Karmann was established in 1901 when Wilhelm Karmann purchased Klages, a
coachbuilder founded in 1874, and renamed the business. The company then grew together with the expanding automobile industry. In addition to the Beetle Cabriolet and Karmann Ghia, all cabriolet variants of the
VW Golf as well as the
Scirocco, and
Corrado were built by Karmann. The 1960s saw the expansion of the company and further vehicle plants were set up in
São Bernardo do Campo (Brazil) and
Rheine. In the years after 1965, complete vehicles and bodies of the
BMW New Class Coupé, and its successor, the larger
E9, were produced in Rheine. Installation of the engine and final assembly were handled by BMW at the Munich plant. Karmann also built complete cars for Porsche to increase production of the 912 and 911 models. In 1969 they started to manufacture the Porsche 914 and all four cylinder cars were made by them. In the late 1970s and 1980s, Karmann produced the body shell of the
BMW 6 Series Coupé and the convertible models of the
Ford Escort as complete vehicles. From the beginning of the 1990s, the
Ford Escort RS Cosworth, European-market
Kia Sportages and from 1997 the
Audi Cabriolet (type 89) and the
Audi A4 Cabriolet (from 2002), as well as the
Chrysler Crossfire (2003) and
Mercedes-Benz CLK Cabriolet (A209, 2003) were produced as complete vehicles. Production of VW's
Vento/Jetta (1992/93) and the
Golf Variant A3 (1997/99) also shifted from Volkswagen in Wolfsburg to Karmann in Osnabrück. In 1968, AMC introduced the
Javelin, a new competitor in the U.S. "
pony car" segment. AMC did not have a manufacturing subsidiary in Europe, therefore, Karmann assembled the American-designed car for distribution in Europe. Karmann built the cars in Rheine with
V8 engines. About 90% of the necessary components were shipped by boat from the U.S. All were SST trim versions and their name, Javelin 79-K stood for AMC's "79" model number and the "K" for Karmann. A small number of vehicles were also produced in Brazil (São Bernardo do Campo). The Osnabrück facility also produced the chassis and body panels of the
Spyker C8 Spyder. The production facilities in Osnabrück,
Chorzów, Poland,
Yokohama, Japan,
Sunderland, UK,
Puebla, Mexico, and
Plymouth Township, U.S. manufactured roof systems for convertibles including the Mercedes-Benz CLK, the
Renault Mégane CC, the
Nissan Micra C+C, the
Pontiac G6, the Chrysler Sebring, the Ford Mustang, the
Bentley Continental, the
BMW 1 Series, and the
Volkswagen New Beetle Cabriolet. == Production to 2010 ==