The Goggomobile

My maternal grandparents Ulpen and Afina de Haan (dutch link) were the first ones in the family to have a car! It was a Goggomobil, a German micro car. Here they are standing proudly next to car. Their license class did not allow them to go faster than 20 km per hour, but it got them where they wanted to go. I don’t remember the car myself, so it must have been in the mid fifties.

Update: Email from the owner of the Goggomobil website dates the car from about 1962-64. As my grandfather died in 1963, the photo is probably from 1962.

Below is a bit of history of the Goggomobil.
Hans Glas in Bavaria accomplished what the majority of micro car manufacturers could only dream of: namely the large series production of a very popular car over a very long period of time.
Manufacturers of agricultural machines, Glas and his son Andreas developed their small car prototype with Isetta- style front-opening door in the fall of 1954. The pre-production series of 50 cars had no rain gutters. Until September 1955, fenders were still screwed, not welded together and had intake scoops on the rear.
Roll-up windows were introduced in October 1956. From September 1956, a 300 cc motor (15 hp) was available in addition to the 14 hp 250. The front deck had a “bonnet” pressed in, louvers on the rear fenders and a grill on the trunklid scoop. A hot 20 hp 400 cc motor became available but was seen mostly on U. S. export cars. The doors were front-hinged from March 1964, this being the last major change for the sedan, called limousine in Germany. An electric pre-selector transmission was also available.

Some links:
Goggomobil website
Goggomobil on Wikipedia