My grandfather who was fundamentally a Mercedes person rated the Borgward Isabella as one of the best cars he had ever owned (as an engineer he was able to assess within the technology time period of the cars construction) only the 126 Mercedes he had much later giving him as much satisfaction. It was probably the only time he strayed far from the 3 pointed star and he really rated it.
My grandfather, a mechanical engineer who designed motorized agricultural equipment (tractors, combines, etc.) always owned Mercedes exclusively. He passed in the late 1980s.
Still a beautiful car to look at. But I don't understand how it can be described as having a '5 or even 6 person capacity' (accompanying text with images @ 10:10 showing two seats and zero extra space)
..My Grandfather had a couple of them and he really loved them as well. He had a Isabella and a Station Wagon. As a teen, I really thought they were strikingly like a Mercedes Benz as well. Super solidly constructed automobiles.......
My father (from Belgium) temporarily worked at Borgward as a forced labourer during WWII. He also worked at Krüpp, Thyssen and I.G. Farben, mostly in the capacity of a truck driver. He escaped Germany in 1943 and made it to Verdun from where he traveled across the channel to England in a fishing trawler.
@@jamesdellaneve9005 He came back to mainland Europe with the Americans right after D-Day. Drove trucks for the US army with provisions and ammo. Went home when the war had ended.
I learned to drive in a borgward. 1966. My father brought it back from Germany to New Haven CT. What fun to come upon this video. It was a great little car it was.
Before I was born, my Aunt had a pink Borgward coupe, presumably like the one in the YT screen cap. All of my Dad’s family lost their hair colour very early in life, so they all had white hair. My Aunt dyed her hair pink to match her car. Very outrageous in 1950s New Zealand.
my dad had an Isabella, and he maintained through is life that Borgwards were better than comparable benzes, and that Borgward was done wrong by the banks. I was a toddler back then, but i do remember the Isabella in the yard. Always felt the Isabella coupe was one of the best looking german cars ever.
My elderly female cousin had an Isabella in the 60s. She was a farmer in the Adelaide Hills and the Isabella was only driven to church and to Adelaide. Why she chose such an arcane vehicle is a mystery, but as a teenager I was permitted to drive it, and even as a crass youth I could appreciate the quality, refinement and grace of the machine.
Thank you for this video! Loved the comments too. When I was 20, my father bought me a used 1962 Borgward Isabella for $600 from a small garage/used car guy near his house in about 1964. It was maroon with beige leather interior, polished wood dash and trim and those fully reclining seats. The back seat was only good for packages and 5 year olds. Cost nothing to run. I LOVED THAT CAR! BEST CAR I'VE EVER OWNED! My claim to fame as a dumb, single 20 year old was that Vettes could beat me on the straightaway, but they'd eat my dust on the curves! Put SO MANY miles on that wonderful little car. I knew nothing of the car's history, but did learn about its quirks. I lived in NH and the nearest part source I ever found was a junkyard over 2 hours away in Rhode Island. He had a couple Borgwards and I'd go down with a car guy friend and scavenge parts. Time went on. I got married to someone who wasn't a car guy and was pregnant. The wipers weren't working because the Isabella wipers weren't the same as other Borgward wipers and nothing fit. The fuses were really finicky and would blow out on occasion during wet weather - I remember driving home late at night with no lights. Such fun! I just couldn't deal with my poor Isabella any longer so sold her for $1 to my old car guy friend with the hope he'd figure out a way to fix her. Twenty years later, I found out he had gotten her back on the road but something happened to her I never wanted to know about. (Even though I ended up marrying that guy in later years, I still never wanted to know what happened to my beloved Isabella!) So thanks again, I really enjoyed learning about the car company that built such a beautiful, fun to drive car. Old memories...
Thank so much you for this video. As a child I lived in Singapore. In 1960, when I was 7 years old my father bought a new Borgward Isabella TS, it was a lovely blue colour, I remember going to the dealership showroom with him on Orchard Road to collect it. We travelled all over what was then known as Malaya in the Borgward. Gosh, we all loved that car. Many years later in the early 80’s I saw one like it in a used car showroom in Toronto, I regret not buying it. I still have the original sales brochure that my father gave me.
I owned one more or less by accident. When I was 20, my dad bought me a 1962 Isabella from a garage near his house. It was by far the best car I've ever owned. Loved it to pieces. I can imagine how much fun your family had with that car when you were a child!
I remember the Borgwards and Goliaths from when my dad was stationed in Germany in the '50's. A German neighbour had an Isabella and he took us for a drive in it once. My dad was green with envy, it was a beautiful car, especially compared to our beat up old DKW. 😅
Never knew of this car maker, thanks for showing this. That Isabella in metallic gun metal grey is like a shiny diamond! Any car that gleams in light and has lovely styling, is always a great sight.
Rural New Zealand in the late 1950's was a very conservative place. Due to Government restrictions only farmers and others earning overseas funds could import cars. The family that lived next to us had a 1958 Isabella TS, a beautiful car in stunning red exterior with a white interior. The husband had been a Lancaster bomber rear tail gunner and had survived a tour or two...but he didn't hate the Germans. It caused a real stir in the very conservative farming area when he bought a German car. It caused even more of a stir when people went for a ride in it and compared it to the mainly English cars they owned...and found their English cars very lacking in creature and ride comforts. Another local farmer/WW2 vet bought a beautiful Citroen DS.....the family kept it for many years. and another farmer/vet bought a huge Plymouth station wagon......used to carry their competition shotguns and shooting accoutrements. The rest of us made do with second hand British cars...until we cottoned on to the Japanese Domestic Market second hand (grey) imports in the early 1980's.... English cars basically disappeared overnight.
On a visit to NZ from Australia in the 70s (I was 13) Dad pointed out the old cars on the road, although things had started to change by then. But unfortunately the car we hired was a Leyland P76 - 'the Australian Edsel' as he described it to two American tourists we met at Wanaka (and then saw again at Milford Sound). EDIT: Just remembered I also had classic 60s boy's bedroom design curtains, featuring a road map of Europe with car badges, including Borgward! There were also Morris, MG, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Rover, Simca, Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Auto Union (Audi), Facel, Opel, VW, Maserati, Lancia, Aston Martin, Vauxhall, Triumph, Sunbeam, Austin, Wolseley, Riley.
Cars and politics deserve a serious history. Henry Ford was the world's more prolific and influential ant semite on planet earth, some of his work being adopted by Adolf Hitler. His patriotism was suspect. He took steps to make a do-over .. but the Ford war products were more imposed than voluntary.
@user-nx7io1ns7p I know Allah. He owns the falafel stand down the street. Best falafels I ever ate. Highly recommend the manakeesh too. PS He drives a Mercedes CLS. Loves it.
in the 1980s and 90s, out the back of Lincoln in Canterbury, there was an old seed shed with over 110 Borgwards in and around in it. We tracked down the owner once to an ordinary family on the other side of Chch who just liked them, and had collected them. No idea what eventually happened to them, but presumably they were sold off the South Island car collectors...
As a schoolboy, I was an enthusiast for the Borgward Isabella, though they were rare in Scotland and I never actually got inside one. I had forgotten WHY: thanks for reminding me.
My parents bought a Borgward Isabella Combi in 1960 in Paris and exported it to Venezuela where we lived at the time. I remeber as a very young child trips into the high Andes and many places in western Venezuela in my childhood. A great car with fully independent suspension. I often wondered what happened to it. 12:03, this is what I remember.
It blows my mind that Mr Borgward was freed from prison in 1948 and six years later was producing the beautiful Isabella. Although it doesn’t seem to be your thing I’d love to see a video on the collapse of the German motorcycle industry in the 1960’s as affluent Germans switched from utilitarian motorcycles to cars 🇬🇧
Carl F.W. Borgward conceived the new Borgward Hansa 1500 whilst he was in a Southern German prisoner's camp - the engine was mostly based on the 4M1,4 engine, which was fitted in the small one - ton - lorry from 1938 onwards. It was the first newly conceived car in Germany after the war.
Thank you very much for this documentary; very nice original material. I know Borgward - cars since I was 3 years old - and drive them since I got my driver's licence. Now, being a pensioner, I can spend the rest of my life working on them - and looking for a Goliath Express two - stroke....During my life, I drove a lot of cars - and I still think that Borgward is one of the best - certainly not Merc....Thank God this Chinese badge - car belongs to the past now. Carl F.W. Borgward would rotate in his grave...Borgward lives, in spite of the corrupt senate and German " government "...there is a lot more to say about this - which I am not going to do; I continue working on a Borgward front - axle right now...
My father had a couple of Borgward Isabella's in the sixties. They where scrapped in the seventies, together with a Goliath, a Isar and some Trabant, Lloyd , DKW and Hanomag. The other ones I forgot.
In 1963, my boss in the RAF had an Isabella TS that he'd brought back to the UK when his tour in Germany had finished. He really liked that car and I always thought it a very attractive and well-made vehicle. Such a pity that they didn't survive.
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A neighbor of ours here in the states - Orange, California - owned two Isabella coupes when I was very young. I assumed that they were common, but never saw another for years. It was difficult to find any reference material or media about them until they started appearing on the internet.
I had a Borgward in north of the Golden Gate in 1966, 4 gears on the column. This car helped me rehabilitate after an accident where my left leg was broken.Using the stick shift with a strong clutch my leg came back to its original strength. Cant remember if it was a six cylinder but was satisfied with its performance.🙂
Being raised in SoCal in the fifties and sixties, I remember many Borgwards. They seemed to be as common as other imports such as Simca , Renault, Anglia, and Opel. Thank you for the info on one of the best looking car of the group.
Just like what happened during and after the 2008 crisis. A lot of cool and interesting brands merged or were discontinued, especially on the american car market. It's a shame, becuase a reduction in choice actually goes against the capitalist ideals. Then again, capitalism has been slowly turning everything in to grey sludge over time anyway.
@@theothertonydutch Contrary to what we are taught, The Market does not like competition very much and prefers to create a monopoly or, failing that, oligopoly.
Thank you for this presentation. It was awesome learning about the Borgward and also the Lloyd. I first came across these two marques when I was a little girl and found them in an early Observer's book. It's been cool having their info expanded and put in context by your video. Your video is clean without unnecessary frills which is perfect. Cheers, again.
And the Goliath, Borgward's third make. Unfortunately, the video did not mention them a lot, but : the little three - wheeler sold very well and worked a lot to ease consequences of the war. Goliath - cars were - together with Gutbrod - the first petrol - injected cars. They did very nice vans and saloons; in the U.S., people might remember the " Hansa Tiger "...
@@MichailKnoller I've always had a passion for 2 types of cars: 3-wheelers and rear engine mounted cars. Thank you for your interesting added comment to my earlier post.
Thanks for the info on Borgward, Rory. When posted to Paris in 1956 by the R.C.A.F. we bought a new Opel Rekord wagon which proved to be too small for our numerous camping expeditions across Europe. The replacement in 1957 was a brand new purchased at the factory Borgward Isabella station wagon which went on to provide yeoman service with sufficient space for camping gear and three boisterous boys until we returned to Canada in 1960 where it continued to serve until we acquired a new 1962 Ford Fairlane sedan which was the car I used to get my license to drive. Dad: "Are you _trying_ to hit every pothole you see?" Sunny memories....
At 10 years of age, I learned to drive in a 1959 Borgward Isabella in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. We raced around on a dirt track with a DKW 2 stroke and a Hillman Imp. The Borgward was the most reliable at taking the punishment we gave them. Ironically another car mentioned was the Glas, my father had what was known as a BMW Cheetah 2000, a Glas bodywork with BMW running gear, circa 1974.
When I was young we had 2 1959 Borgward Isabella Combi Wagons. They were great cars and they were built like tanks. In the middle of the winter in a blizzard, My mother got into a low speed, offset, head on collision. She got out with very minor injuries. If she had been in another car of that period, it could have been fatal. The car had a collapsible steering wheel. Immediately after the accident, my dad went out and bought another one.
My dad seemed to appreciate foreign cars. He bought SAABs starting in the late 50’s, back when they had two stroke engines. And in the mid 60’s he bought a Borgward Isabella, and I remember driving it to high school. I don’t know what happened to it after I left for college, but I do remember it being a nice drive.😅 After watching this video I now realize I was driving the combi version.
I am old enough to remember, fondly, the Isabella. A beautiful car which was also quite sporty. To me it has always been clear that BMW/Quandt played a dirty game. They simply wanted to kill a competitor to their newely developed 1500... The Bremer Senate also playing a dirty game. But then, the Quandt family was and is very rich and one can never win from money... It is a sad world!
You are a 100 % right. And don't forget : Adenauer was a friend of Flick ( Merc ) and the chairman of Hanomag - Borgward was one of Germany's biggest lorry - manufacturers....enough said ? No....Bavarian politician Franz - Josef Strauß....they decided that a B a v a r i a n made 4WD had to be bought for the German army, the DKW " Munga ". And they cancelled orders for Borgward's military lorry, the B 2000 A....material for millions of Deutschmarks had already been ordered - just for the birds. And this material was worth more than 10 million Deutschmarks. So much for Germany.
Great presentation, I learned a lot I did not know about Borgward. My dad bought an estate (station wagon) new in 1959, and I remember it well. Unfortunately, it had been involved in several accidents, and he eventually sold it. I have ever since, been interested in the brand, and hope to obtain an Isabella Coupe one day.
When I was in high school had a summer job at as foreign car dealership. Among the cars they had for sale was a couple of Borgwards. This video is the first I've heard anybody mentioned the brand are over sixty years. In fact I've never heard anybody who had even heard of them. Back in the 50s an early 60s there were a lot of cars that were sold in America that nobody remembers.
Borgward Isabella incredibly robust engineering and extremely fast and excellent handling for their day. I have personally experienced being left in the dust by an enthusiast a few years ago - amazing. Very sorry it didn't survive.
Maybe 15 years ago I saw an ad for an Isabella for sale at a car show in Calif. for about $150,000. I thought that was much too low for what that car was. I loved mine so much! My first car and the best car I've ever driven or owned. It's a shame it didn't survive, for sure.
Great video. I was born in Bremen and remember Borgward well. It was a highly respected car brand name and I remember the shock waves when the firm suddenly disappeared.
My Dad had a Borgward Isabella. We frequently used in the late 50s. It was way ahead of other manufactures of other car-makers. It was a pity to see it go
Back in the mid to late 1950's, when I was a little kid in North Jersey, my dad pointed out an Isabella in traffic and said "Borgward." He was an engineer and interested in most makes, but was not adventurous to buy any, especially a German car, it being only 10 or so years sice "The War" was over. They weren't very common, but they could be spotted in rare instances. Last one seen was nicely restored was a maroon job about ten years ago. In traffic! A good job on the overall history.
When I lived in Sydney Australia the pastor of Balmain Methodist Mission had a 1961 Borgward Isabella. He allowed me to use it on occasion. The Isabella was extremely comfortable and reliable. It was not fast, but you could go 60+ miles per hour without problem. The seating was exceptional even for a 230 lb guy. It’s a shame that the company did not survive as it was a “different” car in many ways from the competition especially Mercedes and NSU and Opel. I believe the craftsmanship was the equal or better than the BMW’ and Mercedes Benz in many new technologies from shock absorbers, transmissions and safety features. Lastly it was a real head turner.
Excellent and very comprehensive video. My father owned an Isabella when I was born and, even though he sold it when I was four, I still remember the car nicely. I hope I can someday lay my hands in a restored model.
@@Er_Guille one easily spotted and obvious error to anyone who was paying attention. How many other errors that only those with knowledge of the company would spot? The fact that he glossed over the slavery issue, the reason why Borgwald was imprisoned after the war is also significant to the story (others have questioned why the imprisonment occurred). 2 thing that make this not the excellent and comprehensive video that you think it is.
In the early '90s West LA, there was an Isabella sticking out from a carport on my bike commute route. No internet back then, so I couldn't look it up and figure it out. Thanks for this video!
dear ruairid, thank you very much for this portrait, lots of informations i didn't know before, paying the borgward developers and workers hughe respect for their widespread production panel. bmw was strugling in these years, mercedes focused on big cars, vw only produced the käfer and the bus, borgward had a portfolio from tiny lloyd to impressive hansa, also catering for the small trucks range with many running as civil defence or firebrigade service mobiles. the impact of borgward on the car development and the travel habits in the early sixties should be corrected on the light of your very nice, as always, well researched documentary. Best Albrecht
My father bought a Borgward Isabella station wagon. He thought it was a fine car. I was the second in a long line of cars he bought that went out of business (in the US market) after he bought them. He had had a Kaiser Henry J before that, two Peugeots after before the two or three SAABs he had until he stopped driving in 2012.
Many years ago, i struck up a friendship with one of the senior Captains of Air Ceylon's 747 fleet, which he flew to London, and he would proudly boast about his Borgward Isabella, back home in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He claimed it was superior to his 747.
I do remember seeing some Borgward Isabella models in New Zealand back in the 1960s, but now there are just a few left in the hands of collectors. I once visited a country doctor who had amassed a collection of eight Isabellas - unrestored. When I was younger I thought they were from one of the Scandinavian countries because they didn't look particularly German, but as pointed out, this was probably due to American styling influences. It does bear a resemblance to the Mercedes 500 SL of the same era tho'.
You certainly mean a " 300 " ? Funny enough, my mate wants to sell me a Goliath from New Zealand - I shall do that; never had a RHD Goliath. Do the Isabellas still exist ?
@@MichailKnoller It was back in the early 90s that I visited the doctor and he was just about to retire - I was a medical rep at the time. I suspect the Isabellas have been onsold by now.
My claim to fame is seeing a Wartburg and a Borgward parked in the same street in 1970! We walked past them on the way to school in Hampstead London. As 9-year-olds we found the names hilarious...
Thank you for your wonderful BORGWARD documentary. In 1965 I learned driving in a Glas 1700, more or less the successor of the Isabella, really in terms of quality. The car was advertised as "Büffel im Frack" I loved that car, but not my driving instructor, I think he was a left over nazi, judging by the way he communicated. BUT with his rigorous teaching style I learned driving car and bike in a short 2 weeks, or was it even days, getting a "Führerschein" for a small ammount of money. In the 1970's I lived in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and found that my CHEETAH was actually a Glas 1700 body with BMW badge and 1800cm³ BMW engine. It served me very well and never let me down. Nostalgia ;-) In 2017 working as supplier to BMW in Shenyang, northern China, I owned a BORWARD BX6, also gone down the drain ;-((
I own several classic vehicles. But I am still suffering the loss of my 1958 Isabella TS deluxe. I was young and did not have the knowledge to fully restore a running car that I had purchased in1979. It was sitting in storage and I had very little means to restiore it for good. There was a guy who was very eager to get his hands on the car. He promised to help me with other project cars. I gave him the car for free! under the condition that he would restore it. He never helped me and he never worked on it for nearly twenty years. When I begged him to give it back to me he told me I would have to pay "A LOT OF MONEY" if I wanted to get it back. I hope he rots in Hell!
I've never heard of this brand of car. Also, I never knew it was at some stage sold in Australia. It appears to me that this car company went the way that many car companies have gone, bankrupt. Which is very unfortunate. The Chinese buy up everything these days, at least they had a chance to bring back BORGWARD in their limited editions and concept cars. Sad that this has happened, just like HOLDEN in Australia. Thanks for creating and posting. DM.
…cheers, Ruairidh… …you’ve done it yet again…a superbly researched history of what should have been a serious contender in the German automotive market…but suddenly wasn’t… …speaking as a Yank car guy…despite their effort to enter the North American market in the mid-50’s, they were rarely seen…and completely unknown by 99 percent of American buyers… …just as with Renault…I somehow feel BorgWarner’s true commitment to getting Americans to buy his cars was lackluster and probably doomed the company from its serious financial issues… …too bad, certainly, as these were attractive and capable cars which should have had a long and storied history…👌🏼🆒😎
I learnt to drive on a Borgward Isabella Combi which was purchased in Aden and shipped to the UK in 1961. It was a great car, could park it anywhere and the great asset was parking lights on either side of the car, so if you were were parked on a road, on the traffic side you put on the parking lights on that side only. Unfortunately around 1968 there was an advert in Britain which showed a Borgward going over a cliff in the UK which I found upsetting. Our family kept this car well into the 1980s and the vehicle had great mileage on the clock. We used to get it serviced under Stamford Bridge garage in London. Miss that vehicle.
My parrents owned a Lloyd Alexander in the early 60´es, 2 cylinder 4 stroke. If it met a hill to steep, it would be turned around and reversed up. A funny litle thing.
Mit dem Alter von 18 Jahren kaufte ich 1959 von meinem ersten Gesellenlohn eine 10Jahre alte Isabella TS Coupe de luxe in roter Grundfarbe mit weissem Dach. Ich wusste in den ersten Monaten nicht, was ich für einen Schatz für 2000 DM erwoben hatte. Es war noch ein zweiter Motor und Getriebe dabei. Erst als ich sie länger fuhr wurde ich darauf Aufmerksam gemacht. Viele hatten sie stehen sehen und wollten mit mir eine Probefahrt machen. Meine erste grosse Ausfahrt war die neue A7 von Bad Kissingen, wo ich arbeitete nach Würzburg. Problemlos waren 160km/h geschafft und selbst die Heimfahrt, welche zusätzlich noch über die Kasseler Berge führte, war sie nicht kleinzukriegen. Nach einem halben Jahr fragte mich der Vorbesitzer, ein Busunternehmer, ob er sie nicht zurückkaufen könne. Da wurde mir erst richtig bewusst, was ich für einen Schatz da habe. Ich stellte sie mal 1980, kurz vor meiner Hochzeit, in Würzburg vor der tollen Barock-Residenz ab. In Nu war sie vor Enthusiasten umstellt und es wurden viele Bilder von ihr dort gemacht. Leider hielt der Motor nicht sehr lange, aber da hatte ich ja einen Zweiten. Durch eine Dummheit habe ich sie dann verkauft, weil meine kleine Familie das Geld brauchte. Ich steckte den Verkaufserlös in eine eigene Handwerksfirma. Dieses Geld hat mir den Start in die Selbstständigkeit geebnet. Schade dass ich sie nicht mehr habe, aber sie lebt heute noch bei einem Liebhaber und ich kann sie jedes Jahr neu besuchen. Bei einem Oldtimertreffen unweit dem Ort, wo ich jetzt lebe.
I remember that back in 1996-7 they found 4 brand new Borgward Hansa sedan in a warehouse in the middle of Bangkok, Thailand. The hood opened by the side. The cars had 0km mileage. Apparently some guy imported them in the 1950s and was not able to sell them. I don't know the wereabout of those gems.
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq Oh I know. I grew up in the 70s riding in a car with two smoking parents (windows up, of course to make sure all that smoky goodness stayed in the car). 🤣
We found an Hansa in the woods. Having never heard of borgward it was a surprise to see such an ”exotic looking” car as a wreck in the woods. Such an interesting story and to think what could have been if the company had lived on.
@@MichailKnoller a borgward hansa. Its only the body left. The chassi is rotted out. Probably been in the woods for what 60 years? It used to be that people just drove their old cars out in the woods and left them 🤷♂️ We have cleared out many wrecks in the past.
@@magnusdanielsson2749 Very interesting. Are engine, gearbox and running gear still in place ? She might be worth rescueing...I have got 2 Hansas, one petrol, one diesel.
A 1959 Borgward wagon was the only 4 speed column shift manual transmission vehicle I have driven. 3 speed, 3 on the tree manuals were fairly common in my youth.
Imagine BMC bought/ merged with Borgward instead of Jaguar at that time. Maybe the BL automotive apocalypse would have been avoided due to having manufacturing and design facilities outside the UK.
Borgward might have survived as a name with external funding, but it would have fallen prey to the British practice of "badge engineering." BMC, and later BMH and BL, made minor tweaks to a basic model and gave the new versions the names of famous marque of years gone by. Austin and Morris: essentially the same, but different badges, radiator grille and dashboard. Leather seats and wood veneer: it's a Wolseley. A second carburettor, different gear ratios: MG. Leather, wood AND the extra carburettor: Riley. Lashings of wood and leather absolutely everywhere: the Van den Plas version.. What they never got the hang of was production engineering. Jaguar and Land Rover, even under Indian ownership, have the highest failure rate of all British cars. Japanese cars made in the UK don't break down at anything like that rate. Volkswagen and Mercedes have worsened too. It seems like Borgward was in the same boat. The answer seems to be to have Japanese supervisors and middle management on the shop floor, but Japanese companies don't function like British industry does, and their mid-career employees would never want to work for a failing British dinosaur with a toxic board of directors and predatory shareholders.
about 1983 I was a factory rep ( District Mgr) for Mazda Motors of America. Part of my territory was No Calif. I lived in Auburn at the foothills fo the Sierras. I needed to visit the Mazda Dealer in Chico.... I went through Lincoln and then north. Along the way in the middle of nut "orchards" off to the right I spotted a property with about 20 Borgwards parked. High and dry.. and looking good. A few days later I decided to go back... I had a hard time finding it.. I finally stopped where I thought they were.. a double wide on 5 acres. A woman of about 30 and 3 little kids came out. I asked about the cars. She =said I guy came over a few days ago and bought them all and hauled them away, she knew not where.. and her husband had left her at the same time.!!! She thought I was the cops or a debt collector. Bizarre but true.
Thanks for this. I went down this rabbit hole after hearing about the revival. A very interesting company but one in hock to the personality of one man. Goes to show that diverse ownership and control can lead to more sustainable outcomes in auto manufacturing.
A really crazy story from the wild west days of car manufacturing is that of Archie Andrews, coin op entrepreneur come millionaire come motor company CEO who killed of like four or five car companies in the early days of the depression. There's even a story of how the board of directors locked themselves in a conference room in order to avoid Archie taking over their company (Moon motors iirc). He did give us the fabulous fwd Ruxton though.
I doubt a committee could have built up the company the way Borgward did. All the great auto companies were the result of one man's vision. Henry Ford, William Lyons of Jaguar, W C Durant of General Motors, Porsche of VW and Porsche, the list goes on.
In the later 1950s, as a teenager I recall that Borgwards were not that uncommon. They were considered a very well-made and desirable car among those more interested in VWs and Mercedes, as opposed to the "finny" US cars of the day, a sort of comfortable sporty car.
An incredible history of Borgward! You must be a real fan! Amazing that the company at the time was the 2nd largest in Germany! Did you realise that originally Studebaker was the largest American company? Till the Volkswagen Beetle changed thing's, by making SMALLER cars popular' and larger expensive car s like Studebaker sold less than before. Did you, by any chance, make THAT video? This video is something of a "scoop" , in journalistic terms! No- one else knew what happened to the partly revived company! I think I would have bought one myself!
I learn to drive by myself in a Borgward Isabella at 12 years old, because when my mother and I went to pick up the car from the dealership I open the glove box and the spare key was there so I put it in my pocket, the next day I went to car car park building I start the engine and drove all over the car park, the next day I drove out of the building into the street and went around the block and drove into the car park all this at the centre of the capital city Santiago.
My grandfather who was fundamentally a Mercedes person rated the Borgward Isabella as one of the best cars he had ever owned (as an engineer he was able to assess within the technology time period of the cars construction) only the 126 Mercedes he had much later giving him as much satisfaction. It was probably the only time he strayed far from the 3 pointed star and he really rated it.
My grandfather said exactly the same.
My grandfather, a mechanical engineer who designed motorized agricultural equipment (tractors, combines, etc.) always owned Mercedes exclusively. He passed in the late 1980s.
The W126 is one of the best things they ever did. That's very high praise.
Still a beautiful car to look at. But I don't understand how it can be described as having a '5 or even 6 person capacity' (accompanying text with images @ 10:10 showing two seats and zero extra space)
..My Grandfather had a couple of them and he really loved them as well. He had a Isabella and a Station Wagon. As a teen, I really thought they were strikingly like a Mercedes Benz as well. Super solidly constructed automobiles.......
My father (from Belgium) temporarily worked at Borgward as a forced labourer during WWII. He also worked at Krüpp, Thyssen and I.G. Farben, mostly in the capacity of a truck driver. He escaped Germany in 1943 and made it to Verdun from where he traveled across the channel to England in a fishing trawler.
Did he settle in Britain after the war or go back to Belgium?
Great story about your father! Sounds like an amazing man.
Wow, what a life story
@@jamesdellaneve9005 He came back to mainland Europe with the Americans right after D-Day. Drove trucks for the US army with provisions and ammo. Went home when the war had ended.
@user-nx7io1ns7p what the hell
I learned to drive in a borgward. 1966. My father brought it back from Germany to New Haven CT. What fun to come upon this video. It was a great little car it was.
Before I was born, my Aunt had a pink Borgward coupe, presumably like the one in the YT screen cap. All of my Dad’s family lost their hair colour very early in life, so they all had white hair. My Aunt dyed her hair pink to match her car. Very outrageous in 1950s New Zealand.
To snitch 63. I thought you said your aunt dyed her hair pink. Then I realised YOU DID say that! How cool! I would have loved to meet your aunt!
my dad had an Isabella, and he maintained through is life that Borgwards were better than comparable benzes, and that Borgward was done wrong by the banks. I was a toddler back then, but i do remember the Isabella in the yard. Always felt the Isabella coupe was one of the best looking german cars ever.
My elderly female cousin had an Isabella in the 60s. She was a farmer in the Adelaide Hills and the Isabella was only driven to church and to Adelaide. Why she chose such an arcane vehicle is a mystery, but as a teenager I was permitted to drive it, and even as a crass youth I could appreciate the quality, refinement and grace of the machine.
Thank you for this video! Loved the comments too. When I was 20, my father bought me a used 1962 Borgward Isabella for $600 from a small garage/used car guy near his house in about 1964. It was maroon with beige leather interior, polished wood dash and trim and those fully reclining seats. The back seat was only good for packages and 5 year olds. Cost nothing to run. I LOVED THAT CAR! BEST CAR I'VE EVER OWNED! My claim to fame as a dumb, single 20 year old was that Vettes could beat me on the straightaway, but they'd eat my dust on the curves! Put SO MANY miles on that wonderful little car.
I knew nothing of the car's history, but did learn about its quirks. I lived in NH and the nearest part source I ever found was a junkyard over 2 hours away in Rhode Island. He had a couple Borgwards and I'd go down with a car guy friend and scavenge parts. Time went on. I got married to someone who wasn't a car guy and was pregnant. The wipers weren't working because the Isabella wipers weren't the same as other Borgward wipers and nothing fit. The fuses were really finicky and would blow out on occasion during wet weather - I remember driving home late at night with no lights. Such fun!
I just couldn't deal with my poor Isabella any longer so sold her for $1 to my old car guy friend with the hope he'd figure out a way to fix her. Twenty years later, I found out he had gotten her back on the road but something happened to her I never wanted to know about. (Even though I ended up marrying that guy in later years, I still never wanted to know what happened to my beloved Isabella!) So thanks again, I really enjoyed learning about the car company that built such a beautiful, fun to drive car. Old memories...
Thank so much you for this video. As a child I lived in Singapore. In 1960, when I was 7 years old my father bought a new Borgward Isabella TS, it was a lovely blue colour, I remember going to the dealership showroom with him on Orchard Road to collect it. We travelled all over what was then known as Malaya in the Borgward. Gosh, we all loved that car. Many years later in the early 80’s I saw one like it in a used car showroom in Toronto, I regret not buying it. I still have the original sales brochure that my father gave me.
I owned one more or less by accident. When I was 20, my dad bought me a 1962 Isabella from a garage near his house. It was by far the best car I've ever owned. Loved it to pieces. I can imagine how much fun your family had with that car when you were a child!
I remember the Borgwards and Goliaths from when my dad was stationed in Germany in the '50's. A German neighbour had an Isabella and he took us for a drive in it once. My dad was green with envy, it was a beautiful car, especially compared to our beat up old DKW. 😅
This is the first in my 65 years of age I have ever heard of the Borgward Automobile. I must admit that it was an absolute Beautiful Automobile.
Never knew of this car maker, thanks for showing this.
That Isabella in metallic gun metal grey is like a shiny diamond! Any car that gleams in light and has lovely styling, is always a great sight.
I remember seeing an Isabella in person for the first time in the mid 80s. I was stunned by how gorgeous of a car Borgward built.
Rural New Zealand in the late 1950's was a very conservative place.
Due to Government restrictions only farmers and others earning overseas funds could import cars.
The family that lived next to us had a 1958 Isabella TS, a beautiful car in stunning red exterior with a white interior.
The husband had been a Lancaster bomber rear tail gunner and had survived a tour or two...but he didn't hate the Germans.
It caused a real stir in the very conservative farming area when he bought a German car.
It caused even more of a stir when people went for a ride in it and compared it to the mainly English cars they owned...and found their English cars very lacking in creature and ride comforts.
Another local farmer/WW2 vet bought a beautiful Citroen DS.....the family kept it for many years.
and another farmer/vet bought a huge Plymouth station wagon......used to carry their competition shotguns and shooting accoutrements.
The rest of us made do with second hand British cars...until we cottoned on to the Japanese Domestic Market second hand (grey) imports in the early 1980's....
English cars basically disappeared overnight.
On a visit to NZ from Australia in the 70s (I was 13) Dad pointed out the old cars on the road, although things had started to change by then. But unfortunately the car we hired was a Leyland P76 - 'the Australian Edsel' as he described it to two American tourists we met at Wanaka (and then saw again at Milford Sound).
EDIT: Just remembered I also had classic 60s boy's bedroom design curtains, featuring a road map of Europe with car badges, including Borgward! There were also Morris, MG, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Rover, Simca, Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, Fiat, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, Auto Union (Audi), Facel, Opel, VW, Maserati, Lancia, Aston Martin, Vauxhall, Triumph, Sunbeam, Austin, Wolseley, Riley.
Cars and politics deserve a serious history. Henry Ford was the world's more prolific and influential ant semite on planet earth, some of his work being adopted by Adolf Hitler. His patriotism was suspect. He took steps to make a do-over .. but the Ford war products were more imposed than voluntary.
@user-nx7io1ns7p I know Allah. He owns the falafel stand down the street. Best falafels I ever ate. Highly recommend the manakeesh too.
PS He drives a Mercedes CLS. Loves it.
@user-nx7io1ns7p just don't be one of the cringe religious people trying to spread stuff in replies
in the 1980s and 90s, out the back of Lincoln in Canterbury, there was an old seed shed with over 110 Borgwards in and around in it. We tracked down the owner once to an ordinary family on the other side of Chch who just liked them, and had collected them. No idea what eventually happened to them, but presumably they were sold off the South Island car collectors...
As a schoolboy, I was an enthusiast for the Borgward Isabella, though they were rare in Scotland and I never actually got inside one. I had forgotten WHY: thanks for reminding me.
My High School Art teacher had one. It was considered eccentric - and very appropriate for an Art teacher.
My parents bought a Borgward Isabella Combi in 1960 in Paris and exported it to Venezuela where we lived at the time. I remeber as a very young child trips into the high Andes and many places in western Venezuela in my childhood. A great car with fully independent suspension. I often wondered what happened to it. 12:03, this is what I remember.
She might still live...
It blows my mind that Mr Borgward was freed from prison in 1948 and six years later was producing the beautiful Isabella. Although it doesn’t seem to be your thing I’d love to see a video on the collapse of the German motorcycle industry in the 1960’s as affluent Germans switched from utilitarian motorcycles to cars 🇬🇧
Agreed.
Carl F.W. Borgward conceived the new Borgward Hansa 1500 whilst he was in a Southern German prisoner's camp - the engine was mostly based on the 4M1,4 engine, which was fitted in the small one - ton - lorry from 1938 onwards. It was the first newly conceived car in Germany after the war.
I’m glad we didn’t murder him like so many other good Germans we killed.
Doesn't seem fair to me that they made a crime out of him owning a company that did business with the regime in power in his own country.
@@onemoremisfitIt was mainly the use of forced labour and their treatment etc, that got him locked up
Thank you very much for this documentary; very nice original material. I know Borgward - cars since I was 3 years old - and drive them since I got my driver's licence. Now, being a pensioner, I can spend the rest of my life working on them - and looking for a Goliath Express two - stroke....During my life, I drove a lot of cars - and I still think that Borgward is one of the best - certainly not Merc....Thank God this Chinese badge - car belongs to the past now. Carl F.W. Borgward would rotate in his grave...Borgward lives, in spite of the corrupt senate and German " government "...there is a lot more to say about this - which I am not going to do; I continue working on a Borgward front - axle right now...
My father had a couple of Borgward Isabella's in the sixties. They where scrapped in the seventies, together with a Goliath, a Isar and some Trabant, Lloyd , DKW and Hanomag. The other ones I forgot.
Very sad; makes me cry.
In 1963, my boss in the RAF had an Isabella TS that he'd brought back to the UK when his tour in Germany had finished. He really liked that car and I always thought it a very attractive and well-made vehicle. Such a pity that they didn't survive.
@user-nx7io1ns7p In the mighty name of Jesus Christ I invite you to receive Jesus as your lord and savior and for you to renounce at idol Islam and and have a God that will truly answer your prayers
My father owned an Isabella, an Isabella coupe and I later on also had an Isabella. Outstanding vehicles!
A neighbor of ours here in the states - Orange, California - owned two Isabella coupes when I was very young. I assumed that they were common, but never saw another for years. It was difficult to find any reference material or media about them until they started appearing on the internet.
I had a Borgward in north of the Golden Gate in 1966, 4 gears on the column. This car helped me rehabilitate after an accident where my left leg was broken.Using the stick shift with a strong clutch my leg came back to its original strength. Cant remember if it was a six cylinder but was satisfied with its performance.🙂
Being raised in SoCal in the fifties and sixties, I remember many Borgwards. They seemed to be as common as other imports such as Simca , Renault, Anglia, and Opel.
Thank you for the info on one of the best looking car of the group.
As a young motorhead of the late 1950's, this brought back memories. It seems there were a lot of auto firms that collapsed about the same time.
Just like what happened during and after the 2008 crisis. A lot of cool and interesting brands merged or were discontinued, especially on the american car market. It's a shame, becuase a reduction in choice actually goes against the capitalist ideals. Then again, capitalism has been slowly turning everything in to grey sludge over time anyway.
It would have been hard to be a German car maker after WWII. No local market. Everyone was poor and the country was re-building.
@@theothertonydutch Contrary to what we are taught, The Market does not like competition very much and prefers to create a monopoly or, failing that, oligopoly.
@@theothertonydutch I would say that you can't compare the German 'economic miracle' after the war to the 2008 crisis...
Thank you for this presentation. It was awesome learning about the Borgward and also the Lloyd. I first came across these two marques when I was a little girl and found them in an early Observer's book. It's been cool having their info expanded and put in context by your video. Your video is clean without unnecessary frills which is perfect. Cheers, again.
And the Goliath, Borgward's third make. Unfortunately, the video did not mention them a lot, but : the little three - wheeler sold very well and worked a lot to ease consequences of the war. Goliath - cars were - together with Gutbrod - the first petrol - injected cars. They did very nice vans and saloons; in the U.S., people might remember the " Hansa Tiger "...
@@MichailKnoller I've always had a passion for 2 types of cars: 3-wheelers and rear engine mounted cars. Thank you for your interesting added comment to my earlier post.
@@Voxel-Ux With pleasure !
I am now realizing how old I am... In the 50' 60' Borgwards where quite popular in Italy. Ciao
Thanks for the info on Borgward, Rory. When posted to Paris in 1956 by the R.C.A.F. we bought a new Opel Rekord wagon which proved to be too small for our numerous camping expeditions across Europe. The replacement in 1957 was a brand new purchased at the factory Borgward Isabella station wagon which went on to provide yeoman service with sufficient space for camping gear and three boisterous boys until we returned to Canada in 1960 where it continued to serve until we acquired a new 1962 Ford Fairlane sedan which was the car I used to get my license to drive. Dad: "Are you _trying_ to hit every pothole you see?" Sunny memories....
A very well put together, interesting and informative documentary. Congratulations! Give us more!
At 10 years of age, I learned to drive in a 1959 Borgward Isabella in what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. We raced around on a dirt track with a DKW 2 stroke and a Hillman Imp. The Borgward was the most reliable at taking the punishment we gave them.
Ironically another car mentioned was the Glas, my father had what was known as a BMW Cheetah 2000, a Glas bodywork with BMW running gear, circa 1974.
When I was young we had 2 1959 Borgward Isabella Combi Wagons. They were great cars and they were built like tanks. In the middle of the winter in a blizzard, My mother got into a low speed, offset, head on collision. She got out with very minor injuries. If she had been in another car of that period, it could have been fatal. The car had a collapsible steering wheel. Immediately after the accident, my dad went out and bought another one.
My dad seemed to appreciate foreign cars. He bought SAABs starting in the late 50’s, back when they had two stroke engines. And in the mid 60’s he bought a Borgward Isabella, and I remember driving it to high school. I don’t know what happened to it after I left for college, but I do remember it being a nice drive.😅
After watching this video I now realize I was driving the combi version.
I'd never heard of them before this, many thanks again Rory. 👍
I am old enough to remember, fondly, the Isabella. A beautiful car which was also quite sporty. To me it has always been clear that BMW/Quandt played a dirty game. They simply wanted to kill a competitor to their newely developed 1500... The Bremer Senate also playing a dirty game. But then, the Quandt family was and is very rich and one can never win from money... It is a sad world!
You are a 100 % right. And don't forget : Adenauer was a friend of Flick ( Merc ) and the chairman of Hanomag - Borgward was one of Germany's biggest lorry - manufacturers....enough said ? No....Bavarian politician Franz - Josef Strauß....they decided that a B a v a r i a n made 4WD had to be bought for the German army, the DKW " Munga ". And they cancelled orders for Borgward's military lorry, the B 2000 A....material for millions of Deutschmarks had already been ordered - just for the birds. And this material was worth more than 10 million Deutschmarks. So much for Germany.
BMW = Borgward Macht Weiter
Great presentation, I learned a lot I did not know about Borgward. My dad bought an estate (station wagon) new in 1959, and I remember it well. Unfortunately, it had been involved in several accidents, and he eventually sold it. I have ever since, been interested in the brand, and hope to obtain an Isabella Coupe one day.
When I was in high school had a summer job at as foreign car dealership. Among the cars they had for sale was a couple of Borgwards. This video is the first I've heard anybody mentioned the brand are over sixty years. In fact I've never heard anybody who had even heard of them. Back in the 50s an early 60s there were a lot of cars that were sold in America that nobody remembers.
When I lived in Berlin in the early 1990's, my neighbors had a beautifully maintained Bogward handed down in their family. Wonderful, stylish car.
Borgward Isabella incredibly robust engineering and extremely fast and excellent handling for their day. I have personally experienced being left in the dust by an enthusiast a few years ago - amazing. Very sorry it didn't survive.
Maybe 15 years ago I saw an ad for an Isabella for sale at a car show in Calif. for about $150,000. I thought that was much too low for what that car was. I loved mine so much! My first car and the best car I've ever driven or owned. It's a shame it didn't survive, for sure.
Great video. I was born in Bremen and remember Borgward well. It was a highly respected car brand name and I remember the shock waves when the firm suddenly disappeared.
My Dad had a Borgward Isabella. We frequently used in the late 50s. It was way ahead of other manufactures of other car-makers. It was a pity to see it go
Back in the mid to late 1950's, when I was a little kid in North Jersey, my dad pointed out an Isabella in traffic and said "Borgward." He was an engineer and interested in most makes, but was not adventurous to buy any, especially a German car, it being only 10 or so years sice "The War" was over. They weren't very common, but they could be spotted in rare instances. Last one seen was nicely restored was a maroon job about ten years ago. In traffic! A good job on the overall history.
When I lived in Sydney Australia the pastor of Balmain Methodist Mission had a 1961 Borgward Isabella. He allowed me to use it on occasion. The Isabella was extremely comfortable and reliable. It was not fast, but you could go 60+ miles per hour without problem. The seating was exceptional even for a 230 lb guy. It’s a shame that the company did not survive as it was a “different” car in many ways from the competition especially Mercedes and NSU and Opel. I believe the craftsmanship was the equal or better than the BMW’ and Mercedes Benz in many new technologies from shock absorbers, transmissions and safety features. Lastly it was a real head turner.
Excellent and very comprehensive video. My father owned an Isabella when I was born and, even though he sold it when I was four, I still remember the car nicely. I hope I can someday lay my hands in a restored model.
The script and picture at the 2:15 mark don't match up. Hardly excellent.
@@neiloflongbeck5705 One mistake in script:picture matching hardly makes this video a poor one.
@@Er_Guille one easily spotted and obvious error to anyone who was paying attention. How many other errors that only those with knowledge of the company would spot? The fact that he glossed over the slavery issue, the reason why Borgwald was imprisoned after the war is also significant to the story (others have questioned why the imprisonment occurred). 2 thing that make this not the excellent and comprehensive video that you think it is.
@@neiloflongbeck5705your opinion. Whatever.
@@Er_Guille yes, and your opinion as well. But at least I know what excellent and comprehensive mean.
In the early '90s West LA, there was an Isabella sticking out from a carport on my bike commute route. No internet back then, so I couldn't look it up and figure it out. Thanks for this video!
The Borgward Isabella looked great.
And the Coupe was a gorgeous vehicle..
In fact she is....never saw a more beautiful car;
dear ruairid, thank you very much for this portrait, lots of informations i didn't know before, paying the borgward developers and workers hughe respect for their widespread production panel. bmw was strugling in these years, mercedes focused on big cars, vw only produced the käfer and the bus, borgward had a portfolio from tiny lloyd to impressive hansa, also catering for the small trucks range with many running as civil defence or firebrigade service mobiles. the impact of borgward on the car development and the travel habits in the early sixties should be corrected on the light of your very nice, as always, well researched documentary. Best Albrecht
My father bought a Borgward Isabella station wagon. He thought it was a fine car. I was the second in a long line of cars he bought that went out of business (in the US market) after he bought them. He had had a Kaiser Henry J before that, two Peugeots after before the two or three SAABs he had until he stopped driving in 2012.
Your father was a real carguy. God bless him.
Many years ago, i struck up a friendship with one of the senior Captains of Air Ceylon's 747 fleet, which he flew to London, and he would proudly boast about his Borgward Isabella, back home in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He claimed it was superior to his 747.
I do remember seeing some Borgward Isabella models in New Zealand back in the 1960s, but now there are just a few left in the hands of collectors. I once visited a country doctor who had amassed a collection of eight Isabellas - unrestored. When I was younger I thought they were from one of the Scandinavian countries because they didn't look particularly German, but as pointed out, this was probably due to American styling influences. It does bear a resemblance to the Mercedes 500 SL of the same era tho'.
You certainly mean a " 300 " ? Funny enough, my mate wants to sell me a Goliath from New Zealand - I shall do that; never had a RHD Goliath. Do the Isabellas still exist ?
family friend on the Taieri had one for years...even remember a wagon as well
@@MichailKnoller It was back in the early 90s that I visited the doctor and he was just about to retire - I was a medical rep at the time. I suspect the Isabellas have been onsold by now.
@@marinedrive5484 Ah, I see...you know, it is always worth asking. If I can rescue a Borgward, I do it...regards to NZ
@@MichailKnoller Yes, indeed, especially one of the convertible models which have similar lines as the Mercedes 300 SL convertible. Good hunting!
A friend's father dad an Isabella saloon in the late sixties and absolutely loved it.
The Subaru 360 had an inline 2 cylinder 2 stroke. The 1966 Subaru 1000 was the first Subaru with a flat 4.
My claim to fame is seeing a Wartburg and a Borgward parked in the same street in 1970! We walked past them on the way to school in Hampstead London. As 9-year-olds we found the names hilarious...
Thank you for your wonderful BORGWARD documentary. In 1965 I learned driving in a Glas 1700, more or less the successor of the Isabella, really in terms of quality. The car was advertised as "Büffel im Frack" I loved that car, but not my driving instructor, I think he was a left over nazi, judging by the way he communicated. BUT with his rigorous teaching style I learned driving car and bike in a short 2 weeks, or was it even days, getting a "Führerschein" for a small ammount of money. In the 1970's I lived in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and found that my CHEETAH was actually a Glas 1700 body with BMW badge and 1800cm³ BMW engine. It served me very well and never let me down. Nostalgia ;-) In 2017 working as supplier to BMW in Shenyang, northern China, I owned a BORWARD BX6, also gone down the drain ;-((
Excellent show about a car I had never heard of till now. Odd how fast the fate of a car company can change. Happy Trails
A family friend of ours in Singapore had a Borgward Isabella in about 1960. It was a nice looking car.
Thank you for the information! Never heard of the brand here in the states. They produced very good looking models.
I own several classic vehicles. But I am still suffering the loss of my 1958 Isabella TS deluxe. I was young and did not have the knowledge to fully restore a running car that I had purchased in1979.
It was sitting in storage and I had very little means to restiore it for good. There was a guy who was very eager to get his hands on the car. He promised to help me with other project cars. I gave him the car for free! under the condition that he would restore it. He never helped me and he never worked on it for nearly twenty years. When I begged him to give it back to me he told me I would have to pay "A LOT OF MONEY" if I wanted to get it back. I hope he rots in Hell!
I know what I would do....
Thanks for a delightfully informative report!
I've never heard of this brand of car. Also, I never knew it was at some stage sold in Australia. It appears to me that this car company went the way that many car companies have gone, bankrupt. Which is very unfortunate. The Chinese buy up everything these days, at least they had a chance to bring back BORGWARD in their limited editions and concept cars. Sad that this has happened, just like HOLDEN in Australia. Thanks for creating and posting. DM.
🤑🤮 Warning ⚠ Crypto scammers are here again in the comments section. Please, please avoid it !...
I agree. It’s also kind of hilarious to think anyone is buying into their little play. Best thing we can do is report it en masse
Excellent documentary - great research and archival footage.
…cheers, Ruairidh…
…you’ve done it yet again…a superbly researched history of what should have been a serious contender in the German automotive market…but suddenly wasn’t…
…speaking as a Yank car guy…despite their effort to enter the North American market in the mid-50’s, they were rarely seen…and completely unknown by 99 percent of American buyers…
…just as with Renault…I somehow feel BorgWarner’s true commitment to getting Americans to buy his cars was lackluster and probably doomed the company from its serious financial issues…
…too bad, certainly, as these were attractive and capable cars which should have had a long and storied history…👌🏼🆒😎
I learnt to drive on a Borgward Isabella Combi which was purchased in Aden and shipped to the UK in 1961. It was a great car, could park it anywhere and the great asset was parking lights on either side of the car, so if you were were parked on a road, on the traffic side you put on the parking lights on that side only. Unfortunately around 1968 there was an advert in Britain which showed a Borgward going over a cliff in the UK which I found upsetting. Our family kept this car well into the 1980s and the vehicle had great mileage on the clock. We used to get it serviced under Stamford Bridge garage in London. Miss that vehicle.
What happened to her ?
16:55 location is the Baldwin Hills Mall in Los Angeles. Much of the building is still in use and regulated a historical landmark.
Thank you for the video. I saw Borgward Isabella in Sinsheim and had no idea what it was.
My dad had an Isabella TS in1966. Four speed manual on the column was more than mom could manage.
Hi from Finland. Our family had Bward Isabella Combi and i still miss that car! It was the best time in our family indeed!!!
Gorgeous car, the Coupe. Pink is not my cup of tea, but the car is fabulous in any color.
The Isabella Coupé (2+2) had many similar looking lines to the Karmann Ghia
Yes, it did! Guess where the Karmann Ghia got it's styling from? The Chrysler show car of the early to mid 50s called the D'Elegance.
You can't sit in the back of the Coupe. A two seater only.
We had a Borgward in the 1960's in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).
It was robust and very reliable
Thank you for this detailed report. Greetings from Cologne.
My parrents owned a Lloyd Alexander in the early 60´es, 2 cylinder 4 stroke. If it met a hill to steep, it would be turned around and reversed up. A funny litle thing.
Very odd. The four - stroker was quite powerful; I never had any problems, not even on the steepest hills.
Mit dem Alter von 18 Jahren kaufte ich 1959 von meinem ersten Gesellenlohn eine 10Jahre alte Isabella TS Coupe de luxe in roter Grundfarbe mit weissem Dach. Ich wusste in den ersten Monaten nicht, was ich für einen Schatz für 2000 DM erwoben hatte. Es war noch ein zweiter Motor und Getriebe dabei. Erst als ich sie länger fuhr wurde ich darauf Aufmerksam gemacht. Viele hatten sie stehen sehen und wollten mit mir eine Probefahrt machen. Meine erste grosse Ausfahrt war die neue A7 von Bad Kissingen, wo ich arbeitete nach Würzburg. Problemlos waren 160km/h geschafft und selbst die Heimfahrt, welche zusätzlich noch über die Kasseler Berge führte, war sie nicht kleinzukriegen. Nach einem halben Jahr fragte mich der Vorbesitzer, ein Busunternehmer, ob er sie nicht zurückkaufen könne. Da wurde mir erst richtig bewusst, was ich für einen Schatz da habe. Ich stellte sie mal 1980, kurz vor meiner Hochzeit, in Würzburg vor der tollen Barock-Residenz ab. In Nu war sie vor Enthusiasten umstellt und es wurden viele Bilder von ihr dort gemacht. Leider hielt der Motor nicht sehr lange, aber da hatte ich ja einen Zweiten. Durch eine Dummheit habe ich sie dann verkauft, weil meine kleine Familie das Geld brauchte. Ich steckte den Verkaufserlös in eine eigene Handwerksfirma. Dieses Geld hat mir den Start in die Selbstständigkeit geebnet. Schade dass ich sie nicht mehr habe, aber sie lebt heute noch bei einem Liebhaber und ich kann sie jedes Jahr neu besuchen. Bei einem Oldtimertreffen unweit dem Ort, wo ich jetzt lebe.
In the late 1960s'... my friend, our ages were around 18, bought a part exchange Borgward from a dealer for £50, haha... it was brilliant!
I remember that back in 1996-7 they found 4 brand new Borgward Hansa sedan in a warehouse in the middle of Bangkok, Thailand. The hood opened by the side. The cars had 0km mileage. Apparently some guy imported them in the 1950s and was not able to sell them. I don't know the wereabout of those gems.
It would be v e r y interesting to know...
Three ashtrays - ah yes, ashtrays were the cup holders of the old days. 🤣🤣🤣
You did see all the smoking going on in this report???? If you'd lived through a war you'd smoke too.
In fact very few soldiers do not smoke.....
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq Oh I know. I grew up in the 70s riding in a car with two smoking parents (windows up, of course to make sure all that smoky goodness stayed in the car). 🤣
Carl F.W. Borgward cared for cigar - smokers like himself - and me...
We found an Hansa in the woods. Having never heard of borgward it was a surprise to see such an ”exotic looking” car as a wreck in the woods.
Such an interesting story and to think what could have been if the company had lived on.
Do you mean a Goliath Hansa or a Borgward Hansa ? Please, let us know more....
@@MichailKnoller a borgward hansa. Its only the body left. The chassi is rotted out. Probably been in the woods for what 60 years?
It used to be that people just drove their old cars out in the woods and left them 🤷♂️
We have cleared out many wrecks in the past.
@@magnusdanielsson2749 Very interesting. Are engine, gearbox and running gear still in place ? She might be worth rescueing...I have got 2 Hansas, one petrol, one diesel.
A 1959 Borgward wagon was the only 4 speed column shift manual transmission vehicle I have driven. 3 speed, 3 on the tree manuals were fairly common in my youth.
I never realised that I made two pronunciation mistakes in Borgward. I used an « ah » and a « t ».
Imagine BMC bought/ merged with Borgward instead of Jaguar at that time.
Maybe the BL automotive apocalypse would have been avoided due to having manufacturing and design facilities outside the UK.
Borgward might have survived as a name with external funding, but it would have fallen prey to the British practice of "badge engineering." BMC, and later BMH and BL, made minor tweaks to a basic model and gave the new versions the names of famous marque of years gone by.
Austin and Morris: essentially the same, but different badges, radiator grille and dashboard. Leather seats and wood veneer: it's a Wolseley. A second carburettor, different gear ratios: MG. Leather, wood AND the extra carburettor: Riley. Lashings of wood and leather absolutely everywhere: the Van den Plas version..
What they never got the hang of was production engineering. Jaguar and Land Rover, even under Indian ownership, have the highest failure rate of all British cars. Japanese cars made in the UK don't break down at anything like that rate. Volkswagen and Mercedes have worsened too. It seems like Borgward was in the same boat.
The answer seems to be to have Japanese supervisors and middle management on the shop floor, but Japanese companies don't function like British industry does, and their mid-career employees would never want to work for a failing British dinosaur with a toxic board of directors and predatory shareholders.
Nice to see your own work included in the video.
Isabella, unos de los coches más hermosos jamás construídos,
about 1983 I was a factory rep ( District Mgr) for Mazda Motors of America. Part of my territory was No Calif. I lived in Auburn at the foothills fo the Sierras.
I needed to visit the Mazda Dealer in Chico.... I went through Lincoln and then north. Along the way in the middle of nut "orchards" off to the right I spotted a property with about 20 Borgwards parked. High and dry.. and looking good.
A few days later I decided to go back... I had a hard time finding it.. I finally stopped where I thought they were.. a double wide on 5 acres.
A woman of about 30 and 3 little kids came out. I asked about the cars. She =said I guy came over a few days ago and bought them all and hauled them away, she knew not where.. and her husband had left her at the same time.!!! She thought I was the cops or a debt collector.
Bizarre but true.
Neat! I never knew about this company, but they made some fantastic looking cars!
This video is the first time I ever heard of this company, too.
AI produced including comments? Most of the commenters to this video have little to no content. Screams bots.
@@Pfsif I doubt it's ai produced, or even all the comments ai
Thanks for this. I went down this rabbit hole after hearing about the revival. A very interesting company but one in hock to the personality of one man. Goes to show that diverse ownership and control can lead to more sustainable outcomes in auto manufacturing.
A really crazy story from the wild west days of car manufacturing is that of Archie Andrews, coin op entrepreneur come millionaire come motor company CEO who killed of like four or five car companies in the early days of the depression. There's even a story of how the board of directors locked themselves in a conference room in order to avoid Archie taking over their company (Moon motors iirc). He did give us the fabulous fwd Ruxton though.
I doubt a committee could have built up the company the way Borgward did. All the great auto companies were the result of one man's vision. Henry Ford, William Lyons of Jaguar, W C Durant of General Motors, Porsche of VW and Porsche, the list goes on.
we saw a lot of the Isabella's in Austalia
2:16 - the Goliath photo shows a single FRONT wheel vehicle - not single rear as stated.
I well remember Borgward being sold in the US in the 50's, and saw a beautiful, new one parked on the street of Monterey Mexico, Easter 1970.
I thought this "let stuff go to the dogs" was a British approach to car manufacturing :-)
There it is, the Barbie Borgward in pink even.
I remember being attracted to the design back in the 70’s, I didn’t but one. A bit of a life regret!
Can’t beat a bit of Bach! Crank up that stereo.
@@AtheistOrphan
Yeah! Give it a Haydn.......oh wait...
WAtched from Jamaica and I remember reeding about the in some old Popular Mechanics magazine.
The 1955 Isabella had equivalent performance to the 1955 Jaguar 2.4 later termed as the Mk 1, not the 2.4 Mk 2 which was released in 1959.
In the later 1950s, as a teenager I recall that Borgwards were not that uncommon. They were considered a very well-made and desirable car among those more interested in VWs and Mercedes, as opposed to the "finny" US cars of the day, a sort of comfortable sporty car.
Could it go forward as well as Borgward?.
An incredible history of Borgward! You must be a real fan! Amazing that the company at the time was the 2nd largest in Germany! Did you realise that originally Studebaker was the largest American company? Till the Volkswagen Beetle changed thing's, by making SMALLER cars popular' and larger expensive car s like Studebaker sold less than before. Did you, by any chance, make THAT video? This video is something of a "scoop" , in journalistic terms! No- one else knew what happened to the partly revived company! I think I would have bought one myself!
I always liked the looks of the Borgward.
Its great tragedy that Borgward was not assisted to continue, politicians messing up things, as usual.
My uncle had a used Birgward 'black' sedan back in the 50's. No one in the
area had any info about the car. He didn't keep it very long.
I learn to drive by myself in a Borgward Isabella at 12 years old, because when my mother and I went to pick up the car from the dealership I open the glove box and the spare key was there
so I put it in my pocket, the next day I went to car car park building I start the engine and drove all over the car park, the next day I drove out of the building into the street and went around the
block and drove into the car park all this at the centre of the capital city Santiago.
Aw man what a delight!
Those things seem such fun.