The
Trabant (
/ˈtræbænt, -ənt/,
/trəˈbɑːnt/; German:
[tʁaˈbant]) is an
automobile produced from 1957 to 1990 by former
East German car manufacturer
VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau. It is often seen as symbolic of the former East Germany and the collapse of the
Eastern Bloc in general.
...
The 1980s model had no
tachometer, no indicator for either the headlights or turn signals, no fuel gauge, no rear seat belts, no external fuel door, and drivers had to pour a mix of gasoline and oil directly under the bonnet/hood.
[3]
...
Since its manufacturer was a
state monopoly, acquiring a Trabant took about ten years.
[10] East German buyers were placed on a waiting-list of up to thirteen years.
[11] The waiting time depended on their proximity to
Berlin, the capital.
[6] Official
state price was 7,450
GDR marks and the demand to production ratio was forty three to one (1989). The
free market price for a second-hand one was more than twice the price of a new one, and the average worker had to wait ten to thirteen years on a waiting list, or, if available, pay more than double for a second hand model.
[11]
The Trabant had a steel
unibody frame, with the roof, trunk lid, hood, fenders and doors made of
duroplast, a hard
plastic made from recycled cotton waste from the Soviet Union and phenol resins from the East German dye industry.
[6][12] It was the second car with a body made of recycled material; the first was the
AWZ P70 Zwickau, produced from 1955 to 1959. The material was durable, and the average lifespan of a Trabant was 28 years.
[12]
The Trabant's build quality was poor,
[13] reliability was terrible,
[10] closer inspection revealed "patchy assembly quality",
[14] with an atrocious maintenance record.
[11] According to automotive journalist
Doug DeMuro, the Trabant was loud, slow, poorly designed, and badly built.
[3]
...
The engine produced a very smoky exhaust and was a significant source of
air pollution: nine times the hydrocarbons and five times the carbon-monoxide emissions of the average 2007 European car. Its fuel consumption was 7 l/100 km (40 mpg‑imp; 34 mpg‑US).
[17] Since the engine was
two-stroke, oil had to be added to the 24-liter (6.3 U.S. gal; 5.3 imp gal) fuel tank
[18] at a 50:1 (or 33:1) ratio of fuel to oil at each fill-up. Contemporary gas stations in countries where two-stroke engines were common sold a premixed gas-oil mixture at the pump. Because the Trabant had no
fuel pump, its fuel tank was above the motor so fuel could reach the carburettor by gravity; this increased the risk of fire in front-end accidents. Earlier models had no fuel gauge, and a dipstick was inserted into the tank to determine how much fuel remained.