BMW Isetta 300

As Europe recovered from World War II, more people wanted to get on the roads. Between the centuries-old, narrow roads and wartime damage, many cars were too big to navigate the small spaces and too ponderous to avoid the rubble of war. This opened up a market for small, nimble scooters and motorbikes like the Vespa. While sales for scooters skyrocketed, many wished for something with better protection from the weather.

The Italian motorcycle manufacturer Iso introduced the tiny Isetta (“little Iso”) at the Turin Auto Show in 1953. The next year, Isettas took the top three places in the economy class at the 1,000-mile Mille Miglia race. While a definite attention-grabber, the car did not sell well. Iso decided to put the design rights on the market. Companies in Europe and Latin America took the risk. Soon there were 3-wheeled Isettas, 4-wheeled Isettas and even a few pickup truck models being built around the world.

In 1955, BMW became one of companies to buy the Isetta rights. Still struggling to recover from World War II, BMW re-engineered the Isetta for better performance and comfort, and it became one of the best-selling microcars in post-war Germany. Nicknamed das rollende Ei, “rolling egg”, its top speed, downhill and with a tailwind, was only 55 mph. However, with the ability to get more than 50 mpg, the German postal service had fleets of these energy-efficient “bubble cars,” and a few were even used as police cars.

The Isetta faced stiff competition from other small cars like the VW Beetle, which had milestone of . Drivers preferred that a Beetle fit the standard format of a car, but was still nimble on narrow roads. In the end fewer than 200,000 Isettas were made in six years, while over 20 million Beetles were made over 60 years.