1911 Sears Model G Runabout
On loan from: John and Kim Lowe, Kearney, NE
Original cost: $325 for a “bare bones” Model G
Number made: 800, 1911; total made 1909 – 1912: 3,500 (It is thought that none were made in 1908)
Engine, etc.: 2 cyl.; 14 hp; 72 in. wheelbase; about 1,000 lbs.
In 1886 Richard W. Sears bought unwanted watches from a jeweler and began R. W. Sears Watch Co. in Minneapolis, MN. He later moved his company to Chicago, hired Alvah C. Roebuck, and in 1893 the company became Sears, Roebuck and Company. It published its first mail order catalog in 1896.
In 1908 the catalog offered an automobile for the first time, the Sears Motor Buggy. The initial run was built in the Hercules Buggy plant in Evansville, Indiana. By 1909 the plant had been moved to Chicago. The car was advertised as “So safe that a child could run it” and “Lowest in original cost – lowest in upkeep cost”. Cars were sold on a ten-day trial basis and could be returned during that period.
The first buggy offered in 1909 cost $395 and was a runabout with solid tires. By the next year Sears had five models which, truth known, were all basically the same but with different amenities such as fenders, lights, tops, etc.
Sears advertised the Motor Buggy as “more than just a buggy with a motor”. It had an angle-iron frame, four full elliptical springs and roller bearings for each wheel. Wheels were high – a necessity for the road conditions of the day. The engine was a 2-cylinder opposed, air-cooled motor built by Reeves Company. Power went to the rear wheels via a friction transmission and double chain drive. Top speed was 25 mph.
The car could be picked up in Chicago or delivered by rail to the nearest railroad depot. New owners had only to uncrate it, do some minor assembly, add fuel and oil, and drive it home. Customers gave glowing reports including Harry Dobins, Sharpsburg, Ohio who said: “It beats a horse bad, as it don’t eat when I ain’t working it and it stands without hitching, and best of all, it don’t get scared of automobiles.”
The guest book on the site “Sears Motor Buggy.com” tells this story: “…my grandparents bought a 1909 Sears auto by mail and it came to the rail depot in Walker, MO… It was uncrated and the wheels installed. No one knew how to drive it so it was towed behind a spring wagon to their farm seven miles in the country… My grandparents lived at the top of a large hill and when they took it out to drive, it could never get back to the top of the hill. Grandfather would go as far as it would and someone would block it with a rock. Grandfather would walk up the hill and get horses and pull it on up… It wasn’t all Grandfather envisioned but he was proud to have one of the first cars in our county”. (Charles Foreman, post of 9/4/13)
Though customers were satisfied, Sears was paying more to produce the car than they were getting out of sales. In late 1911 or 1912 Sears finished the vehicles it had on hand and turned much of its machinery over to the Lincoln Motor Car Works which had produced components of the Sears. Lincoln continued making a runabout under its own name into 1913.
Sources: http://searsmotorbuggy.com/Sears_history.php; John M. Daly
http://searsmotorbuggy.com/Sears_serial_numbers.php (Number made)