1958 BMW Isetta - $40,000 (Anoka)

[Fossil]

I am in no way associated with this vehicle.

1958 BMW Isetta. Has deluxe/tropical door! Runs and drives great. Gets looks where ever it goes and a blast to drive.

 

1958 BMW Isetta

condition: excellent
cylinders: other
drive: rwd
fuel: gas
odometer: 11675
paint color: red
size: sub-compact
title status: clean
transmission: manual
type: other

[Leif in Calif]

Looks great and this may be an appropriate price! I had a 6'4" Highschool teacher who drove one of these!  

[TerryB]

236ccs of screamn BMW motivation.  Be sure to live and travel on flat ground😀.

[John_S_in_Penna]

It might be fun in a parking lot, but for $40,000, 

almost any other car would be my preference.

 

Doug Demuro, a Youtube reviewer of mostly exotic

cars, did a review and test drive--see link below.

His review is both practical and funny:  "It has less

horsepower than any John Deere mower currently in

production."  It doesn't sound like a very good car!

The test drive is in the latter half of his video.

 

 

Edited July 25, 2022 by John_S_in_Penna (see edit history)

[Steve_Mack_CT]

Guy a street over has one if these things.  Saturday I saw him about 6 or 7 miles from the neighborhood on a 45 mph road.  Traffic on a Saturday morning was brisk and he looked pretty intense as he was coming to a major intersection.  I was thinking to myself, I take my A on that road regularly in confidence but that thing looked like a rolling death trap on its little golf cart like wheels etc.  I have yet to chat with him about it, interesting but filed under more weird than wonderful to me anyway.

[Shipping reccomendations]

One of the funniest “car” video’s I’ve ever watched.

[StillOutThere]

I owned a '58 Isetta 300 and drove it here in the Texas Hill Country.  True it is not a great acceleration car when pulling onto a state highway.  But that 4 speed transmission made up for everything in traffic and residential hills around town.  If you test drive, be aware the shift pattern is "upside down and backward" from what you expect in your muscle car.  The reactions from the public and at "cruise night" or shows is continually priceless.  And in 2022 you will absolutely love the fuel mileage.  "Yeah, its got a Hemi" as that R26 BMW 2 cylinder motorcycle engine has in fact hemispherical combustion chambers.  The cornering capabilities of these American versions with dual rear wheels (single in Euro versions) is unbelievable and I never got the car into a hard lean even when throwing it around on my twisty drive and subdivision roads.   I'm 6' 2" and this car had the most operator room of anything I've ever owned.

I let mine go when a retired Chrysler engineer friend simply could not live without it.   I'm sorry I relented.  I could use the economy today.

So I've followed the market some.   Yes, they were this high a few years ago.  True this one is too optimistic today.

Don't knock it if you haven't tried it.

[TexRiv_63]

Sorry, I will never understand the attraction or crazy price of these cars.

[TAKerry]

On 7/25/2022 at 1:08 PM, Leif in Calif said:

Looks great and this may be an appropriate price! I had a 6'4" Highschool teacher who drove one of these!  

Not quite that tall but my band teacher in HS spoke highly of his Isetta.  He sold it before I got to HS and was driving VW's. He was quite a quirky fellow.

[wayne sheldon]

When I was little (there he goes again!), my mom did not drive. We lived on the outskirts of old San Jose California, just a long block away from the Alameda Avenue. It was about eight blocks to Bettencourt's grocery and what used to be world famous "Andy's Pet Shop" (both on the Alameda). Just past those stores, behind a fence in a vacant space between stores, were two Isetta cars. There was a knothole in one of the fence boards, and whenever we would walk a bit past the two stores that we walked there for? I would look through that knothole and at those two Issetas. I was five to seven years old. I thought they were neat!

When I was seven, we moved to the suburbs.

[suchan]

5 hours ago, wayne sheldon said:

When I was little (there he goes again!), my mom did not drive. We lived on the outskirts of old San Jose California, just a long block away from the Alameda Avenue. It was about eight blocks to Bettencourt's grocery and what used to be world famous "Andy's Pet Shop" (both on the Alameda). Just past those stores, behind a fence in a vacant space between stores, were two Isetta cars. There was a knothole in one of the fence boards, and whenever we would walk a bit past the two stores that we walked there for? I would look through that knothole and at those two Issetas. I was five to seven years old. I thought they were neat!

When I was seven, we moved to the suburbs.

San Jose was an interesting place before it turned into a megalopolis. I guess it still is, but you have to look hard. I recall an identical pair of mid-30’s Hupmobile sedans rusting away in a vacant lot on San Carlos St in the 60’s.