Posted on 11/07/2019 6:12:58 AM PST by oh8eleven
In fact, a Saturn was a luxury car compared to the Worst Car Ever award-winner. That distinction goes to the Trabant, a dreadful vehicle produced from 1957 to 1990 by the former East German [i.e. Communist] car manufacturer VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the 1957 Trabant had no tachometer, no turn signal, no seat belts or fuel gauge, no trunk liner, and used an oil/gas mix. The fact that these basic amenities were still missing when Taylor Swift was born [1989] is a bit more surprising.
East Germans considered themselves lucky just to get a Trabant. The average waiting period was 10 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at stream.org ...
Only elite party members will have them.
The masses can walk to the collective farms and people’s factories.
On a quiet night in the summer we could sit outside and listen to it rust.
The Russians had a similar putt-putt called a Skoda. In Czech, skoda means “pity.” it was a pity if you owned one.
For reliability, in my opinion, the worst car in my lifetime was the Chevy Citation. Back in the 80’s I saw more of those cars dead on the side of the road than any other, by far. It became a running joke among me and my friends. “There’s another one”.
I was fortunate to be in Hamburg the week of the unification. We had the day off so drove into the former East Germany.
It smelled like the city of Cleveland from my youth when steel mills were still operating. They still burned coal everywhere. There were still soldiers with automatic weapons walking around. Trabbis were prevalent and those that had ventured into the former West Germany were generally loathed by that population, especially if they wandered onto the Autobahn.
The Germans have almost as many Trabbi jokes as there are blonde jokes.
Best one I remember:
Q: “Why do Trabbis have rear window defrosters?”
A: “To keep your hands warm while you push them home”
Even back then “The Turks” were a problem. Supposedly immigrated to “do the jobs regular Germans wouldn’t do”.
When you put it up against the Trabant and the Skoda, that’s not a bad looking little commie-mobile.
Under communism, even Germans make bad cars.
There are some cool local tours of Warsaw that will take you around in one of those babies.
I think I can beat your Pinto. I see you my Vega and raise the Gremlin I’ve owned.
1961
Skoda is alive and well:
Škoda automobiles are sold in over 100 countries and in 2018, total global sales reached 1.25 million units, an increase of 4.4% from the previous year.[1] The operating profit was €1.6 billion in 2017, an increase of 34.6% over the previous year.[6][7] As of 2017, Škoda’s profit margin was the second highest of all VW Group brands after Porsche.[8]
One of communists’ fondest wishes is to force everyone to drive the same car, to live in the same kind of apartment, and to earn about the same amount of money.
Except for the Nomenklatura, the ruling party elite, which had everything it wanted.
The soviet union had the Lada. Yugoslavia had the Yugo.
Walk through any parking lot today. Every possible car make and model is represented. Leftists hate that! They don’t want you to drive a better car than me. That’s why they pretend to tax “gas guzzlers” and are promoting the “self driving” car.
The discussion should not be about how bad a car it was. It should be about the fact that the regime forced it upon the people to establish “equality.” And today’s leftists will do the very same thing, if allowed.
My dad had a '73 Pinto hatchback 4-speed. We used to put concrete blocks in the back and pop wheelies with the clutch.
(Hey, we were teenagers i.e. stupid.)
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