What does "Ghia" stand for ? We have asked the newspaper "der Standard". Here's the answer from Rudolf Skarics, in our translation.

In 1915 Giacinto Ghia founded a company for car bodies in Italy. Like many other italian car body specialists they were occupied with small series, designed and built for larger car producing companies. In Europe, the Name Ghia is commonly connected with the US-originated company Ford and the car body specialist Karmann. The latter is due to the the following reason: Wilhelm Karmann Junior had taken over Karmann from his father in the Fifties. He was a friend of Luigi Segre, who at this time was the chief designer at Ghia SpA. The result of this joint venture was the VW-Bug derivate "Karmann Ghia".

Then, now why do the luxurious editions of the normal Ford car series have the label "Ghia"? That's rather simple. Ghia was taken over by De Tomaso, a sports car producer, in 1967, and later, in 1973 swallowed by the american giant Ford.

The most sucessful years of Ghia were the Fifties and Sixties. Fiat, Ferrari, Maserati, and also some American companies(Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth) ordered exclusive Coupé- und Convertible Issues, which were designed at Ghia's. Some were also actually manufactured there.