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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1911)
TIIE SUNDAY OHEGOXIAX. rOKTLAXD. AUGUST 1311. -jus enougi o aJve you o the fad and yet keep our dealers in good humor. 1 WeW B- O "V" MM 2C OOb E-M-F "30"s and 30,000 Flanders "20"s jl P E-M-F "30" Fore-Door Touring Car, $1100 Flanders "20" Fore-Door Touring Car, $800 RECENTLY OUR ME. F LAND EES WROTE a personal letter to all Studebaker-E-M-F Dealers asking for sug gestions as to how Flanders "20" or E-M-F "30" models could be improved. The 2500 replies could be epitomized in the following, which we quote from one letter: "Only defect in either model is lack of cars to supply the de mand. There are three customers waiting for each car that comes from the factory. Please don't try to make them any better just make morel" NEVERTHELESS, "THE WORLD DO MOVE," said Galileo with his last gasp and that is our only excuse for announcing any changes. Note we do not say im provements in either of our models for 1912. JUST AT THIS TIME when other makers are tearing the air with declamations of their new and radically differ ent models condemning their product of the past by just so much as thev proclaim the superiority of their forth coming effort, "we can say, "Our 1912 model is just as good as that we sold in 1911 or 1910, 1909 or 1908. CAN YOU APPRECIATE with what pride we make that statement can you enjoy with wt the exultation which comes from knowing that if in the future we can only give every buyer as great value for his dollar as much satisfaction and pleasure in his purchase as in the past we will have achieved the highest ambition of an hon est business nouse. TAKE FOR EXAMPLE our E-M-F "30" model. Never was there such a record of service and of satisfaction as the car has given its 30,000 owners. So flawless has been thit record, we have today 30,000 salesmen all working for love. DO YOU KNOW THAT STUDEBAKER-E-M-F "30" is the oldest car in the world in its present form this is its fourth year and the few changes that have been made from time to time were in external appearances only we have kept up with the styles in body design. NO OTHER POWER PLANT has ever been able to equal thin in performance-"01d Bullet," the ninth car we built, holds several world's records for speed 84 miles an hour on Atlanta Speedway, and she and the others of that first famous litter hold all world s records lor en durance. Every one of them are in service today and many of the first five hundred have over 100.000 miles of rough roads toured to their credit. TAKE CAR No. 2, for example: It is in New Mexico. Owner writes : "Friends who have purchased your later models on my recommendation tell me their cars are great; but after four years of driving over Western trails, I tell you I don't believe you ever built another car quite as good as my No. 2." ISNT IT SPLENDID to get letters like thatf Car No. 11 Why that car our first was used for two years at the factory as a demonstrator and was then put in the hard est kind of service as a "pick-up wagon" at the factory, doing heavy truck work. Can't kill hei looks as if she was good for twenty years or more of the same kind of work. WHEN OUR DEALERS COME TO THE FACTORY it is a favorite stunt to take a ride in Old No. 1 on top of a load of castings, perhaps. And each time they marvel at the durability of the old car knowing though they do the quality of all E-M-F. "30" cars. THAT IS WHY WE HESITATE to claim any real improve ment in our 1912 model E-M-F "30" over any previous model persons who know will doubt our ability to im - prove on perfection or what they consider the nearest approach to perfection that has ever been attained in a motor car. BUT WE HAVE MADE A FEW minor changes that may rightfully be called improvement. Here are some you will agree are better : Longer wheel base now 112 inches permitting of lengthened . body, giving more room in front as well as rear 6eat. Body is also several inches wider, making ample room for three 200-pounders in rear seat; drop frame instead of former straight frame, gives lower center of gravity and lower, more rakish appearance to car. Springs are longer also both front and rear always the easiest riding car, it is still more velvety in motion. A FEW MECHANICAL CHANGES not necessarily im provements, though, of course, our engineers think they are are improved steering . gear better iacnities icr oiling and adjusting. At the same time we have emulated the $5000 cars by placing spark and throttle levers on top of steering wheel; large steering wheel of Circassian Walnut, gives classy appearance and makes "thumb and finger control" possible. NO CHANGE IN MOTOR you" will be pleased to hear that. Fact is we would not dare make the slightest change in that wonderful motor for fear we could never again get quite as powerful a one. NEITHER HAS THERE BEEN any change in transmis sion, control, axle or chassis detail, save only those men tioned the drop frame and longer springs. E-M-F "30" IS MORE BEAUTIFUL, though, than ever before. Truth to tell, we have always thought there was room for improvement in the outward appearance of this car. But you must remember that in order to give our customers the highest degree of mechanical excellence, in past years we had to design the body severely plain. And we are proud of that policy other makers adopted the opposite policy, made cars that misled buyers by their looks and are now either in the junk heap or on the way there expected soon. BUT NOW IT IS DIFFERENT we have our mammoth plants and they are paid for. We have a more perfect organization. Fractically unlimited capital enables us to buy better and prices of all materials are lower. SO NOW WE CAN ADD appearance to efficiency luxuri ous appointments to mechanical perfection and sell you that much better car in 1912 for the same price you paid in 1911 and for $150 less than we had to charge in 1908-9 and 10. WE HAVE PROMISED from the first to improve wherever and whenever possible and to "divide with the buyer the savings we effect by our superior facilities." This 1912 announcement is the fulfillment of that promise. FOR THE PRICE HAS NOT BEEN INCREASED the big, luxurious, fore-door model will remain at $1100 F. O. B. factory. Let those try who may, none can equal this value. They never have been able to and it is no part of our plan that they ever shall. THE BODY IS A BEAUTY of the most improved "straight line" type perfectly straight from front to rear. All levers inside; door latches concealed; large ventilators in dash so it is just as. cool in front as in rear. Also we provide so doors can stand ajar, 60 speed of car sucks out warm air permitting cool air to replace it constantly. Actual thermometer tests show our front compartment to be cooler than rear. Only objection to fore-door design eliminated. IN A WORD the Studebaker-E-M-F "30" will continue to be in 1912, as it has always been, the best car in the ' world at less than $2500 the first choice in its class of -ti 11 :-fv,Q Knvora Others thrive on onr lea vines &u wen iiuuimcu n.j- ---- - - they live because we cannot supply the full demand, even making, as we do, one hundred of these cars every day. MADE IN FOUR MODELS for 1912: Fore-door, Five-Passenger Touring Car, $1100; Fore-door Detachable Demi Tonneau. $1100; Fore-door Roadster, $1100, and Coupe, $1475. Full detailed specifications in the catalogue. THE STORY OF FLANDERS "20" is even more simply told. There is no change in this sterling model not the slightest, either in mechanical detail or in appearance. We could see no chance for improvements. SHE HAS COME INTO HER OWN never was more signal victory than this car has achieved. Never did any auto mobile enjoy a greater over-demand than Flanders '20 does now, and with an output of 100 a day at that. YOU WILL REMEMBER that, like all new models, Flanders "20" did not come up to Designer Heaslet's hopes the first season 1909-10. There were several minor defects. WE SAID SO FRANKLY in our ad. announcing, the im proved 1911 three speed model. Competitors criticised us severely said it was bad business to "tell all we knew to the publio." Well, perhaps only it didn't work out that way much to their chagrin. WE USE STRONG STATEMENTS in our ads. we have the goods and ordinary terms cannot do justice to them. So do others deal in superlatives when they are pro claming hoped-for virtues. Past errors they are singu larly silent about, however. WE HAD TO ADMIT that the two-speed idea was wrong for a touring car. Its only advantage was cheapness of manufacture, and, while we had the customer's interest at heart when we designed the two-speed Flanders "20," we found we were mistaken and that the customer ex perienced buyers, anyway would gladly pay a trifle more to have the added efficiency and, superior control of a three-speed selective sliding gear transmission. WHILE WE WERE ABOUT IT we designed the hand somest fore-door touring body that ever was 6een on a moderate priced car. AND WHAT A RECORD she has made it is simply splen did. Discredited by her past, dealers and individual buyers alike were supercritical. Competitors "knocked" for fair and tried to convince buyers that the three-speed model was really no great improvement over the former two-speed. We sometimes think this very knocking was our greatest advertisement, for of course, the public knew that the man whose name this car bore would stand back of the product it had been his pride from the first. SO THEY DETERMINED TO TRY the new car out. And they certainly did figure out some gruelling tests speed, hill climbing, mud plugging, sand fighting. every im aginable stunt that could break down a car or prove her ability. And Flanders "20" always came up smiling. The astonishment of her opponents was something to see. From that time she has forged steadily ahead, sweeping from her path every would-be rival till today she is acknowledged leader. Dealers tell us there would be no other light touring car sold if they could get enough three-speed Flanders "20s" to fill the demand. IN LARGE CITIES buyers are so well informed they simply won't accept substitutes they, will order six months ahead and wait for Flanders "20" rather than take an assembled or a "tin car" as a substitute. But m smaller ' towns, where there are fewer cars and folks don t have j - i.., -nmnnre nerformance and durability. dealers are still able to persuade buyers the imitations are "just as good." That is where the "tin cars thrive. WE HAD TN MTND in designing this car, the great class of well-to-do business men who want a family touring car of high efficiency, seating five and capable of taking them anywhere people who want a car of sterling quality and yet feel they cannot afford a car as large as E-M-F "30." NOW WE COULD HAVE DONE as we did with E-M-F ''30" five years ago designed with an eye single to me chanical excellence and -without regard to appearance. But that day has passed. The opinions of other makers to the contrary notwithstanding, we believe the farmer and the man in the village has just as artistic a sense S TUDEBAECER. CORPORATION E-M-F FACTORIES, Detroit, Mich. is just as well informed on up-to-date design as. the city man. And we determined to make a handsome car a well as a good one. - - NOW THAT COSTS MORE, OF COURSE there is actu ally over $250 more factory cost in Flanders "20" than in any of its competitorsyet there is not nearly that difference in the selling price. NOW COMPARE THEM. Ask your local dealer to drive his Flanders "20" demonstrator up beside one of the several makes of "tin cars" so you can see the wonderful difference. COMPARE POINT FOR POINT the French-type bonnet of the Flanders with the simple, cheap-looking and cheap motor cover on the front of the other. The full fenders of the Flanders with the scrawny, tinny-looking mud-guards of cars that presume to compete with it. Even the equipment lamps, top, windshield, are superior in looks and in quality. APPEARANCE IS IMPORTANT. However' matter-of-fact a man may claim to be, his wife and daughters crave the artistic and the beautiful. And Flanders "20 is their choice because there they find it to as great a degree as in the highest priced car on the market. YOUR MECHANICAL SENSE will also be appeased we are talking to you, Mr. Practical Man if you will in vestigate chassis details and power plant. You will find a four-cylinder motor of most approved French type and a transmission like that in E-M-F "30" same excellent axle design, too, and you will find, if you know steel, that the materials that go into this car are not sur passed in quality by that used in any automobile at any price bar none. FLANDERS "20" HAS NO RIVAL when you consider all points. No other car on the market gives the buyer so much mechanical excellence and so much to be proud of in appearance as the Flanders "20" at $800.. HERE'S AN EXCERPT from a letter written to one of our dealers by a certain Detroit manufacturer: "Why not take on ten or fifteen of our carst You know you can not get Flanders "20's" enough to supply your trade. Your customers get impatient waiting and you may lose some sales. We have cars in stock and can ship at once. Besides our discounts to dealers are larger." BUT THAT DEALER DEONT FALL you never heard of a dealer giving up the Studebaker-E-M-F line. Never heard of a dealer handling any other if he could get this one.' Dealers want cars that sell themselves that are backed by a guarantee for a full year, and that really says something. EVERY STUDEBAKER DEALER IS JEALOUS of the proud position he occupies he is honored and respected above all rivals in his own community because he sells the best cars and keeps his word the cars make good. -And the manufacturer backs him up. He will not sacri fice that proud'position for a few chance sales, nor for a bigger rake-off will he sell to his townsmen cars that he knows are unsalable elsewhere. ' OUR ONLY PROBLEM IS DELIVERY. We are not going to make any rash promises. We cannot promise to deliver every car that is ordered. All we can do is to repeat that we are making one hundred per day now 1 That we are doubling our factory facilities as fast as bricks can be laid and machinery installed. That we will be making two hundred a day within ninety days and will work full force all Winter in hopes of catching up with the demand but there is the limit of our ability for the present. . . FOUR MODELS OF THIS CAR ALSO FOR 1912. Fore door, 5-Passenger Touring Car slightly smaller than E-M-F "30," not quite so speedy 45 miles per hour but iust as efficient ; 4-Passenger Suburban ideal car for rural residents; 2-Passenger Coupe, and 2-Passenger Runabout. Full detailed specifications in catalog.