1912 Metz Runabout

The Metz Company was a pioneer brass era automobile maker in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Claiming to be "winner of the Glidden Tour", the 1914 Model 22 was a two-seat roadster or torpedo. It had a 22½ hp (17 kW) four-cylinder watercooled engine with Bosch magneto, full-elliptic springs front and rear. It ran on artillery wheels with Goodrich clincher tires, and featured a Prest-O-Lite-type acetylene generator for the headlights. It was billed as "gearless" and priced at $475; by contrast, the Success was an amazingly low US$250, the Black started at $375, the Brush Runabout was US$485 Western's Gale Model A was US$500,[5] and even the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout was US$650.
Although Metz was not the first to offer a kit car (Dyke and Sears predated Metz with do-it-your-self high-wheelers), Metz did offer the first known kit automobile on the installment plan, known as the Metz Plan. The buyer would buy 14 groups or packages of parts for $27.00 which would be put together with the plans and tools supplyed, or a factory assembled automobile could be bought for $600.00. This plan was in effect until 1911 when it became impractical to compete with a dealer supplyed model"T" Ford.