Chapter I
The beginning: 1895-1900

In 1886 Carl Benz constructed his internal combustion engined vehicle in Germany. This was the first car to be offered for sale. This car was not the first internal-combustion engined vehicle in the world. Period. Gottlieb Daimler completed his motorized carriage just a few months later.

The "horseless carriages" first enjoyed the lime-light in 1889, when at the Paris World Fair Daimler exhibited his models. Among the hordes of visitors, there were Hungarians too. A very small group of enthusiasts frequently visited Paris to learn more about this new phenomen.

To our knowledge, the first car in Hungary was a Benz in 1895. This was brought to Budapest, the capital of Hungary by a clock-repairman, Béla Hatsek. There's only one widely publicised photo of this event. The author of the book, which is the most possible source of this picture, wasn't there when Hatsek had its first run. In 1923 an anonymous journalist published a series of articles on the history of the Hungarian automobile history, he said: "Hatsek's car was among the first". But the Benz Velo couldn't cope with the Hungarian roads, so this first experiment remained just that: a trial.
A year later, another enthusiast brought a Hilderband & Wolfmüller motorbicycle to Budapest.

Meanwhile, in 1897 the Hungarian post, one of the moving forces behind the Hungarian automobile and motorcycle industry first tested cars as postal transport devices. They also tried a Benz, but it also broke down on Hungarian roads. ¹
There's no evidence whether the Post and the enthusiasts had any connections.

Among the Banks who loaned most of the money needed to establish any kind of commercial company, the Pest Bank of Commerce took part in establishing the Austrian "Erste Österreichische Daimler-Motoren Gmbh" later Austro- Daimler. They did that with the possibility of a Hungarian plant in mind. But it didn't happened so.

Beside these experiments, one of the greatest talents of the Hungarian motorization, János Csonka already had results: the first carburetor in the world, the first Hungarian made motorized-bicycle and the first Hungarian made car.

The first car and car accessory dealers opened their showroom before 1900. Among the pioneers were: József Bardi's automobile accessory shop (soon cars as well), Ignác Herskovits, the Hungarian Peugeot-dealers: the Velodrom garage, the DeDion distributor, Róbert Csáky and the Darracq dealer József Holcz.

Chapter II
The first steps: 1900-1914

1900 became a turning point: at the end of the year the Hungarian Automobile Club was organized. One of the masterminds behind this club was Gyula, Reiman, who later founded the Association of Hungarian Automobile Dealers.

Also in 1900 the Hungarian Post announced a competition for 22 mail-collecting vehicles. Most of the winners were foreign companies, but two Csonka designed and Ganz-built tricycles were also employed.
Two years later another similar competition was announced. What races did for other countries (like in the US the 1896 Times-Herald Race), this competition did for Hungary in smaller scale. Three of the Hungarian automobile pioneers: Csonka, Géza Szám and Nándor Hóra were among the competitors.
Hóra couldn't finish his car to the deadline, but the other two Hungarians were among the winners.

The Hungarian Automobile Club organized the first automobile exhibition in 1901 at the closed fields of the horse-race track, Tattersaal in Budapest. The sole Hungarian made car was the tricycle of Szám

Between 1901-1910 the car culture started to bloom: number plates were introduced but solely to the cars used in Budapest, a short-living motorcycle association arose in 1906 and cars became the fashion accessory for the nobility. The Ford Model T fever didn't reach Hungary: there wasn't any car or motorcycle for the masses, yet. Traffic regulations were only employed in Budapest.
The first automobile exhibition was followed by the second in 1905 and then in 1906 and 1908.
In addition to the gifted people who tried to build cars and motorcycles in Budapest (Ferenc Dedics and his buddy, János Adorján built both, Jakab Muskát, János Posszert, Celesztin Pállya only motorcycles ²), young minds on the countryside started to appear. At the south, Szabadka (which now belongs to ex-Yugoslavia) János Szárits created a primitive car, in Miskolc a mysterious army officer, Ernô Baktay constructed a totally self-made car somewhere in 1903/1904. Near the capital, Székesfehérvár József Bory had some experiments with both cars and bikes. Most of the people mentioned in this paragraph, excluding Bory and Baktay also tried their hands on flying with very primitive machines.

The Hungarian Post announced its third competition in 1904. This marked the beginning of the Hungarian automobile industry as such. Two Hungarian industrial factories, "Röck István Gépgyár (R”ck Istv n Machine Factory) and the Hungarian Wagon- and Machine Factory in Gy“r (later known as R ba) were commissioned to supply the cars, designed by the now ubiquitous Csonka. These two factories were the first Hungarian industrial companies which manufactured cars. There was a third, which remained in shadow for a few years to come: Podvinecz&Heisler.

The Post was unstoppable: in 1906 16 cars, in 1908 38, in 1910 31 and in 1911 6 were asked to be supplied. Hungarian companies were always preferred. These competitions helped the first Hungarian coachbuilders to build bodies for automobiles. Coachbuilding will not be covered on these pages, because the material available is so weak, I don't want to feel ashamed.
Beside the Post other official organizations (like the Army, the Public Sanitation Office, the Gas and Electric company and others) didn't follow suit. I found a reference in Wien, at the "Kriegsarchiv" (the archive of the Army) that the Hungarian Army first thought about using cars as early as in 1900, but the Hungarian Automobile Unit of the Army was established in 1907 and there weren't orders from the Army for Hungarian companies.

The number of car dealers have grown over the years, check out a list for a reference on them. The motorcycle business couldn't be profitable: in 1910 there were only 45 motorcycles registered. Let's put this number to prospect: 917 passenger cars and 110 trucks were registered.

And when things started to gear up, the first World War broke out. All the cars and trucks were collected and examined whether they should be used by the Army. When the War was over the territory of Hungary dramatically shrank and most of the vehicles were ruined. This leads us to the '20s.

¹ Many of the existing pictures on Hungarian-made pre-War (first World War) cars came from various sources related to Post.