Beyond the Cars: 6 Weird Businesses Run by Car Companies

Ever wonder what car companies do in their spare time? Turns out they're not just making cars. Some of these brands have gotten into the most random businesses you'd never expect.

Peugeot's Been Making Kitchen Stuff Forever

Here's something wild – Peugeot was grinding coffee beans way before they were making cars. They've been in the kitchen game since the 1810s, and their salt and pepper mills are still hugely popular today. Their bestselling set goes for about $80, and apparently these things last forever. Same engineering that goes into their cars, just smaller and for seasoning food.

Volkswagen Makes More Sausages Than Cars

This one's nuts. Volkswagen has been cranking out currywurst sausages since 1973, right in their German factory. Get this – they sold 8.5 million sausages in 2024 but only 5.2 million cars. The sausage literally has its own part number like any other VW component. They even make spicy ketchup to go with it. A pack with sauce runs about $10.

Bentley's $50,000 Whiskey

Need something strong? Bentley teamed up with a Scottish distillery to make a whiskey that costs more than most people's cars. The Macallan Horizon comes in this weird horizontal bottle and will set you back around $50,000. They also do this luxury experience package for about $6,000 where they drive you around Scotland and let you taste expensive booze.

Ferrari Built Theme Parks

Ferrari went all-out and built actual theme parks. There's Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi with the world's fastest roller coaster hitting 149 mph, and Ferrari Land in Spain near Barcelona with Europe's tallest coaster. It's basically Disneyland for car nerds.

Aston Martin Is Now a Real Estate Company

Aston Martin built a 66-story apartment building in Miami because apparently making sports cars wasn't enough. The penthouse is going for $59 million and comes with its own pool. They also built some fancy townhouse in Tokyo that supposedly cost the owner around $25 million. Because why not?

Elon Musk's "Definitely Not a Flamethrower"

This one's technically cheating since it's not exactly a car company, but Elon owns Tesla and his Boring Company sold 20,000 flamethrowers for $500 each in 2018. When customs got mad about the name, he literally renamed them "Not-A-Flamethrower." They sold out in days because of course they did.

The whole thing shows these car companies have way too much time and money on their hands. But hey, at least now you know where to get premium salt grinders and overpriced whiskey.