It produced cars of four brands, which were sold to a diversified international customer base: Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd.

The brand was revived in the 21st century, with the Stuttgart-based Borgward Group AG designing and marketing cars manufactured in China.

[1] The first vehicle Carl Borgward designed was the 1924 Blitzkarren (lightning cart), a tiny three-wheeled van with 2 hp (1.5 kW), which was successful in the market gap it filled.

[7] Borgward introduced a line of 1500 cc sports racers in the 1950s, with the 16-valve engine from these becoming a successful Formula Two power unit (which was also used by some F1 privateers in 1961).

[9][10] Reports of difficulties at Borgward surfaced in an article that appeared in Germany's news magazine Der Spiegel on 14 December 1960.

The 70-year-old Carl Borgward's "hands-on" insistence on an increasingly manic proliferation of new and modified models featuring adventurous, but under-developed technological innovations (fast manisch[e] Konstruierwut) gave rise to components which too often did not work, broke down or fell apart, resulting in massive bills for pre-delivery remediation and/or post delivery warranty work that found their way back to the company.

[citation needed] The December 1960 Der Spiegel article was not the only serious public criticism targeting Borgward at this time: suddenly stridently negative (if more succinct) comments also turned up in the mass-market Bild newspaper and in television reports.

Capital intensive businesses such as auto manufacturing use their expensive machines and tools most efficiently if they use them constantly at full capacity, but the car market in Europe in the 1950s/60s was more seasonal than today, with sales diminishing in Winter, then peaking in the early summer months: Borgward's inventory of unsold cars at the end of 1960 was higher than usual, reflecting ambitious growth plans, most obviously in respect of the United States market[13] The December 1960 Der Spiegel article speculated that of the 15,000 Borgward cars ordered by the North American dealers in 1960 (and of the 12,000 delivered to them) 6,000 might have to be taken back following a slump in North American demand.

After a tense 13-hour meeting widely reported in a still hostile media, Borgward agreed to the senate's terms on 4 February 1961, thereby averting the bankruptcy of the business.

[17] On 28 July 1961, Semler, as chairman of the supervisory board, joined the directors of the three companies Borgward, Goliath and Lloyd to instigate proceedings for the establishment of a "Vergleichsverfahren", which would have provided for a court sanctioned scheme of arrangement enabling the business to continue to trade while at the same time protecting the interests of creditors.

Subsequent "conspiracy theorists"[citation needed] have suggested that Semler, for reasons of his own, never had any intention of allowing the Borgward auto-businesses to survive.

[19] The German magazine Der Spiegel published a thoughtful piece in 1966, implying that with a little more support, and if the proprietor had been more willing to take advice from his own directors, the Borgward company could have easily overcome its financial problems of 1961.

The engine was manufactured at the plant that Borgward had in the town of Isidro Casanova, Buenos Aires province, at a production rate of 20 units per day with almost 800 employees.

The production of Borgward Isabella was carried out in Cordoba city, by using Argentine engines, local components (glass, batteries, tires) and other pieces from Germany.