It is necessary for all the individuals associated with any
business to work together as one organization in order to secure the utmost success and
the greatest benefits for EACH individual.
From time immemorial whenever any big project has been undertaken, men have joined with
men, their brains, their strength, their energy, to put it through successfully. The
cave-dweller, the man of the stone age or earlier, was content if he got enough to eat and
was not molested by some two or four-footed enemy. The solitary man never did and
never will accomplish much.
The great industrial achievements of the present day have been made possible by the united
efforts of individuals. The great success of the Cadillac Company rests firmly on this
strong foundation. The Cadillac Sales Force, of which every Cadillac dealer is a member,
has enthusiastically co-operated in selling cars. The individuals at the Cadillac
factories have joined their efforts to manufacture GOOD automobiles.
A huge business has been created. Our two large factories employ a force of nearly
two thousand men.
More than sixteen thousand Cadillac Cars have been sold.
The splendid qualities of the Cadillac are known in every nook and comer of this country
and all over the world.
This success is not temporary. It is permanent. It is built on honest
endeavor, on good construction and the splendid satisfaction of a huge army of Cadillac
owners.
Bright things are ahead of us. The Cadillac business is indeed in its infancy.
We have started right; together we have laid a sure, solid foundation, and we shall
continue right.
We want to get closer together. We want the different members of the Cadillac
organization to know one another better. We want to give one another the full
benefit of what we know and what is being done, our successes, and what our troubles are
and how they are overcome. It is the purpose of the "Igniter" to help a
little along this line.
The "Igniter" will be sent you from time to time as published. It will
contain information and pointers that will be valuable to you. It will pay you to
preserve them; get a special file so that you will always know where they can be
found when you want to refer to them.
CADILLAC OUTLOOK
The large output which we have originally planned for 1908 has
been more than taken up by the blanket orders of the Cadillac Sales Force.
We are compelled to take steps for manufacturing another thousand cars or more to meet
excess demands from present dealers and to supply the needs of new dealers who associate
themselves with us from time to time.
This healthy condition proves to us once and for all that the much-talked of dullness in
the automobile business this year does not apply to the Cadillac line.
For instance, at the recent Detroit Show, we sold more cars, by far, than any other
exhibitor. Every day we receive here more than a hundred good, live inquiries from
prospective buyers. People are interested in honest construction, in good service
year after year, and in low cost of maintenance.
The Cadillac outlook for the year is splendid. The Cadillac business is not one that is
red-hot one season and dead the next. It has not been built up along that line.
Every man connected with this organization can depend on a firm, steady growth and
constantly increasing opportunities and facilities.
Every model of our long line of machines has made a remarkable success.
Our ten horsepower cars are burned into the thoughts and purposes of the buying public.
The [Model] "S", even if it did not have five
years' solid reputation behind it, is the best built, best appearing low priced runabout
in the country.
The [Model] "T" is certainly a splendid car and the
only sane proposition for a huge class of buyers.
The Model "M" delivery furnishes the dealer with a line of arguments that is
impregnable. You can talk to the business man on a business basis of dollars and
cents and you can prove every word you say. There is a field for many thousands of
these delivery wagons.
There was even a vehicle built for a doctor that serves his purpose so completely as the
Model "T" coupe. It not only eliminates discomfort in bad weather but
saves his energy, enables him to increase his practice, to spend more time at home and to
cut down his expenses.
The [Model] "G" has established itself as the
foremost medium priced four cylinder car on the market today. It has won this place
through the excellent service it has given its owners and the surprising records it has
made in different events. We do not hesitate to predict that during 1908 the demand for
the "G" will be stronger than for any car selling in the neighborhood of $2,000.
The Model "H" makes an ideal car for those wishing a 1arger machine; during the
past three years it has won the hearts of its owners wherever it has been sold.
This line is a tremendously strong one because every car in it is a live proposition.
The dealer handling Cadillacs does not have to carry any dead wood nor cover up the
defects of one model with the merits of another. Every Cadillac model is a good
model for selling cars and securing satisfied customers to spread the good news and help
build up your trade. Almost every prospective buyer can be appealed to in the
strongest kind of way with some one of the many good Cadillac automobiles, and he is sure
to get good service with any model he might select.
The Cadillac outlook is good and it will be better with each month and each year.
Our board of engineers and our large experimental department have been and are working
full time and over-time. To the Cadillac line will be added from time to time new
models which will still further broaden the opportunities of the Cadillac Sales Force and
enable them more and more completely to meet competition and the needs of the public.
We are feeling pretty good here at the factory. With the best of prospects for a
busy year a long line of popular cars, the knowledge that our growth contains no watered
stock, and the co-operation of every member of the organization, we can afford to he
cheerful.
HOW WE FOLLOW UP PROSPECTS
Our practice of following up prospects which has been in effect
since the first of the year is unique among automobile companies, and we believe you will
be interested in knowing the method.
Our extensive magazine and trade paper advertising secures a large number of requests for
information concerning Cadillac cars. Through this advertising we obtain the names
of many prospects which are afterwards closed by our dealers and who perhaps would not
have been closed were it not by interest aroused by the advertising.
Upon receipt of request for catalogs and information regarding Cadillac cars we forward
literature regarding the model asked for, together with the booklet, "THE TRUTH ABOUT
THE AUTOMOBILE." A letter is written to each inquirer setting forth the
advantages of our machines. A copy of this 1etter is mailed to the dealer from whose
territory the inquiry originates. The matter is then filed for one month, and if we
do not receive a reply from the prospect in that time, another letter is written asking if
he has had an opportunity to investigate, if he has made a decision, etc.
This practice has already resulted in a number of direct sales, and of course we cannot
estimate the indirect good which it has accomplished. We know that you will obtain
better results by reason of this system. It is our desire to assist our dealers in
every possible way.
OFFSET CRANK SHAFT
Some competitive makers are making considerable [some
text missing here ???] of a talking point on the superiority of their motor
because of an offset crank shaft. You may have been inconvenienced by this argument of
competitors and have found difficulty in meeting it.
The Cadillac Motor Car Company has recognized the advantage of this construction from the
first. Every single cylinder motor which we ever constructed had an offset crank
shaft. Also every "G” motor we ever constructed had an offset crank shaft.
One company in particular is giving great publicity to this feature at the present time,
and their ads leave the impression that this is a feature which has just been developed
and is exclusive in their own motors.
The advantages claimed for this construction are: that it eliminates the dead center of
the crank shaft and thereby increases the efficiency of the motor by reason of the greater
leverage and more direct thrust of the piston; that friction is very much reduced by
reason of the fact that there is a more direct thrust on the drive stroke. The same
direct thrust reduces vibration and increases the steady operation of the motor.
We wish to obtain whatever advantage is to be obtained through the arguments made possible
by the offset crank shaft feature. Because of the large output of Cadillac machines
since the Cadillac Company was formed we may perhaps be called the largest makers of
motors with this feature, as undoubtedly more Cadillacs with offset crank shaft are on the
road today than the combined number of other makes.
PROOF OF CADILLAC ACCURACY
The most severe test of mechanical accuracy to which any
automobile was ever subjected was held recently in London under the supervision of the
Royal Automobile Club.
A committee of mechanical experts from the Club was appointed to select three single
cylinder Cadillacs from the stock of the Anglo-American Motor Car Company, English dealers
in Cadillacs. These cars were to run to Brooklands track and after a 30 mile sprint
were entirely dismantled and the parts of the three cars mixed in a conglomerate mass.
The committee then selected about one hundred different parts and discarded them
entirely and substituted new parts from the repair stock. Then parts for three cars
were taken from the heap and three new cars constructed. The inspectors would allow
the use of only a spanner and a wrench; no files, no emery paper. Several days were
consumed in the work, but it was completed and the first car started on the first turn of
the crank. When the three cars were finished they were run 500 miles more on
Brooklands track and cable dispatches say they ran this distance “wheel and
wheel” at 34 miles per hour.
The severity of this test can be appreciated only when it is remembered that should there
have been a variation of the one-thousandth part of an inch in some of the more vital
parts, the trial would have been a failure.
But it wasn't. It was a complete SUCCESS.
When photos and more complete details are received from England, the matter wil1 be
compiled for distribution.
It will not be necessary for dealers to write for these. We will notify you when
they are ready.
CADILLAC WINS
Florida Endurance Contest. Beats nearest competitor by 75
miles. (Special to the New York Evening Post.)
Miami, Fla., March 18th. – Dr. William Stinson finished the Florida road race today
at noon, fully 75 miles in advance of his nearest competitor. His officia1 running
time for the 371 miles was 37 hours 19 minutes, his actual running time being seven hours
shorter. He drove a 10 horsepower single cylinder Cadillac runabout which carried
three persons.
We are now building fifteen different models and variations of models. It is our
object to keep in the hands of our dealers such a complete line of cars that they wi11 be
able to appeal to almost every prospective buyer, no matter what his ideas may be with
regard to appearance and price.
Monday night, March 16th, the Centaur Motor Car Company, Buffalo, N.Y., sold three
Cadillac cars in less than three hours.
