Basic HTML Version
12
money is to take the customer for a
ride.
A Mechanic Confesses
The true confessions of dealers,
manufacturers, workers and mechanics
would makc some real racy reading. In
fact, one mechanic
DIO
'fess up' -
and the story he told wasn' t particularly
encouraging to Mr. Average Motorist.
"l'm writing this because it's high
time that you, the automobile owner,
got an even break .... The fun really
starts when it comes to maintenance
and repairs....
"I
can tell you straight out that most
car owners are babes in thc wood asking
to
be taken ... with today's sophisticated
car it's a simple matter to cheat
the custom<:r. ... I never ceased to be
amazed at how much the average car
owner didn't know about his car...."
(Charles Brenihan,
Pm·<tde.
March 22,
1970).
Author Brenihan talked about charg–
ing $55 for a transmission job when
all you need is a pressure fitting or
patched cooling line. Cost :
$1.
Or re–
building a carburetor for 35 dollars
whcn all you need is a needle valve.
Cost: about 6 or 7 dollars.
What's the solution? For every per–
son to do his own repairs? Hardly. Few
have the inclination, time, place or
TOOLS.
We should have trustworthy,
dependable, competent mechanics. But
we have very few indecd.
Grinding to a H alt
The problems of owning a car are
rather formidable. But even worse are
the problems of
DRIVING
your car.
Today, with multiple-hundred-horse–
power, high-compression engincs, we
are forced to travel at an average speed
of six to eight miles per hour in the
central areas of most large cities. In
fact, you could travel a
lot faster
by
horse-drawn carriage at the turn of the
century. And, the horse-drawn carriage
might not be such a bad idea.
In order to clear the way for auto–
mobile maneuverability, we have had
to
construct highways, streets, garages and
parking lots.
According
to
one estímate, 55 per–
cent of the land in central Los Angeles,
50 percent of Atlanta, 40 percent of
The
PLAIN TRUTH
Boston and 30 percent of Denver are
devoted to the needs of the belching,
coughing, sputtering automobile.
All these improvements do not help
us. They
ENCOURAGE
people to coro–
mute long distances, increasing the
poverty of the central cities and creat–
ing more air pollution and congestion.
E,·en truck tr:msportation is reaching
a critica! juncture. There is a danger that
- in spite of increased auto and truck
traffic - certain areas of the nation
may grind to a halt. For example, it is
estimated that 1.6 million truck trips a
day are nccdcd to serve the eight million
inhabitants of thc central city of New
York.
But it is the pollution disaster which
threatens to be the single most critica!
problem.
Tn the United States more than
200,000,000 tons of air pollutants are
spewed annually into the atmosphere.
At least 60% of the pollutants, on the
average, are caused by motor vehicles.
But in many cities they are the culprit
for 80 to 90 percent of air pollution.
Not only is the automobile
s/o,.Jy
killing us, it is also brutally murdering
LIS.
Highways - America's Death
Alleys
The carnage due to the automobile
is sickening. The world's bloodiest bat–
tlefield was not Vietnam, the Middle
East or Biafra in 1968. It was the
American highway and street.
And thc weapons of destruction were
not bombs, machine guns or howitzers.
They werc our chugging, roaring sedans,
compacts, convertibles and trucks.
last year, there were 56,300 Ameri–
cans killed and 4.6 million injured on
U. S. highways
AI.ONE.
These gris ly
figures were the result of 30,385,000
reported highway accidents which cost
L6.5 bill ion dollars.
During the last nine years a total
of about 45,000 American meo died
in Vietnam. During the same period,
the automobile killed nearly 500,000
Americans.
W e see rioting and demonstrations
about the "bloody" war in Vietnam and
the unnecessary lives lost. But seldom
do we see demonstrations, angry out–
cries about the nearly
ONE HALF MIL·
Ocwber-November 1970
LION
deaths by automobile! Somewhere,
we have gotten our priorities mixed up.
During its 70-year history the auto–
mobile has taken 1,750,000 Jives - far
more than deaths in
ALL
wars in
America's history.
And half of those responsible for
fatal accidents were
d1·1mk
drivers.
All–
state lnsurance Company estimates that
one out of every fifty caes coming at
you on the highway is d ri ven by a
drunk driver.
For further information on how you
can
a·t,oid
being an accident statistic,
write for our
FREE
reprint "Oeath Rides
the High Road."
Death by Autornobile
Not only does the automobile kill
outright, it destroys lives in other, more
subtlc, ways. The automobi le has in–
creased the American phenomenon
known as the "comrnuter." This per–
son bates the arca where he must work,
but apparently !oves it enough not
to
leave.
So he works in one area and lives
miles away in another. It has created
the absent father, who barely makes it
home from the office to collapse in
front of the TV, go to bed and fight
the traffic tomorrow.
And the automobile is encouraging
Americans to move. Last year 38 mil–
l ion Americans changed their residence.
The United States census of 1960
showed that 47.3 percent were living
in a house different from the onc they
had occupied five years earlier.
Not only are Americans moving from
their homes, oftcn they are moving
their bornes
\'<' ITH
them. This is cvi–
denced by the booming mobile-home
business. Production has zoomed from
118,000 units in 1962 to 400,000 in
1969. The industry goal is
ONE MIL–
LION
units in 1975. In fact, in 1969,
one out of every three new homes was
a mobile.
Jt is estimatcd that
SEVEN MILLION
Americans now live in mobile homes.
What is the effect of such "mobility"?
Americans are losing firm ties with
family, neighbors, or friends.
The automobile has also been guilty
of permitting almost everyone, man or
woman, young or old,
to
go anywhere
(Continued on page 39)