By: Sabine Dobel
Munich, Germany - It's so cute it's almost a caricature, but for many people in postwar Germany it was the only four-wheeled alternative to a moped.
The egg-shaped Glass Goggomobil bears more than a passing resemblance to Google's driverless car, but it comes from another age altogether. More than half a century ago, tiny runabouts such as this offered freedom after years of post-Second World War austerity. For many Germans reduced to riding bicycles and asthmatic mopeds, the diminutive runabout was their first real car.
Introduced in 1955, the standard Goggomobil was just 2900mm long on an 1800mm wheelbase, 1260mm wide, 1310mm high and weighed only 400kg. Its 250cc two-stroke engine was good for about 80km/h, although later coupé versions were a little faster.
It was the most popular of the German microcars and was available in a range of bright and unusual colours, including mint green, beige and a strange light brown called “maquillage”, which is French for make-up.
BUMPY RIDE
The Goggomobil is very utilitarian by today's standards, with no power steering, no aircon and low-tech wind-up windows. Tiny wheels ensure a bumpy ride, and both head and legroom are severely restricted. But it cost less than 3000 Deutschmarks (£255, the equivalent of R510) at launch, and it could be driven on a motorcycle licence, so you didn't have to pass the more difficult and expensive car driving test.
“It was the ideal replacement for a motorcycle,” said Glas Automobilclub International chairman Uwe Gusen. “Compared to the three-wheeled Isetta and the slim Messerschmitt with its aircraft-style tandem seating, the Goggomobil even looked like a proper car, albeit a miniature one.”
In the end the Goggomobil lost out to cheap, mass-produced cars such as the Volkswagen Beetle, the Citroen 2CV and the Fiat 500. About 250 000 were sold between 1955 and 1969, when the Glas factory in Dingolfing was bought out by BMW, which promptly shut it down.
RETROSPECTIVE
To mark the 60th anniversary of the Goggomobil, about 20 of them are on display in the transport section of the German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology in Munich, one of the world's largest showcases of science and technology.
Old films and photographs on show alongside the cars recapture the atmosphere as whole families managed to squeeze inside them to go on holiday, even though a Goggomobil measures just three metres from bumper to bumper.
dpa