Karosserie Baur GmbH 

The Karosserie Baur GmbH Baur body and vehicle construction was a body building firm with headquarters in Stuttgart.

History

The company was founded in 1910 in Stuttgart's Berg district and remained family-owned until the bankruptcy in late 1998. Previously, building pre war convertibles since the 1920s. The Baur coachbuilding firm of Stuttgart also supplied the bodies for the DKW F10 post war and Drews Sports cabriolet. Also for the BMW 502 and 700 convertibles from the 1950s Later Baur offered retrofitting of vehicles from the BMW 02 series. Most of the company was taken over in 1999 by IVM Automotive, which in turn belongs to the Swedish Semcon Group since 2007. 

The company gained notoriety through conversions of BMW vehicles. These were partly produced for official sale by BMW dealers. The following three generations of the 3 Series Baur also subsequently converted to the so-called Targa half top cabriolet (BAUR TC).

These Baur conversions of the BMW 3 Series are in contrast to the factory convertibles from BMW offered in parallel from 1985 range,These are not full convertibles, because the window frames are preserved and there is a roll bar adding roll over saftey. Above the driver and passenger seats is a sturdy roof element that can be stowed in a space-saving storage in the trunk. The rear part of the roof is a classic folding top with plastic disc (for E21 / TC1 and E30 / TC2) or glass (for E36 / TC4). The two-part roof of the Baur TC enabled several variants of open-top driving, including open Targa roof or Landaulet.

Other vehicles produced by Baur include the Opel Kadett Aero and the Bitter CD. In February 2002, the company also presented the G-Cabriol XL at the Geneva Motor Show. It is based on the G-Class Cabriolet by Mercedes-Benz.