Life — January 12, 1928 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Problem of the Used Car" Analysis This page from *Life* magazine satirizes the used car market crisis of the early automotive era. The cartoon strip at top shows a row of identical, battered used cars—visual shorthand for the glut of secondhand vehicles flooding the market. Robert Benchley's article argues that used cars have become an unsolvable problem: manufacturers overproduce new cars, flooding dealers with trade-ins they cannot sell. The sentimental attachment owners feel to old cars complicates disposal. Benchley humorously suggests absurd solutions (grinding cars into almond meats for public parks) while noting dealers' genuine desperation. The page includes witty asides mocking romance, gas-station conversations, and automotive sentimentality—typical *Life* magazine humor reflecting Depression-era concerns about industrial overproduction and economic waste.