This 1909 car helped customers save money with one little catch: Jalopnik

There are many reasons why Americans have $1.7 trillion in car debt and a $1,000 per month car loan is the new norm. Historically, though, you could blame Charles H. Metz. After all, he is credited with the idea of ​​the car payment plan that allows consumers to purchase a car with monthly payments. It was a huge deal because at that time (1909) people usually had to pay for cars in cash when they were delivered.

Obviously, that was no easy task for the typical car owner. The Model T had been introduced in 1908 as a cheap way to get people on the road, but it still cost about $850 (about $30,000 in today’s terms). Sure, this was much cheaper than other cars of the era, which could run you $2,000 to $3,000, but even so, the Model T still represented about five years of savings for the average family. Metz, on the other hand, had developed a $600 car that you could buy for just $350. Even better, you can pay in 14 installments of just $25 each.

Of course, as the headline reveals, there was a catch: each $25 payment was for a box of parts (including tools and instructions), and you had to assemble the car yourself. It would be another decade before GM would enter auto financing on a large scale with the launch of the General Motors Acceptance Corporation.

Born in 1863 in Utica, New York, Metz became an avid bicycle fanatic (like our Amber DaSilva, who recently bought herself a real bicycle). With his mechanical expertise, Metz was soon hired as a designer by a bicycle manufacturer in Massachusetts. The experience inspired him to start his own bicycle company in 1893, the Waltham Manufacturing Company, named for its location in Waltham, Massachusetts. From those roots, Metz eventually created the first American motorcycle brand.

Disagreements with the company’s investors soon followed and Metz was forced to leave, but in 1908 he was back again to try to save Waltham from the financial chaos it was experiencing without him. The company had begun building some fairly simple four-wheeled vehicles during Metz’s absence. And it was the enormous stock of unused parts that gave him the idea for the Metz plan. Instead of putting them together, he packed them in boxes and sold them as is.

This wasn’t the first time an automaker sold unassembled cars. Sears started selling its mail-order Motor Buggy at about the same time, and that also required owners to get their hands dirty attaching the wheels. The difference was that Sears still required payment up front and you received one very large box containing all the necessary parts. (In fact, the boxes were so large and heavy—weighing about 1,400 pounds—that customers had to arrange to pick them up from local railroad depots.)

The original Metz Plan Car was a roadster with a relatively small wheelbase of 81 inches and a standard track of 48 inches; For context, the wheelbase of the current Fiat 500e – a vehicle that proves why electric cars are the best city cars – is about 10 centimeters longer in both dimensions. (Note: During assembly, you can increase the track width of the Metz to 56 inches.)

The movement of the car was provided by a two-cylinder engine capable of delivering 12 horsepower, and this was based on a friction drive, in which power is transmitted from the engine to the wheels using the friction between two pieces of metal in direct physical contact with each other. Modern torque converter automatic transmissions rely on a fluid coupling, where there is no metal-to-metal contact and the physics of the transmission fluid play a role in transferring power.

According to an anonymous owner, quoted in a 1910 Metz advertisement (via Classic speed demons), one Metz Plan Car could take the place of “two riding horses… at significantly less cost than it costs to keep one horse.” Moreover, “he is fast enough and an excellent mountain climber.”

Metz continued to make cars – both in kit form and fully assembled – in Waltham until after the First World War, when the company’s lax approach to business operations overtook this. Moreover, it might have suffered from post-war anti-German feelings towards the name Metz. Gone but not forgotten, Metz and his creations are still celebrated in Waltham with the Waltham Museum’s annual Metz Day.