Life — January 7, 1926 — page 7: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "Tough Luck" - Life Magazine Automobile Number (Jan. 5, 1926) This page satirizes automobile salesmanship and the used-car market. The main cartoon depicts a salesman pitching a worn vehicle to a customer, with dialogue emphasizing the car's durability despite obvious wear ("thirty thousand miles," "every bolt as tight as the day it came out of the shop"). The humor lies in the disconnect between the salesman's enthusiastic claims and the car's actual condition. The caption "Tough Luck" refers to a hitchhiker who hiked from Frisco to New York in eight days but had to walk the final ten miles—suggesting the vehicle ultimately fails despite assurances. The accompanying text mockingly catalogs sales-pitch clichés used to convince buyers that old cars are still valuable. This reflects 1920s consumer skepticism about automobile dealers' reliability and honesty.