Don’t get rid of your cars just because they are old, no matter what condition they are in. Because, as things stand, the question is when and what kind of new one you will be able to buy!
Pale blue or pale indeterminate color, with brown leather door panels, checkered bars, a small mirror on the left side only, large round headlights and small “wings” at the back, the Trabant 601 looked like a three-dimensional, plasticine version of a cartoon car. In motion, it sounded like a moped, a sound characteristic of two-stroke engines, and it left behind puffs of bluish smoke from the exhaust. Then again, as endearingly funny as it was, it was surprisingly quick and quick, not so much thanks to the 600 cc two-stroke engine, which developed 23 hp, but to the ultra-light body made of plastic and epoxy resin! At one time, there was a joke that in some rural neighborhood, pigs ate a good part of this bodywork, which Emir Kusturica immortalized in his film “Black Cat, White Cat”.
Be that as it may, the Trabant with factory designation “601” also had its wagon version and since it was made, about sixty years ago in what was then East Germany, it was the most desirable car model in the GDR, both because of its relatively affordable price for local motorists, also because of simple and cheap maintenance, reasonable reliability and incredible possibilities. Because, complete multi-member East German families, with a lot of luggage and summer props, knew how to fit into that car and boldly go on vacation across half of Europe, mostly to the Adriatic coast.
With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the annexation of East Germany to West Germany, the factory that produced Trabantes ceased to exist. And since then, the legend of the second, completely unexpected life of the Trabant begins, and that is in the Western world, which at one time made fun of this car. Namely, “trabi” becomes the object of collectors’ desires and its price rises at an abnormal speed and to crazy heights to this day!
Journalists of the German specialized magazine “Classic Data” put the “trabi” in second place in terms of demand among old timers, and its price has increased from three thousand euros five to six years ago to ten thousand euros. Of course, price variations are considerable depending on the condition of the car, but ten thousand is a kind of common average – at least now, since the tendency is to increase further.
In general, a craze for old cars has taken hold in Europe, not for collectible old timers, but for old cars for everyday use, which is a phenomenon that deserves a longer story – another time.
Source: www.magazinauto.com
