Epic Fail: the little-known German car brand that failed not once, but twice

To misquote Oscar Wilde, for a car brand to die once may be regarded as misfortune. For the same brand to die twice looks like carelessness. But such was the fate that befell poor Borgward, the German car company that, in 2022, suffered the ignominy of kicking the bucket not for the first, but second time.

Borgward was founded in Bremen in the 1920s, and hit its zenith in the 1950s, when its Isabella briefly became one of Germany’s bestselling posh saloons. In 1953, Borgward’s Porsche-ish 1500 competed at the Le Mans 24 Hour Race.

It didn’t quite make it to the finish, but it went quite a long way and looked rather pretty while doing so. But in the early 1960s, Borgward suffered financial meltdown, blamed by some on a sprawling product portfolio, and by others on totally mad finances.

It would remain so for half a century, until the late 2000s when it was revived by Beiqi, an offshoot of China’s BAIC megacorp. Arriving with grand promises of conquering Europe and shifting 800,000 cars a year, by 2017 Borgward was selling a small range of powerfully forgettable SUVs, mostly in China.

And then, a couple of years after, it... wasn’t. Failing to conquer Europe beyond a single dealer in Luxembourg (no, really), Borgward suffered financial meltdown, again, and by 2022 was dead in the water. Again. Hardly surprising – Beiqi doubtless hoped to trade off the historic brand cache of the Borgward name, perhaps forgetting that anyone who remembered Borgward first time round would have been in their late 70s at the very youngest.

At the risk of sounding name-ist, Epic Fail feels Borgward’s chances of global success weren’t helped by the fact that Borgward – to the English ear at least – is not a beautiful word. In fact, it’s down there alongside ‘pustule’. And ‘seepage’. And ‘phlegm’. Probably best leave it lie this time, lads?