Kirk Manufacturing Company (automobile company)

Manufacturer Kirk Manufacturing Company Company
Production 1902-1905
Body style roadster
Engine two-cylinder, four-cylinder
Curb weight 1400 lb (635 kg)

Kirk Manufacturing Company was a pioneer brass era American automobile company, built at 958 Oakwood Avenue, Toledo, Ohio,[1] from 1902 until 1905.

A manufacturer of bicycles, in 1899 Kirk announced it would begin building cars.[2] They introduced the Yale in 1902. Describing it as "the Beau Brummel of the road",[3] it had the choice of two gasoline engine models: a two-cylinder 14 hp (10 kW) side-entrance tourer for US$1000 and a four-cylinder 24 hp (18 kW) for US$2500. This compared to US$650 for the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout,[4] the $700 Ford Model S, US$1500 for the Colt Runabout[5] and Cole 30,[6] the US$1600 Oakland 40[7] the FAL at US$1750,[6] and the Enger 40[6] and Ford Model F at $2,000. Even so, the Yale was well below even Lozier's lowest-price Light Six Metropolian tourer and runabout, at US$3,250,[8] American's entry-level car, at US$4250 (its highest was US$5250),[9] or the Lozier Big Six, starting at US$5,000.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925 (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p.158.
  2. ^ Kimes, Beverly Rae. The Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1805-1942 (Iola, Wisconsin: Krause Publications, 1989), p.774.
  3. ^ Clymer, p.158.
  4. ^ Clymer, p.32.
  5. ^ Clymer, p.63.
  6. ^ a b c Clymer, p.104.
  7. ^ Clymer, p.84.
  8. ^ a b Clymer, p.111.
  9. ^ Clymer, p.91.

Sources

See also