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Flora People Handle New\r RIlt; AN T VH AFord Cars With Kid GlovesPnni sB\ BEN PHLEGARAP AUTOMOTIVE WRITERbi/IRA. HI CAP)—Given a new car to drive for a week, how would you treat it?Resident* of this Southern Illinois city of some 6,000 population apparently have decided ou the kid glove approach. City and state police reported today that not a single accident has been recorded since 1,374 new Ford cars — all white—were given to Flora’s car owners Saturday.“I wish people would always be this careful, one city policeman commented.Flora reached the halfway point today in its vast promotional gimmick with Ford Motor Co.Residents had been asked to take thrir own cars off the streets and drive a 1961 Ford or Falcon or a 1960 Thunderbird. The T-Bird for 1961 has not yet gone into production, thus was not available to (lie 170 owners who asked for one. All cars must he returned byThursday and driving has beenlimited to Flora and the five surrounding counties.Not all the old ears disappearedby any means. Instead many of the new? two-car families” put both vehicles on the road. Police say traffic is up about 25 per cent over a normal weekday.But the town is in a holiday mood. The natives opened their homes to visiting Ford officialsanil newsmen today as the autocompany staged its official national news preview in connection with the Flora experiment.North Avenue, the principal business street, sports flags and gay bunting—much of it thoughtfully provided by Ford. The high school band staged a special open-air concert last night and the entire community was invited to astreet dance tonight.In its formal press presentations Ford hit hard on product reliability and ease of maintenance-two factors which the corporation insists are present as never before in its new models.Donald Frey, assistant chief engineer for the car pmluct engineering office of Ford division, said 66 ehanses in the standardAfrican candy makers of Kano. Nigeria, prepare a mixture of; ii ugar, water, honey and al-ii monds. They stretch it rigor- * ously from iron hooks set high in a tree trunk and hawk the confection through the streets in'P open trays after it hardens. pI!O1961 Ford will cut both mainten- p1ytibtlt;arb5boance costs and maintenance time 75 per cent below similar requirements of directly competitivemakes.Major innovation is a chasis whcih needs greasing only once every 30,000 miles. Other changes include the use of galvanized (non rusting) steel for the rocker panels which are the parts of the car bodies below the door siUs; self-adjusting brakes and new long life mufflers which are aluminized * on the inside and galvanized on the outside.Ford has extended the normal k lubrication interval for the chasis by the use of a new lubricant which is sealed into vital joints.The special grease containsmolybdenum disulfide which isii something like the graphite sticks;! used to lubricate car doors. It can be repacked by a dealer after 30.* J 000 miles.tIP
Newspaper Details
Mount Vernon Register News
Mount Vernon, Illinois, US
Tue, Sep 27, 1960
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 25 Aug 2018
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