The Karmann Ghia is a small sports car-like Volkswagen, smaller than the popular VW Beetle of the time (1975). The name itself breaks down into Karma, “in Hinduism, the sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence,” and Gaia, “the Greek word for ‘earth'”. Actually… none of that is true. It comes from two car designers, a German coachbuilder, Karmann, and an Italian designer, Ghia.
In the late 1970s, I owned a green Karmann Ghia while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, just north of Chicago. It was definitely a fun car to drive and took me on a lot of great adventures. The size of the car was a perfect match for my life at that time. I didn’t own much more than what could fit in the locker next to my bunk. Honestly, the Navy wasn’t much fun for me, but I guess I had a decent life— I had a place to stay and three meals a day if I wanted them. I was also lucky enough to be there with two of my closest friends from my hometown.
Now and then, these hometown friends—and whoever wanted to join us—would get together to drive from Chicago to Northern New York just for the weekend; it’s wild to think about now. From those trips and driving through the night, I will forever remember that the sun rises in the east because it would pop over the horizon just as we approached Toronto.
The Karmann Ghia is a small car, and coincidentally, most passengers on those trips were tall. This meant that as they settled into the passenger seat, their knees would come into close alignment with the bottom of the glove box, where all the cold air from the front “boot” would enter. It was freezing inside the car anyway because, unlike other auto heaters of the time that worked by blowing heated air from the engine’s antifreeze system, the Karmann Ghia simply moved heated air off the engine block in the back. Out of necessity, I kept warm blankets in the car.
It was nonetheless a fantastic little car that I drove for as long as possible, probably longer than was safe. By the time I finally let it go, the doors were held shut with rope, the floor in the back seat had rusted through, and there were numerous rust spots all over the body. It was clear that it was time to move on, so I ended up buying a 1968 Chevrolet camper van.
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