Kissel In-line Six Trivia Question of the Week: 1. What the heck does Broan-NuTone make? 2. On November 16, 1907, the Indian territory of Oklahoma was admitted into our union as the newest state. Which state (in number order) was Oklahoma? Was it A, the 21st; B, the 29th; C, the 37th; or D, the 46th? 3. What historic event happened in Times Square on December 31, 1907? 4. Born September 19, 1931, this popular R&B singer took his song ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’ to number four on the Billboard Top Singles chart in 1970. Who was this popular vocalist? 5. Fill in the blank on this Burma-Shave roadside rhyme from 1931: "Shaving brushes; You’ll soon see ‘em; On the shelf; In some; ________ ; Burma-Shave." 6. Who was serving as president of the United States during the year 1907 and what number in historical order was he?
For the answers to this week’s trivia questions, more about Kissel automobiles AND old time photos of Kissels from Amanda’s family photo album, visit The FIN MAN’s web site at http://www.thefinman.com.

Readers Recollect: Fin Man fan Amanda Schoonmaker of Chesterfield, Missouri, fondly remembers the Kissels found in her family photo album. It seems Amanda’s grandfather, E. Russell Anderson, drove Kissels back in ‘the day’ and her mother had a number of photos of herself as a child and Amanda’s grandparents with their Kissel Kars. She writes: "I saw a recent article by you in the Old Car Column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. My mother’s family (she grew up in Chicago, b. 1907) had several Kissel cars. Do you know anything about them? (Do you) have any info you could send me?" Thanks." Amanda, here’s the information you requested about Kissel, the car that made history in Hartford, Wisconsin, a little town of barely over 10,000 population, located a stone’s throw northwest of Milwaukee. Hartford has, at one time or another, been home to not only Kissel, but a Chrysler assembly plant, a Libby’s beet processing plant and currently Broan-NuTone.

Here’s more information for you Amanda and for the rest of the Old Car Column readers out there.

The Kissels immigrated from Germany, settling in Hartford, Wisconsin and, by the late 1800s, had their hands in a number of local area business ventures including farming, hardware and grocery sales, lumber, quarries, sand pits, real estate and home building, to name a few. By 1906 L. Kissel & Sons had four divisions, the newest being automobile manufacturing, headed up by sons George and Will, relative ‘youngsters’ in their early twenties. The Kissel boys had youth and determination on their side and it turned out to be a winning combination which carried the lads into middle age with a string of successful and interesting automobiles. After experimenting with a four cylinder, shaft drive runabout just one year prior, the Kissel brothers ramped up production in 1906 building their first commercially marketed autos for sales as 1907 models. They sold a total of one hundred, ninety-three 1907 Model A’s in one body style– a four-passenger roadster (open car) riding a 96 inch wheelbase and powered by a 30 horsepower, in-line four cylinder engine.

For 1908, wheelbase was stretched by twelve inches (to 108), horsepower on the four-cylinder engine was increased by 130% to 40 and two new body styles were added– the ‘Touring,’ a four passenger car with a soft folding top, and an ‘inside-drive’ limousine. By 1909, the line had expanded to three distinct series, the LD9, with a 30 horsepower, four-cylinder engine and a 107" wheelbase in five-passenger Touring, two-passenger Roadster and four-passenger ‘Baby Tonneau"; the D9, 40 hp, four-cylinder with a 115" wheelbase in 5/7-passenger Touring format, four-passenger Roadster and 4/5 passenger ‘Baby Tonneau’; and the G9 a 128" stretched, if you will, model powered by a 60 hp six-cylinder engine in seven-passenger ‘Touring,’ four-passenger ‘Roadster’ and seven-passenger ‘Baby Touring’ configurations.

Sales had risen to just over 400 units by 1909. Prices ranged from $1,350.00 at the low end, to $3,000.00 for the six cylinder models. In terms of 2008 dollars, that equals a range of $30,000.00 to $67,000.00, evidence that the Kissel was geared to upper-middle class consumers. These affluent car buyers, rightfully expected not only better than average performance (the 1925 six-cylinder Kissels were capable of reaching 75 m.p.h. top speed) and a higher level of quality, but also more features than the average Ford or Chevy. Kissel lived up to the challenge with features which would not be found for years to come on run-of-the-mill automobiles... things like hydraulic brakes (intro 1926); rubber engine mounts (1927); self-lubricating brake bushings (1922); dash mounted gauges to monitor engine performance and a cast metal hood over the gauges with small lights underneath providing indirect, nighttime illumination. That’s all pretty basic stuff by today’s standards of course... no GPS; power assist anything... not even an AM radio.

You may be asking, "what’s up with the ‘Kissel Kar/Kissel’ title of this story." When the brothers George and Will began building cars in 1906, they chose to name their product the ‘Kissel Kar’... that’s Kar with a ‘K’. When World War I came to a close, the brothers felt that the word ‘Kar’ conveyed a German connection, and what with public opinion of Germany running at an all time low, they made the decision to abandon the "Kar" reference and all Kissels beginning with the 1919 models, were just that– simply ‘Kissel’s. A decade later, in 1929, the cars were referred to as Kissel ‘White Eagles’ and a decorative white eagle motif appeared at the top of the radiator shell on all models.

Kissel... not exactly what you’d call a ‘household’ name, even in its heyday, produced only a relative handful of cars– 21,412 between the years 1907 and 1931. But then one must take into consideration that, in the early 1900s, it was easy to get lost in the masses of wanna-be automobile manufacturers in our great country. Back in those days, anyone with an oversize garage, an ample assortment of tools and the determination and drive to see a project through, could set their sites and ambitions on being the next Henry Ford. When I reached for my Standard Catalog of American Automobiles (1805-1942), I found names on either side of Kissel such as the Kiel, the Kimball, the Kline, the Klink and the Kidder... and I’m not kidding here. American automobile makes numbered in the hundreds shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, and today we’re down to around twelve or so. Where DID we go wrong?!?

The Kissel brothers struggled through the great depression just to keep the company afloat. As the country’s financial situation began to improve, it looked, for a while, as if Kissel too may survive. Those hopes were dashed after what seemed like a good plan for financial support from Archie Andrews, maker of the Ruxton front wheel drive cars, went sour. George Kissel had arranged to get a $250,000.00 financial aid package from Andrews, but Andrews’ payments stopped at the $100,000.00 mark, far short of what was needed to bail out the fine Kissel automobile. Rather than see what was left of the company assets fall into the hands of Andrews, George Kissel called on a friendly creditor to call their note and force the company into bankruptcy in September of 1930. Only 93 Kissels had been produced as 1931 models prior to the closing of the operation in the fall of 1930.

The photo of the sunny, little 1917 Kissel Kar Model 6-38 Touring above comes to us courtesy Edgar ‘EJ’ Veit of Veit’s Vettes & Collector Cars in Davenport, Iowa. Looking pretty as can be, this Kissel Kar has a freshly painted, buttery yellow exterior, a new black top, matching black interior with new leather seats and refinished wooden spoke rims wrapped with new whitewall tires. It features a ‘numbers matching,’ six-cylinder engine which produces a fraction over 25 horsepower and, I am told, "runs great." Kissel built just 1,618 cars for model year 1917 and the seller claims this is the only such Kissel known to exist today. Have you driven a Kissel lately?!?

You can learn more about this particular Kissel Kar (which is currently being offered for sale) by visiting their web site at http://www.vettesndreamcars.com, or by calling EJ at 563-323-3107.
For more about Kissel automobiles plus old time photos of Kissels and related items, (including a paid receipt dated May 24, 1928, in which Amanda’s grandfather had a set of Westinghouse air springs installed on a Model 45 Kissel), from Amanda’s family photo album– visit my web site at www.thefinman.com.

Join The FIN MAN for the Route 66 Festival on Saturday, October 4, 2008. For details visit the web site at http://www.thefinman.com.
Bruce Kunz is available for your group’s special event and is currently booking dates for 2008 and 2009. During his appearances, he presents an overview of the collector car hobby plus a detailed look at American cars from the fifties and sixties. His program includes a Power Point presentation with images of collectible automobiles and various associated nostalgia and Americana. Guests also have the opportunity to play "FINS for FUN" (which inspired his nickname), the video car trivia game Mr. Kunz first produced in 1987, in which players compete for auto related prizes donated by supporting Fin Man sponsors. For more information, click on this link: http://groups.msn.com/the-fin-man/seminaragenda.msnw.
Bruce Kunz is a member of the Society of Automotive Historians, the St. Louis Chapter of the Buick Club of America and the Monte Carlo Owners Association of America. He welcomes your comments and suggestions. To e-mail him, click here > mailto:the_fin_man@msn.com.


Bruce Kunz- a.k.a. "The FIN MAN"