Thursday 25th June 2009

Karmann Shuts Its Doors

German coachbuilder folds after building final CLK convertible

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The iconic VW Karmann Ghia

Specialist coachbuilder Karmann has closed its doors for the last time after its final car, a Mercedes CLK convertible, rolled off the company’s production line in Osnabruck, Germany on Monday.

The firm, which employed more than 2000 people, has blamed its collapse partly on the changing behaviour of mainstream car manufacturers, which have increasingly moved production of niche models in-house rather than subcontracting out to specialist coachbuilders.

The failure of the firm has also been partly attributed to crippling social provision for its employees, according to the Financial Times Deutschland, angering workers’ unions. “It is outrageous that the insolvency should be blamed on the social plan costs, when they are not even paying severance pay,” said Hartmut Riemann, of the IG Metall union.

Karmann is probably best known for its VW-based, Ghia-styled coupe, of which it sold more than 400,000 examples between 1955 and 1974, but the German company has actually produced more than 3.3million vehicles between 1949 – when it first started to build Beetle convertibles for VW.

Below are some highlights of Karmann’s back catalogue.

Karmann-built BMW 3.0 CS (albeit an Alpina version)	Escort Cosworth: Essex boy from Osnabruck
Karmann did bodies-in-white for the 968	Karmann built 86,000 6-series models
Karmann's name was on the first Scirocco...	...and also on the chunky Corrado

 

 

 

[Trusty Steed]

Sad day, its a shame that they will be no more

[Agoogy]

A travesty.... where is the German Government this time? supporting GM one minute letting a national treasure die the next.... not on.

[zhead]

A sad day indeed - owned a Karmann Ghia cab myself when I was younger. Great summer cars (just underpowered..!).

RIP Karmann - a design house which little realise was such an influence.

[ExPat2B]

I can't think of a more perfectly proportioned BMW. Makes the bangle efforts look oh so wrong.

[KelWedge]

Very Sad, Dont forget they did the Beetle and Golf Soft tops as well.

I shall take the dust off my Karmenn Ghia tonight,
Note to self, Rebuild it, said that 15 years ago.

[Gio G]

ExPat2B said:

I can't think of a more perfectly proportioned BMW. Makes the bangle efforts look oh so wrong.

Agree, I love this design....

[sad61t]

KelWedge said:

Very Sad, Don't forget they did the Beetle and Golf Soft tops as well.

I shall take the dust off my Karmann Ghia tonight,
Note to self, Rebuild it, said that 15 years ago.

While you're there, please take a photo and add it into your profile.

[Paul 8v]

Sad to see them go, responsible for all of my favourite VW's, that BMW looks lovely, what model is it?

[toothrot]

Agoogy said:

A travesty.... where is the German Government this time? supporting GM one minute letting a national treasure die the next.... not on.

erm think about it, GM offer much more to teh economy than some little car company specialising in low volume specialist coachwork for the big boys

[the fury]

toothrot said:

Agoogy said:

A travesty.... where is the German Government this time? supporting GM one minute letting a national treasure die the next.... not on.

erm think about it, GM offer much more to teh economy than some little car company specialising in low volume specialist coachwork for the big boys

Well, yes, but as Karmann is smaller surely it shouldn't need as much money? Plus it's German and not owned by a parent company in the US.

Edited by the fury on Thursday 25th June 13:54

[wab172uk]

Shame. They produced some exciting cars down the years.

Escort Cosworths still look awsome today.

[mk5 steve]

As above sad days & more people out of work from the car market.

[MattGreen7]

ExPat2B said:

I can't think of a more perfectly proportioned BMW. Makes the bangle efforts look oh so wrong.

I can...............



Mmmmmmmmm!

Edited by MattGreen7 on Thursday 25th June 14:06

[Gridl0k]

Agoogy said:

A travesty.... where is the German Government this time? supporting GM one minute letting a national treasure die the next.... not on.

Are they supposed to summon business out of thin air? No point paying a load of people to sit around not working from the taxpayer's pocket.

AMG, M-Tech, RS, R32/R20/etc, all in-haus. Simply no work out there (and certainly not of the same scale as 86,000 BMWs or 50,000+ Corrados)

[Agoogy]

Gridl0k said:

Agoogy said:

A travesty.... where is the German Government this time? supporting GM one minute letting a national treasure die the next.... not on.

Are they supposed to summon business out of thin air? No point paying a load of people to sit around not working from the taxpayer's pocket.

AMG, M-Tech, RS, R32/R20/etc, all in-haus. Simply no work out there (and certainly not of the same scale as 86,000 BMWs or 50,000+ Corrados)

,

yeah but..no but..yeah but..no but whatever.. pay cuts, the odd subsidy would all help..

I mean facts like that never stopped the British government supporting BL..Austin..Rover...LDV FFS...

I never suggested a company can survive on government support alone, but provide a lifeline whilst perhaps Karman could have talks with VAG/BMW/MB etc... any number of tie ups could be sought if they could stay in business long enough... they were a key player in the German Auto industry..

[odyssey2200]

Very Sad day!

I visited the karmann factory in 1998 on a training course on the CLK.

It was a very interesting place.

[dinkel]

[odyssey2200]

[Gridl0k]

They did some really, really nice concepts.

[Paul Holroyd]

Shame...perhaps someone with more money than sense and a passion for cars could buy the plant and maybe design a new sports car with the knowledge they have and rise from the ashes.