It was East Germany's answer to the VW Bug: the Trabant, made from 1957 until 1991, when the collapse of the Berlin Wall and East Germany itself meant people could drive whatever they wanted.
With a two-cylinder engine that produced only 27 horsepower, the Trabant -- nicknamed the Trabi -- topped out at 70 mph. It was light enough, with a hard plastic and cotton fabric body over a steel shell, to get about 35 miles per gallon on the highway.
Many were scrapped in the early '90s, but survivors have rebounded in the past few years; in Germany, in England and in Canada, where a Toronto-based Trabant club buys and sells cars and parts. A story link on the Canadian Web site says the car is easy to work on, a good feature since there are no dealers in Canada, and the last Trabi was built 17 years ago.
Don't expect to see a Trabant club in this country, though. The car had no emissions control system. Still, the English-language site makes for interesting reading. If you're really interested, a few owners have managed somehow to register them in the U.S.
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