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For Sale: The World's Oldest Car

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Last month the oldest Bentley in the world--a 1921 3-Liter--sold for $962,500 at auction in Pebble Beach, Calif.

But that car's a spring chicken compared to the one set for sale next month: An 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam Runabout. Otherwise known as the oldest operable car in the world. It could fetch as much as $2.5 million.

Nicknamed "La Marquise" after the mother of Comte de Dion, who commissioned the car, the four-seat contraption uses two steam engines to drive the rear wheels via train-like connecting rods. The front wheels do the steering.

According to RM Auctions, La Marquise made a name for itself by participating in the first motor car race in 1887, averaging 16 mph for the 20-mile roundtrip from Paris to Versailles and hitting 37 mph on the straightaways. At the time of its production, it cost roughly 4,400 francs, or $850. (This when the average French laborer made five francs a day.)

De Dion ultimately commissioned 30 of these steamer cars: 20 tricycles, four or five quadricycles and a few larger carts. Two quads and six tricycles remain in-tact today, according to RM, but those are inoperable.

This one? It'll go 20 miles on one tank of water and a dash of coal. Almost sounds like a green car.

La Marquise will go on sale Oct. 7 in Hershey, Pa.

Follow me on Twitter: @HannahElliott