Une lettre de Vendée — L’Officiel du cycle, 1 October 1955, a Dealers’ Syndicate Says Things Must Change

From L’Officiel du cycle, du motocycle et du camping, 1 October 1955, N° 20, the paper’s special number before the Salon du Cycle at the Porte de Versailles, page 146: ‘Une lettre de Vendée’: ‘Les choses doivent changer’, letter from the Syndicat des Vélocistes et Motocistes Vendéens asking for larger dealer discounts, an end to winter stocking and a fairer trade status; text only. The title, headings, captions and lists are transcribed as printed; the text is summarized in Ebykr’s words, and the page images carry it in full.

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Une lettre de Vendée

LES CHOSES DOIVENT CHANGER

Le Syndicat des Vélocistes et Motocistes Vendéens nous communique la lettre suivante :

[Ebykr summary; the article’s text is not reproduced. The letter opens as the 1955 financial year ends and the 1956 year begins, asking what the new year will bring and hoping for the improvements the trade has long wanted. First and above all, it asks for larger dealer discounts (« remises »), which even some producers admit « sont dérisoires » given the dealers’ overheads. It then asks that the winter stocking impositions stop (such stocking being impossible with 14 %), better warranty clauses (one big national marque has already made a clear gesture by starting the warranty in spring for all machines bought in winter), the end of deposits (« arrhes »), a 2 % discount for cash payment and for installments (for certain French marques and importers of foreign machines), the obtaining of the trade’s own statute, and respect for deliveries in the selling season. No Motociste worthy of the name can ignore these problems, which will be solved only if all are grouped, first at the département level and then within the Fédération. The improvement of the profession is the business of the Syndicat and the Fédération, which members owe it to themselves to support, while the tax arrangements asked for by all trades belong to the various existing movements to which the Fédération is attached; dealers should therefore join and support their regional Syndicat, since union has always made strength. The letter notes that France is currently at the head of world production of two-wheeled vehicles, which raises problems of after-sales service, maintenance and warranty that the trade must face, but it does not intend to be treated as the poor relation: it asks for normal discounts so as to live honestly from its work and to equip itself in a modern way, archaic repair methods having to disappear in face of the 3.700.000 two-wheeled motorized vehicles now in circulation, and this modern equipment must be obtainable by the whole trade. In summary, the general conditions of the profession must improve because dealers suffer a paradoxical situation: they compete with the makers for the sale of the machines and, to obtain those machines of marque, are obliged to « se mettre à genoux » before the Constructeur. The paying customer « doit redevenir roi » at every stage, and the result of the claims depends on the union and efforts of the trade.]

Le Syndicat des Vélocistes et Motocistes
de la Vendée.

[A full page of text only, enclosed in a thin black rule. At the upper left a small italic line, “Une lettre de Vendée”, is underlined with a wavy rule. Across the width below it the headline “LES CHOSES DOIVENT CHANGER” is set in large light roman capitals. A one-line bold sans-serif introduction follows, then the letter in indented italic roman type with a decorative italic initial “L” at the start, a few passages in upright roman for emphasis, and the signature of the Syndicat set in roman type, centered, at the lower right. No drawing, photograph, firm name, address or artist signature appears.]