The DKW 3=6 is a 2 or 4-door sedan (car) / saloon / 2-door coupé / coupé & cabriolet / 3-door Station wagon / 'Universal' estate from DKW, built from 1953 to 1967, at the height of the post-war boom. Under the bonnet: 896 .
The story
The DKW 3=6 is a compact front-wheel drive saloon manufactured by Auto Union GmbH. The car was launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show in March 1953 and sold until 1959. It carried the name Sonderklasse ("Special Class") on the right hand fender of all steel bodied models – this being part of the model name for this range.
The first model in the range was named by factory project number, DKW F91, which was replaced by the F93 and F94 models from the 1956 model year. The F93 and F94 models were referred to by Auto Union as the "Big DKW 3=6" (Großer 3=6). By 1958 the car's successor, the Auto Union 1000 Coupe de Luxe, was being sold and the older car had become, in essence, a ‘run-out’ model; it was known more simply (in the US and the Netherlands only) as the DKW 900. The 3=6's notable features included its 896cc two-stroke engine and front-wheel drive layout, along with the sure-footed handling that resulted.
What is underneath
Power comes from 896 . It weighs 870 -. It shifts through a 3 or 4 speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2350 mm (2-door) / 2450 mm (4-door). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the DKW F89; its successor was the Auto Union 1000; assembly was at Düsseldorf. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Corvette, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the DKW catalogue sit the DKW CD Manzel and the DKW F102.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the DKW 3=6 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.