Borgward - Germany's Second Largest Carmaker

once a promising Contender for creating a rival to Germany's many distinct automakers the borgford group Rose to prominence during the late 1940s and early 1950s as a creator of incredibly stylish and Innovative cars that were spread across various different market segments but just as the company was starting to make its Mark following the notable success of its 1954 built Isabella The Firm rapidly collapsed in a controversial bankruptcy that sent shockwaves to the German Auto industry although despite the demise of a name now seldom recognized in the modern Automotive scene the name of borgford would re-emerge half a century after its demise from a very unlikely origin like many car companies borgford was the brainchild of just one man the eponymous Carl Friedrich Wilhelm or FW borgvord of Altona Germany borgvord born in November 1890 being one of the 13 children of Colby Taylor Wilhelm borgford and showed a keen interest in engineering early in life when he left school at age 16 to become an apprentice for a local locksmith before undertaking mechanical engineering studies and finally achieving a degree in engineering from the Hanover Technical University in 1913 his civilian aspirations being cut short when he was enlisted into the German Army and saw action in World War One during which he was wounded and returned home for recuperation augwort taking this opportunity to join the Brahma Kula Fabrica company which was a local producer of tires but by 1919 Borg Ward's expertise at his craft many was able to redirect the small company to instead make radiators and body panels under contract for Hansa Lloyd a bremen-based car manufacturer founded in 1905 or by 1921 having been repeatedly promoted until he eventually took over as owner of the business and renamed it to Bremer cooler Fabric borgford and Company his long-term goal being to develop his own bespoke car models but had not the capital to support his original proposal for a two-cylinder sports car project instead investing his efforts into a three-wheeled 120 CC delivery cart with a single front wheel that was employed by the German Postal Service in 1924 and was affectionately dubbed the blitzkaran or lightning cart Ford's dream was partially realized in 1926 when he released Goliath a single rear-wheel motor trike with a two-stroke 200 to 250cc engine Goliath being followed by the derivative Goliath rapid and similar 350 cc Goliath standard before finally seeing the first four-wheeled models emerge in 1929 and 1930 in the form of the express with a two-cylinder two-stroke 600cc engine and the superior a four-stroke 2 350 cc four-cylinder 1.5 ton Lorry which proved to be such a commercial success that the Goliath burka was by 1931 able to Garner enough funds to buy out the hunzaloid firm outright the Takeover of Hunter Lloyd allowing borgford to create his first dedicated car model as the 200cc three-wheeler with a single front wheel a rear-mounted Dickie seat and a top speed of 35 miles an hour followed by his first four-wheeled car in the form of the 1933 hanza 400 and later 500 all boards focus on creating design Elegance coming to fruition in 1934 as the beautiful four-stroke Huns are 1100 and hunzer 1700 models together with the fast and elegant hanza twin carburetted 1700 Sports Cabriolet enlargements in the range from 1938 leading to the hanza product lineup comprising the hunza 2000 and the hanza 3500 although in 1939 the hanza title was dropped in favor of Borg Ford's own moniker thus resulting in the Borg Ford 2000 and Borg Ford 2300 as the first cars to be released under his name the design and styling prowess of the bremen-based car maker giving serious competition to contemporary Rivals such as Opel board Adler hanomag and Wanderer World War II however had a devastating effect on Borg board's car building aspirations as in order to support the Nazi war effort his Factory in Bremen was repurposed for the construction of military vehicles and armaments including the Borg vord staff car which provided 11 seats and integrated a complex transmission that allowed for two four and six-wheel drive and the Borg Ford b-3000 military Lorry that saw action on all of the German front lines during the conflict the Borg Ward production facilities in Bremen being an ideal Target for Air Raids and thus in 1944 the entire Factory was raised to the ground by sustained aerial attacks that rendered an end to all vehicular assembly and following the war's conclusion in 1945 orport himself was arrested by the Victorious allies for being one of the biggest suppliers of military equipment to the Nazi regime and was subsequently sentenced to three years in prison the car builder upon his release in 1948 being faced with the daunting task of having to rebuild his company from scratch in a nation devastated both physically and economically by their defeat although through a sleight of hand so as to circumvent limited fraction supplies of raw materials he opted to create a conglomerate of three Shadow firms Under the Umbrella Borg board group that would allow him to receive raw material supplies for the individual businesses but cumulatively see his newly established board group we provided Material supplies that far exceeded the rations he would normally receive as an individual company these shadow firms being Goliath which specialized in luxury models Lloyd for low-end family cars and borgford hanza for mid-range and entry-level luxury models in practice however the operation of three separate companies with independent engineering styling and sales departments was a costly Venture and often led to these departments either working against one another or developing identical technology concurrently without being aware that another of their fellow firms in the Borg Ward group was doing the same one example being when Lloyd created a new 900 CC flat 4 water-cooled engine even though Goliath had already developed one themselves although interestingly the Lloyd power unit was eventually employed by Japanese car maker Subaru as a prototype for their boxer engines that would ultimately find work inside the strangely styled Subaru 360 City Car borgford releasing his first post-war model in 1949 as the borkford hanza 1500 a low smooth design that allowed for a highly flexible platform onto which all manner of bodies could be placed the 1500 being made available as a two and four-door Saloon a two-door Cabriolet a two-door station wagon a two-door panel van and a two-door pickup truck while from 1952 Borg board entered the realm of luxury motoring so as to combat Mercedes-Benz with the bork board hands at 2400 Fastback a car that integrated into its design many styling cues from Contemporary American models such as the Hudson Super wasp alongside car production the combined ballboard hanza Goliath and Lloyd firms also provided Mass assembly for diesel and petrol lorries that were employed in all manner of applications across Western Europe their remit also including commercial vehicles Vans buses army vehicles fire engines stationary engines tanks boats electric vehicles and even a helicopter in the form of the Borg Ford calibri of 1958 a three-seat utility helicopter that had been designed by Heinrich focker but was built by borgford at his Factory in Bremen this helicopter being the first German helicopter to be built after World War II and the nation's first helicopter model since the foka argelis fa-223 jaka transport helicopter of 1940 and was created as a response to the lifting of aircraft development restrictions in 1955 as implemented by the Allies Borg board also extending his expertise into the realm of race cars during 1950 with the borkford hanza 1500 type Inca which broke the 1000 Mile record at the autodrome de Monterey circuit near Paris with an average speed of 107.5 miles an hour while his other racing successes included entries into Formula 2 racing where he partnered with British racing Legend John Cooper at Carrera stock car racing events such as the Carrera panamericana the crowning achievement of the Borg Ford company however would emerge in 1954 with the launch of the Isabella a car that had originally gone under the development name of the Borg board hanza 1500 as a replacement for the original 1500 of 1949 but was renamed to the Isabella following an off-the-cuff remark by Carl borgwart himself regarding a possible change in name for the upcoming model the borgford handsome name being subsequently superseded on future models by just the Borg Ward title although the hands of Mark continued to exist on the 2400 Fastback until 1955 and the luxury Pullman limousine until 1958. the Isabella incorporating a 1493 CC inline four-cylinder overhead valve engine with a single downdraft carburetor which in combination with an extremely short intake manifold inside The Rocker Box gave the appearance of an overhead cam engine as opposed to it being an extremely efficient push rod power plant of 60 horsepower while the exquisitely styled body provided a mixture of both Aesthetics and practicality through its spacious well-made interior all of which was packaged in a company relatively light body shell weighing a mere 1000 kilograms much of its lightness being owed to the use of aluminum Alloys for the gearbox cylinder head and on many of the engine parts and covers are more expensive but less noisy alternative to the more conventional pressed steel the stylish body not only looking futuristic for 1954 but comprised of unibody construction with separate front and rear subframes the front one being rubber mounted while the front suspension featured unequal wishbones coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers that were checked by an anti-roll bar the rear being fitted with a fully independent swing axle again featuring coil springs and telescopic shock absorbers the car also including radius arms and pivoting rubber bearings on the front axle a differential mounted to the rear subframe in large rubber bushes and very large hydraulic drum brakes used in combination with twin leading shoes at the front and single leading shoes at the rear complete with wide aluminum alloy shoes for the gearbox this had four all synchromeshed forward speeds and one reverse and was actuated by an extremely efficient and precise column gear change mod only by its rather long throws while the handbrake was mounted under the dashboard and was of an umbrella configuration that with a bench seat allowed for three abreast seating both front and rear thus giving the car a comfortable five person capacity with a six person maximum the polished Bakelite dashboard containing a clock a temperature gauge a petrol gauge and a speedometer with the wider cabin providing a cigarette lighter with a plug-in map Reading light three ashtrays one under the dashboard and two in the rear side panels and Ample Storage Space comprising two door pockets and a glove box which was later supplemented by two retractable cord strung tabular framed map holders mounted on the side of each foot well although and usually the doors had separate wind down quarter lights providing draft free ventilation with separate heaters for the driver and passenger being provided alongside separate controls the large white steering wheel actuating a lightly weighted and rubber coupled worm and Peg egg or worm and roller steering box with three turns from Lock to lock allowing for incredibly precise steering and a tight turning circle of around 32 feet the result was an incredibly well balanced car with an even weight distribution and low center of gravity presenting a machine with incredibly sure-footed handling and a comparatively economic fuel consumption of just 34 miles per gallon the top speed for the Isabella being 87 miles an hour and the north to 60 time being 16 seconds which for Saloon cars of the time was generally equivalent to rival models such as the Mercedes-Benz 220 Saloon and BMW 501 Carl borgford keeping the price of the Isabella low through a mixed price calculation with his other products so as to remain competitive with his much larger Teutonic opponents the only real drawbacks of the otherwise superb Isabella being the vertical fixing of the front bulkhead to the floor which made for an awkward resting position for the driver's feet and a comparatively low driving position that was often difficult to climb into or out of for the taller user though regardless of these minor nickels the borgford Isabella was perhaps the Pinnacle of West Germany's automotive design prowess in the field of regular Saloon cars combining eye-catching American style external appearances with a practical comfortable and efficient design a year after the launch of the Isabella in 1954 the Isabella Combi arrived as an estate version of the car followed shortly thereafter by a bespoke convertible as produced by the renowned West German coach Builder Carl Deutsche of cologne the convertible being launched as the Isabella Cabriolet while the equivalent fixed head Coupe was marketed as the Deutsche coupe the Isabella Cabriolet being an outstandingly attractive car and one whose Aesthetics easily matched the classic lines of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Goldwing in terms of beauty the Deutsche Coupe going on to be an incredibly rare version of the model with only 23 units produced at Carl Deutsch's own Factory while the regular Isabella Saloon and Coupe as built by the Bremen Works remained popular sellers with 26 378 units sold during 1955 and thus making the Borg Ward firm the second largest in West Germany behind Volkswagen in terms of overall commercial performance this being reflected in that by 1959 the Borg board group had successfully penetrated the highly insular and extremely demanding U.S Market with over 500 individual dealers across the United States their rise to prominence even catching the attention of the Detroit Giants with Chrysler making an offer of 200 million Deutsche marks or 50 million dollars to purchase a 51 share of the Borg board company though Carl borgford ultimately turned down this offer in September 1955 the Isabella TS was added to the lineup and made its debut at that Year's Frankfurt motor show this car incorporating various engine improvements including an altered compression ratio that was increased from seven to one to eight two one enlarged exhaust and Inlet valves strengthened pistons and bearings and the original carburetor being replaced by a large twin choke downdraft solex engine output for the TS being up to 75 horsepower and thus allowed for a top speed of 98 miles an hour and a not-to-60 time of 15.8 seconds putting it easily on par with the 2.4 liter Jaguar Mark II cosmetic changes to the TS including individual reclining front seats to replace the bench and additional Chrome applied to the rear lights parking lights indicators side strips and around the window framework the various mechanical modifications to the TS in contrast to most high performance versions of regular family saloons being an increase in fuel efficiency of 38 miles per gallon as opposed to the regular Isabella's 34. unfortunately despite the Isabella's huge initial success overall sales dropped to 20 993 for the 1956 fiscal year due to losses on the export market and the release of several new models by BMW Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen so as to match the barnstorming innovation of the borgford group borgford responding by replacing the Deutsche coupe with an in-house equivalent dubbed the Isabella two-seater Coupe during 1957. modifications to the design by borquad himself creating perhaps the most beautiful version of the model range ever released presenting a car with its own style but maintaining certain traits that ensured it remained distinctly in Isabella incorporating a new dashboard largely carried over from the Borg Ford hanza 1500 which was fitted with push button controls a cream finish with white instruments and a soft padded top while the slightly plump yet flat shape of the original Isabella was replaced by a coke bottle style electric windscreen washers being fitted as standard while the rear wing sported totally new boomeranged shaped rear lights as a subtle homage to the American and trend for Space Age style fins the replacement of the Deutsche Coupe being compensated for by way of allowing Carl Deutsch to release his own higher specification Coupe Cabriolet version that cost 10 000 Deutsche marks more than the basic Isabella Coupe conscious of the large price gap between the Isabella Coupe and the next highest version of the model the TS Saloon borgford introduced a higher specification version of the TS dubbed the TS Deluxe during the same year so as to bridge the void the deluxe including two-tone paintwork and extra Chrome while the rest of the Isabella range was modified to integrate minor improvements such as a new 10.5 gallon petrol tank longer gear lever improved suspension new recessed steering wheel new Upholstery and a new instrument cluster while at the 1958 Frankfurt Motor Show borgford celebrated its 500 000th car built and sold since the formation of his revived company 10 years prior this coinciding with the saloon TS Deluxe and Combi getting an enlarged boot rear lights from the coupe and smaller diamond shaped emblems on the front grille 1959 proving to be the highest output year for the Isabella range with 38 000 units delivered while exports Beyond those supplied to the United States included units sold in Australia New Zealand and Malaya 1959 however would prove to be the point where Borg Ward stumbled fatally as while the year started off nicely with the launch of the p100 big six four-door Saloon a 100 mile an hour six-cylinder machine built to do battle with the Mercedes-Benz 220 the car's lengthy development cost the overall group a veritable Fortune this being poorly timed with the impact of the Eisenhower recession of the previous year which had seen Car Sales Across the Western World collapsed to their lowest level since the end of the war this being most prominent in the United States where due to there being such an exceptionally low demand for new models by the buying public unsold Borg Fords together with other European models such as renaults and Volkswagens were piling up in such vast numbers that new units being transported to the United States had to be turned away when their ships arrived at American Harbors while at the bottom end of the Borg board group's corporate hierarchy the Lloyd brand released for 1959 the Arabella an incredibly stylish small family car reminiscent of contemporary Chryslers that was for all intents and purposes an excellent machine from a technical and design standpoint featuring the very latest in crash safety a spacious cabin with good storage space and all-round visibility and a smooth four-cylinder engine that was a major step up from the preceding Lloyd Alexander unfortunately in order to beat their Rivals at Volkswagen which was continuing to eat away large portions of the economy car market with their 1930s era Beetle the Lloyd Arabella had been developed in a staggeringly short 23 months as opposed to the usual Convention of three to five years normally required to bring a comprehensively new model from conception to sales entry while a rushed assembly meant the first 1000 cars delivered to customers left the factory with a plethora of quality faults that included a leaky passenger cabin and problems with the gearbox this initial slew of issues requiring Borg board to undertake an expensive recall of this initial batch of cars as well as undertaking rectification on undelivered units still coming down the production line leading to a lengthy waiting period which due to delivery times for new cars on the west German Market having dropped to its lowest figure since the end of the war met prospective buyers grew rapidly impatient with Lloyd and opted instead to take on the comparative Beetle which had little to no waiting time unsold Lloyd arabellas piling up in large numbers on vacant land behind the Bremen Factory while despite Borg board cars being known for their often unreliable nature due to Carl borkford's insistence on applying Innovative but not thoroughly tested facets to the design the abysmal quality of the Arabella in the eyes of the buying public was considered Unforgivable having made a substantial loss on the incredibly expensive Arabella in combination with the development costs for the p100 and the sudden collapse in demand for foreign cars on the American Market the Borg Ford Management attempted to recoup its outgoings by way of fluctuating the price of the Arabella raising the price of the car from its launch figure of 5250 Deutsche marks to 5490 Deutsche marks in June 1960 while also offering a stripped down base model that entered sales at 4985 Deutsche marks but by this point the ground had been well and truly lost to Volkswagen at its Beetle for the small family car market as well as foreign Interlopers that began to appear in the form of the Austin mini from Britain both of which were sold at prices far below those being offered at Borg board Karl Borg board in his attempt to find investment in order to shore up his firm approaching the Bremen Senate in December 1960 soster lent him 10 million Deutsche marks of State funding that would be supported by loans from several German banks by which time the Borg board company had slipped to fifth place in terms of sales output from Germany's Automotive Acres his methods as to coercing the Bremen Senate however faced severe scrutiny in the eyes of the West German media as if his demands for State funding were not met he held his own Workforce to Ransom by threatening to fire large portions of the company's staff a move that would paint the Bremen Senate in a dim light among the local population for allowing so many workers to be made redundant through not supporting one of the Region's major employers although this was a bluff he could not follow through as at the time a recent boom in shipbuilding at the nearby Shipyard meant those employees he proposed to sack would easily find similar work that demanded additional labor leaving no political ramifications for the Bremen Senate and although they initially agreed to provide the necessary State funding borgford's threats of mass unemployment led to a hostile reception by the newspapers with one particularly scathing and Sensational article published on January 31 1961 leading to the supplier's credit lines being cut off at the Bremen Senate stopping all cash flow the company now only days away from bankruptcy and the Senate placed in a position of advantage over an increasingly desperate org Ford the that offer instead being to provide State funding on the condition that Borg board pledges company to the Bremen government and following a tense 13-hour meeting the company founder ultimately agreed to the Senate's terms on February 4 1961 averting the group's impending Financial collapse with the Senate now dictating the management decisions at borgford they appointed Johannes semler as chairman of the company's supervisory board sembler having made a name for himself a year prior when he helped to restructure the finances at BMW following the disastrous introduction of the BMW 507 sports car and on July 28 1961 proposed establishing the glitzvahan or settlement procedure on the Borg board company a court procedure in which under the supervision of the Court a debtor is given the opportunity to avert bankruptcy through a settlement that includes all creditors and thus preserve his company although the length of time between sembler's appointment as chairman of the supervisory board in February and the enacting of vagleit's fafarin has often been rumored as being a deliberate stall tactic as influenced by BMW chairman Herbert Quant who did whatever he could to ensure that rescue for the Borg board company came too late while at the same time several firms from across Europe placed expressions of interest in purchasing the borgford group outright including the British Motor Corporation or BMC who in a manner similar to inocenti of Italy proposed using the Borg vord Mark as a means of selling regular BMC cars such as the mini and the Austin A40 Farina across northern and western Europe but they ultimately hesitated in getting the best deal inevitably the Borg Ford group was damaged Beyond repair and following the failure of a Cooperative deal set up by the borgford dealership suppliers and customers The Firm was declared insolvent in September 1961 just as work on developing a replacement Isabella with a new 1600 cc engine and body styling by the Italian karatsaria frua was coming to the production stage the Bremen Works being sold at bankruptcy auction to Van maker henschel who operated the plant until their takeover by Daimler Benz in 1971 who began utilizing the former Borg board facility for the Assembly of Mercedes T1 transporter Vans and later estate versions of the w123e class passenger cars from 1977. the factory having since been the production works for the Mercedes SL the SLK the C-Class the GLK and the E-class Coupe and convertible while the rights to the upcoming new version of the Isabella were bought by German car builder Hans glass and ultimately came to fruition as the glass 1700 the small company eventually being acquired by BMW in 1966 with the glass 1700 discontinued a year later to avoid internal competition with BMW's own 1800 all pressings and equipment for the Assembly of the p100 being bought by impulsora Mexicana or tomatoes who continued production of the Borg vord p100 from March 1963 at their Monterey plant in the state of Nuevo Leon until 1970. Key Personnel from the collapsed Borg Ford Company largely migrating over to BMW while Karl borgford himself died a Broken Man on July 28 1963 at the age of 73. later calculations conducted following the collapse of the car maker determining that the figure of 10 million Deutsche marks was far more than what was necessary to rescue The Firm from bankruptcy and that a much smaller sum as provided by local banks and the Bremen Senate could have easily settled Borg Ward's debts this however was not the end of the Borg board name as 50 years after the car builder wrapped up in 1961 the rights to the mark were acquired in 2011 by Photon the commercial vehicle subsidiary of the Chinese state-owned Beijing Automotive Group or baic the purchase of the Borg Ford moniker by Photon being so as to allow the group to expand from its already highly successful commercial vehicles business into passenger car development while at the same time adopting the name of a German car company which for the Chinese market is perceived with the highest value the newly revived Borg board being based at a renovated Factory in Suburban Beijing during 2015 with a forecast sales output of 800 000 units by 2020 the launch models for the new company being the bx7 of 2016 a compact luxury SUV based on the regular Sunova x65 crossover SUV and was of an equivalent size to the Audi Q5 the bx5 a smaller Sub-Compact version of the bx7 which was complemented by the sporty Fastback bx6 and the smallest member of the range the BX X3 which was about the size of an mgz built out for the borgford group being set at 10 000 new cars per atom with proposals also including the development of a concept car dubby Isabella which was presented at the 2017 International Motor Show in Germany and for sales on the European market to commence from 2018 which would include the opening of a new corporate headquarters and sales Center in Stuttgart alongside proposals for a further 30 sales centers across Europe together with a new production facility in the company's spiritual home of Bremen unfortunately though the borgford Revival was not the commercial success hoped by its developers as amid a slew of startup companies on the Chinese market nearly all of whom offered crossover SUVs of similar size and trim specifications as the bx3 bx5 bx6 and bx7 the Borg Ward range was put at an immediate disadvantage due to The Prestige of the name pushing up the asking price thus making it comparatively expensive next to both Chinese Rivals such as mg but also European Builders like Audi Volkswagen and BMW the bx7 for the 2017 fiscal year selling approximately 30 000 units before seeing a steep drop-off in sales for 2018. commercial performance for the company being so poor that in 2019 Photon sold two-thirds of its shares in The borgford Firm to the Chinese ride hailing and short-term rental provider ucar who employed bx3s bx5s and bx7s as part of their rental Fleet so as to drum up the necessary Revenue ucar initially keeping sales figures stabilized but with considerable doubt looming as to the potential for the their new business model in the end the impact of the covid-19 pandemic during early 2020 which caused a catastrophic downturn in new car sales meant for the first quarter of the Year orboard reported only 5 000 new cars sold globally sales for the Borg board in Europe being particularly dismal has since the company was launched on the European market during the summer of 2018 only 100 examples of the bx5 and bx7 had been delivered to customers the former costing 36 200 Euros and the latter 44 200 Euros with a four-year warranty and service making them more expensive than the Rival mggs and Zs while the European headquarters in Stuttgart were reportedly long abandoned by mid-2020 and sales centers in Europe comprised only a peppering of sites across Germany Luxembourg and Belgium costs continuing to spiral for the ailing firm until it eventually entered Administration in July 2021 followed in December of the same year by a Beijing court injunction seizing assets related to The borgford Venture due to non-payment of debts the photon Motor Company due to both the downturn in new car sales and the money lost on the Borg board Venture ultimately collapsing into bankruptcy on April 8 2022 and the Borg board brand once again disappeared into history today the Borg Ward name despite once holding the position of Germany's second best-selling car brand has long faded Into Obscurity although for those who are aware of this Mark's existence there is a dedicated following for the company that once provided an absolutely perfect mixture of style and Innovation that while not always presenting the best reliability helped to shape the future of Germany's car industry by demanding a greater degree of technical mechanical and styling standards from its Rivals thereby turning what was the tattered remains of a broken Nation at the end of World War II into the PowerHouse of Europe's Automotive scene by the dawn of the 1960s

Channel: Ruairidh MacVeigh

Views: 209,916

Keywords: car, cars, automobile, auto, bus, truck, motor, motor vehicle, saloon, estate, compact, sports, roadster, transport, road, heritage, historic, Carl Borgward, Borgward, West Germany, Borgward Isabella, Borgward P100, Lloyd Arabella, Lloyd, Goliath, Hansa, Hansa 2300, German, Germany, World War II, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, China, Borgward BX5, Borgward BX7, Borgward 1500, Borgward Pullman, Carl FW Borgward, USA, United States, Chinese, America, American, BMW 1800, Hans Glas, Glas 1700, Volkswagen, Beetle, VW, BMC

Id: _mjO_070jRY

Length: 29min 10sec (1750 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 29 2023