Karmann Ghia or Chrysler D'Elegance: Which came first .....

[John Moxon]

The issue is not what came first. What it emphsises is that just like most car design studios Ghia had "house style" elements that they applied across a number of their car designs. It makes sense in a commercial way for people to be able to say...that's a Ghia or that's a Bertone or Pinnafarina, etc etc.
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John.
Posted from my Apple iPhone 6 (Beta)
The VW Judson Register
My '58 Karmann Ghia
1958 Karmann Ghia Postcard Now Available
If I agreed with you we'd both be wrong.

[Gary]

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Download this spreadsheet for NOS/OE parts inquiries--> http://vwjudsonregister.tripod.com/IMAGES/2013-parts-spreadshhet.xls

[John Moxon]

That's really pretty little car...I hadn't seen it before: http://www.wolfsburg-citytour.de/Museen/Archiv_Aut...aigle.html

The website says only two made.

Translation:

[c21darrel]

Nice find Gary, looks like it has a dehne fuel gauge.

[Altema]

Pretty car, but that roofless bus in the last photo looks interesting as well.
Not sure how comfortable I'd be in traffic though...

Paul

[retrowagen]

The Ghia-Aigle Coupe is interesting and pretty. Ghia-Aigle was an independent Swiss-based offshoot of Carrozzeria Ghia; they shared a designer or two briefly but then worked in separate spheres and had nothing to do with another. The Ghia-Aigle Coupe was one of many coachbuilts from independent coachbuilders (such as Rometsch, Wendler, Drews, Hebmüller, Beutler, etc.) trying to either grab contract work for Volkswagen (as Hebmüller and Karmann had successfully done, Hebmüller semi-successfully, that is), or individual commission work from wealthy Europeans seeking a stylish, exclusive, and trouble-free economy car. At the time it was built, Ghia-Aigle was in the midst of a three-year relocation in Lugano, Switzerland (Canton Ticino, an Italian-speaking region of CH), not its namesake Aigle (Canton Vaud, a French-speaking region of CH).

Right around the year 2000, the VW Automuseum bought a few interesting coachbuilts, and have restored them, including the gold-colored Beutler Coupe and this car. The original Ghia-Aigle featured (much better looking) hubcaps in place of the current, rather mundane wheel combo now seen, was not painted an art deco color, and did not have a Super Beetle shift knob.



Complete history about this individual car here: http://www.ghia-aigle.info/cars.htm
More history about the coachbuilding firm here: http://www.ghia-aigle.info/index.htm
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Dave

[DONGKG]

Interesting history of that great vw. thanks for the info.
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'67 KG Cabrio (Mickey) ;
'66 Type 3 (Sharky 2)
'72 Type 2 Homey
'67 Splitty Bus
'65 beetle;'69 Country Buggy; TOOB MEMBER #20

[Endopotential]

Of all the cars reputed to be predecessors of our Karmann Ghia, this one seems to come the closest. What a gorgeous body. There are a lot of design cues that fortunately got passed on.
This one just sold for $1.8 million.

Hmm, just a matter of time before our KG's start racking up 7 figures?



http://money.cnn.com/gallery/autos/2013/03/13/ameila-island-million-dollar-cars/5.html

The sleek body on this Fiat was created by Ghia, an auto design company most famous for its work with Chrysler. In fact, when Chrysler executives got word that this model was in the works, Chrysler designer and engineer Paul Farago put in an order for this particular car, the first of only 15 made. It caused a sensation as it hit the roads in the United States and was even featured in Motor Trend magazine.

[John Moxon]