Henry Ford Outdone by the Six-Million Dollar Car

Miele’s Touring Car

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Henry Ford had his protégés. He produced his first assembly-line automobile in 1913. Other manufacturers followed, but few had the clout that came with the Model-T.

One such manufacturer of washing machines took up the challenge. Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann started making cream separators and butter machines in Germany in 1899. Due to the success of these machines, they quickly began to diversify and realized that they needed to be innovative to compete in a demanding culture.

Miele Manufactures Its First Car

Henry Ford had set the stage for a new form of transportation, one that instantly became popular with the public. Miele and Zinkann wanted onto this bandwagon and set about to manufacture a touring car. They produced their first car in 1912.

Between 1912 and 1914, they manufactured a total of 143 cars, which they sold for between 5,100 Deutsch marks ($1200) and 7,900 marks ($1900). Due to the cost of investment needed to move ahead of the large, assembly-focused dealers, they would need to raise more money. Instead, they chose to stop manufacturing cars two years later

Miele’s 4-Cylinder Engine

The concept of assembly-line manufacturing in Europe was beginning to develop. Car manufacturing was still a craftsman’s endeavor. Miele’s first car, labeled K1, had a four-cylinder engine that produced 17 horsepower. The chassis was just under 3 meters long (or around 9 feet). They built five body styles: a two-seater Torpedo, a three-seater Torpedo, a Landaulet, a four-seater sedan, and a van with a 400kg (882-pound) payload. The K1 could attain speeds of 60–70 km/h (37–43 m/h).

Later, the K2, still a four-cylinder engine, was built on a 2.3-meter chassis (7.5 feet) and could attain speeds of 70–80km/h (43–49 m/h). They also manufactured a K3 model, but this was identical to the K2.

The K1 proved its reliability and performance in the Prinz Heinrich Rally, a 1400-kilometer race to Frankfurt on Main. The driver, Oskar Klemm, pulled off a dazzling performance compared to the other 80 participants. He came in second, despite an inner tube that burst on the third day of the race. Even so, the popularity of the K1 soared, and Germans wanted to own this model.

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Praise for the Miele Car

The press took to this outcome with great praise. The magazine Stahlrad und Automobil lauded:

Wherever the Miele car is shown, it triggers admiration and delights the heart and eyes of every connoisseur. It can be claimed that no automobile factory has achieved the successes that Miele has achieved in the same time automobiles have had to boast since the time of their introduction.

The Miele automobile was short-lived, but it can be considered a successful car for two reasons. First, the sales extended beyond Germany to Russia, France, Austria-Hungary, Yugoslavia, Uruguay, and Brazil. Secondly, when other car manufacturers were developing mass production methods, Miele continued to be a boutique, hand-crafted producer of fine cars. Bigger is not always better.

Germany’s New Speedway

At the same time that Miele stopped making their touring car, Germany began building what was one of the finest roadways in the world. This was a speedway built through the Grunewald Forest southwest of Berlin. This was a 10-mile unimpeded stretch of roadway with only bridges spanning its length. The Miele touring car most likely took a turn on this new road, though that has not been documented.

In 2007, Miele opened a museum at their headquarters in Gütersloh to showcase their products. A walking trail on the floor guides you through examples of all their products, from the cream separators to the washing machines, vacuum cleaners, bicycles and motorcycles, refrigerator-freezers, ranges, and even a line of cleaning products.

They have lived up to their motto: immer besser, which translates to “always better” but can also mean “getting better and better”.

This trail on the floor finally leads to the pièce de résistance, the K1 automobile. Originally, they didn’t have a model to display in the new museum, so they put out a global search to find one.

The Search for the Miele Car

In 1991, Rudolf Miele, grandson of the founder, printed leaflets, posters, and advertisements stating “Wanted: The Miele Car!” He offered a finder’s fee of 5,000 marks (about $8,300 in today’s currency) to anyone who could provide leads to locating a K1.

A German tourist, aware of this search, found the car in Oslo, Norway. It had been used as a taxi and a driver’s training automobile. Lastly, it had been in the hands of a private collector, who lovingly maintained it. Miele successfully offered to purchase it from this individual.

In 1999, they brought it back to Gütersloh, where it was restored. What did they pay for this car, which originally sold for about $1200? They will never tell. Rumor has it that they paid approximately six million dollars to regain possession of it.

Today, that car is priceless and deserves its place as the crowning artifact in the Miele Museum.

Warren R. Johnson

Medium: @WarrenRJohnson

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