Friday, May 14, 2010

Car heating as an extra? Not unusual in 1960

I am looking at a car price compilation of 1960, German cars available in Germany. Many brands have disappeared, i.e. Auto Union (now Audi), Borgward, DKW, Goliath, Lloyd, Messerschmitt, NSU, to name a few. Prices range from DM (Deutsche Mark) 2650 (for a BMW Isetta 250) to DM 34000 (for a Mercedes 300 SL Roadster, that by the way was more expensive than the Gullwing version for DM 33250). By the way the Volkswagen Beetle Standard was DM 3790. DM basically were replaced by the Euro 1:2, meaning for 2 DM you received 1 Euro. But it's not the prices that are astonishing, but the fact that an extra was listed for roughly half of the cars that nobody would pay something for today - the heating. If you were buying for example an Opel Rekord for DM 6760 you had to pay DM 160 to also get the heating. The prices for the heating were ranging from DM 45 (BMW Isetta) to DM 225 (Borward Isabella). Translated into today's world this would mean you would have to add between Euro 500 to 2000 to the list price to receive a heating system with your car - unthinkable! That's how things have changed.

No comments: