Despite high costs relative to the incomes of the time, car sales rose steadily in the 1900s. So much so, in fact, that manufacturers struggled to meet demand and new manufacturers proliferated. Although conceived initially as a personal mode of transport, the motor vehicle found an increasingly important commercial niche.

Lorries and trucks rolled of production lines in increasing numbers even while private cars remained a status symbol for the wealthy. At the time, possession of a car was a coda for personal success. Even so, by 1914 there were already 55,000 cars on the road in Germany alone (and 9,000 lorries and vans). Additionally there were 25,000 motor bikes.

However the rise of the motor was not greeted with universal enthusiasm but rather with some enmity. The "conquest of the road" was perceived as a matter of life and death. This attitude is reflected in a book written at the time by the German writer Herman Glaser in his book Maschinenwelt und Alltagsleben:

Whilst, on the one hand, the motorists can relish the feeling of freedom and power of their vehicles as they race along the highways, most people are left in a state of fear and anxiety in the face of a development which robs them of calm and subjects them to an all pervading anxiety.

At the moment one car carries on average 1.3 passengers and it uses up a road area of 150 square metres at 100 kmph, with the braking distance and all round safety distances factored in. Statisticians have calculated that when car use increases at its present rate, and every adult on the planet ends up owning a car, then required road space will exceed the Earth's total surface area around 2050.

In the poet Heathcote William's memorable phrase: Autogeddon. Viewed in this light it is clear that present trends cannot continue and that car use as we know it will die out. Alexander Spoerl has described cars as the dinosaurs of our time. However until the world's favourite mode of transport ausstirbt (dies out) Autoversicherung (car insurance) is still a necessary expenditure. Happily, the impact of this can be offset by comparing providers through the medium of an online Preisvergleich and since awareness of environmental factors has reached a sort of "critical mass" it is likely that those drivers will be rewarded in the future who run greener cars. However market awareness will be the key to unlocking these potential savings.

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