Let’s have a show of hands. Who’s ever seen a Goggomobil? Okay, who’s ever heard of a Goggomobil? If you answered no, I doubt you are alone. These were Bavarian-built automobiles sold between 1955-69 in sedan, coupe, van, and pickup configurations, and seldom made it to the United States. This one is a TS 400 Coupe from 1958 and has had the same owner for the past 41 years. Having not been registered in close to five decades, this little car is available in Tujunga, California and here on Facebook Marketplace for $2,850.
The Goggomobil was a series of microcars built by a company known as Hans Glas GmbH in the town of Dingolfing. These cars and trucks were powered by an air-cooled, two-stroke, two-cylinder engines that came in 250, 300, and 400 cc displacements and were mounted behind the rear wheels. The cars had an electric pre-selective transmission with a manual clutch. They rode on independent suspensions using coil springs with swing axles at all four corners.
Goggomobil offered a 2+2 coupe beginning in 1958. This is what the seller has to offer using the larger of the engines available, putting out a whopping 18.5 horsepower! This coupe was pricier than the sedan yet managed to sell more than 66,500 copies over about a decade of production. The seller is handling the sale of this car on behalf of the owner, an 80-year-old who acquired the car around 1980. Obviously, it doesn’t run, and the seller believes some of the engine parts are missing. However, if you were to replace those parts or source another motor, you might have a mostly complete car to work with.
The body doesn’t show much in the way of rust that we can see, but both the hood and trunk are dented (as if they were sat on) and the windshield is missing (actually mostly broken out). There is a lot of stuff stored inside the car, so we really can’t determine the extent of the work needed in the passenger compartment. Supposedly it would seat two folks up front and a couple of tiny people in the back.
We’re guessing this machine was painted in some version of cream over orange at some point. Sourcing parts in the U.S. might be a challenge at this point, but we assume outlets could be found in Europe as nearly 285,000 versions of the Goggomobil were built over 15 years. The buyer will have to figure out a way to get this car titled again as it hasn’t been registered in 50 years and comes with only a bill of sale.
Hagerty says one of these cars in tip-top shape can be worth more than $36,000 and Fair will fetch maybe $10,000. So perhaps there is a bit of a financial incentive to getting this car going again. You’d likely have 1-of-1 in whatever crowd you choose to run in. The last photo could be a good representation of what this little car could look like all gussied up again.
We saw several of these at the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum before he sold it all & shut down. What I think the photos don’t often portray is a sense of scale. These things are tiny, like 3/4 Miata size. Pretty neat little cars and likely a blast to drive providing you stay away from (or out from under) all the SUVs on the road today
I have seen these before and they are really interesting. I like how the seller placed a Red Bull can on the hood for scale. I didn’t do any research on this but I would imagine your pursuit for parts might take you a lifetime. I like the NSU prinz or the old Panhards.
Alphasud, if you like the NSU Prinz and Panhards, watch BFover the next couple months. I have a ’59 Prinz III which runs, Ca. car and 16,900 orig. miles on it. Plus will be listing for sale 10 Panhards I’ve saved from the overseas furnaces to prevent them from coming back as HF vises. Lost storage here in N. Ca. and have to pass them on to others. And vs cars like the Goggos and Isettas, any Panhard is good for 80 mph with its 850 cc aircooled flat twin with all rollerbeariing engine designed in ’47 to do 7000 rpm! All the engines since 53 put out 40 hp from those 2banger hemis and get close to 4p mpg, not to mention they started the world’s auto biz by being the first production co. to last – producing 26 cars during 1890-91 as they had been building stationary engines under license from Daimler since get this:1876! And as Panhard’s real biz back then was making and selling industrial power tools for making wood furniture to the furniture industry, they downsized their engines to fit wood carts & viola, became the first production car co.
A statue in Paris commemorates their car as the winner of the first road race – in 1894.
Will use BF for ads as it’s the perfect site for projects like these, and we’ve got a nationwide club for info, plus two excellent new history books on the cars have appeared in the last 4 yrs. Stay tuned –
Sounds good Ken, can’t wait to see these being listed. I went to a hidden away junk yard above Reading PA in the early 90’s. Eclectic guy hoarded micro cars during the first fuel crisis. Unfortunately by the time we went in they were too far gone but at least really fun to see and touch those cars.
Dingolfing, a BMW plant there since about 1967. I wonder if there is a connection? Isetta cousin?
BMW Glas 1600 Coupe hailed from that plant.
Yes, BMW bought Glas around 1966/67, slowly killed off all Glas and Goggo products and have built BMW there ever since! I have owned a BMW 1600GT which was a strange mix of the Glas Coupe body, BMW drivetrain, roundie taillights and badges. Wonderful Porsche 911 competitor that nobody knows about.
I do know the Glas 1600 coupe, it’s one of those unknown and underappreciated European cars that will someday achieve cult status. Great cars, I had one for a while when I lived in Germany in 1975. Non-BMW parts were difficult to find even then.
In 1993 I hosted a large European car club {CAAR of France} when they shipped 150+ cars to the USA and 400 people. We began the trip in Washington DC, up to Chicago, then using Rt 66, went all the way to the Santa Monica pier!
We had a little Gogomobile along on the trip. The German couple camped most of the way, and were the first up & off in the early morning, usually before the sun was up, and they were often the last to arrive in the evening, not due to mechanical problems, it’s just because that little car was so damn slow! But they did make it all the way [almost 4,000 miles]!
BMW took over the Goggomobil Hans GLAS Manufacturing Plant in the late 60’s.
Looks like this Gogomobil wentwent.
Hayabusa swap candidate…
should be an easy restoration project. Just pop in to your local NAPA for a new windshield, headlights, ad nauseum?
maybe try ROCKAUTO… all the parts your car will ever need….LOL!!!
The really hot one is the Goggomobile Dart from Australia!!
Chinga, they can bring a lot of money, too!
They were made by Bill Buckle, who also gave us the Buckle Coupe, a stylish vehicle (no external door handles) powered by the 2.6 inline Ford Zephyr motor. About ten made, expensive now.
Parts are available in Europe. Not expensive, so for someone who wants a rewsrding project, this is great.
Don’t even think about driving it unless you want to convert to EV for downtown use only.
This is obviously the ultra rare Gogomobil TS 400 Coupe’ AERO with Red Bull wings.
When I was in school, then living in Northern New Hampshire, one of my classmates had a Goggomobile sedan and I tried to get the preselector gear shift working. I think each gear must have had two or three wires, plus several more to detect clutching, etc. and I never could get it to work. Perhaps they sub contracted the design work to Lucas.
At least nos replacement parts would be easy to find.
Phil, After hearing their “All the parts your car will ever need” schtick, over & over again, I decided to call them for parts on my car. They asked me what car, and I said Tatra. “What year”, I said 1962. They asked “What model?” I said “The only one they offered- the T-603”. they said, “Well, we got an inline fuel filter”. That was all.
I guess my car will never need anything except for a fuel filter, and I have plenty of them already!
Well, being a 2-stroke means not a lot of engine parts needed!
I just remembered, I’m pretty sure I have an original Gogomobile rear aluminum “Grille”, If there is an owner who needs one, let me know, I’ll find it.
The Glas was a 1700 and one of the very earliest cars to use a rubber timing belt. The BMW powered and mfgrd. version was 1600 cc
Glas had a 1300GT first before the 1700GT, and the engines were used in some other Glas models also. The Glas V8 was essentially two of the 4 cylinders in a V block. Glas is credited as having the FIRST production car use of a rubber cam timing belt, although those first belts were actually were not rubber but some kind of Urethane compound. After BMW bought Glas they used up the existing Glas bodies by using BMW 1600 engines, and changed the rear suspension over to BMW parts also.. The Glas GTs were designed and built by Frua in Italy and shipped to the Glas plant in Germany. There is a very active Glas club in Germany so some parts may be available through them.
Crush it!
Lord Snowden, husband of England´s Pricess Margaret drove a Goggo 400 CP. He showed up at official affairs driving it, whereas the rest of the ¨Royals¨ were chauffeured in their Daimler limousines. Upon being asked by irritated stiff-upper-lippers why, he allegedly answered: ¨When british industry manages to design and built a little car as good as my Goggo, I´ll buy and drive one. Until then I keep my Goggomobil.¨ As far as the Glas 1700GT goes, it is indeed an unsung hero, having been a great car in every way, excepting the rust problem of course. Hans Glas was a veritable genius designing everything under the sun on 2 or 4 wheels, from farm machinery to elegant, up-scale sports cars, including 2-stroke air cooled engines, 4- stroke boxers, in-line 4 cylinders, V8´s, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, you name it. This guy belongs into a designers Hall of Fame.