  We present a nonlinear stabilized Lagrange-Galerkin scheme for the Oseen-type
Peterlin viscoelastic model. Our scheme is a combination of the method of
characteristics and Brezzi-Pitk\"aranta's stabilization method for the
conforming linear elements, which yields an efficient computation with a small
number of degrees of freedom. We prove error estimates with the optimal
convergence order without any relation between the time increment and the mesh
size. The result is valid for both the diffusive and non-diffusive models for
the conformation tensor in two space dimensions. We introduce an additional
term that yields a suitable structural property and allows us to obtain
required energy estimate. The theoretical convergence orders are confirmed by
numerical experiments. In a forthcoming paper, Part II, a linear scheme is
proposed and the corresponding error estimates are proved in two and three
space dimensions for the diffusive model.
