The new Borgward- Large percentage of Borgward is for sale due to poor sales

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You Europeans are going nuts in this thread, like somebody just resurrected Tucker from the dead. What the hell is a Borgward?

In a nutshell, a German brand who had a lot going for it after the 2nd World War. Building both trucks and cars, Borgward was one of those car manufactures that were on the rise, much like Tucker. And ironically like Tucker, the brand went under after being forced into liquidation, with many believing that the such a move was done by the bigger German brands, who feared that the challenge of Borgward would take away their customers. It turned out that it was the founder of the company, Carl Borgward, who made decisions that put the brand in the red and drove away many of its investors In fact, it was the demise of the brand that allowed BMW to save itself from bankrupcy with the 1500 series saloon.

Old Borgwards were good cars, but they had many teething problems after coming out of the production line. That was one of their major issues...
 
And ironically like Tucker, the brand went under after being forced into liquidation, with many believing that the such a move was done by the bigger German brands, who feared that the challenge of Borgward would take away their customers. It turned out that it was the founder of the company, Carl Borgward, who made decisions that put the brand in the red and drove away many of its investors In fact, it was the demise of the brand that allowed BMW to save itself from bankrupcy with the 1500 series saloon.

That's one version of it. Another would be that it was the report of Johannes Semler that (having successfully paid off all Borgwards creditors and kept the company solvent) disuaded any investment that would have allowed Borgward to keep trading - a relatively small investment given the amount repaid to suppliers under Semlers guidance. The suspect part of that is that Semler was Chairman of the Board at BMW! (who had just been rescued from Bankruptcy themselves by Herbert Quandt). Technically Semler did a great job, Borgward ceased trading not owing anything to its creditors, and maintaining its assets - but I cannot imagine how that situation came to be given the conflict of interests it would have represented -- especially given how that event coincided with a marked period of growth and prosperity for BMW.

You Europeans are going nuts in this thread, like somebody just resurrected Tucker from the dead. What the hell is a Borgward?

There's unfinished business there in my eyes, that's why I'm interested.
 
You Europeans are going nuts in this thread, like somebody just resurrected Tucker from the dead. What the hell is a Borgward?

A dinosaur that died out due to natural causes.

One of the reasons they folded is because they couldn't compete on price with the other German manufacturers who cut costs by sharing components through their different ranges. Borgward didn't - preferring to keep everything unique to each vehicle.

Aside from the fact no one knows who they are or what they stand for, how can they survive on an equal price footing to other German 'luxury' brands - which is what i guess they're aiming for - without being able to component-share?

Surely it's set to fail in exactly the same manner?

I'm well aware of the name 'Borgward' as a German car manufacturer. Yet in 25+ years of being into classic cars and being an avid reader and subscriber of classic car mags, i had no idea of what market-segment Borgward occupied or even what one looked like. If Borgward means that little to someone like me, what hope does it have for selling cars to anyone else?
 
First official teaser:
borgward-geneva-motor-show-teaser_100502300_h.jpg
Why is the the letter D is slightly bigger than the rest ?
 
FYI. For those of you who remember the "Columbo" TV series of the rumpled, always forgetfull detective, he drove a Borgward. They were more common than most people know.
 
Oh wow, they actually have something that's almost ready to show. Wasn't sure how long it would take for anything to come from them or if it would come at all, but I'm really interested in seeing what they do.
 
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Odd that the sports car suddenly morphed into an SUV :lol:

It looks pretty generic from those spy shots apart from the odd crease that tucks behind the rear lights. I hope they know what they are doing.
 
FYI. For those of you who remember the "Columbo" TV series of the rumpled, always forgetfull detective, he drove a Borgward. They were more common than most people know.

I thought that was a Peugeot 403?

As for Borgward; interesting history, even made it into F1 (albeit with F2 engines raced by F1 privateers), the saloon looks okay but the SUV not-so-much. If their market is super-refined uber-bespoke then they might be in with a chance, otherwise I don't see them competing against Nissan-Renault-Dacia, Volkswagen-Audi-Porsche, Peugeot-Citroen and definitely not BMW.

EDIT: Tree'd by @MatskiMonk on Columbo's car :)
 
Oh wow, they actually have something that's almost ready to show. Wasn't sure how long it would take for anything to come from them or if it would come at all, but I'm not really interested in seeing what they do.

Oh lawd :lol:

Edited.
 
From the camouflage pictures in Post #45, this SUV doesn't look bad to me. A lot of us don't even know of Borgward or their products. So I'm not going to knock Borgward on returning with an SUV. Maybe this company has some more exciting ideas down the road. Who knows? Maybe they'll come up with something stunning down the road, like a super-high end luxury car or maybe some sports car to compete with the SRT Viper or something. Something tells me this company has bigger dreams and plans in the future. But of course, I could be wrong...
 
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