A Short History Of The VW Karmann Ghia (cont.)

In 1971 VW introduced the chunkier blade bumpers, and the 4 spoke collapsible steering wheel. The rest of the interior was brought up to date with dashboard and door cappings finished in a black textured plastic, the new dashboard necessitated a redesigned instrument binnacle featuring two hooded dials displaying time, speed and fuel. The heater controls were moved, new inertia seatbelts were installed and the rear lights were changed to Type 3 units.

The 1972 and 1973 models were largely unchanged from the ’71 model, and in 1973 VW stopped production of the Ghia for the European market, ready for the launch of the Karmann designed and built Golf based Scirocco. US specification Ghia’s continued to be produced for another year.

Whilst the Ghia’s distinctive looks may have shouted “sports car”, the somewhat lacklustre 30bhp produced by the 1192cc flat four engine had other ideas. A point picked up by VW’s marketing and advertising during the ‘60’s, whilst the early adverts had been in the more traditional artistic illustrated style the new style of ad’s took a slightly different take on it.

Doyle, Dane and Bernbach had created a whole new style of advertising, rather than glamorizing the product which they were advertising, they took more of an objective look at the product, usually making a statement that could be seen as cynical, then backing it up with an explanation, this form of “soft-sell” was to set the standard of VW advertising up to the current day.