They were still good for years of service.

But an army in retreat or in pursuit has no time to waste in repairing motors.

To waste the motor is cheaper.
Between Villers-Cotterets and Soissons the road was strewn with high-power automobiles and motor-trucks that the Germans had been forced to destroy.

Something had gone wrong, something that at other times could easily have been mended.

But with the French in pursuit there was no time to pause, nor could cars of such value be left to the enemy.