KarmannGhia

The History of KarmannGhia

By the late 1940's and early 1950's, people around the world had pretty much recovered from World War II. As many of these people began to prosper again, they started to demand better, more elegant, and more entertaining things for their money. Unfortunately, at this time, the world automotive market was dominated by rather bland, but functional cars. Most automotive manufacturers, Volkswagen included, felt the need to come out with a "flagship car" to bolster their image. Witness the Ford Thunderbird, Chevrolet Corvette, and of course, the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. The story behind the development of the Karmann Ghia is an interesting one.
Volkswagen, in the early 1950's, was facing the prospect of selling a small line of "ugly" cars (the Beetle and the Bus) to a more demanding car buying public. VW executives felt it was necessary to introduce an "image" car to reach this new market. Several other car companies were in the same situation, most notably, Chrysler. Chrysler contracted with the Italian styling and coach building firm of Ghia to build a series of "dream" cars. While Chrysler produced some of these dream cars, one car they did not produce would eventually become, you guessed it, the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. While Chrysler worked with Ghia, Volkswagen contracted with the German coach builder, Karmann to build their "image" car. Karmann, in need of a design, approached Ghia and somehow the old Chrysler design surfaced and was modified to fit the Beetle floorpan. The VW executives liked what they saw and by August of 1955, the first Volkswagen Karmann Ghias rolled off assembly line in Osnabruck, German as 1956 models.

The automotive and the public instantly fell in love with the beautiful design and hand crafted workmanship, but not the performance. For the Karmann Ghia, Volkswagen decided to use the same 36 h.p. flat four engine that was being used in the Beetle at the time. While the looks and craftmanship made for a "sporty" car, the small engine did not make a "sports" car. The power was adequate and the suspension was good for the era. These two factors combined with the Karmann Ghia's great looks made for a fairly good selling car, totalling over 10,000 the first year. When the convertible came out a couple of years later in 1958, sales jumped to around 18,000 cars per year. Sales climbed steadily until the late 1960's when they peaked in the neighborhood of 33,000 cars a year. The Karmann Ghia was last produced in 1974 to make way for the new VW Scirocco. Only 365,912 coupes and 79,326 convertibles were produced which make the Karmann Ghia a fairly rare car considering it was produced for nearly 20 years.
It's interesting to note that only a couple of years after the Karmann Ghia was introduced, Volkswagen refocused its efforts on the Beetle. The VW executives felt the Beetle had enough "image" of its own and that the company would be most successful if it continued to sell the Beetle by the millions. During the same time period, several other "image" cars debuted, including the afore mentioned Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird. These cars were indeed true sports cars and in an effort to maintain sales in light of this competition, VW embarked on a unique advertising campaign. Volkswagen tried to convince consumers to focus on the beauty of the Karmann Ghia and ignore the engine (or lack thereof!). Some ads were quite funny. For instance, in one television commercial, they showed a Karmann Ghia racing toward a huge sheet of paper as to rip through it, only to bounce off of it! In some print ads, VW had the nerve to put a Ghia in the same picture as a Maserati and Lamborghini and then tell you that even though the Ghia isn't as fast, it sure costs a lot less!
Today, the Karmann Ghia is one of the most sought after air-cooled Volkswagens, especially the convertibles. Appraised values of nice coupes typically run from $3,000 to $6,000 for coupes and $7,000 to $10,000 for convertibles. I've even seen some advertised for as much as $15,000! Not bad for a car that originally sold for around $3,000. Most parts are readily available, especially the mechanical parts, and are quite reasonably priced. It is quite possible to restore an old Karmann Ghia to its original beauty and add a larger engine and better suspension to come up with a "true" sports car. The biggest drawback to restoring a Ghia is that they tend to rust considerably more than other Volkswagens. This is probably due to their unibody construction the fact that they were hand built. Fortunately, there are plenty of after market body parts available and when restored by a capable body shop they can look just as good or better than original.

The Karmann Ghia has a graceful, timeless design that, in 1969, was named one of the most beautifully designed products in the world. In June of 1972, Car and Driver magazine put the Karmann Ghia into world class status by comparing it to the ever classic Porsche Speedster. The Volkswagen Karmann Ghia is truly a special car. It is beautiful and timeless in design and it wonderfully affordable, reliable, and fun to drive.