Hungarian General Machine Factory
MÁG (later known as Magomobil) stands for "Magyar Általános Gépgyár Rt" (Hungarian General Machine Factory Corp.), the most important Hungarian vehicle manufacturer before World War II, based in Budapest. Its roots date back to 1901, when Podvinecz&Heisler (a company created by two young entrepreneurs, 25-year-old Dániel Podvinecz and 24-year-old Vilmos Heisler, started assembling Austrian Leesdorfer cars - themselves being French Amédée Bollée cars built under license.
More successful was their later Phönix model, a German Cudell model built under license. The company was reorganised in 1912 and the automobile manufacturing division became the Magyar Általános Gépgyár Rt in 1913. Production was boosted by orders from the Post, the Army and other organizations – and outperforming other Hungarian manufacturers, including Röck, Rába, MARTA etc.- as the government tried to support local industry.
MÁG introduced several models, designed by János Csonka, Jenő (Eugene) Fejes and other talented engineers.
World War I brought new business for the company, as it produced airplane engines under Austro-Daimler license, as well as complete airplanes. After the war new car models appeared, including the Magomobil in 1924. By the mid-1920s it was apparent that MÁG is not competitive on the Hungarian market. Its financer and owner, the Hungarian General Credit Bank tried to find a buyer. In the meantime another new model, the Magosix was introduced with a 6-cylinder engine. It used many American parts to compete with the locally available American models but to no avail. The economic crisis of 1929 was the last straw, and the Bank pulled the plug. A total of 2000 passenger cars, 150 trucks and buses, as well as 1000 automobile engines had been produced.
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