HINTS ON EXPENSES
Motoring need not be an Expensive Luxury--Two Hundred Pounds will
go a long Way if properly spent--The Second-hand Car--Motor
Clubs--The Ladies’ Automobile Club--The Automobile
Association--Motor Schools and Driving Lessons
By the time you have read and thoroughly digested the preceding chapters
I feel sure you will be able to take your car out for a spin without any
misadventure.
There are but a few points which I want to impress upon you in this
chapter. Do not let what you may think the great expense debar you from
the pleasure of motoring. There is no great expense unless you want to
make it so. In my first chapter I spoke of the price of cars and
accessories. I gave a total of £300 as the average probable outlay. By
no means do I want to revise these figures, but wish to remind you that
the figures quoted
[Illustration:
_Photo. H. W. Nicholls._
“BE SURE THAT THE PETROL TANK IS FULL”]
are, in every instance, for articles of the very best quality.
There are now being made several small cars by big firms, many of these
cars being eminently suitable for a woman to drive. It is possible to
procure a car at £120. The accessories, also, such as the hood and
screen, need not be plated or expensively enamelled. Cape cart hoods
which have the iron-work painted instead of plated are quite as
serviceable, require less cleaning and the cost is considerably less;
and so with other things--but it is wise to always get the best.
Durability and reliability is what you want, especially if you are
limited as to expenditure. I particularly mention these matters because
only the other day a friend spoke to me about the expenditure, and said
that she could not possibly afford three hundred pounds. She proposed to
buy a second-hand car for a small sum and have it repaired.
My advice to her was “Don’t.” And then I ran over a list of expenditure
in getting a new car and everything necessary new. Taking the same
quality as mentioned in my first chapter, but not as expensively or so
well finished, I found my total less than £230.
One could, of course, go much below this by buying a second-hand car;
but I would not advise this. If you know the people who have a
second-hand car for sale, and can thus be assured that you will not in
any way be tricked, then it might be worth while buying. But from the
experience of people I know, I would rather warn you against the cars
which are advertised “as good as new,” and for sale for a few pounds.
You would probably have to spend in repairs in the first year as much as
a new car would cost.
So soon as you are the owner of a car, licensed and ready for the road,
become a member of the Ladies’ Automobile Club of Great Britain and
Ireland. Its headquarters are situated at Claridge’s Hotel, in Upper
Brook Street. The club has a suite of rooms there. Send in your
application to Miss K. d’Esterre Hughes, the secretary of the club.
By joining the club you have many advantages. For instance, there is, of
course, the convenience of using the club rooms and the club garage
when in town, and in getting a percentage off your hotel bills. But
there is the greater advantage of getting all the necessary information
you may want regarding hotels, roads, and such like when you want to go
for a tour. There is, in fact, scarcely any information appertaining to
motoring which you cannot get at the club. It is always good for a woman
car-owner to belong to the first motor club in the kingdom.
Every big town has an automobile club affiliated with the Royal Club,
with which the Ladies’ Club is also affiliated, so that by membership in
the Ladies’ Club you have a standing at once with the other clubs
throughout the country, and also abroad.
Every motoriste should become a member of the Automobile Association. It
is an association formed for the purpose of placing scouts on the
different main roads to warn motorists of police traps--and the
expenditure of £2 2_s._ a year in this direction will perhaps be the
means of saving you four or five times that amount within a few months.
You will be given an “A.A.” badge to fasten on the front of your car,
and on seeing this the scouts will always stop you if there is any
danger.
With regard to learning to drive, you must do so on quiet country roads
or at one of the many motoring schools in and around the big cities; but
know something of the school before you decide on it. There are many in
which your money would be thrown away.
If you do not go to a school choose a road where there is little or no
traffic. One is not allowed to learn in the parks. In fact there is
quite a heavy fine imposed on inexperienced drivers who use the parks.
Do not go into a street of heavy traffic until you have thoroughly
mastered your car, and then drive first some half-dozen times with an
expert friend as chauffeur and thus get used to the crushes and the
twistings and turnings.
In traffic use your own judgment. Ladies are usually bad at judging
distances, and it is well to keep as much toward the middle of the road
as possible and not try too many “near things” until you have reached
the expert class.
Do not be afraid to sound your horn, yet
[Illustration:
_Photo. H. W. Nicholls._
THIS IS THE SWITCH]
do not use it more than necessary. At cross streets or roads and when
approaching corners sound the horn and slacken speed by throttling.
There are numberless little things which, after you have graduated to
the ranks of the experienced motoriste, you will buy, not because they
are absolutely necessary, but because of their convenience. For
instance, a speedometer. All the half-dozen makes are good ones. A
speedometer is a very interesting accessory, for it tells you exactly
the pace at which you are travelling, and in some instances has been
known to influence the decision of a magistrate when deciding a charge
of exceeding the speed-limit.
For winter driving they are now making a fur and leather arrangement
which covers the steering-wheel; but I would suggest that, to the
beginner at any rate, this is superfluous. Soft kid gloves, fur-lined,
are much better.
Novelties of all sorts are always coming on the market; but the beginner
had better let some one else try these first. It is an expensive thing
to keep on experimenting with every new device for a car or the
motoriste. Let others try them, and if they should prove of real use you
will soon know.
[Illustration:
_Photo. H. W. Nicholls._
THIS LEVER IS USED FOR CHANGING GEAR]