The BMW 700. The car that saved BMW.
Sections: 700, Official News, Vintage BMW Jun 3rd, 2009 1 Comment
Official Release: Things did not look good. Indeed, BMW was rapidly approaching the final collapse and demise of the Company in the 1950s: While motorcycle production had reached a new record in 1952, production figures decreased more significantly in the years to come than they had increased in the late ’40s.
To set off this dismal end of the motorcycle market, BMW built the prototype of a new small car in 1950, taking up the lines of the pre-war BMW 327 and the 600-cc fl at-twin engine so popular at the time. But the project was subsequently discarded for economic reasons.
After launching the Isetta in 1954 in an attempt to set off the slump in the motorcycle market, BMW soon realised that this bubble car was too small for the new customers entering the market, who, as a result of the German “economic miracle” soon expected a lot more of their new car in the late ’50s. Quite simply, therefore, such spartan “super-minis” had already passed their climax, with customers demanding a longer wheelbase and more comfort.
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