This Goggomobil, witnessed by me on the Nizhny Novgorod Metro Bridge, has German license plates issued in Ratzeburg, Schleswig-Holstein. The hood is in half-open position, which is not surprising as the city is currently suffering from summer swelter, and the tiny two-stroke air-cooled engine placed in the rear of the car should’ve been overheating badly. I salute to the people who dared to travel such a long distance (stickers on the rear quarter glass indicate that they have also visited Kazakhstan) in such a vehicle. Sorry for low video quality, but I just had to share this ! And yes, I have a crack in my windshield…
The second photo is by my friend Yevgeniy Tchernushevitch, who met the car in another part of the city.
Unbelievable!!!!!
That’s the CC In Motion post of the year!
+1!
Goggo! One of my favorite microcars! This one looks like it could be a daily driver; that’s not impossible with a Goggomobil, as even the 250cc can move the car around at a reasonable speed since it’s so light, not to mention the 400cc. It sure wouldn’t work on an American highways, but a Goggo would be great for city driving, especially with that preselector gearbox.
I remember seeing a slightly bigger Goggo when I was in Europe , with 50s styling and wrap around windshield. My dad asked me what kind of car is that. I had to goggo look.
Maybe that was a Glas Izzard, Christopher. There’s been one of eBay on and off over the last month or so.
Fantastic to see a T model, apparently, being used as daily transport!
The little ones are great “near-cars”, quite toylike… I owned two of them, a sedan and a coupe. The chief failing is torque. They run out of steam on any kind of ascent (If you live on the plains or by the seashore, that’s not a problem, though). The previous owner in Germany of one of mine had the foresight to install four-way flashers, which I employed often while slowing down to a snail’s pace along the hilly shores of the Hudson River Valley. The sedan invites comparison to the FIAT 500, which has the advantage of a 4 cycle twin engine and larger wheels; the coupe is a beauty, stylistically in a league of its own amongst microcars, and it’s quite low, so it feels faster than it is. I put a reflective racing stripe on mine after getting caught on the road returning home after sundown a couple of times.
Great discover! Somo Goggos were imported to Colombia but they dissapeared almost immediately. Lack of parts, poor quality and imagine those micro machine trying to breath at almost 2.500 meters above sea level (8.400ft) Anyhow I do remember those funny cars. Thanks for sharing that surviving phenomen. 🙂
I was hitch-hiking from Elmendorf AFB into Anchorage one winter night and was picked up by a civilian base worker driving a Goggomobil sedan. He was not a small man at all, but there was room for both of us, and enough heat to keep the windows clear. He was very proud of his car and delighted at my interest in it. It went well enough and seemed to handle the ice and snow underfoot okay. The only oddness I remember was the sideways shift gate.
What a peculiar little car to see in traffic! Glad to see it being used, even if it’s in a historic sense rather than a daily sense.