Historic Car Brands
Maytag-Mason
The Maytag-Mason Motor Company of Waterloo, Iowa, manufactured Maytag and Mason automobiles from 1910 to 1912, after taking control of the Mason Automobile Company in 1909.
1906 Mason Touring – R M Sotheby’s
The Mason car story began in 1903, when wealthy Iowa lawyer, Edward R Mason, was introduced to young, largely self-taught automotive engineer, Fred Duesenberg, by Edward’s sons, who had their cars maintained by Fred.
Duesenberg brothers
Edward Mason was impressed by an engine prototype that Fred had developed, along with rough plans for a car. He financed production of a prototype, called ‘Marvel’ and then, in 1904, formed the Mason Motor Car Company, with Fred Duesenberg in charge of production and his brother August (‘Augie’) Duesenberg as pattern maker. Augie also supplemented the brothers’ income and motor racing budget by continuing to run his bicycle business.
The prototype Mason automobile of 1905 was powered by a Duesenberg-designed, boxer twin-cylinder engine that was mounted amidships, underfloor and drove the rear axle via a planetary transmission and chain drive.
Even in this first design the Duesenbergs showed that they were not followers. The water-cooled, 3.2-litre engine featured ‘square’ bore and stroke dimensions of 127mm, overhead valves operated by pushrods from a centrally-located camshaft and a cylinder ‘oiler’ in addition to splash lubrication. Its output of 24bhp was way ahead of most competitor engines.
Mason production began on August 16, 1906 and marketing efforts included having it drive up the 47 steps of the Iowa State Capitol building. Other advertisements boasted about the excellent fuel efficiency of the Duesenberg two-cylinder engine, claiming it could power the car for 475 miles, while using only 18 gallons of gasoline.
For US$1250 – 1350 a customer could purchase ‘The fastest and strongest two-cylinder car in America’ that was proved by competition success on dirt tracks and hill climbs.
Fred’s dominant ‘mountain goat’ racing car was a stripped down Mason roadster, with lowered seating and steering wheel and it won many races.
Another marketing push was flexibility, with removable bodywork that converted the car from a five-seat tourer into a light truck. The slogan ran: ’Go to church in your car on Sunday and then go to work in your truck Monday morning’.
The need for increased production capacity set Edward Mason on a funding quest and he had investment success, courtesy of Frederick Louis Maytag I, who headed a very successful agricultural machinery and washing machine company. Fred soon bought a controlling interest in the Mason company.
In 1909 Maytag owned US$75,000 of the US$125,000 for which the new company had capitalised. Mason Automobile Company became the Maytag-Mason Motor Company and production moved from Des Moines to Waterloo, Iowa, into the former Waterloo Motor Works factory.
1910 Maytag C – Greg Gjerdingen
The plan was for future two-cylinder cars to continue to be branded ‘Mason’ and a projected Duesenberg-designed four-cylinder model to be branded ‘Maytag’. However, the Maytag brand was known globally, whereas Mason was not, so at least one Australian-owned, two-cylinder car bears the Maytag logo.
This car, pictured below, was originally owned by ‘Bob’ Mason, the family’s ‘black sheep’ who owned it until his death in 1967, after which it passed through two ownerships before finding its way Down Under, to the regional town of Mudgee, in NSW.
1910 Australian-owned Maytag two-cylinder car – Peter W
Historic Vehicles has been able to get ample info on the two-cylinder engine, but the 35bhp four is shrouded in mystery. Given that the Duesenberg brothers patented their ‘walking beam’, overhead-valve engine designs in 1913, it’s probable that the Maytag engine was a predecessor of this ‘Duesenberg’ branded engine lineup. The Duesenberg valve gear design featured long ‘rockers’ between the camshaft lobes and the horizontally-oriented valves.
However, the lofty Maytag-Mason plans weren’t matched by sales success and Fred Maytag sold his stock in the Maytag-Mason Company to William Galloway, a Waterloo industrialist, on 29th June,1910. Fred concentrated on his ag equipment and washing machines.
(Speaking of washing machines, at HV we’ve had a Maytag washing machine for nearly 40 years and as at 2026, it has required only one service and a replacement water pump in that period.)
Maytag-Mason went into receivership in 1911 and William Galloway departed. In 1912, the company was reorganised as Mason Motor Company, with Edward Mason back in charge.
(Fred Maytag lost a reported US$300,000 in his failed auto undertaking, as did a number of his friends, who had bought stock. However, 12 years later, although not obligated to do so, Fred Maytag paid back the stockholders losses, to the tune of more than US$20,000. Can you imagine a modern-era US capitalist doing that?)
The Duesenberg brothers had left the company when Maytag controlled it, but retained the Mason name on racing cars they built, until 1913.
In 1913, the US$3000 (equivalent to US$94,176 in 2024) Mason-Mohler was announced. This new car had a 4.9-litre, four-cylinder 65bhp Duesenberg engine mounted on a 128-inch wheelbase chassis that was underslung in the front and overslung at the rear. It’s almost certain that the powerplant was an early version of the four-cylinder ‘walking beam’ engine.
The US$1450, two-cylinder Mason Model K continued to be sold, but with the refinements of electric starting in lieu of side-cranking and electric lighting in lieu of carbide lamps.
Despite his best efforts, Edward Mason was unable to trade profitably and the company was bankrupt by the end of 1914. The Waterloo factory was sold for US$35,000 in 1915.
Maytag Car rebirth
Many originally gasoline-powered Maytag washing machines were repowered by their owners with electric motors and the Multi-Motor gasoline units were repurposed for many uses, including home-made ‘toy racing cars’, with top speeds around 20mph.
What started as garage jobs soon became more popular during the 1920s and the Winston Corporation, of Joliet, Illinois, was the first large-scale manufacturer of Maytag-powered toy racers. Some of its ‘Winston Racers’ were sold to Maytag dealers; some as carnival rides and many to individuals.
By 1931, a Fox Movietone News short showed around 50 Maytag-engined racers powering around Salt Lake City’s Liberty Park. In early 1933, a group of Maytag dealers in Virginia and West Virginia sponsored a series of races using six Winston Racers.
The Maytag News promoted the Winston Racer as an ideal marketing tool for dealers and salesmen. Many were given away in local contests.
The official factory-made Maytag Toy Racer was a series of small one-seater cars, built by the Maytag Company between October, 1934 and December, 1941, for promotional purposes.
The Maytag Toy Racers built between November, 1934 and December, 1937 were powered by the single-cylinder Multi-Motor, but beginning with serial number 934 they scored the twin-cylinder Multi-Motor.
The Maytag Toy Racer used a cone clutch for power transmission and later models added a double-purpose hand lever, to adjust drive-belt friction and for braking action.
Records show that 498 Maytag Toy Racers were built and more than 20 survive. Maytag’s production of Toy Racers was halted at the end of 1941, when the company readied for wartime production.
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