MICROCAR NEWS Online

1958 BMW Isetta – $4500
located in Winona MN

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/cto/1726304127.html
if the link does not work, the listing has expired

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

Link to the listing for the car.

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.

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.

What do you think?

photo by Jim Janecek

Gould’s 13th Annual Microcar Minicar Classic Event was held July 10,11,12 2008 in Newton MA.

A reporter for The Boston Globe filed a report on the meet (but mostly about Smart Cars) you can read it HERE

more photos of the meet at The Bubbledrome