Microcar
West Germany
Front door
Four seats

BMW 600

Also known as Isetta 600, “Große Isetta”

An Isetta grown long enough for four: you still get into the front through the nose, with the steering wheel swinging out on the door, but the back seat has a door of its own, on the right side only. Behind it sits the flat twin from a BMW motorcycle.

A blue 1959 BMW 600 at the Classic-Gala Schwetzingen in 2022.Photo: Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

The spec plate

BMW 600

BMW 600 · Munich

Built: 1957–⁠1959From late 1957 to November 1959
Country: West GermanyMunich
Maker: Bayerische Motoren Werke AGMunich
Engine: 582 cc BMW flat twin, air-cooledFrom BMW’s motorcycles; 585 cc by its bore and stroke
Power: 19.5 PS14.4 kW at 4,500 rpm; American sources give 26 hp
Length: 2,900 mm1,400 mm wide, 1,375 mm high
Weight: 550 kg560 kg by the factory; 515 kg by the Weiner museum
Seats: 4On two benches; a side door for the rear
Wheels: 4Flat twin behind the rear axle, driving the rear wheels through a differential
Price new: DM 3,985Close to the price of a Volkswagen
Production: 34,813BMW’s own figure; 9,119 of them exported
Top speed: 103km/h103 km/h64 mph

How big is it?

True proportion

2.90 m

It is 70 mm shorter than a Fiat 500, about 1.7 adults laid end to end.

1.40 m wide
550 kg: about seven adults
About 100 litres of luggage behind the rear seatsource 1
Wheelbase 1,700 mmsource 1 source 2

BMW 6002.90 m

Fiat Nuova 5002.97 m

Peel P50, the smallest1.37 m

0 m1 m2 m3 m

Adult, 1.75 m

Drawn at true proportion. The track is 3.6 metres long; the adult stands at the same scale. The Peel P50 is the smallest production car, on every page for comparison.

The story

History

BMW needed a bigger car and lacked the money to design one from scratch.source 3 Critics said the Isetta was too small, so BMW went up a class; but by May 1956 its management had already committed to an all-new car for 1959, the 700, and the 600 was meant as an interim model, easy to build on the Isetta’s existing equipment.source 4 Money was short. BMW lost about DM 6.5 million in 1956 and expected another loss for 1957, and at the start of 1958 auto motor und sport called the 600 the beginning of an expansion whose investments would weigh on the results.source 5

A prototype of 1956 had the Isetta’s folding roof and free-standing headlamps and no side door, and the old BMW name Dixi was considered for it. The Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum says it looked just like a stretched Isetta, with the standard two-tone front door and Isetta bumpers, and ran the engine of the R67 motorcycle.source 1 source 4 The press saw the 600 on 27 August 1957 at Feldafing, on Lake Starnberg, the public at the Frankfurt show that September, and production began in December.source 1 source 6 Who designed it is not settled. English Wikipedia, after Norbye, names Willy Black; the Weiner museum and RM bring in Giovanni Michelotti, whose part in the later 700 is better documented.source 3 source 4 source 6

Front door, side door

The body was all steel, on a frame of box-section tubes. As on the Isetta, the front door opened to the left and took the steering wheel and dashboard with it; the spare wheel lived inside it. The rear seat had a single door, on the right.source 1 source 3 source 7 Four people sat on two benches, about 100 litres of luggage went behind the rear one, and a folding sunroof was an option.source 1 The air-cooled flat twin of 582 cc and 19.5 PS sat behind the rear axle and drove the rear wheels through a four-speed gearbox, synchronised on every gear, a differential and two half-shafts.source 1 source 3 source 2 The rear wheels were on semi-trailing arms, which English Wikipedia, after Norbye, calls the first such BMW axle, a layout the firm then used for decades.source 3 Kraftfahrzeugtechnik noted the all-synchromesh gearbox and the asymmetric dipped beam as firsts on a German small car, but within months some of that good equipment, the dipped beam among it, had been cut.source 1 source 8 The Saxomat automatic clutch, advertised late in 1958, found few buyers.source 9 source 1

Black-and-white photograph of a pale bubble car parked by a house, side door hinges and front panel visible. — Plate I · 1967 A 1957 BMW 600 in Leiden in 1967, photographed for the city archive: the front door in the nose and the single side door behind it.Photo: Postel, J.W.C. (Primaire vervaardiger), CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The moving space first

In the summer of 1958 auto motor und sport set the 600 against the NSU Prinz, the Fiat 600 and the Lloyd Alexander. It found an original design, quiet and lively, with an engine it called the most beautiful twin that motorcycle engineering had produced, good climbing, good brakes and an excellent view from the seat far forward, above all at night. On a wheelbase of 1,700 mm (67 in) it could not match the longer cars in a crosswind or in roll, and it came only third of the four for road-holding.source 8 Paul Simsa found more room in the back than in the usual two-door small car.source 1

In diesem jüngsten BMW-Fahrzeug ist der Mobilgedanke noch springlebendig: Erst der fahrbare Raum, dann die umgebende Hülle.

auto motor und sport 15/1958, comparison test of four 600 cc cars. In English: “In this newest BMW the Mobil idea is still springing with life: first the moving space, then the envelope around it.”8

BMW’s advertising called it a full-value automobile, entered through a wide front door and a comfortable side door rather than narrow slits, and promised that you need not get out even on the Turracher Höhe in Carinthia, which it called Europe’s steepest pass.source 9 In 1958 the 600 won its class in the Austrian Alpine Rally and took the first four places for economy at Hockenheim (see racing and rallying).source 10 source 11

Bridge to the 700

For a while it carried BMW: by 1958 the 600 brought in 39 per cent of the company’s turnover, the Isetta 27.source 12 source 13 But at DM 3,985 it cost almost as much as a Volkswagen, 200 marks more than a Beetle by the Weiner museum’s reckoning, and the odd doors and the Isetta image kept buyers away; by 1959, the museum says, people wanted a normal-looking car.source 1 source 3 source 4 Of 34,813 built, 9,119 went abroad, 4,020 of them in an overseas version with bumper bars and sealed-beam headlamps, sold in the United States as the Isetta 600.source 1 source 3 The Austrian importer Wolfgang Denzel had Michelotti sketch a coupé on a lengthened 600 chassis, and that led to the 700.source 3 The 600 was dropped for it in November 1959, and the 700 went on to sell about 182,000.source 1 source 4

Red car with its whole front panel opened sideways, revealing the white steering wheel, column and beige interior. — The front door open on a red and white 600 in Belgium in 2010: the steering wheel and column swing out with it.Photo: Alf van Beem, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Red car with cream roof driving along a field road towards the camera, fabric roof rolled back, fields behind. — Four up with the sunroof open: a red and cream 600 near Bad Wörishofen in 2015.Photo: Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

De Carlo 600

1959–⁠1960 · a record on this page

Metalmecánica S.A.I.C., founded in Buenos Aires in 1943, built tens of thousands of Paperino scooters from 1957.source 14 It joined Argentina’s car-making scheme of 1959 and began assembling BMW-licensed cars under the name De Carlo, its owner’s, at José C. Paz in Buenos Aires province: first the De Carlo 200 minicar, then the 600 (see built under licence).source 15 source 14 source 16 It was BMW’s car, front door and side door and flat twin at the back, assembled with a high share of imported parts.source 15 source 17 Auto Historia liked its versatility: take out the passenger seat and the rear seat and it became a light van, with the spare wheel in the front door.source 17

The Argentine sources give 22 or 23 hp against BMW’s 19.5 PS, perhaps measured another way, and 100 km/h.source 15 source 17 Coche Argentino, working from period publications, counts 1,413 cars, built in 1959 and 1960; English Wikipedia stretches the dates to 1962.source 15 source 17 source 14 source 18 In 1960 the De Carlo 700, the BMW 700, replaced it, and in 1964 Metalmecánica restyled that car as the SL, which it called the first Argentine redesign. Car making ended in 1965 or 1966.source 15 source 14 No survivor of the 600 has been traced, but a neighbourhood of José C. Paz is still called De Carlo.source 16

Pictures

More photographs, old and new

The car 38

1 A blue 1958 BMW 600 with its front door open at the IAA in Frankfurt in 2019.
2 A green and white 1959 BMW 600 at a Minneapolis show in 2017, its front door open with the steering wheel swung out on it.
3 A blue and white 1958 BMW 600 with its front door open at a meeting in Nordhausen in 2013.
4 A pale blue UK-registered BMW 600 with bumper bars at the NEC, Birmingham, in 2012.
5 A pale cream BMW 600 with whitewall tyres at an outdoor classic-car meeting.

33 more picturesFewer pictures

6 An orange and white UK-registered 1959 BMW 600 on the grass at a BMW gathering in 2012.
7 A red BMW 600 at the Classic Days on the Kurfürstendamm, Berlin, in 2019.
8 A red BMW 600 with a pale grey roof at the International Old Timer Fly-in, Schaffen-Diest, Belgium, in 2010.
9 A red and white 1958 BMW 600 with tubular bumper bars at the Bonhams sale in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2023.
10 An orange and cream BMW 600 at the Hechthausen meeting in 2017.
11 A blue and white 1958 BMW 600 on a dealer’s stand at the IAA, Frankfurt, in 2019.
12 The blue and white BMW 600 at Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2012, its nose painted with a white sweep across the front door.
13 A yellow and white BMW 600 with tubular bumper bars and whitewall tyres at a Minnesota show in 2013.
14 A red and white BMW 600 on a Spanish street in 2024, its front door swung open with the steering wheel.
15 A blue and white BMW 600 in profile at Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2012, its right flank showing the rear door.
16 A red BMW 600 with a pale grey roof in profile on the wet grass at Schaffen-Diest, Belgium, in 2014.
17 A pale grey BMW 600 in profile on a cobbled street, its right flank showing the hinged rear door for the back seat.
18 A white BMW 600 at Bad Wörishofen in 2015, its front door swung open and a suitcase on the roof rack.
19 A pale blue BMW 600 from behind at the NEC, Birmingham, in 2012, showing the louvred engine lid, tubular bumper bars and the right-hand rear door.
20 A red and white BMW 600 at Schaffen-Diest, Belgium, in 2010, seen from its right side, where the rear door for the back seat is fitted.
21 A blue and white BMW 600 in the classics gallery of the Geneva Motor Show in 2024, seen from the rear right.
22 A white over red 1958 BMW 600 from the rear right at Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2023, showing the rear door, side intake and louvred engine lid.
23 A blue BMW 600 from the rear right at the Auto & Uhrenwelt Schramberg in 2015, with its louvred engine lid, “600” badge and the right-hand rear door.
24 A yellow 1960 BMW 600 from the rear three-quarter in Minnesota in 2013, with its louvred engine lid and “600” badge.
25 A red BMW 600 with a roof rack in Bietigheim-Bissingen in 2021.
26 The blue and white Kharkiv BMW 600 from behind, with its louvred engine lid, “600” badge and chrome bumper.
27 A green Portuguese-registered BMW 600 head-on in Portugal in 2008, showing the front door with its chrome strip and roundel.
28 A blue and white 1959 BMW 600 head-on at the Auto & Uhrenwelt Schramberg museum in 2015.
29 An orange BMW 600 head-on on a field road near Bad Wörishofen in 2015, showing the front door and its chrome strip.
30 A turquoise BMW 600 driving through the showground at the Bad Wörishofen Isetta meeting in 2015.
31 A blue BMW 600 on the road during the Heidelberg Historic rally in 2015.
32 A turquoise BMW 600 leaving the petrol station at Bad Wörishofen in 2015, its right side showing the rear door.
33 A red and white BMW 600 on a tree-shaded road at Bad Wörishofen in 2015, its right flank showing the rear door.
34 An orange and cream BMW 600 with a chrome roof rack on a woodland road at Bad Wörishofen in 2015, a sidecar outfit following.
35 A turquoise and pale green 1959 BMW 600 on a country road near Bad Wörishofen in 2015, seen from its left side.
36 A yellow BMW 600 on display at the BMW Museum in Munich in 2016.
37 A cream BMW 600 among the crowded exhibits of the Fahrzeugmuseum Marxzell in 2009.
38 A yellow and white 1958 BMW 600 with bumper bars among enamel garage signs at the Moray Motor Museum, Elgin, Scotland.

Inside and details 6

39 Inside a green 1959 BMW 600 through its open front door in Minneapolis in 2017, showing the steering column’s jointed link, the pedals and the front bench.
40 The cabin of a BMW 600 at Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2013, with its grey dashboard, white steering wheel and tan front bench.
41 The flat-twin of a BMW 600 behind the rear axle, with its round air filter and the fuel tank above, at Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz in 2019.
42 The air-cooled flat-twin of a BMW 600, a spare engine shown at Greenwich, Connecticut, in 2013, with its mesh fan grille.
43 The louvred side air intake and BMW roundel on the rear flank of a pale blue BMW 600 at the NEC, Birmingham, in 2012.
44 The steering wheel and column of a BMW 600 hinged clear of the opened front door, at the Bad Wörishofen Isetta meeting in 2015.

Variants and relatives 3

45 An ADAC Straßenwacht road-patrol BMW 600 carrying an Isetta on its roof at Techno-Classica, Essen, in 2012.
46 Yellow BMW 600 of 1957 converted, not by the factory, into a flat-bed pick-up with a Volkswagen engine, at an indoor sale in May 2016.
47 A red and white 1958 BMW 600 with US-market tubular bumper bars at a Bonhams sale in 2019.

Picture credits (47)

1 Rutger van der Maar, CC BY 2.0
2 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
3 Tobias Nordhausen from Sondershausen, Deutschland, CC BY 2.0
4 Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England, CC BY 2.0
5 Ssu, CC BY-SA 4.0
6 Charles01, CC BY-SA 3.0
7 Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0
8 Alf van Beem, CC0
9 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
10 Ra Boe, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
11 Johannes Maximilian, CC BY-SA 4.0
12 Vizu, CC BY-SA 3.0
13 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
14 Tamorlan, CC BY 3.0
15 Vizu, CC BY-SA 3.0
16 Charles01, CC BY-SA 4.0
17 Charles01, CC BY-SA 3.0
18 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
19 Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England, CC BY 2.0
20 Alf van Beem, CC0
21 Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0
22 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
23 Alf van Beem, Public domain
24 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
25 Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0
26 Vizu, CC BY-SA 3.0
27 Pedro Ribeiro Simões from Lisboa, Portugal, CC BY 2.0
28 Alf van Beem, Public domain
29 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
30 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
31 Radosław Drożdżewski, CC BY-SA 4.0
32 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
33 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
34 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
35 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
36 Pjt56, CC BY-SA 4.0
37 BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0
38 Steve Knight, CC BY 4.0
39 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
40 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
41 DALIBRI, CC BY-SA 4.0
42 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0
43 Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England, CC BY 2.0
44 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
45 Andrew Bone from Weymouth, England, CC BY 2.0
46 dave_7, CC BY 2.0
47 Kevauto, CC BY-SA 4.0

Variants

One car, three markets

The BMW 600 and its relatives
Variant	Years	What differs	How many
Prototypes	1956	The Isetta’s folding roof and free-standing lamps, no side door; the name Dixi considered	Not known
BMW 600	Late 1957 – Nov 1959	The production car	34,813, all versions
Overseas version, “Isetta 600” in the USA	1958–⁠59	Bumper bars and sealed-beam headlamps; 2,946 mm long	4,020
Saxomat	1958–⁠59	Automatic clutch, an option	Few
De Carlo 600	1959–⁠60	Assembled under licence in Argentina	1,413

Specification

The BMW 600 of 1958

Engine and drive

Engine and drive
Engine	BMW flat twin, air-cooled, overhead valves, behind the rear axle, 582 cc (74 × 68 mm)source 2 source 1585 cc by German Wikipedia, which the bore and stroke give
Power	19.5 PS (14.4 kW) at 4,500 rpmsource 1 source 3 source 226 hp by the Weiner museum and RM, probably a gross figure
Torque	38 Nm at 2,800 rpmsource 1
Gearbox	Four speeds, all with synchromesh, central leversource 1 source 3Saxomat automatic clutch optional
Drive	To the rear wheels, through a differential and two half-shaftssource 1 source 3
Starter	Bosch 12 V Dynastartsource 1 source 4

Body and chassis

Body and chassis
Body	All steel, on a box-section tubular framesource 1
Doors	One at the front, carrying the steering wheel and dashboard; one at the right rearsource 1 source 3 source 7
Front suspension	The Isetta’s leading arms, turning with the steeringsource 1 source 8
Rear suspension	Semi-trailing arms in rubber; coil springs all roundsource 1 source 3
Brakes	Hydraulic drums, 180 mmsource 1
Tyres	5.20-10source 1 source 24.80 × 10 by the Weiner museum

Dimensions

Dimensions
Length	2,900 mm (114.2 in)source 1 source 22,946 mm for the overseas version
Width	1,400 mm (55.1 in)source 1 source 2
Height	1,375 mm (54.1 in)source 1 source 2
Wheelbase	1,700 mmsource 1 source 2
Weight	550 kg (1,213 lb)source 1 source 2560 kg by the factory; 515 kg by the Weiner museum and English Wikipedia

Performance and running

Performance and running
Top speed	103 km/h (64 mph), measuredsource 1100 km/h claimed
Price new	DM 3,985source 1200 marks more than a Beetle, by the Weiner museum

How many were built?

Every figure, with its source

34,813 built34,813, BMW’s own figure, which Norbye repeats. Of them 25,694 were sold in Germany and 9,119 went abroad.

about 35,000BMW 600sOne source

Weiner museumsource 4
34,813BMW 600s, 1957–⁠59Two sources agree

BMW Classic, via German Wikipedia; Norbye, via English Wikipediasource 1 source 3
34,311the sum of the year-by-year table: 327, 27,185 and 6,799One source

Oswald and Kittler, via German Wikipediasource 1
9,119exportedOne source

German Wikipediasource 1
4,020overseas version, with bumper bars and sealed-beam lampsOne source

German Wikipediasource 1

Two sources agreetwo good sources give the figure
One sourcea good source, alone
Unconfirmeda lead only, not yet checked

Famous for

Three points

Two kinds of door

A front door with the steering wheel on it, and one side door for the back seat.
A motorcycle twin

The flat twin from BMW’s motorcycles, behind the rear axle.
Bridge to the 700

An interim car built on Isetta tooling while BMW readied its successor.

Racing and records

Economy and the Alps, 1958

97km/h · 12 h

On 26 May 1958, at Hockenheim’s 12-hour endurance and economy test for cars of up to 600 cc, BMW 600s took the first four places for consumption, among them a works team of three with Hans Stuck among its drivers; a Lloyd Alexander won the race itself.source 10

5.23 l/100 km: the class winners, Dr Bieling and Dr Honegger; BMW’s advertising claimed 5.22 at an average of 97.3 km/h.source 10 source 9
1st, 2nd, 3rd: in the class to 750 cc in the Austrian Alpine Rally, 6–8 June 1958, with the gold team prize.source 11
Class win: for A. von Falkenhausen in the Tiroler Bergfahrt, 28 September 1958.source 19

Survivors and collecting

Today

No count of survivors has been found. BMW’s museum in Munich shows one, and the BMW Group Archive keeps the press kit, the owner’s manual of May 1958 and the parts list.source 1 The Weiner museum had a blue 1958 car and a yellow 1959 one; when the collection was sold in February 2013, the 1959 car, chassis 135250, made US$46,000.source 4 source 6 In 1960 Siegfried Martin Winter published Mit 600 Kubik durch beide Amerika, “With 600 cc through both Americas”.source 1

Sources

Numbered as in the text

Sources are given as plain text; the links are on the Credits page.

German Wikipedia, BMW 600, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites Oswald, Deutsche Autos 1945–⁠1975 (1979), Kittler, BMW: Alle Personenwagen seit 1928 (2008), BMW Classic, Kraftfahrzeugtechnik 7/1958 and the BMW Group Archive.
“Daten der deutschen Personenwagen”, auto motor und sport 21/1958, the BMW 600’s row.
English Wikipedia, BMW 600, read in full; used as a lead. It cites Norbye (1984), Popular Mechanics (July 1958) and New Scientist (18 June 1964).
Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, “1958 BMW 600” and “1959 BMW 600”, tour pages (2002), archived, read in full.
Business news on BMW, auto motor und sport 1/1958, read in extract.
RM Auctions, the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum sale, Madison, Georgia, February 2013, lot 626, “1959 BMW 600”.
Article on car doors, auto motor und sport 7/1958, read in extract.
Comparison test of four 600 cc cars, auto motor und sport 15/1958.
BMW 600 advertisement, auto motor und sport 21/1958.
Günther Molter, report and results of the 12 Hours of Hockenheim, auto motor und sport 12/1958 (7 June 1958).
BMW advertisement listing the 1958 successes, auto motor und sport 15/1958.
BMW Group PressClub, “50 Years of BMW Isetta”, press release, 25 February 2005.
German Wikipedia, BMW Isetta, read in full.
German Wikipedia, Metalmecánica, read in full; it cites Linz and Schrader (2008), Georgano and Coche Argentino.
Francisco Álvarez, “De Carlo – Metalmecánica S.A.I.C.”, Coche Argentino, updated 18 May 2009, archived, read in full; from period publications, brochures and manuals.
Small Cars Club, “De Carlo 700”, 20 May 2020, an enthusiasts’ site, read in full.
Auto Historia, “De Carlo 600 con licencia BMW”, archived 2016, read in full.
English Wikipedia, Isetta, section on De Carlo in Argentina, read; it cites Coche Argentino.
Sport results, with the Tiroler Bergfahrt of 28 September 1958, auto motor und sport 22/1958, read in extract.

Front door, side door

The moving space first

Bridge to the 700

The car 38

Inside and details 6

Variants and relatives 3

Engine and drive

Body and chassis

Dimensions

Performance and running

Two kinds of door

A motorcycle twin

Bridge to the 700

BMW Isetta

Zündapp Janus

Goggomobil

Steyr-Puch 500