Sir,

Allow me to associate myself wholeheartedly with Tony bolt’s trenchant article in your March issue on “The Ethics of the Quality Car.” I fear it is too optimistic to hope that either the Industry or car users generally will take much notice. During the past couple of years I have splashed a number of polemics in your weekly contemporaries with much the same object in mind and on much the same theme, but the response has been disappointing. Your anonymous contributor in the February issue, dealing with the sinister influence of our lady friends on car design, suggests at least one plausible reason. Conscienceless publicity playing on the generally low standard of popular taste and mechanical appreciation is another.

But there must be a large body of nonvocal enthusiasts. Is there really no demand among them for reasonablypriced quality cars on which everything does something (no birdcages, chromium streaks, fairings that conceal but do not protect) and is accessible without grovelling or recourse to tin-openers? I imagine there is ; and I believe that given the facilities I could produce such a car, and that as a sideline for a large firm it would more than repay in prestige any possible losses of money in production. Meanwhile, those enthusiasts who are less fortunate in their choice of a mate than I have been had better make the most of what is left from the Vintage Era

and take comfort from that classic aphorism : ” Varium ci mutabile semper fenzina, but a good car will always give you a ride.” I am, Yours, etc.,

J. R. EDIsBURY. Bebington, Cheshire,