Motor Tourist road test, December 1962

Motor Tourist, the magazine of the Deutscher Touring Club, published a glowing review of the new 1500 Ghia in its December 1962 issue. The 2000km extended road test, which included a trip to Paris, left the writer, Carl Otto Windecker, very impressed with the Ghia.






Windecker notes the significant improvements made to the carburetor and brakes, which were definitely weak spots on the earliest VW 1500s. He describes the seating position as perfect and says its performance on the road is comparable to earlier Porsches, though he strongly agrees with Auto Motor und Sport's recommendation of radial tires for spirited driving.

The review also states that production of the 1500 Ghia Cabriolet had finally just begun, and it praises VW and Karmann for delaying the introduction to make sure everything was up to the highest standard of quality before the Cabriolet was made available to the public. He may have spoken a little too soon.

In conclusion Windecker predicts great success for the 1500 Ghia. It's such a positive review that if it wasn't for a few telling details (such as his recommendation of radial tires) I would suspect it was just a recycled press release. He really liked it.

MOT road test, May 1963

In its May 1963 issue the German magazine MOT, sort of an automotive equivalent of Consumer Reports, tested a VW 1500 Karmann-Ghia. Their impressions were typical of 1500 Ghia road tests of the time.





I didn't translate the entire article, but the gist of the review was easy to pick up on. On the plus side, they thought it handled well and that it was nicely finished and economical to run. Less positively, they felt it was underpowered (especially considering the sporting pretensions of its styling), lacking in luggage and/or rear seat passenger space, and had unacceptable levels of wind noise. They didn't much like the fog light arrangement up front either.

This review is the only one I've found that tests a 1963 model, and the photos help resolve the question of which rim embellishers 1963 models were originally equipped with -- the older style Lemmerz trim rings used on the 1962 models or the later 1500S-style slotted beauty rings that are held in place by the hub caps. It's one of those early details that I can find no documentation for. The subject of the road test is clearly a '63, with its post-1962 badging and black interior, but it also has early 1962–63 style hub caps with black-painted VW logos and slotted beauty rings. This places the introduction of slotted rings at March/April 1963, if not even earlier. 1500 Club fact-checkers and car show judges take note!

[More information here.]

Track & Traffic road test, July 1962

Canada's Track & Traffic magazine featured a road test of the 1500 Ghia in its July 1962 issue. It might be the most positive review of the 1500 Ghia ever published.





The review starts off by mentioning that the Ghia was available as both a hardtop coupe and a convertible, which in July 1962 was still technically true. You would have had a hard time getting that convertible Ghia delivered though.

The First All-New VW in 15 Years!

What was probably the first road test of the VW 1500 available to American readers appeared in the October 1961 issue of Science and Mechanics magazine, a somewhat hardboiled pulp monthly for do-it-yourselfers and hobbyists.







It's a fair, well-written, and mainly positive review. The writer, Wayne Wille, takes the 1500 through its paces and finds that it more than lives up to the performance claimed by VW. He predicts the 1500 will be a success when it is finally available in the US -- in 1963 by his estimate. A photo of a very early Variant is included, which as in most American reviews of the time is compared to the now-obscure Corvair Lakewood station wagon. The car driven in the road test appears to be a prototype or very early production model with odd features including a white steering wheel (but with a black steering column) and the very early clamshell map pockets in the door panels. There's also a favorable description of the fresh air controls -- four air control levers that would soon become three in the production cars. Wille registers some surprise at the lack of a thermostat other than the manifold pre-heater valve (yet another clue that the car was a prototype -- the pre-heat valve wasn't fitted to production cars until late '62), but says thorough testing proved a thermostat wasn't needed according to VW's engineers. I guess they had reversed their thinking by late 1963 when an air-regulating thermostat was finally added.

Road & Track road test, February 1963

The February 1963 issue of Road & Track features a mostly positive road test of a '62 model VW 1500 Karmann-Ghia. The title reflects the magazine's editorial policy of crediting the coachbuilder over the manufacturer. The reviewer, Hansjörg Bendel, had a couple of gripes, but he really wanted to like the car. He accepted it on its own merits and focused on pointing out details that could easily be improved -- most of which in fact were in subsequent years. You can tell he was impressed with the car.






Don't let the glacial 0-to-60 time fool you -- the 1500 Ghia was the fastest model in the VW lineup at the time. He erroneously reports that the cabriolet version was already in production at Karmann, and that the VW 1500 4-seat cabriolet would join it on the assembly line soon. This is probably the latest mention I've found of the VW 1500 convertibles, which ultimately never made it beyond the prototype stage -- evidence that VW and Karmann hadn't completely given up on the idea of producing them until sometime in 1963.

Auto Motor und Sport road test, May 1962

The 1500 Ghia gets a generally positive review, though they recommend "Porsche tires" (Dunlop SP, Conti Radial or Firestone Phoenix) and Koni shocks for performance-minded drivers.



Nice action shot of an early solid-color car, looking much like the one featured in the original sales brochure.