Putnam's Automobile Handbook: The Care and Management of the Modern Motor-Car

by H. Clifford Brokaw; Charles A. Starr

Doubtless the owner will find that the manufacturer has, for instance, given certain instructions concerning lubrication, perhaps has specified certain kinds of lubricants. Now, no matter how much you may know about the subject of lubrication, rest assured that the manufacturer has had an engineer study out the lubrication of his car and what he writes concerning it is the last word and it should be followed implicitly. All that is contained in these pages upon the subject of lubrication is explanatory and corrective and in no way can take the place of the manufacturer’s advice for the particular car.

The same thing is true as to tires, or brakes, or steering gear, or any other part of the mechanism. Read his book first and then turn to the appropriate chapter here and you will find no divergence, only interpretation, clarification, supplementary advice.

Probably it would be well to remind the owner that nine-tenths of the complaints which reach the manufacturer or his service stations, show that the owners making the “holler” confess that they had not read the books given them with the car. It has become such a serious thing that at least one manufacturer has started schools for purchasers of the make, where, at a nominal compensation, they may be made to read the instructions and be given a visualization of what they mean. All owners cannot visit the centers where such schools are maintained, and all manufacturers do not maintain them now, though it may be necessary in the near future. The fact that it is necessary, however, should leave the impress upon the reader’s mind of the importance of the subject.

The owner, whether he possess a “flivver,” or an edition de luxe, has about as much money tied up in his car as he feels he can devote to that form of pleasure or to business. It is an investment which will, or will not, bring commensurate returns in money, or moments, well spent; it can be made an indispensable aid to both business and pleasure, or it may become an unsufferable nuisance in either. The value of a car depends not upon the amount of the purchase price, but upon what can be gotten out of it: its service, its dependability and general reliability; that and the low cost of upkeep and operation.

Would it not seem reasonable, therefore, for the owner to give as much thought and study to the machine which propels him and his merchandise as to the machine in the factory which produces the merchandise; ought he not to understand how and why and wherefore it propels him—or why not?

Few men there be who would consign their bodies to the mercy of wind and waves if they did not believe that a competent captain and engineer were aboard the craft, or to a railway train were there not an engineer and conductor at hand to look to his safety. Why should he place himself and loved ones in a motor car and start off on a trip with an uncertain hand at the steering wheel, with no one aboard competent to rule the engine, or to know if all other parts of the mechanism are properly adjusted, when a maladjustment may mean danger and even death?

One would not waste sympathy upon the owner himself in case of an accident through ignorance, but the fate of others in his keeping prompts the sounding of a warning.

Years ago traveling sign painters decorated trees and rail fences and barns along the railways with injunctions of a religious nature, such as “Prepare to Meet Thy God.” The last time the writer was back “at the farm” this identical message confronted him from a big rock alongside the railway crossing, as it did thirty or more years ago. Only this time it seemed appropriate, for there was more recklessness shown than one cares to witness regularly—it is too nerve-racking.

When one considers that a defective brake, a worn-through steering knuckle, or any one of a number of broken parts—broken because neglected—may be the particular weapon selected by the fool-killer, the owner who cares for his bones, or for the lives of his passengers, would better spend a few hours occasionally in looking after his car and in finding out all that is possible about it.

Even though the owner can afford a chauffeur who “knows all about an auto,” it is noticeable that chauffeurs have a way of forgetting, that they loaf on the job shamefully, that they conspire with the supply dealer to run the cost of upkeep to skyline altitudes, and are little more immune from road troubles than the common or garden variety of owner. The owner who knows can detect all these lapses from strict rectitude, to the comfort of his person and the safety of his bank balance.