit immediately it is at rest, and that although its tyre bill, and accounts for occasional repairs, may be high, it is not subject to half the troubles that worry the owner of even the best-conducted horse stables.