BORGWARD Isabella Coupe (1959) / What the hell is that? 

Incredible and beautiful. My (now deceased) mother owned a Borgward Isabella here in sunny San Diego, California, in the U.S.A. Us kids (my younger brother, older sister and me) just loved this car, and were quite sad when, as a result of the failure of the reverse gear and the complete unavailability of spare parts, our mother had to part with it, and bought a '65 VW Beetle. We lovingly remembered our dear 'Isabella', a car almost no one knows of today. In a somewhat ironic twist, I now drive a car whose engine was directly related to the Lloyd, a car produced by the same company, which used a liquid-cooled flat-4 engine; yes, the Subaru boxer engine was originally designed by Lloyd, in the 1950's, right around the time my mother was conceiving me! The 2013 Subaru Crosstrek has over 131,000 miles on it now and is running strong, with a 5 speed manual gearbox.

For many years in Germany, including the 1950s taxation of the car was based on engine size = DM144.00 per 1.0 ltr engine size. Mandatory insurance was based on horsepower (PS). This kept sizes and power down until motorists could afford more, starting in the late 1960s, BMW probably lead the way. Mercedes was only for rich people and Porsche for enthusiasts with thick wallets. Borgward went under after 1961 after their business model had no VW competitor, only quite small and expensive prestige big cars. The government of the day did not help to rescue the company, unlike other manufacturers further down south in Bavaria and Stuttgart. VW was government owned largely until it went public early 1960s. Mr. Borgward probably felt rather hard done by, in Northern Germany (Bremen - Hamburg) they certainly have never forgotten this episode. Lovely to see the Isabella surviving, it certainly was incredibly rare in Germany then to my knowledge. You had to be rich or famous to have one. Loved this episode.

Out of the army into college in 1963 I had a Borgward wagon. It met my needs well enough that I bought and restored an Isabella Coupé…Kept both into the late ‘80s. When a piston-ring failure destroyed the Coupés 91 cubic inch engine and replacements weren’t available, I installed a 200 cubic inch Ford Mustang 6 and dagenham 4-speed gearbox that made it fast as well as pretty.

That thing is a jewel!

Such a beautiful car Lovely performance, wonderful engine sound And the colour complements it perfectly If I had a chance to own one I would 👍👍👍

I remember seeing these as well as sedans and wagons in the San Fran bay area when growing up there in the '60's. In fact the next block over from my house was an Isabella Coupe always parked on the street. I always admired it but new little about them back in the day.

Borgwards had a good reputation in post war Germany and in the late 50s their cars sold very well. The company was rather small, though and ran into problems around 1960. My father (a controller by profession) told me that in his opinion Mr. Borgward‘s company had no more than a temporary liquidity problem that was no big deal at all and could have easily overcome by bank credit. But, surprisingly enough, the established banks in Germany refused to help Borgward out. My father said that this caused a little outrage of car enthusiasts and of people who couldnt even afford a Borgward. Rumors had it that the big boys of German car manufacturing (Mercedes, BMW, Audi) put much pressure on the banks to let the small outsider with his fascinating cars die. Is that actually true? I dont know. But one thing is for sure. The Isabella had already reached some cult status in Germany at the time and is regarded as an iconic model of German car making history still today. My father told me how much he regretted Borgward’s sudden end as a brand and as a young man then he had hoped to buy one some day in the future.

That's a beaut!

You only tickled it! My Dad said his was the sweetest handling car he ever owned. He gas-flowed the cylinder head and he said it would sit at 90mph all day long. Also, 2 seater? We were a family of 5.

When that company had financial problems it was pushed into liquidation and in the end, all the creditors got all their money. In other words, that company was pushed into liquidation without being bankrupt. What a shame that was.

To get in reverse one should have to pull the shifter out from the steering column. Something is wrong if it goes into reverse otherwise

Back in '83 I was looking for my first car and one of these was on sale for not a lot of money. I was tempted, but didn't buy. Bought a 1976 Alfasud instead. 😊

Think I would go the yellow DS!

Snyggmodellavborgwwardsportbil

Childhood memories