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Hello Robert,
I’m forwarding to you a photo of a special Trabant that I received from one of my family members in the Czech Republic (the photo, not the Trabant). Unfortunately, I don’t know the tech details. Where is this world heading when a Trabant approaches the size of a sperm whale?
Cheers,
Micheal
16 Comments on “What’s Wrong With This Picture: Good Question Edition...”
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I’m very tempted to say “There is nothing wrong with this picture.”
Although I can’t help but wonder if the extended segment is also made from compressed garbage. There’s plenty of garbage on the exterior, that’s for sure.
Hmmm…..seems like the advertising is getting edgier and more risque as desperate car-makers compete for our patronage. I just about keeled over when I saw this latest entry from none other than Hyundai. Now that Ford and GM have climbed aboard the “you-don’t-have-to-pay-if-you-lose-your-job” bandwagon, our intrepid Korean friends have upped the ante yet again! By the way, when you click on the website, just hit the “No, I can’t read” button so that you don’t have to submit anything to view. Enjoy!
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/0ecc000105/hyundai-assurance-commercial
I’m with Tommy…I don’t see anything wrong with it, either. Wonder if the stretch section is made of the same crap-tastic reinforced plastic fiber that the rest of the Trabi is made of? And I also wonder if that thing ever moves, given the anemic output of the pitiful two-stroke engines that were in these things (although I think the post-Iron Curtain models eventually got a four-stroke mill)…
@BuzzDog: combined with the “sperm whale” term in the original post, a “two/four-stroke” engine makes this picture creep eerily towards NSFW. Good thing it’s Easter weekend, haha.
they got a 40 hp 4-inline from VW right before the change in 1989… but the ehadlights and all are the old 26hp model..
however, when you stretch the car, you probably were able to fit in a new engine as well.
the body doesn’t matter since it was not a uni-body design, but a frame.
(Basically, older SUVs are not better than Trabant :-)
I’m not surprised it is in czech republic with that advertisement. along the German border there were (are) millions of “Gentlemen clubs” and used to be hookers along the street for Germans with their strong currency. Much of that is outlawd or regulated now. but after the change there was no regulation.
Any picture that gets a laugh out of me before coffee on a gloomy day in April has nothing wrong with it.
Not nearly as funny, but Ernie Boch, Jr., a local Boston automotive mogul, has a Subaru Forester Limo.
Could Michael’s Czech republic brother get 800 words from a ‘Stretch Trabant’ test drive?
I know I’d read it. Not that that means anything…
Similar response when, during a trip in Rome, I had to do a double take when I saw a Mercedes-Benz E-class hearse.
Now that’s going out in style!
Side note – I remember something from a few seasons ago on “The Amazing Race” when in Romania (I believe), one of their methods from going between Point A and Point B was to drive one of the Trabbis. Almost no one fit behind the wheel, the on the tree shifter stumped almost everyone and one team had a huge breakdown. Sounds par for the course with those cars!
Didn’t they have an engine that rivals a Honda riding mower in power?
If that car in the photo ends up on eBay, I’m all over it!
I love this. If importing cars into the US wasn’t such a pita, I would build a Trabant hot rod. Something oddly cool about a East German piece of crap built out of a cotton fiber.
I think this video proves that it doesn’t run. Still a great concept for an ad.
I spent the summer of 1991 in Budapest teaching English. My college roommate was Hungarian, I went home with him. We bought a Trabant as a runabout. $500, sold it at the end of the summer for $500. It was pretty dire, but also pretty reliable. As simple as a car can be. It would just about do 100km/hr trailing a light blue fog. Better than walking.
Picture:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3314/3254137448_78cd626db9_b.jpg
I’m 6’2″ and I fit in it just fine. Since very few Americans can drive any sort of manual transmission, I am not surprised that an ass-backwards column shifter flumoxed some. Worked OK once you got used to it.
There are no clouds of blue smoke around the Trabant (they use 2-cycle engines).
Then again, perhaps engine got replaced when Trabant was stretched? :-)
Sexy? Where?
I always liked the fact that no matter which country in the world that you happen to find yourself in, all of the important infrastructure (“Go-Go”, “SportBar”, “Sexy”) are clearly marked in English.
Ok, someone had to say it…
Something that long and pink isn’t going to slide in and out of that slot easily….
Am I banned yet?
WOW…
It occured to me later that this was a Tribant.. thought it was a pretty sad looking Mini Cooper at first.
I have to say.. and maybe Im being psychological…
But the front of that car, especially the lights, look very depressed. As if.. do I actually need to be hauling these bottom feeders around.
And since when.. does a Tribant need to be cut up and have a 8′ metal frame attached to itself with all of the structural work of a Brilliance B6 / 4.
I feel bad for the vehicle..
What a horrible way to die.