Types of Automobiles Suitable for 
Suburban Use 
By harry WILKIN PERRY 
T here are certain special re(|uirements that 
should he fulhlled by the ideal suburban 
automobile and it is well to consider carefully 
the work that the car will be called upon to do before 
deciding upon the machine to he purchased. 
The person of wealth can of course have a special 
style of car for every purpose, and many rich men 
have half a dozen or more machines of different sizes 
and styles in their private garages—a closed opera 
‘bus, a limousine or landaulet for shopping, a small 
open runabout for 
miscellaneous er¬ 
rands about town, a 
high-powered run¬ 
about, more properly 
called cross country 
car, for hurried trips 
through the country 
and a powerful 
seven-passenger 
touring car for 
family journeys of a 
week or more to the 
summer mountain 
or lake resorts. 
Such a vehicular 
array is not for the 
suburbanite of or¬ 
dinary means who 
must study his re¬ 
quirements and de¬ 
cide upon one style 
of car that will he a 
compromise and be most suitable for the varied 
work which it will be called upon to do. Special 
types of machines stand idle in the garage during 
the greater part of the year merely eating up interest 
on the money invested in them and rapidly depre¬ 
ciating in value through the constantly changing 
mechanical features and body designs of motor cars 
rather than from wear and tear of use. 
During nine or ten months in the year the suburban 
dweller of moderate means will do no touring; in the 
summer most of his 
country driving will 
consist in week-end 
runs to points with¬ 
in one hundred 
miles of his home, 
usually with his 
wife and children or 
a friend. Greatest 
use for the car will 
be in the village, 
especially during 
the winter and 
spring months. Its 
greatest utility will 
he in taking the 
owner f ro m h i s 
house in the morn¬ 
ing to the railroad 
station for the trip 
to his office, meeting 
him at the train in 
the evening, taking 
Taking tlie owner from liis house in the morning to the railroad 
station for the trip to his office 
22 
