Last month the Automotive Industry conducted what they called a National Used Car Exchange Week. “Breaking up the used car jam” has been a problem of the manufacturers because the pressure of used car inventories has been more than the automobile dealer could stand. The concerted effort put forth by the automobile builders and dealers throughout the country helped considerably to relieve the pressure.
We cannot help but contrast this situation in the automotive field with that of conditions which have been existing for years in the industrial equipment field. The dealer in used equipment, whether in electric motors, machine tools, power plant or contracting equipment has been a great economic force in balancing the situation in the manufacturing industries.
Without this “buffer” conditions among our machinery builders might have paralleled the present used car situation. We wonder how many machinery builders have cognizance of this fact. Occasionally we hear of a machinery manufacturer going to extreme ends in condemning a machine of their own make which has been offered to a user by rebuilder. If the builders of industrial machinery and equipment would keep in mind this unbalanced situation which has been existing in the automotive field, we feel certain they would cooperate more with the used machinery dealer.
There are numerous manufacturing plants in this country which would probably never have come into existence if used and rebuilt machinery had not been available. New plants result in the employment of more men, the investment of capital and creation of wealth. These new businesses, if they progress at all, ultimately become prospects for new machinery.
While this comparison may be a bit remote, it offers some food for thought to those who are trying to equalize a very unbalanced condition.
