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Over the past year, tiny two-seat mini cars have been appearing on the streets of Canadian cities.

They've been welcomed as just the things needed to save the planet by some and as something of a novelty by others. But the Mercedes-Benz Smart car isn't the first of this type to be imported to Canada, or even the first from a German luxury car maker. That honour goes to the classic micro-machine of the 1950s: BMW's Isetta bubble car.

The egg-shaped Isetta was born in the aftermath of the Second World War when money, materials and fuel were scarce, one of a number of designs from makers such as Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Dornier, Gogomobile, Trojan and Scootacar.

But by the time the Isetta eventually arrived in North America in the late 1950s, it was a solution to a problem that simply didn't exist here. Although today, with transaction prices averaging $30,000, gas near enough a buck a litre and traffic in near gridlock, we can look back on the 1957 version advertised in Toronto newspapers with a degree of nostalgia.

Isetta Motors of Canada would sell you one of these minuscule motorcars for $1,098 ($366 down, $9 a week) and promised it would get 75 miles per gallon, or better than 4.0 L/100 km. It was just 2,283 mm long (or about 400 mm more than many modern vehicles are wide) and weighed 350 kg. Up front were wide-spaced, 10-inch diameter wheels, while the rears were just 518 mm apart.

It came with a sunroof, heater, sliding windows, four-wheel brakes, electric start and turn signals. A little more ominous was the inclusion of a "comprehensive tool kit under the seat" and Lucas electrics, which in those days had a reputation for leading drivers on excursions to the dark side.

Safety equipment? Well, no seatbelts are mentioned, but it did have tubular front bumpers. If those didn't do the job in a frontal crash, with say, a 1957 Buick, a can opener in your pocket might have come in handy, although I have seen reference to the sunroof serving double duty as an escape hatch.

Not quite the car you'd envision "saving" BMW, but in large part it did just that. In the early 1950s, BMW was ill-advisedly attempting to rebuild its post-war fortunes with a range of luxury and sporting cars and heading for serious trouble.

Meanwhile Italian refrigerator manufacturer Renzo Rivolta, whose company Iso was located in Milan, was busy creating the Isetta. This first automotive venture lasted just three years, but he later went on to create the potent Iso Rivolta GT cars of the 60s and 70s.

The original Isetta appeared in 1953 and its most unusual feature was the hinged front section (perhaps inspired by a refrigerator door, one wag suggests) that allowed occupants to step into the two-seat interior. It was powered by a 236-cc, two-stroke engine with chain drive.

In 1954, BMW's Swiss importer tripped over one at the Geneva Auto show and thought it was just what the doctor ordered for ailing BMW. The board agreed and a licensing arrangement was made.

The original Isetta was a little too crude for BMW, however, and it was cosmetically upgraded and mechanically improved, mainly by replacing the two-stroke engine with a 12-hp, 250-cc four-stroke motorcycle unit of its own manufacture. Top speed soared to about 100 km/h -- downhill.

By the mid-50s, the engine had grown to 295 cc and power to 14 hp. There was also a pickup truck version. A four-seater, with a 585-cc flat-twin and 19.5-hp arrived in 1957 and served as the basis for the 700, the first of the modern-era BMWs. Isetta production ended in 1962 with some 162,000 built in Germany, France, Brazil and England, where the few that arrived here were built.

The little red Isetta egg pictured here belongs to Jim Broughton of Broughton Auto Inc. in Whitby, Ont.

In 1958, Broughton was the youngest Ford dealership service manager in Ontario, but he's made his living since the mid-1960s running his own business repairing heavy trucks.

"I just like trucks. The bigger the better. There's just something about them, " he says. He also owned the largest wrecker (tow truck) between Toronto and Montreal at one time.

But he also found, after owning a number of old autos including a 1922 McLaughlin Buick Touring, that there was "something" about Isettas too.

Broughton recalls having seen his first Isetta when they were sold by local dealer Freddie Hatch. "I remember them sitting outside with $550 written in soap on their windshields," he says. "At the time you couldn't sell them. If you bought a house they'd give you one. It would be in the garage. If you bought a new car they'd throw one in. Or so the story goes."

Broughton bought his first Isetta for $75 in 1971 and it sat behind the garage, serving as a source of amusement for his kids, for more than a decade. The second, the 1958 pictured here, was purchased for $1,100 in 1983. It was among an assortment of golf carts at an auction, and had been used by a golf club greens keeper to run around and turn on the sprinklers. The body was dimpled by golf balls and the windscreen broken.

Broughton now owns seven Issettas, four of which he's restored, and is currently working to bring another one back to life. "Parts are easy to find, and they're easy to work on. You can do it all yourself. Lift the motor out. Carry the frame around, "he says. He flips them on their roofs to work on rusty bits underneath.

Broughton's Isetta fires up with a sound exactly like that of a lawn tractor and chugs happily around town and to the odd cruise night.

"My biggest thrill is watching kids' reactions," he says. "I've seen them rolling on the lawn laughing. They just think it's so funny."

globeauto@globeandmail.ca