The DKW Typ 4=8 is a 2 door ”limousine” (saloon) / 2 door “cabrio-limousine” (soft top saloon/sedan) / 2 door cabriolet from DKW, built from 1929 to 1940, the vintage years, when coachbuilders still shaped most of what was sold. Under the bonnet: 1929.
How it came about
The DKW Typ 4=8 is a small rear-wheel drive two-stroke V4 engined car produced at the company's Spandau plant by DKW (later part of the Auto Union). It was launched at the Berlin Motor-show in 1929 as a successor to the DKW Typ P built at the same factory, although the DKW Typ P 4=8 was significantly larger than the Typ P: in terms of market positioning a more direct successor to the DKW Type P was probably the DKW F1 produced in Zwickau from 1931.
Initially, in 1929, very few Typ 4=8s were produced, but volumes built up as the DKW Typ P and its sporting derivative was phased out, and between 1929 and 1940 approximately 24,000 Typ 4=8s were manufactured. The figure is dwarfed by the approximately 218,000 smaller DKW F1 and its successors produced at Zwickau between 1931 and 1942, and in retrospect the Typ 4=8 tends to be overlooked when compared to its front-wheel drive sibling; but it was nevertheless in the 1930s a significant participant in the growing German auto-market. The DKW Typ 4=8 underwent several name changes and step by step modifications before production ended, in 1940, of what was by now the 1054 cc DKW Sonderklasse, but the V4 two-stroke engine and market positioning remained consistent throughout.
The hardware
Power comes from 1929; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a 1929–1932 / 3-speed manual / / 1932 / 4-speed manual / / 1932–1940 / 4-speed manual with lockable freewheel device. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 1929 / 2800 mm / / 1930–1932 / 2700 mm1932 / 2760 mm / / 1932–1937 / 2850 mm / / 1937–1940 / 2600 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: assembly was at Zwickau, Germany. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Maserati Type V4, the British Motor Corporation MG M-type, the Delage D8 — show what else the money bought that year. Its DKW stablemates include the DKW 3=6 and the DKW CD Manzel.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the DKW Typ 4=8 — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.