Bubble car
West Germany
Front door

BMW Isetta

Also known as Isetta Motocoupé, Isetta 250, Isetta 300, “Knutschkugel”

The whole front of the car is the door, and the steering wheel swings out with it. Park nose to the kerb, open up, and you step straight out onto the pavement. BMW built 161,728 of them, and they are widely credited with saving the company.

A grey 1955 bubble-window Isetta 250 at the Isetta Club meeting in Bad Wörishofen, 2015.Photo: Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

The spec plate

BMW Isetta

Isetta 250 Motocoupé · Munich

Built: 1955–⁠1962April 1955 to May 1962
Country: West GermanyMunich-Milbertshofen, under licence from Iso
Maker: Bayerische Motoren WerkeUnder licence from Iso of Milan, with Iso’s body tooling
Engine: 247 cc BMW four-stroke single245 cc in some sources; the Isetta 300 had 298 cc (295 cc in some sources)
Power: 12 PS8.8 kW at 5,800 rpm; the 300 gave 13 PS
Length: 2,285 mm1,380 mm wide, 1,340 mm high
Weight: 350 kgReady to drive, 1955; 359 kg empty in BMW’s own table
Seats: 2A bench for two adults “and a child”
Wheels: 4Two at the front; two at the back only 520 mm apart, with no differential
Price new: DM 2,550March 1955
Production: 161,7281955–⁠62, BMW’s own figure
Top speed: 85km/h85 km/hThe same for the 250 and the 300

How big is it?

True proportion

2.29 m

It is 685 mm shorter than a Fiat 500, about 1.3 adults laid end to end.

1.38 m wide
350 kg: about five adults
One door, in the front
Rear wheels 520 mm apart

BMW Isetta2.29 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

In the early 1950s BMW was in trouble. Its car factory at Eisenach had been lost to the Soviet zone, and its cars, the 501 and the V8 502, were too expensive to sell in profitable numbers: a 501 cost DM 15,000 in 1952.source 1 source 2 By 1954 even its motorcycles were selling less well, and buyers wanted a roof over their heads.source 1

The answer came from Milan. At the Geneva Motor Show early in 1954 BMW’s Swiss agent, C. A. Drenowatz, found Iso’s little cabin car, the Isetta, and told BMW’s sales chief, Hanns Grewenig. BMW sent the head of its test department, Eberhard Wolff, to see it again at the Turin show in late April.source 1 source 2 Iso’s owner, Renzo Rivolta, wanted licence deals, and offered the name and the main body tooling. BMW bought both.source 1 source 3 The Iso Isetta had been designed by two engineers, Ermenegildo Preti and Pierluigi Raggi; Preti had designed a wartime cargo glider with a nose that opened, the Aeronautica Lombarda AL.12.source 2 source 3

A BMW, not an Iso

BMW threw out Iso’s 236 cc split-single two-stroke and fitted the single-cylinder four-stroke of its R25/3 motorcycle: 247 cc, as long in stroke as it was wide in bore, and 12 PS. It turned the cylinder head round, fitted a stronger crankshaft to carry the heavy combined starter and dynamo, added a cooling fan and enlarged the sump. The headlamps went higher and grew, the rear track widened slightly, and the tyres became 4.80-10.source 1 source 4 The front wheels were carried on Dubonnet-type swinging arms; the rear pair, only 520 mm (20 in) apart, sat on a rigid axle with no differential, driven by a shaft and a duplex chain in an oil bath.source 1 source 2 auto motor und sport found the work more careful and cleaner than on the Italian cars.source 4

It was a more car-like car than its two-stroke rivals. It had a four-speed gearbox with a real reverse, hydraulic brakes, a 12-volt system and a quiet four-stroke.source 1 At 250 cc it could be driven on the old class 4 licence, which covered motorcycles, and the later 300 cc engine used the full 300 cc tax band.source 1 source 2 That put it in the middle of the West German bubble car boom.

Launched at the Tegernsee

BMW showed the Isetta Motocoupé to the press on 5 March 1955 at the Hotel Bachmair in Rottach-Egern, on the Tegernsee, with two cars to drive. The price, DM 2,550, was a sensation.source 1 source 4 Fritz Fiedler, BMW’s development chief, explained the thinking in five points, among them these: one door costs less than two; three wheels may be cheaper but are not nearly as good as four; and the egg shape, taken from nature, encloses the most room with the least material.source 1

It is deliberately not intended to be a saloon car, but it is more than something to get you from A to B. It gives its occupants complete protection against the weather; you can get into it with greater ease than many a big car, and it can be driven with such supreme safety that even inept drivers put neither themselves nor others at risk.

Fritz Fiedler, launch speech, 5 March 1955, in BMW’s English translation.1

The door is the car’s whole front. It carries the steering wheel and the instrument panel, and the steering column, hinged on a universal joint, swings out with it. Fiedler’s advice was to drive into a parking space facing the kerb and get out at the front, straight onto the pavement; after nearly 25 years, he said, BMW might bring back its old slogan that its cars were bigger inside than outside.source 1 source 2 Inside is one bench for two adults “and a child”, with a fabric sunroof above.source 1 Werner Oswald, who drove it at the launch for auto motor und sport, noted how quiet it was.

„… daß sie sowohl von außen als auch von innen erheblich leiser ist als alle vergleichbaren Fahrzeuge, die wir bisher kennen.“

Werner Oswald, auto motor und sport 8/1955. In English: “… that it is considerably quieter both outside and inside than all comparable vehicles we have known so far.”4

Running it was cheap: insurance cost DM 95 a year and road tax DM 44, which the advertising said was less than a dachshund cost in the city.source 1 Germans gave it names. It was the Knutschkugel, the “smooch-ball”; the Schlaglochsuchgerät, the pothole finder, for its narrow rear track; and the Adventsauto, after the Advent hymn that begins Macht hoch die Tür, lift up the door. One prank was to lift an Isetta nose-first against a wall, so that nobody could get in.source 2

2,000 a month

Production began in April 1955 and rose to 2,000 a month. Workers assembled cars while bricklayers were still repairing the factory’s war damage, and customers waited about a month for one. By the end of the year 12,911 had been made and sold, against a target of 11,200, and by early 1956 the car had passed break-even.source 1

The Isetta 300, presented in December 1955 and on sale from February 1956, had a 298 cc engine of 13 PS; some sources give 295 cc. New drivers needed a class 3 car licence from 1956 anyway, so the 250 cc limit no longer mattered to them, and the tax band ran to 300 cc.source 1 source 2 In mid-1956 sales dipped, the price had risen to DM 2,750, and there were rumours that BMW would stop; in June it denied them and said the plant was being enlarged to build more than 200 cars a day.source 1 That autumn came the Export model, with large sliding side windows in place of the Plexiglas wrap-around rear window, a full-width front bumper, ventilation flaps in the door and telescopic dampers. The old body carried on as the Standard 57 at DM 2,490.source 1 source 2 The American model had sealed-beam headlamps and bigger tail lamps, and the tropical model was treated against fungus and termites; 12,787 Isettas were sold in the United States.source 1

1957 was the best year: 33,700 by the official production statistics, nearly 40,000 by BMW’s count.source 5 source 1 It was also the year of the BMW 600, a stretched four-seat Isetta with a side door and a flat-twin engine; by 1958 it earned BMW more than the Isetta did.source 1 source 2 About 22,000 Isettas were built in 1958 and about 20,000 in 1959, while kits for assembly abroad grew from 825 to 6,900.source 1 In 1959–⁠60 BMW also built more than 1,500 three-wheeled Dreirad Spezial cars, mainly for Austria, Denmark and England, where three-wheelers were taxed and licensed as motorcycles.source 2

By 1960 the Isetta 250 cost DM 2,650 and the 300 DM 2,710. Of the small cars BMW compared, only the Messerschmitt KR200 was cheaper.source 1 A magazine wrote in 1961 that, however you looked at it, the Isetta had had its day.source 1

After running down parts stocks, manufacture of the Isetta came to an end in May as planned.

BMW’s board report for 1962, in the company’s English translation.1

BMW gives the total as 161,728, and calls it the best-selling single-cylinder car in the world.source 1 source 2 source 3 Its sales bought BMW the time it needed to develop the 600, the 700 and the Neue Klasse.source 1 source 2 The design lived on elsewhere. In Brighton a British firm built it under licence from BMW; in Argentina, De Carlo assembled 798; and the Velam Isetta in France and the Romi-Isetta in Brazil came from Iso’s own licences, the largest family of microcars built under licence.source 3

Blue bubble car on grass with its front door open and the steering wheel pulled out on its column — A blue 1960 Isetta with its door wide open and the steering column swung out with it, in 2010.Photo: Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Blue and white bubble car seen from the rear on grass, its single rear wheel visible, other Isettas around — A blue and white three-wheeled Isetta from behind at Bad Wörishofen in 2015, its single rear wheel under the bumper.Photo: Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Bubble car parked at a kerb in front of the war-damaged church tower and a round modern building — Plate I · 1959 An Isetta parked below the ruined Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in West Berlin, 29 September 1959.Photo: Warren K. Leffler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Bubble car turning at a street corner, pedestrians on the pavement and two buses and a van behind — Plate II · 1964 An Isetta turning at a busy junction, with buses behind, in 1964.Photo: Willem van de Poll, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

A long line of colourful bubble cars stretching across a field towards trees — Isettas lined up across a field at the Isetta Club meeting in Bad Wörishofen in August 2015.Photo: Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Hoffmann Auto-Kabine 250

1954–⁠1955 · a record on this page

While BMW was securing its licence in late 1954, the Hoffmann works announced a Kabine of its own. auto motor und sport called it an obvious plagiarism of the Isetta.source 4 By early 1955 the same magazine reported that the Hoffmann-Kabine was already dead again.source 6

One list of these cars says that Hoffmann lost a lawsuit to BMW over the car. We have not found the case, so that part of the story is unconfirmed, and so are the car’s size and the number built.

Isetta (Brighton-built)

1957–⁠1964 · a record on this page

Britain’s Isettas were built in a railway works. In March 1957 Dunsfold Tools leased part of the old railway works at Brighton, renamed itself Isetta of Great Britain, and launched its car at the Dorchester hotel that April; production began in May. The licence came from BMW, not from Iso.source 3 source 2 The works had no road access, so the parts came in by rail and the finished cars left the same way.source 3

About 200 local people worked there, most of them former railwaymen, and at the height of production they built 300 cars a week, according to a history of the factory by a committee member of the Isetta Owners Club of Great Britain.source 7 The cars had right-hand drive, and there was a three-wheeled version, which British law taxed as a motorcycle combination; Brighton also supplied Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand.source 3 source 2 Car production stopped in 1962, though engines were built until 1964, and the club history dates the last vehicle to 1964.source 3 source 7 A total of “some 30,000” is given on a local plaque and repeated online, but no factory record has been found to confirm it.source 8

Pictures

More photographs, old and new

The car 41

1 A blue and white 1958 Isetta at a German meeting, 2012.
2 A dark blue 1959 Isetta in the Top Mountain Motorcycle Museum, Hochgurgl.
3 A pale blue 1956 Isetta 250 in a museum.
4 A blue Isetta with its door open at a car meet, 2013.
5 A blue and white BMW Isetta 250 from the front three-quarter at the BMW Museum, Munich, in 2024.

36 more picturesFewer pictures

6 A cream three-wheeled Isetta at a meeting, 2024.
7 A red and white Isetta at an outdoor meeting, 2023.
8 A red and cream 1957 Isetta with a picnic basket on its rack, in the Netherlands.
9 A blue 1960 Isetta in side profile, showing its narrow rear track.
10 A red and white Isetta in side view at the Eelde classic-car show, 2013.
11 A red Isetta in side view in a museum, 2005.
12 The rear of a 1955 Isetta with its wrap-around rear window and chrome rack, Bad Wörishofen.
13 The rear of a 1957 BMW Isetta with a picnic basket on its rack in the Netherlands in 2010.
14 The rear of a 1956 BMW Isetta 250 with a period ladder and suitcase, photographed in 2015.
15 The rear of a yellow BMW Isetta 250 with its luggage rack and engine louvres, photographed in 2023.
16 A blue Isetta driving away down a street in Bad Wörishofen, 2015.
17 A red and cream 1957 Isetta head-on.
18 A 1956 BMW Isetta 250 head-on in 2015, with its museum plate.
19 A blue and white Isetta 250 in a showroom, 2023.
20 A yellow and cream Isetta 250 head-on in a showroom, 2023.
21 A blue and white 1957 Isetta Export, with the ventilation slots in its door.
22 A 1958 Isetta on a 2,000 km tour through Germany, 2005.
23 A blue and white Isetta 250 on the road during a classic-car run, 2017.
24 Isettas at a club meeting in Waldesruh, 2014, a yellow one in front.
25 A green Isetta with a wicker hamper on its rack in a Dublin street, 2005.
26 A mint and white Isetta towing a teardrop caravan near Bad Wörishofen.
27 A red Isetta with a matching trailer on a country road near Bad Wörishofen.
28 The 1955 Isetta with its front door open on the BMW Museum display.
29 A pale green 1959 Isetta in the Deutsches Automuseum Langenburg.
30 The Isetta 250 beside a BMW 2002ti in the BMW Museum, Munich, 2025.
31 A 1955 Isetta 250 Standard on its plinth in the BMW Museum, Munich.
32 A blue Isetta in the museum at Adlkofen.
33 A red and white Isetta in the Automuseum Dortmund.
34 A teal and white Isetta on display at Koltsovo Airport, Yekaterinburg, 2021.
35 A Landespolizei Isetta on display outside a building, 2014.
36 A Microlino prototype beside Wim Ouboter’s BMW Isetta 300 near Zürich, Switzerland, in October 2016.
37 Isettas with luggage on their racks at a club meeting in Waldesruh, 2014.
38 Isettas lined up on the grass at the Isetta Club meeting in Bad Wörishofen, 2015.
39 A two-tone blue 1961 Isetta 250 at a show, 2022.
40 A blue and white Isetta 250 Export head-on at the BMW Museum, 2024.
41 A mint green and white Isetta head-on in a car park, 2009.

The car: Isetta 300 26

42 A red 1957 Isetta with its door open at the Cleveland Auto Show, 2022.
43 A coral and ivory 1957 Isetta 300 at a US show.
44 A 1957 BMW Isetta 300 police car with its edelweiss emblem from the front three-quarter in 2015.
45 An ivory 1960 Isetta 300 in its American form at a US show, 2022.
46 A red 1960 Isetta 300 at a rally, 2011.

21 more picturesFewer pictures

47 A red and white Isetta 300 on grass at a show, 2013.
48 A red and white Isetta 300 on a lakeside lawn at Cannes-Écluse, 2019.
49 A blue and white Isetta 300 parked on grass, 2009.
50 A red and white Isetta 300 on a show floor, 2021.
51 A red Isetta 300 in side profile in Sakai, Japan.
52 A two-tone blue Isetta 300 Export parked in Bad Tölz, about 1987.
53 The rear of a red and white BMW Isetta 300 at Cannes-Écluse, France, in 2019, with a picnic hamper on its rack.
54 A blue and white BMW Isetta 300 from behind, with its chrome luggage rack, on grass.
55 A red and white 1959 Isetta 300 beside a Messerschmitt KR200 in a Dutch town, 2022.
56 A red and white 1957 Isetta 300 being driven at a US car show, 2013.
57 A cream 1957 Isetta with its door open at the Lane Motor Museum, Nashville, 2003.
58 A red 1961 Isetta 300 in the Science Museum, London.
59 An Isetta 300 with its door open in the Historisches Museum Hannover.
60 A red and white Isetta 300 in the Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile, Turin.
61 The rear of an ivory 1960 BMW Isetta 300 in the United States in 2022, with its US tail lamps and plate.
62 The rear of a BMW Isetta 300 with its Isetta 300 plate in Sakai, Japan, in 2013.
63 A 1956 BMW Isetta 300 head-on at the TWA Flight Center, New York, in 2019.
64 A BMW Isetta 300 export model head-on in Bad Tölz, about 1987.
65 A red Isetta 300 head-on in Sakai, Japan, 2013.
66 A red and cream 1956 Isetta 300 displayed in the TWA Flight Center at JFK Airport, New York.
67 A blue and white Isetta 300 in the Hellenic Motor Museum, Athens, 2025.

The car: Cabrio 8

68 A red 1957 Isetta Cabriolet with a tan top on a lakeside lawn, 2013.
69 The 1957 BMW Tropen-Isetta Cabrio prototype in profile at the Prototyp museum, Hamburg, in 2024.
70 The rear of a yellow 1957 BMW Isetta Cabrio with its black fabric top and luggage, photographed in 2022.
71 The rear of a red 1957 BMW Isetta 300 Cabrio with its tan fabric top and suitcase at Rockville, Maryland, in 2015.
72 The rear of a red 1957 BMW Isetta Cabriolet with its top folded in the United States in 2013.
73 A white Isetta convertible with a black top, rear three-quarter view.
74 The rear of the 1957 BMW Tropen-Isetta Cabrio prototype, with its fabric top, at the Prototyp museum, Hamburg, in 2024.
75 A yellow 1957 Isetta Cabrio head-on at a street show, 2022.

Inside and details 11

76 The cockpit of a 1955 Isetta: the steering wheel on the door and the instrument on the column.
77 A white 1957 Isetta with its door open and a red bench seat, Tupelo Automobile Museum.
78 The bench seat and steering wheel of an Isetta, seen through the open door.
79 The cab of a 1958 Isetta pick-up, with its seat and wooden slats, at the NEC in 2017.
80 The steering wheel and speedometer of a blue Isetta 250, seen through the open door.

6 more picturesFewer pictures

81 An Isetta single-cylinder engine and gearbox, removed from the car.
82 The 250 Isetta chrome script and BMW roundel on the front of a BMW Isetta 250 at the BMW Museum, Munich, in 2024.
83 A bare Isetta chassis with engine and running gear at Techno-Classica, Essen, 2018.
84 The single rear wheel and swinging arm of a three-wheeled Isetta.
85 The BMW roundel and Isetta script on the red door of a 1957 BMW Isetta in the Netherlands in 2010.
86 A pale blue Isetta with its door open and tartan seat at a show, 2008.

Inside and details: Isetta 300 7

87 The steering wheel and column of a 1961 BMW Isetta 300 at the Science Museum, London, in 2024, seen through the glass.
88 A teal and white 1958 Isetta 300 with its door open on a lawn, 2007.
89 The steering wheel on the opened door and the tartan seat of a BMW Isetta 300 export model in Bad Tölz, about 1987.
90 Looking down into an Isetta 300 through the open front door.
91 A BMW Isetta 300 with its door open in Sakai, Japan, in 2013, showing its tartan seat.
92 The single-cylinder engine and cooling fan of a 1957 BMW Isetta 300 behind its side panel at Rockville, Maryland, in 2015.
93 The Isetta 300 script and BMW roundel on the Lane Motor Museum car.

Variants and relatives 11

94 A cream 1955 Isetta towing a small caravan at Bad Wörishofen, 2015.
95 A 1957 Isetta covered in wicker basketwork at a US show, 2015.
96 A green 1957 police Isetta 300 on a dirt road at Bad Wörishofen, 2015.
97 A derelict, rusted Isetta with its door hanging open, on a museum display.
98 A green and cream 1958 Isetta pick-up on its show stand at the NEC, 2017.

6 more picturesFewer pictures

99 A green Polizei Isetta with a roof beacon at a meeting, 2024.
100 A yellow Bundespost Isetta in a transport museum.
101 A green 1956 Isetta converted to a pick-up with a wooden load box.
102 A blue and yellow 1961 Isetta in Lufthansa livery in a museum.
103 A red 1957 Isetta 300 Cabrio with its door open at a show in Rockville, Maryland, 2015.
104 The 1957 BMW Tropen-Isetta Cabrio prototype in the Prototyp museum, Hamburg.

Period photographs 5

105 A well-used Isetta parked beside a Volkswagen Beetle in everyday use, February 1972.
106 An Isetta parked in a lane in Bad Mergentheim beside a Volkswagen bus, 1960.
107 A Fiat 500 and a BMW Isetta outside the W. W. Smit garage in the Netherlands, 21 September 1959.
108 BMW Isetta 300 head-on with two officials at the wheel at the opening of the RAI motor-scooter show, Amsterdam, 28 February 1957.
109 Officials touring the opening of the RAI motor-scooter show in Amsterdam pass an Isetta, 28 February 1957.

Picture credits (109)

1 Huhu Uet, CC BY-SA 3.0
2 Rikki Mitterer, CC BY-SA 4.0
3 Alf van Beem, Public domain
4 Tony Alter, CC BY 2.0
5 GFreihalter, CC BY-SA 4.0
6 Hajotthu, CC BY-SA 3.0
7 Fiver, der Hellseher, CC BY-SA 4.0
8 AlfvanBeem, CC0
9 Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0
10 Uberprutser, CC BY-SA 3.0
11 Jerzy Kociatkiewicz, CC BY-SA 2.0
12 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
13 AlfvanBeem, CC0
14 Alf van Beem, Public domain
15 Damian B Oh, CC BY-SA 4.0
16 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
17 AlfvanBeem, CC0
18 Alf van Beem, Public domain
19 Damian B Oh, CC BY-SA 4.0
20 Damian B Oh, CC BY-SA 4.0
21 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
22 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
23 Alf van Beem, Public domain
24 Kora27, CC BY-SA 4.0
25 jaqian, CC BY 2.0
26 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
27 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
28 Wajira Somaratne, CC BY-SA 3.0
29 Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0
30 Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0
31 Jiří Sedláček, CC BY-SA 4.0
32 Buch-t, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
33 Buch-t, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
34 P.Fisxo, CC BY-SA 4.0
35 SusKauz; edited by Frank C. Müller, CC BY-SA 4.0
36 Nicolás Boullosa, CC BY 2.0
37 Kora27, CC BY-SA 4.0
38 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
39 Kuroczynski, CC BY-SA 4.0
40 GFreihalter, CC BY-SA 4.0
41 Jean Sini, CC BY-SA 2.0
42 Erik Drost, CC BY 2.0
43 Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 4.0
44 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
45 Elise240SX, CC BY-SA 4.0
46 Graham Robertson, CC BY 2.0
47 Graham Robertson, CC BY 2.0
48 François GOGLINS, CC BY-SA 4.0
49 Robotriot, CC BY-SA 3.0
50 Llann Wé², CC BY-SA 4.0
51 Hunini, CC BY-SA 3.0
52 Dcsutherland, CC BY-SA 4.0
53 François GOGLINS, CC BY-SA 4.0
54 Robotriot, CC BY-SA 3.0
55 Rutger van der Maar, CC BY 2.0
56 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
57 Philip (flip) Kromer from Austin, TX, CC BY-SA 3.0
58 Daderot, CC0
59 Hajotthu, CC BY-SA 3.0
60 Marie-Lan Taÿ Pamart, CC BY 4.0
61 Elise240SX, CC BY-SA 4.0
62 Hunini, CC BY-SA 3.0
63 w_lemay, CC0
64 Dcsutherland, CC BY-SA 4.0
65 Hunini, CC BY-SA 3.0
66 Warren LeMay from Cullowhee, NC, United States, CC0
67 Van Der Meulen Christofle, CC0
68 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
69 Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0
70 DestinationFearFan, CC BY-SA 4.0
71 Christopher Ziemnowicz (CZmarlin), CC BY-SA 4.0
72 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
73 Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0
74 Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0
75 DestinationFearFan, CC BY-SA 4.0
76 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
77 CapCase, CC BY 2.0
78 Damian B Oh, CC BY-SA 4.0
79 andreboeni, CC BY 2.0
80 Kuroczynski, CC BY-SA 4.0
81 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
82 GFreihalter, CC BY-SA 4.0
83 Matti Blume, CC BY-SA 4.0
84 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
85 AlfvanBeem, CC0
86 Brian Snelson, CC BY 2.0
87 Daderot, CC0
88 Joe Ross, CC BY-SA 2.0
89 Dcsutherland, CC BY-SA 4.0
90 The RedBurn, CC BY-SA 4.0
91 Hunini, CC BY-SA 3.0
92 Christopher Ziemnowicz (CZmarlin), CC BY-SA 4.0
93 Philip (flip) Kromer from Austin, TX, CC BY-SA 3.0
94 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
95 Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0
96 Lothar Spurzem, CC BY-SA 2.0 de
97 Arnaud 25, CC BY-SA 4.0
98 Andrew Bone, CC BY 2.0
99 Hajotthu, CC BY-SA 3.0
100 Harald Gärtner, CC BY-SA 3.0
101 Wikisympathisant, CC BY-SA 4.0
102 David Merrett, CC BY 2.0
103 Christopher Ziemnowicz (CZmarlin), CC BY-SA 4.0
104 Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0
105 Kroelleboelle, CC BY-SA 3.0
106 Willem van de Poll, CC0
107 IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0
108 Joop van Bilsen, Anefo, CC0
109 Joop van Bilsen for Anefo, CC0

Variants

From bubble window to three wheels

The BMW Isetta family
Variant	Years	What differs	How many
Isetta 250	April 1955 – March 1956	Plexiglas wrap-around rear window, fixed side panes	250 Standard to 1957: 26,646
Isetta 300	1956–⁠62	298 cc engine (295 cc in some sources), 13 PS, better pulling	Part of the total
Export 250 and 300	October 1956 – May 1962	Sliding side windows, a bumper, telescopic dampers; the old body went on as the Standard 57	300 Export: 70,350
Cabrio	1955–⁠62	A fabric roof that rolls back in place of the rear window	Not found
USA model	1956–⁠62	Sealed-beam headlamps, bigger tail lamps, side lights	12,787 sold in the USA
Dreirad Spezial	1959–⁠60	One rear wheel on a swinging arm, for markets that taxed three-wheelers as motorcycles	Over 1,500
Jagdwagen	1955	An open hunting car for BMW’s chief executive, Kurt Donath	One

Specification

The Isetta 250 Standard, from BMW’s technical data unless noted

Engine and drive

Engine and drive
Engine	BMW single-cylinder four-stroke, overhead valves, fan-cooled
Capacity	247 cc (68 × 68 mm), compression 6.8:1245 cc in other sources
Power	12 PS at 5,800 rpm; torque 14.2 Nm at 4,500 rpm
Gearbox	Four speeds and reverse, no synchromesh; lever on the left side wall
Final drive	Shaft with two rubber discs, then a duplex chain in an oil bath; no differential
Electrics	12 V, Bosch Dynastart

Body and chassis

Body and chassis
Body	All-steel, egg-shaped, on a tubular frame; one front door carrying the wheel and instruments
Front suspension	Dubonnet-type swinging arms, coil springs
Rear suspension	Rigid narrow axle on quarter-elliptic leaf springs
Brakes	Hydraulic drums, 180 mm
Tyres	4.80-10
Roof	Folding fabric sunroof as standard

Dimensions

Dimensions
Length	2,285 mm (90 in)2,355 mm for the 300 Export
Width	1,380 mm
Height	1,340 mm
Wheelbase	1,500 mm
Track	1,200 mm front, 520 mm rear
Weight	350 kg (772 lb) ready to drive (1955 report)359 kg empty in BMW’s table

Performance and running

Performance and running
Top speed	85 km/h (53 mph)
Consumption	3.3 to 3.8 litres per 100 km claimedBMW’s own table gives 5.8 litres
Fuel tank	13 litres, including 3 in reservesource 2
Hill climbing	32 per cent
Road tax and insurance	DM 44 and DM 95 a year (1955)
Price new	DM 2,550 (March 1955); DM 2,580 in BMW’s tablesource 1 source 4

How many were built?

Every figure, with its source

161,728 builtBMW’s own figure for 1955–⁠62, repeated by every source we have read. The figures by type do not add up to it, because they leave out the 250 Export, the 300 Standard, the three-wheelers and the kits.

161,728all BMW Isettas, 1955–⁠62One source

BMW Group, repeated by German and English Wikipediasource 1 source 2 source 3
161,360all BMW IsettasUnconfirmed

English Wikipedia’s BMW infobox, unexplainedsource 3
109,760sold in GermanyOne source

German Wikipediasource 2
70,350Isetta 300 Export, 1956–⁠62One source

BMW Groupsource 1
51,968exportedOne source

German Wikipediasource 2
33,700built in 1957, the best yearOne source

West German production statistics; BMW says “nearly 40,000”source 5 source 1
29,947built in 1956One source

West German production statisticssource 5
26,646Isetta 250 Standard, 1955–⁠57One source

BMW Groupsource 1
25,697Isetta 300, 1957–⁠62Unconfirmed

the Weiner museum’s label, found only theresource 9
12,911built in 1955Two sources agree

BMW’s annual report, via BMW Group; the official statistics give 12,917source 1 source 5
12,787sold in the USAOne source

BMW Groupsource 1
over 1,500three-wheeled Dreirad Spezial, 1959–⁠60One source

German Wikipediasource 2

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

Famous for

Three points

The door is the front

The steering wheel and instruments ride on the single front door, and the column swings out with it.
161,728 singles

BMW counts it the best-selling single-cylinder car ever built.
The car that saved BMW

Its sales carried the company until the 600, the 700 and the Neue Klasse were ready.

On screen

Confirmed appearances only

1989

Family Matters

In the American sitcom (1989–⁠98) Steve Urkel, played by Jaleel White, drives a BMW Isetta.source 3 source 10
2005

A television documentary

Von Knutschkugeln und Goggomobilen, in the NZZ Format series.source 2

Elvis Presley was photographed with an Isetta, and BMW says that, “as legend has it”, he bought it for his manager; the purchase is legend, so it is not listed.

Survivors and collecting

Today

Isettas are on show in the BMW Museum in Munich, the Haus der Geschichte in Bonn, where it stands as one of the symbols of the Wirtschaftswunder, and the Verkehrsmuseum in Karlsruhe; a police Isetta is in the police vehicle museum at Marburg.source 2 The Isetta-Club holds an annual meeting.source 2 No survivor count has been found.

One myth needs clearing up. BMW’s press material says the Isetta earned its spurs in the Mille Miglia, and in 1955 the very first of 533 starters was an Isetta, averaging more than 75 km/h (47 mph) over the 1,000 miles. Those cars were Iso Isettas, not BMWs, and Iso’s cars had already taken the top three places in the economy classification in 1954, averaging more than 70 km/h (43 mph).source 1 source 11 source 3

The idea has outlived the car. Britain’s Tri-Tech built a glass-fibre Zetta 300 in 1998, and the electric Microlino, shown at Geneva in 2016 and sold from 2022, was inspired by it.source 2 BMW’s chief executive, Kurt Donath, had a single open Isetta built for hunting trips in 1955; the Weiner museum showed a replica of it.source 12

At auction
Car	Sale	Price
1959 Isetta “Whatta Drag”, a drag racer	RM Auctions, Weiner museum sale, 2013source 13	$92,000
1956 Isetta “bubble window” Cabrio	RM Auctions, 2013	$89,700

Sources

Numbered as in the text

Much of the dated history on this page comes from BMW’s own anniversary press kit of 2005 (the first source). Where the magazines of the day or other sources give a different figure, the page says so.

BMW Group PressClub, “50 Years of BMW Isetta”, press release of 25 February 2005, and its long version “50 years of the BMW Isetta”, with technical data. Read in full.
German Wikipedia, BMW Isetta, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites sales brochures, Motor Klassik and Der Spiegel 46/1955.
English Wikipedia, Isetta, read in full. Used as a lead; it cites The Motor, 6 March 1957, and Norm Mort (2008).
Werner Oswald, “BMW-Isetta für 2550 Mark!”, auto motor und sport 8/1955, p. 11, with a comparison table.
“Produktionszahlen 1957”, West German production 1955–⁠57, auto motor und sport 4/1958.
“Rollermobile brauchen Leistung und Sicherheit”, auto motor und sport 5/1955.
“History of the Isetta factory”, by a committee member of the Isetta Owners Club of Great Britain, My Brighton and Hove, 22 March 2006.
Brighton sources as summarised by a web search: Lancaster Insurance (2020), brightontoymuseum.co.uk and Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society News 186, with the blue plaque near Isetta Square. Not read in full; weak.
Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, “Isetta 300”, tour page.
English Wikipedia, Steve Urkel.
“Bravo, kleine Isetta!”, photograph caption and Mille Miglia results, auto motor und sport 10/1955.
Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, “1955 BMW Isetta Jagdwagen”, tour page.
Report on RM Auctions’ sale of the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, Madison, Georgia, 15–16 February 2013.

A BMW, not an Iso

Launched at the Tegernsee

2,000 a month

The car 41

The car: Isetta 300 26

The car: Cabrio 8

Inside and details 11

Inside and details: Isetta 300 7

Variants and relatives 11

Period photographs 5

Engine and drive

Body and chassis

Dimensions

Performance and running

The door is the front

161,728 singles

The car that saved BMW

Iso Isetta

Velam Isetta

Romi-Isetta

BMW 600

Heinkel Kabine

Messerschmitt KR200