The Ugly Trabant Made Bike Riders of Many People

The automotive website Edmund's recently announced a list of the worst cars of all-time.  In reading through their top ten we can see why more and more people are choosing bicycles over cars when it comes to a preferred method of transportation.  According to Edmund's the worst car of all-time was the Pontiac Aztec.  A car ugly enough to frighten children, the vehicle may have single-handedly killed the Pontiac brand.  And this was the arm of GM that gave the world the ultra-cool Trans Am, the fun Fiero and of course the GTO.  The next in line was a BMW disaster (is that possible?) known as the Isetta.  The thumbtack tiny machine had one cylinder and one door.  While we are counting, it also had 12 horsepower and even though it had four wheels the narrowness of the wheelbase made it ride like a three-wheeler.  What it did succeed at was sipping fuel and in a rebuilding post-war Germany, fuel was at a premium.   

But for the Sticky Bottle team the worst car of all time has to be the Trabant, East Germany's response to the Volkswagen Beetle.  

Was it really the worst?  Maybe not, there are some things to consider when history pauses to remember the sturdy little compact that Communism built...

The Trabant was manufactured for over 30 years beginning in 1957 finally ceasing production after the fall of Communism in 1990.  Over 3 million of these little monsters were built and it came in three useful varieties: a two-door sedan (the Saloon), a two-door wagon (the Universal) and the "Kubelwagen" a type of Jeep without doors and who doesn’t need one of those in their garage?

The Trabant was a simple device.  The original version, the P-50 was an example of simplicity, the P stood for plastic (the body was a plastic resin with hints of wool and cotton called “Duroplast”) and the 50 was short for 500 cc (produced by a smoggy two-stroke engine).   Most owners could easily repair the car with a new belt and a couple of spark plugs.  The body actually scored fairly well in crash testing.  For most of the car’s manufacturing life, a 10 year waiting list existed for a brand new Trabant.  This meant that most of the used Trabant’s were well-maintained because the first owner was never quite sure if he would have another.  On average the car spent 28 years with the original buyer.  

On the downside the Trabant was rather slow-footed, it required a sloth-like 21 seconds to reach 60 miles an hour.  Fueling the car required some effort.  The small six gallon tank was under the front hood and once it was topped off it would still need the requisite two-stroke oil additive.  The concoction would then need a quick shake to properly mix the ingredients.  The two-stroke engine, excellent in chainsaws and lawnmowers, spewed enough smoke to cloud autobahns throughout Germany.  The Trabant amazingly enough produced five times the amount of carbon monoxide as the average European sedan.   Most frustrating may have been the absolute lack of innovation and evolution.  The car never changed for better or worse.  Mostly never for the better.

This small beast finally died in 1989 (some production continued to 1991) with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Eastern Bloc.  Some great photos of East Germans in Trabants driving into West Berlin captured Germany’s reunification.  This scene was immortalized in a mural depicting a Trabant smashing through the Wall (pictured).  Trabant collector clubs can be found the world over with roughly 100,000 still on the road today.  Visit our website for a Trabant commercial from 1969.  Click on VIDEOS at www.stickybottleteam.net.