For Sale: 1974 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia in Kentwood, Michigan

The Karmann Ghia began as a secret project. Karmann, the German coachbuilder, approached the Italian design firm Ghia in the early 1950s and together they built a prototype on a Beetle chassis without telling Volkswagen. When they unveiled it, the VW executives were so taken with it that they committed to production immediately. The car went on sale in 1955, ran for 20 years with almost no changes to the body, and became one of the most loved automotive designs of the 20th century. Buyers nicknamed it the poor man's Porsche, not because it performed like one, but because it looked like it could. This one is finished in Ravenna Green with chrome bumpers and crank windows, and it has been in the same ownership for the past 25 years, which is exactly the kind of history that tells you everything you need to know about how it has been kept.

Under the hood is the 1.6 liter air-cooled flat four backed by a four speed manual transmission. The 1974 model year received the final twin-port version of this engine, the most refined iteration Volkswagen produced in the Karmann Ghia. It is not fast and it was never meant to be. What it is is smooth, honest, and as simple to maintain as an engine gets, with parts available everywhere and a mechanical layout that anyone familiar with the Beetle can work on without special tools.

Inside, the brown leatherette bucket seats are clean and well suited to the cockpit character of the car. The Karmann Ghia's interior was always designed around two people and nothing else, and this one reflects that focus well.

1974 was the last year the Karmann Ghia was produced, and only 7,167 coupes were built in that final run before the nameplate was retired and replaced by the Scirocco. It was also the one and only year Volkswagen interlocked the seatbelts with the ignition, a federal safety regulation that required the car to be buckled before it would start. The rule was so universally disliked by drivers that the government abandoned it after a single model year, making 1974 a historically unique year for that detail alone. A Ravenna Green example with 25 years of single ownership from the final production year of one of the most beautiful cars ever built is not something you pass up without a second thought.

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