38 Volkswagen Karmann-ghia

In 1955, Volkswagen took the rugged and wellproven floorpan and mechanicals from its massproduced Beetle and clothed them in stunning coachwork penned by Ghia’s Luigi Segre, creating one of the prettiest classics of the post-war era – if not the most dynamic. Just shy of 450,000 examples rolled out of the Karmann factory in Osnabrück over the model’s 18-year production run, and at one point it became the most imported car in the United States.

The earliest examples – known as ‘lowlight’ models – were powered by the anaemic 1192cc flat-four from the first Beetle and today cost upwards of £25,000, while later 1584cc ‘big bumper’ cars are the most affordable, with coupés starting at less than £10,000. Stretch your budget to our upper limit, however, and you might be able to get yourself into Convertible or a 1500 – a happy medium that blends the slimmer bumpers for that classic look with enough torque to pull it from the brink of being truly ponderous.