The annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is one of the world’s biggest trade shows devoted to cellphones, smartphones and mobile gear. Wired covered the show and found that devices apparently don’t seem to sell themselves, they need Microcars!
That is a nice Spanish ISO Isetta on display (note the oval sticker in the corner of the rear window: Vintage Microcar Club!)
GARMIN seems to have an affinity for using microcars to help attract attention, they also have a BMW Isetta on display in the front window of their flagship store on Michigan Ave in Chicago.
read more about the show at: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/gallery-mwc/all/1
This 1957 Bubble Window Isetta sold Friday Jan 22 at RM Auctions in AZ for $33,000(don’t know if that is hammer price or price with buyer’s commission yet…)
Note this is NOT a cabrio like the one at Russo & Steele
This 1956 BMW Isetta Bubble Window cabrio just sold in Scottsdale AZ at the Russo & Steele auction for $42,000.
This was an ALL RESERVE auction (as opposed to Barrett-Jackson which is all NO Reserve) and the reserve was off at $39,500. Bidding was at $39,500 and the reserve was not met and they rolled the car away and were on to the next car when the seller apparently changed his mind and they went back to it for another $2500.
This was restored by Greg Hahs and I think I know who the guy in the hat was that bought it. We will see if it shows up in his collection, I don’t think he had a Bubble Window cabrio.
The results from this auction were from watching the Live Feed, the official Russo & Steele Auction site does not yet have result from this auction. This car was not touched by the damages caused by high winds that caused some tents there to collapse.
“Terminally Cute” is how the announcers describe it, but for awhile on Tuesday, this car had the top sales spot (along with a Messerschmitt KR175 at $40,000) and probably annoyed some sellers of cars selling in the $20K range.
Expect a Behind the Scenes story of what it is like to sell a car at Barrett-Jackson from Richard Lewis (the restorer and seller) in a future issue of MICROCAR NEWS magazine. If you look *really hard* you can see Richard standing on the left side (our left) of the Auctioneer podium. He is wearing a dark jacket and baseball cap. He says that as soon as the car was brought out someone dragged him away from the car and plopped him there. Apparently standard procedure so everyone knows who the seller is and it prevents you from bidding on your own car.
This car had a “hammer price” of $43,000
SpeedTV’s own online “magazine” referred to the sale price as $47,300
but they also showed a photo of a different car when mentioning it.
and the NY Times said it sold for “nearly $50,000”
Wow, the price just keeps going up even though the auction has ended.
The Hilton Head Island Concours once again had a MICROCARS class (thanks to J.C.O’Steen).
Invited participants included:
1938 American Bantam Boulevard Delivery -owner: Mark & Hilary Becker 1940 Bantam Riviera – owner: Buster & Brenda Tankersley 1952 Crosley Super Sport – owner: Ken Cahill 1954 Rovin D4 - owner: Lane Motor Museum 1956 BMW Isetta Bubble Window cabrio – owner: J.C. O’Steen 1957 BMW Isetta – owner: Frank Rabino Collection 1958 Messerschmitt KR201 – owner: Mac Jones 1959 New Map Solyto – owner: Lane Motor Museum 1960 FMR Tg500 – owner: Ralph & Wendy Hough 1960 Messerschmitt KR200 – owner: Buster & Brenda Tankersley
Best of Class went to Ken Cahill’s Crosley Super Sport Palmetto Awards went to Mac Jones’ KR201 and Frank Rabino Collection’s BMW Isetta
As more Microcars are being restored to a higher standard and they are getting recognized by more automotive enthusiasts and collectors, expect to see more Vintage Microcars at Concours events across the USA in the future.
The original title of this 1957 film starring Peter Sellers was “Your Past Is Showing” but for some reason they now call it “The Naked Truth”. The credits also refer to it as “The Naked Truth” at the end as well (?)
Anyways -These are all the scenes from the movie with a British-built RHD BMW Isetta.
The driver of the Isetta is actually the “bad guy” who is trying to blackmail famous people into not printing their sordid tales in his gossip magazine: The Naked Truth. If he could only afford an Isetta and has to live on an old boat, it would appear his blackmailing skills are not well honed.
Note in the first scene when the Isetta drives up to the camera with lights on and then turns them off, if you are watch in HQ you can see that the lighting crew quickly put some sort of diffusion material over the headlamps and did not trim it very well. It is quite obvious when the lamps are turned off.
Later scenes do not have the material on the headlamps.
Do you know any other films with Isettas or other Microcars in them? leave info in the comments section and hopefully clips from the films will show up here in the future.
Bunch of Microcars up for auction over Labor Day Weekend in Auburn IN at KRUSE AUBURN 2009
The online catalog is not particularly easy to navigate through, but you can get an idea of at least which DAY each car will be auctioned. Plus there the official “catalogue” shows a few more cars than appear on the website, (more…)
This video pretty much sums it up. What other car could you make a video like this with?
What is a bit astonishing is that this was made by the BMW Museum in Munich.
Listen to the lyrics and in particular to ” …without you I would never rise again”
Does this mean BMW is finally acknowledging the Isetta’s place in their history as “the car that saved BMW”?
Maybe it is just coincidence but this commercial is all stop-motion animation with KinToy Isettas zipping about, having fun and mixing it up with all the other BMW marques as well as modern day traffic. To think they just randomly selected a song to run in the background is difficult to believe.
A French Yellow Pages ad with what appears to be an ItalianSPANISH-built ISO Isetta driving around!
great footage and the car is a featured player, not just background. (thanks to John Malcolm for digging this up…)
The annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is one of the world’s biggest trade shows devoted to cellphones, smartphones and mobile gear. Wired covered the show and found that devices apparently don’t seem to sell themselves, they need Microcars!
