Even in the long evolution of Mercedes-Benz style, few cars have looked as timeless as the W111/W112 coupes. They were designed 60 years ago, but they don’t look like a car of 1960. The coupes…
Browsing Category German Cars
The Blue Oval’s Supermini: Ford Fiesta Mk1
“Mini cars,” Henry Ford II famously once said, equal “Mini profits.” That was on May 13, 1971 and said in reaction to the early sales success of the Pinto. It came at the end of…
Reversal of Fortune:
Audi A4 Mk1
In 1992, Audi struggled to move less than 15,000 cars in the United States. Ten years later, it moved more than 85,000. Although Audi reinvented its entire lineup in that time, one car more than…
The First 3-Series: BMW E21
It has beautiful, classic BMW lines by Paul Bracq. It has excellent handling, loads of room, and it’s fun to drive like a proper BMW. It’s even historic – the first car to wear the…
O.G. G-Wagen: Mercedes 460-Series Geländewagen
Nobody would have predicted that the military surplus Mercedes Geländewagen would end up a coveted luxury item, but that’s what it’s best known as today. This particularly true in the USA, where the truck’s best-ever…
Alpine Fire Brigade: Volkswagen LT 4X4
Hundreds of thousands of VW LT vans were built over the truck’s lengthy lifespan – 1975 to 1996 – but just 1,250 of them were the lifted, go-anywhere 4X4 models. LT stands for “Lasten-Transporter,” loosely…
International Flavors:
Opel GT
It must have been an odd sight – a miniature Corvette sitting in a showroom across from herds of loaded Buick land yachts, but the Opel GT was a success for Opel and for U.S. Buick dealers.
NSU’s Comeback:
The Little Prinz
A true comeback kid, the NSU Prinz, with its raucus, 26-hp 583-cc air-cooled twin and crash four-speed, started arriving at stores in the spring of 1958.
Almost an M: 1987 BMW 535iS
The BMW 5-series first appeared in 1972, picking up the baton from the Neue Klasse sedans that had reinvented BMW in the 1960s. Like the Neue Klasse, that original 5, the E12, was also a…
Miami Nice:
Audi Cabriolet
1993 was nearly Audi’s nadir in the U.S., and for awhile it looked like the brand might not stick it out. At the time, the company was struggling to move 12,000 units a year in…
Born on the Neckar: NSU-Fiat 500 Weinsberg
NSU-Fiats were German versions of regular Fiats, but occasionally they produced something truly unique. The 500 Weinsberg was cooked up at Heilbronn as a luxurious and bespoke Nuova 500.
The Classic Type 3 Squareback
By the late 1950s Volkswagen was keen to expand beyond the Beetle but not eclipse it. That new car, furtively tooling around the Black Forest in prototype form, was the VW Type 3.