From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Faults and dissatisfaction with a 15-HP Humber car with a Saloon Body.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 124\3\ scan0113 | |
| Date | 3rd March 1921 | |
| X 3317. To R.{Sir Henry Royce} and E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to CJ. c. to BN{W.O. Bentley / Mr Barrington} and BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to Da{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} and EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} HS{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}4/LG3. 3. 21 X.1525 15-HP HUMBER CAR. X.3317 We are disappointed with the 15-HP Humber car fitted with a Saloon Body. It does not run nearly as nicely as the 11.9 Humber cars we have tried. It must be remembered, however, the Saloon Body fitted to this car is, as we know from experience on our own cars, the worst type for showing up faults on a car. We suggest that we also may have been unfortunate in buying a poor sample of a 15-HP Humber Car. The chief complaints we have are:- 1. Noisy axle (this is the worst feature) 2. Poor carburation. 3. Springing poor over certain roads. 4. Engine vibrations are very bad over 30 M.P.H. 5. Noisy gears. 6. Noisy engine when standing due to Magneto Drive and Camshaft Drive. 7. Starter Motor does not turn engine fast enough to start on Magneto. It will be seen that most of the faults are such that they can either be due to faulty testing or lack of knowledge. It might be considered that it should not cost appreciably more to produce quiet axle and gears compared with noisy ones - it is knowledge which is required, this is confirmed by the fact that all American cars, even the cheapest, have quiet axles and reasonably quiet gears. As regards its trustworthiness, endurance and economy of running, this could only be proved after we had run the car over a considerable mileage. We see nothing on the car which looks dangerous, and as this car is a pre-war design, it should have been fairly well proved as regards reliability. We suggest that we might have the car returned to Messrs Humber, pointing out our complaints and see whether they will agree to improve the car. It may happen that they will agree that our complaints are justified and will only be too pleased to put the car right. If, on the other hand, they maintain that this car represents their standard quality, then we might see whether we could overcome the complaints ourselves. The other suggestion is, that we sell the Humber Car and buy another car before we decide we should have a trial run on all the likely cars on the market about that size and buy the best that Contd. | ||