The Trabant Was an Awful Car Made By Communists

in my videos I've shown you a Porsche Carrera GT Ferraris Lamborghinis other exotic cars today I'm bringing you the exact opposite this is a Trabant it was a car made during communist rule in East Germany and it is quite simply one of the all-time worst cars ever made come check it out with me now before I show you around the Trabant I have the owner here Robert Dunn who runs a YouTube channel that includes a lot of Trabant related videos at aging wheels and Roberts going to tell us a little bit about the Trabant first off what year is this vehicle it's a 1981 1981 and where do they start production 1963 or 64 okay so and the design remained roughly the same throughout throughout these years yea the exterior design changed very little and what is the situation with the engine it's a two-stroke 2 cylinder air-cooled 26 horsepower engine 26 horse what is the 0 to 60 time of this vehicle at level you won't do 60 what do you do 55 is the maximum I've gotta have two flat level ground I haven't got up to 68 down ok so the biggest question that everyone will have is why did you purchase this automobile see cars are kind of like an addiction yeah some people go with faster and faster things I had to go with weirder weirder things I've come here to Washington DC to hang out with Robert in the Trabant but you're from st. Louis explain what you're doing on this side of the country there was a there was a Trabant parade held by the International Spy Museum to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall they also had a cardboard box wall that would crash through a couple of times what are these things cost if I wanted to go buy a Trabant what would I have to pay for my well I mean that varies a lot because there aren't very many in the United States right I got this one for three thousand three grand can we talk about the situation with the wall so this car was made in East Germany and then as West German cars got better and they got more choices in vehicle and they got more technological advancements in vehicle East Germany had this yeah until the wall fell right okay normal car this is what you had maybe a different color right being slow different trim options like reverse lights or something reversal I sir we're a nice a big feature in each stormy so the Ferrari f40 came out 1988 this was still being sold new to people in East Germany when you're driving it around what do people say does anybody know what kind of car it is if they know that it's a true bond they usually come up with a different approach they say I haven't seen one of these since the wall fell right right and I was in Poland right right so there are people who you've met Hoover for actually from you know your Soviet empire and do they think you're crazy for for having one here in the first question is always why okay so this is clearly one of the weirdest cars that I've featured and now it's time to give you a little tour and show you exactly how the Communists used to build cars the easiest way to see how poorly this car is built is the panel gaps none of them are consistent and not only are they inconsistent on different panels but some panel gaps are inconsistent on the same panel here's one that starts wide and then gets progressively narrower one of my favorite things about this car there is windshield washer fluid but it is manually operated you have to pull out this little plunger and then push pull out push and washing the windshield speaking of the windshield wipers this is their normal resting position right in the way one major luxury there is a dimming mirror it's not automatic and there's no button for it to get to the dimming part you simply twist the mirror around and then it's dimmer inside there is no glovebox just sort of a hole with another hole on top of it and on the other side welcome to the uses and obviously some tools because you can't really drive around in a Trabant without some tools let's talk about fuel as was common when this car came out you don't just put gas in you have to put a mixture of gas and oil it's a two-stroke motor and there's no fuel door in order to actually put the oil gas mixture in you have to pop the hood and you stick it in right here that sounds easy enough now the biggest problem is there's no gas gay inside the car instead you have the communist gas gauge a fuel dipstick that you stick in and that lets you know how much fuel you have remaining my personal favorite ridiculous Trabant feature is the door locks there's only one interior door lock it is on the passenger side now the passenger door doesn't lock from the outside however the driver's door does not have an interior door lock but it does have an exterior door lock so you can lock the passenger door from the inside when you're in the car or you can lock the driver door from the outside when you walk away from the car but you can't lock the driver door from the inside of the car and you can't like the passenger door from the outside of the car that's communism here's another crazy thing about the turbot the truant was never designed to have seatbelts although the factory did eventually add front seat belts as a courtesy to the front seat occupants no such courtesy was given to the rear seat occupants however this car was never made for rear seatbelts in East Germany think about that we're talking about a 1981 automobile with rear seats and no rear seatbelts to start this car the procedure is a little complicated first you have to turn on the fuel valve from z2r we're not sure what those things really mean then you have to shift it into gear now the shift lever is a column shifter and if you're not used to operating one it's a little weird then finally you can get going oh and you have to remember to take off the parking brake make sure it's not in here I try to start it in here oh you know that doesn't let you do that can't starting here that's nice that's first right yeah I can't coast you can't coast in first second or third I have to be there on the pedal or even in neutral in neutral it's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life here we go there we go and we're going there's a lot of smoke back there it's tremendously loud okay so now I'm in neutral yeah all the brakes yeah yeah yeah it's fourth floor there's a strand for me this is for that in fourth and now we can come speak and tell us like in any other automobile how that singles on the signal does it cancel I got to remember that as it can signals on the whole time I'm gonna have no indicator inside because that's third that's first this first no this is third what gear is this that's me feeling because I don't know [Music] there we go this is the slowest car in history how is this Renault light turns a little bit on this whole truck first year is over before you're anywhere near the speed limit that person turning us no signal there nothing well I mean you've had your signal over there right there right you're right I'm in third I have to be on the gas which makes this a little bit staring I'm put on the floor right now it's pegged it's about 50 kilometers it is climbing 51 52 for sets 30 miles an hour oh my god so now the smoke is just coming into the cabin here it's the win yeah it was already on don't worry about that the smoke is incredible the smell of it is constant this thing is absolutely ridiculous it's tremendously difficult to drive it pollutes like crazy the turn signals don't cancel there's no tachometer but it's a hoot it's a total blast this is ridiculous I can't believe drive it around in this thing I love it I wouldn't but I'm glad that Robert did and so that was the Trabant for more of my thoughts on what it was like to drive the crazy Trabant after I've processed all of this click the link below to check out my column on autotrader.com slash oversteer and now it's time to say goodbye to the Trabant and be thankful that we don't live in communism pat and now on little crap

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 4,522,497

Keywords: trabant, communism, communist car, soviets, east germany

Id: No1-4GsQa-g

Length: 9min 40sec (580 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 09 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/zsorrro]

I have one, mine was made in 1990 the last modell year so it has a 12volt electrical system, normal springs in the rear instead of leaf springs, heated rear window, and the window washer is electrical too and I also have a radio so its pretty luxury.

Edit: Ohhh the fuel valve works like this:

-you have to set it to A first then you can use the car normally

-when it gets to the point where only 5 liters left in the tank the engine starts to die (because theres no fuel)

-then you set it to R and can use that 5 liters(~70km) thats remaining

So it kinda works like a fuel gauge.

[u/KingPetunia]

Awful because it remained unchanged for decades, but very technically advanced for its time (the late 1950's) during which it already featured independent suspension, front wheel drive, a monocoque design and a transverse mounted engine.

[u/DdCno1]

Fun little video!

Fun fact: The body panels are so uneven, because they are not made out of metal, but a cotton-based fiber-reinforced composite material called Duroplast. Actually extremely high-tech, for the '50s at least. Most of you have probably sat on it, because it's commonly used to manufacture toilet seats and other household appliances. Over time, the molds wore out, but were never replaced, so body panels of later models are uneven. The Trabant or Trabbi still has a steel frame, but is exceptionally light thanks to this material, which also doesn't rust or dent. It's strong and cheap, actually the best aspect of this car. Unfortunately, any metal still used does rust, as the car was extremely poorly protected from corrosion. You can see bits of the frame and rust bubbles below the driver-side door. The exhaust pipe and muffler was made from such thin low-quality metal that it was common to regularly exchange as a part of routine servicing.

Car designers and engineers actually developed several successors for the Trabant over the decades, but each and every, often quite modern design was rejected by party officials, because they deemed the car good enough as it was and were neither willing nor able to invest the funds required to revamp production. These were finished designs by the way, not just drawings. Later they did make a new model, which was very expensive, required Billions in investment - and it looked exactly like the old model, but now it had a small four-stroke engine licensed from VW. This engine was much more powerful, but also required more space, which meant less space for occupants and even worse handling and is also one of the reasons for the high investment costs, as the car had to be extensively re-engineered. It was a total disaster and quickly killed off after reunification.

They made other cars as well by the way, for example EMWs, relabled, improved pre-war BMWs up until the 1950s. These were far too expensive, sophisticated and burgeois for a Socialist nation however.

Its role was ultimately filled by the Wartburg 353, which was the upmarket car in East Germany. Try getting a hold of one, I'd love to hear your opinion on it compared to the Trabant! "The" upmarket car, because it was the only other domestically produced car a slightly better off normal citizen could own. Instead of two cylinders, it had three, but it's two-stroke as well, which you could buy pre-mixed at gas stations in the so-called GDR. This was the car the police, secret service, party officials, etc. drove. Let's just say it's slightly less awful than a Trabant, but it polluted East Germany's cities similarly. Imagine hundreds of thousands of these cars in the streets, the noise, the smell, the smog...

I don't think there are (m)any in the US, but there was also, unbelievably, a sports car made in very small numbers in Communist East Germany: The Melkus RS 1000, which is actually a surprisingly good looking and (for the time) fast little mid-engine sports car, despite the fact that it used the engine from the 353. It even has gull-wing doors! I think this would be the ultimate exotic for you to drive! I can't think of a stranger, more outrageous vehicle than a Communist mid-engine sports car with a two stroke engine and gull-wing doors that does up to 130mph ...

[u/Darkosaurus]

Why doesn't the Trabant drive away, when the traffic light turns green?

The Mercedes behind it, has got its A/C on.

(My translation from German might be a little rough)

[u/MassiveMeatMissile]

I think this is the car from the game Jalopy

[u/[deleted]]

There were better ways you could have titled this submission, but no better titles for the video itself.

[u/mbaran]

What happens if you let off the throttle while in gear?

[u/randomdent42]

Is no one gonna mention that people had to wait years for these things? You literally ordered one to have it delivered up to half a decade later, depending on what your job was and who you had ties with. It was ridiculous!

[u/[deleted]]

She goes 10 hectares on a single gallon of kerosene... Put it in 'H'
*300 hectares on a single tank