Start with what the DKW F7 is: a 2-door saloon / 2-door cabriolet saloon / 2-door coupe cabriolet / coupe utility / van with 584 , built from 1937 to 1938, when streamlining and independent suspension were arriving together. What it meant takes a little longer. 80,000 were built.
Where it came from
The DKW F7 is a front-wheel-drive, two-stroke, subcompact family car produced by Auto Union’s DKW division from 1937 to 1938, succeeding their DKW F5 range. In the F7 update, the slightly smaller entry-level 'Reichsklasse' body was dropped – instead all F7s, including the base trim, now got the slightly longer body previously reserved for the 'Meisterklasse' model. Some 80,000 of these front-wheel drives were sold until the 1939 DKW F8 successor was released.
Under the skin
The engine is 584 . On the scales it comes to 750 kg approx. Drive goes through a 3-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 2610 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
In the DKW line-up the DKW F7 has a clear place: it replaced the DKW F5; it handed the line to the DKW F8; the factory was Zwickau, Germany. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Volkswagen Beetle, the Lincoln Continental, the Chevrolet Suburban. Nearby in the DKW catalogue sit the DKW 3=6 and the DKW CD Manzel.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the DKW F7 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.