1960 Borgward Isabella Coupe 

Such a timeless beauty, too bad Borgward didn't survive. Glad to hear that story, thanks 😊

This all brought back memories for me; our family went from Studebakers to Borgwards, in 1960. We had Isabella station wagon and sedan for about 5 years.

ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS COUPE!!!!!!!!!!!! MY DAD HAD THE STATION WAGON BACK IN THE DAY (BLACK) BUT THIS CAR IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a pretty bright interior and overall beautiful car. The wood trim is lovely! It's amazing that automakers cannot take some of these qualities and put them in modern cars.

I misspoke when I said “overhead cam,” I meant to say “overhead valves.” The engine does not have an overhead camshaft. The 1.5-liter engine has a compression ratio of 8.2:1 and horsepower is 82 @ 5,200 RPM. The carburetor is a 2-bbl Solex 32 PAITA. It has rear swing axle suspension. Gas mileage runs between 28 to 32 MPG. The base price in 1960 was $3,750. Borgward produced cars from the 1920s to 1961. In 1958 Borgward celebrated its 100,000th Isabella off the assembly line. In 1957 the Coupé model was introduced and continued to 1961. Of the approximately 10,000 units that were produced, 5,000 were sold in the USA.

Two Guys and a Ride They are Such Beautiful Cars!

My first car was a 1959 coupe. got it in 1966 paid $95.00 for it. Replaced the transmission cables as It only had 3rd and fourth gears. Had a leaking head gasket and a bad water pump. Parts were still available, as was a workshop manual. I fixed all these problems. My Dad Had the wood trim restored. great learning vehicle, But it was past its prime.

I seen this exact car driving around Back to the Fifties car show...Great looking car!

Very nice car ! It is a pity the nice Goliath 1100 estate and Lloyd estate were not shown. Congratulations from a Borgward - driver who is just working on a Hansa 1800 D...my first car was an Isabella saloon; I still got her and she will survive me...

Bravo c est très beau et naturel, easy tu understand by the french. Felicitations.

In California during the early 60's I remember seeing a lot of Borgwards but never anywhere else...

In the late 50s Borgward sold the second largest amount of new cars in germany.

As a German it was fascinating and a bit curious to hear when the owner said: „this is called a ‚Lichthupe‘ (light-horn, literally) and that is to flash a person in front of you that you wanna pass him on the Autobahn“ 😁. Thats really funny for German ears, sorry. Yes, I have to confess, I myself did that occasionally and many drivers with very fast cars do that regularly. It causes much anger sometimes and is considered as way too aggressive. There are indeed slow drivers on the Autobahn who for whatever reason prefer to drive on the outer left lane so that it is impossible to overtake because overtaking on the right lane(s) was strictly not allowed according to German driving rules (Meanwhile its seen a bit more relaxed). But, of course, the lichthupe was not meant for that purpose specifically! Its just a method to signal other cars what you‘re intending to do, to warn them or whatever else. The point is to signal without enervating noise creation. Compared to, say, India, German streets are „completely“ silent. Suppose there‘s a very narrow street and you want to let the car coming up to you pass first, simply do one or two short flashes and the guy in front of you will understand what is meant. So, this thing can be used quite differently, rather aggressively on the one hand or very politely on the other.

My next door neighbor in Cleveland Heights, Ohio in the 1960s had a Hillman with a four on the tree. You also had to flip a switch so that the horn would sound rather than flashing the brights when depressing the horn button on the steering wheel. I, too had never heard of the Borgward. At first glance it resembled a Studebaker.

Always liked these, but wondered why they had such a small engine. This car is too nice to be so underpowered.

Mine came with a Blaupunk AM-Shortwave radio with electric antenna. Great millage 10:39

The rear end of this car looks very Ghia-esque. I don't imagine that it is, though, because Ghia always (?) puts their badge on the side of one of their designs. Am I right?

this car came in 1954 and amazingly 1955 year later Chrysler looks like this car!

In 1964 I bought a 1959 Isabella brought to the USA by a GI. Very stupidity I sold in 1971. It had bad cam bearings. A mechanic loved the motor and rebuilt it for a song.

Here in Holland Was A Lady with a driving school en Ze Had It for many Years for More Than one million kilometers with the same engine😮

NOT an overhead cam as he says. Overhead valve, yes. The intake manifold is entirely witthin the valve cover, which makes it look like there must be a cam in there.

German quality...precision manufacturing...after the 90s it all went downhill

Borgward engine has cam in the block... so not a over headcam engine. But the intake manfold in inside of the valve cover. That is a strange feature...

It was a well-built car...saw them in the Harrisburg PA area in their era...but truth to be told, it was a step above the Renault Caravelle and Volkswagen Karamnn-Ghia but was never considered a "sports car" and neither were they. Made a lot more sense to buy this than to pay a fortune for a 190SL and get laughed at.

I need this car