Five cars from appliance makers

Friday, 26 October 2018

Cars made by appliance makers? No, that doesn't mean Toyota. What it does mean is that today we take a look at five appliance makers who, for better or worse, took the leap into making cars.

Dyson

The latest appliance maker to jump into the car market is UK vacuum cleaner maker Dyson (cue lots of jokes about their cars either sucking or cleaning up…)

The manufacturer of excitingly high-priced cleaning appliances (and fans) recently announced it would be building a factory in Singapore to build a small electric car that we as yet know nothing about.

* We go to Motorclassica and ignore everything that wasn't tiny and weird

* Weird ways five big-name car companies got started**

That's right - they have announced details of an expensively overhauled historic hangar complex that will be their design studio and an impressive manufacturing facility, but no actual car yet…

Dyson is having a crack at building an EV, but the company more famous for its vacuum cleaners isn't the first appliance maker to have a go at a car.

Lightburn

Back in 1963 South Australian washing machine manufacturer Lightburn launched its first car and completely misunderstood what people wanted from a small car.

Ugly, poorly built, underpowered and ugly (yep, it was so ugly it needs to be mentioned twice), the Lightburn Zeta was an almost instant failure, despite offering the one Aussie vehicle almost guaranteed to sell - a ute.

Unfortunately the ute was ugly, poorly built, ugly, underpowered and ugly (three times now!) as well, so with less than 400 vehicles sold, Lightburn quietly gave up on its dreams of car manufacturer and went back to making washing machines. And, yes, they were very ugly too.

Sadly Dyson isn't making a electric Mini with no doors - this is just a prop for founder James Dyson to look awkwardly self-conscious in.

Peugeot

When you see the Peugeot name on something other than a car today, you automatically think 'Oh, a car maker has licensed its brand for some merchandising! How awful!'

But not back in the mid-nineteenth century when Peugeot started making tools and saw blades. In fact back then you would have though 'Oh, a coffee grinder maker getting into tools. How weird!

The Lightburn Zeta wasn't a sales success, even with a ute in the range. Such a useful ute too. We can't understand why it failed...

While it started with coffee, salt and pepper grinders, Peugeot got into tools by way of crinoline dresses. Yes, really - the wire frames used to keep the dresses big led to umbrella frames, bicycle wheel spokes, saw blades, chisels and eventually cars.

Samsung

Back in the early 1990s Korean giant Samsung wanted to get into the car making business like its equally huge corporate rival Hyundai, so it decided to have a crack at buying Kia.

Peugeot's early attempts at a car came after it was an established maker of almost everything else.

Hyundai beat it there, so the company decided to go it alone and established Samsung Motors International, which immediately went all wobbly due to the Asian financial crisis of the mid-1990s and was put up for sale.

Crossley was a British company that made cars. Crosley was an American company that made radios and fridges. Oh, and cars too.

You phone might be a Samsung, but in Korea your Renault could be a Samsung too.

No one bought it, so Samsung just held on to it and teamed up with Nissan to build rebadged Maximas for the Korean market. Today Samsung Motors is majority owned by Renault and builds rebadged Renaults for the Korean market.

Crosley

Nope, we are not talking about the British car manufacturer Crossley Motors here, we mean the American manufacturer of radios and home appliances with one S, Crosley.

Powel Crosley Jr. always wanted to build cars. Specifically small, affordable cars for the masses.

After several failed attempts he ended up manufacturing auto parts before getting into the radio game where he had massive success. Home appliances, broadcasting and even aeroplanes followed, and just as WWII started, Crosley revisited his automotive dream and launched a tiny low cost car in 1939.

While the company never had huge success with cars, it did last until 1952 and produced more than 84,000 cars.