1990 Wartburg 1.3 Review - The East German Car You've Never Heard Of! 

Haha, Im German (actually live in the former East German part, 40 km near the Wartburg ) so I am familiar with that car. Never expected someone to import it to the US and especially not to see it on your chanel. Video put a smile on my face, great one.👍

The 1.3 was just a Wartburg 353 with a Volkswagen engine. The 353 went into production in 1966, and remained pretty much unchanged until 1988, when it switched to the VW engine.

I am a Hungarian and I know what a Wartburg is. One of my vague memories of home before coming to the USA at the tender age of 4! I always thought the hood and trunk lid looked like toilet lids 😂

Fun Fact for everyone who is interested, the wartburg models that came before the 1.3, had a 3 zylinder 2 stroke :)

You critically failed to mention the warburg 311 from the 1950s to 60s that began the Wartburg in the DDR. Then later the Wartburg 353 which is the car the 1.3 is based on. The 353 had a 1.1 litre 2 stroke 3 cylinder, not 4, like the 311 before that. The 2 stroke variants of the Wartburg are better than the Trabant but fall short of the Lada.

Greetings from Hungary! Great to see a video about my favourite Wartburg 1.3. Most of these cars were sold in Hungary after the fall of the wall. Nobody else wanted them in Europe. This is the reason many of them survived in my country. Even to this day, in Hungary, you can get most original Wartburg parts new and pretty cheap, but a lot of used parts are available too.

Today I learned what a Wartburg is.

"But that was not it's purpose" is a key thing here, which I'm glad you pointed out. Many folks who 'review' a car anachronistic in it's own time often try to compare it to something modern or contemporary without recognizing that it was built to a different standard. You have to understand the situation and the world it was by and for, which to your credit you appear to do.

It's also interesting that these cars are body-on-frame construction. They also have decent ground clearance for a normal passenger car, and are quite capable off-road for a front wheel drive vehicle.

The headmaster at my secondary school in the UK had a Wartburg Knight with the 3-cylinder 2-stroke engine in the late 70’s (damn I feel old!). It was a very strange choice and caused a lot of laughs, but I kind of admired his perseverance.

Sometimes you really forget the differences in car culture. To me as a German it´s a totally normal car when I myself would freak out about for example a Ford Flex or something like that.

The engine was commonly used in the VW Polo back then and was I believe an entry engine in the Golf.

7:00 It looks like the previous Hungarian owner might have been a helicopter pilot (or possibly paramedic). HA-BCH is a rescue chopper.

The original engine was a 1 L two stroke engine. The four stroke came much later at the end after the fall of the wall. Hoping they would sell some more Wartburgs. Same with the Trabant it got a VW engine at the end.

My parents owned 2 353's which were 2 stroke 3 cylinders. We loved it, because in those times Wartburg was the most reliable vehicle on the market. I love those cars.❤

The first Wartburg, the 311, had been developed as a 2-door sedan because all DKW/IFA sedans previously had been. It was given 4 doors just before the start of production because East Germany's fleet of prewar taxis were wearing out and they needed a domestic car suitable for taxi use.

These are actually far better known than the presenter is aware. These were fairly common in the UK in the '80s and '90s. My father had the estate version.

Oh man those oh man those buttons around the gauge cluster are definitely “cousins” with the VW ones lol

I'm admiring the exquisite fit and finish on the body panels. Especially the trunk lid.

i had one in 1970's it had a 3 cylinder 1000cc 2 stroke 4 speed box; because it was a 2 stroke had a freewheel device in the clutch. quit nippy for a 1000 cc and quite reliable!

Positive thing about East Grammy good public transportation good music the food is simlier to west Germany and much more and the trabant 601 is cute

Hi! I think its worth mentioning that the Wartburg got its 4 stroke engine in 1988 and became the Wartburg 1.3 but also the Trabant got this same upgrage in 1990 and became the Trabant 1.1 which was also 4 stroke.

I still remember the live stream were I asked you if you knew what a Wartburg is and you didn't :) Great to see it on your channel now! If you ever come to germany I'll make everything in my way possible for you to drive the older Wartburg 311! Great Video as always!

It looks like good ol' swing axles in the rear, another indication of the car's teutonic heritage. I knew someone in England in the 1970s who had a two-stroke Wartburg estate car (station wagon to the colonials) that were sold as the least expensive way to have a four-wheeled new car in England then. Skodas were also available for the impecunious, but they were actually quite decent cars: the Czechs made some very interesting cars and trucks (Tatra, anyone?). PS - Wartburg is pronounced Vaart-boorg. Pronouncing it like some sort of veruca or skin ailment is so american!

The last surviving relic of Cold War motoring that, unbelievably, you can still buy new in the UK (2023) for just under 5k is the Jawa 4 speed, 2 stroke 350 twin. It's capable of 70mph and returns 60 UK mpg. It has modernities like a huge front disc and electronic ignition but still runs on 40/1 premix. Theyre extremely comfy, reliable with really good handling. I own two!

Well, this car was pretty advanced for mid-60's. Probably even better than Opel/VW.

Haha, Iam Slovakian, so I heard about them all the time, saw them all the time with Trabant also😂😂Good video!

I loved this vid, and you shared some great knowledge with the folks. I love to see a Wartburg with a US plate, especially a 4 stroke one. Never believed I would see one, but here we are and I'm proud, especially that the car was a Hungarian one. Let me clarify some points as I feel you got some things wrong. The 4 stroke version was produced between '89 and '91, due to tightnening emissions regulations. You got it right that the engine was licensed from VW, but before that, the car was produced with a 990 cc 3-cyl 2-stroke unit. That actually was brought over from the predecessor, called 311, later 312. Actually, since the 311 was rolled out in the '50s, the basic structure of the car did not change. It was manufactured with a semi-oval frame with a body built on top. You are right that the Warti was the more luxurious East-German passanger car, but that was only true I think when the 353 (the 2-stroke) was first introduced, Later during times, it got more and more "popular" in the sense that it became cheaper and cheaper. I highly have to disagree on the body design being made ugly because there was no competition. At least it was not the manufacturer's decision. Take a look at the Wartburg 312 in its era, and the 353 in its own. They are both very modern, even considering western standards. This 1.3 is actually a facelifted version of the 353. The manufacturer did make attempts at making prototypes, which looked the part in their times, unfortunately, the state did not allow to produce them, but it was not necessarily due to malice, but rather to save on costs of introducing new models. I think not much is known about Eastern Bloc economics, basically they were under the hammer and sickle of Moscow, very centralized, plus the West did not really want to trade with them. This is how it could occur that the 312 pickup could have been made with canvas roof, to save on steel, plus how the Trabant got its body made out of a polymer, which by the way was very advanced for its time and geopolitical context. Now to get to the time of this model, the Wartburg 353 got upgraded, some minor facelifts, and came 1989, when the iron curtain fell. So they had to come out with a new model, but they of course, did not manage to make it, so they had to modernize the 1.3 somewhat. There was actually quite a big facelift on it, integrated headlights, bigger and (if you ask me) well-shaped taillight block, plus the engine. Unfortunately, due to missed modernisation during the iron curtain's duration, the model did not have a chance to survive, so in '91, they had to close the gates. Opel brought the brand, tried to revive it to make an economy marque of it, but ultimately failed. To be frank, I think it was a very half-assed attempt at it. Let me go back to the past a bit, to have the name Wartburg came to be. Before and a bit after WW2, in Eisenach was a BMW plant. When the Iron Curtian fell, BMW did not want to have any of its brand to be in the East, so they did not want their cars to be produced there. So the plant started a new brand called EMW, Eisenacher Motorenwerke, with the logo same as the BMW, but red instead of blue. Later, when the 311 came out, the brand got renamed to Wartburg, which is the castle above the town of Eisenach and the silhouette of which is visible on the steering whee, and the marque's emblem. Thank you for this vid, enjoy the vehicle. It will serve you well if properly maintained. Had I not have gotten my hand on a Skoda Felicia, I would have bought one. Maybe I will buy one next to it for some relaxed countryside trips, possibly a Tourist.

I remember seeing Wartburgs on British roads back in the 70's. Two-stroke engines, plenty of smoke but cheap and cheerful transport, and for the time, the squared-off shape was pretty much on trend. Glad to see this one still being used! Love and peace.

Oh man, a neighbor of mine in Romania had one of these! And another one had a Moskvitch 412!

I have to confess, I have a love for former Communist cars- I find them fascinating. I know there are a handful of Volgas in the US and I’d love if you got your hands on one.

Even as the Wartburg is not an unibody design (yes, it has a frame underneat!), I can tell you from own experience, that the rollover protection is actually quite good - in the 80s our family (I was at the time around 12 years old) had on a trip from Bulgaria back to East Germany in Romania the unfortunate encounter with black ice, so we slided of the road down an embankment and rolled two times over. The car (it was the Wartburg 353W, the predecessor of the 1.3 with the same carbody) did a surprisingly good job to protect us, we all leaved the car unhurt (my parents and my brother, we were all buckled up). The roof was mangled, but not smashed, all doors could easily be opened (and didn‘t open on there own during the rollover).

I live in Kőbánya, Budapest, Hungary, and you can still see these being driven by older people. There is a guy who has 3 of them in my block and he has two parts cars as backups. Baffled by it but whatever. Good video.

7:03 Looks like the up arrow is for the defrost and the down one is for the floor vents, interesting way of doing that.

You got the history regarding the wall wrong. The wall didn’t divide the country, it divided the city of Berlin (which is in the middle of east Germany), hence the name - Berlin Wall. The city itself was divided in two, the west portion controlled by the allied forces and the east portion controlled by the soviets. In the beginning the western part of Berlin was supplied only through planes. Later there was an autobahn that connected west Germany to West Berlin through east germany, with multiple checkpoints along the way.

I grew up in a 1988 3 cyl. 2 stroke Wartburg. 50 hp and about 1000 kg. It had a floor mounted 4 speed manual plus sunroof. My dad bought it new and went to Csepel sziget with my grandpa to pick it up.

The door locks are most definitely a cost cutting measure, similar to Trabant, which had drivers door locked only from outside, and passenger only from inside, cutting the need for second lock,and one inside tab at the same time.

Audi was also East German but was shifted to West Germany due do soviet occupation. Today even many Germans believe Audi is from Bavarian. Funny to see a Wartburg US review. 👍

Hi, greeting from Slovakia, these cars were popular here in the middle of the Europe, and I've always loved them. Problem with this Wartburg 1.3 is, you still have that quirky car, but you can not try out, what was the best part of these cars. That wonderful 2 stroke, 2 piston engines. Which means this Wartburg 1.3 can give you only a half of fun, when you're American, and almost no fun, of you're European, like me, because you lost the most important thing of that car, and rest of it is just an old car built out of some funny material. J

this car looks amazing

My brother has a 1971 GAZ-24 Volga parked in his garage. Built June with a 2.3 gas powered engine and 3 speed auto. Only the v8 had an auto, also it's right hand drive making it a 1 of 1 build. He tried to get documentation for the build but was told the car doesn't exist. It now has a 2.6 and 4 speed auto. It is fully optioned with heater and radio. There's no record of the first owner but the second bought it in 1977 in South Australia. My brother bought it in 1993 for bush bashing and restored it around 1995. He said he spent $15k on it, mostly mechanical. It doesn't use much oil but blows clouds of blue smoke. It's very interesting to drive I can tell you. No power at all and thankfully he put in power breaks otherwise the thing would never stop.

The final communist leader of the DDR who succeeded Erich Honneker was a fellow named Egon Krenz, spurring the nickname for this car as the “Mercedes-Krenz”

The whole "no indoor locks" thing happened here in the west. It was a cost thing, simple as that.

The proper DDR built Wartburgs had a 3 cylinder 2 stroke engine, it was after the wall fell that the 1.3 VW engine came into play. The dash in this car also vaguely reminds me of the VW Golf mk2 dash, just in cheaper plastic. I remember the 2 stroke Wartburg from the '70s and '80s as they were sold in the West as well, but not many were sold here, it was a strange looking and sounding car to us, but apparently very cheap as well. The people in the East had to sign up for a car, which had to be granted by the authorities, after the acquisition had been authorised people often had to wait for another 10 years before they got their car finally. So it didn't really matter what the car looked like and how it performed, they were happy to get a car at all.

I owned a bright red 2 stroke, right hand drive 353 from 1977 to 1987. I bought it new as my first car. I liked it very much. I only sold it because I could no longer get spares in my country.

Yes, body on frame. Easy to converting to a convertible. Many were converted here in Finland.

I just read the wikipedia article for this model, and it's really funny to think it was introduced the same year as my truck was, since this was supposed to be a higher class car yet in almost every way was worse than a literal utility vehicle of the same era lol

Interesting that they put 4 stroke VW engines in Wartburgs after the wall fell. They did that with Trabants too. During most of their lives both had 2 stroke air-cooled engines. Its nickname was “Farting Hans” because 2 strokes are smoky

Nice the Wartburg 353 is on my bucket list of cars I want to own. I want to race it in 24 hours of lemons.

My parents neighbor used to drive two-stroke Wartburg 353 in the 80's and early 90's, the older one with narrow tail lights. It had super soft spring suspension, so to make it a bit stiffer and make it handle a bit better in the corners, he always carried two bags full of sand (bags were the size that could hold 50 kg's of wheat) in his trunk. I'll never forget the sound of closing doors, resembling violently closing a steel trash can cover.

Wartburg had a car called a Wartburg Knight in the 70s,even more basic,I think! I saw one at a classic car show here in England many years ago. Have seen a Trabant & a luxurious Russian Volga at car shows in England,too. I've been to Bulgaria & România in the last few years & saw a few Trabants & a few Volgas still on the roads there,but many more Russian Ladas,though. Ladas were Fiat designs originally,and actually sold in Western Europe in the 70s,80s & early 90s & i think in Canada in the 70s or 80s! The Fiat 128 design was also made under license in Poland by FSO,aka Polski Fiat,as well as By Zastava in Serbia(it was part of Yugoslavia at the time)Zastava made what were called Yugos in The West,and also Seat of España used all Fiat designs for decades until Seat was purchased by the VW Audi group in the late 80s or early 90s,as was the Czech Republic's car company Skoda,around the same time. A Turkish car company,Tofas(pronounced Tofash) also made Fiat designed cars under license. Thanks for the cool vids!! I noticed the coat hooks in the Waltburg are right above the seatbealts! How ridiculous & impractical! But perhaps the East Germans didn't wear their seatbelts anyway! 🤣🤣

My grandfather in Bulgaria owned one since the 70s, then my father bought one in the 80s, both new. They both deteriorated and rotted. Then my father bough one in the 90s used and my grandfather another used one shortly thereafter. I drove my grandfather's Wartburg well into the 10s, until it rotted, then I repaired it but it burned due to some other car catching on fire. I had it outfitted with 50W HID LEDs, wider Toyo tires, sound deadening all-around and a modest but professionally mounted Kenwood stereo with 4 channel sound, etc. Being two-stroke meant quick starts and fast overall acceleration, compared to other 1000cc cars (it weighs less than 1000kg, inc fuel, etc.) You can see it in a few of my old profile videos.

The really interesting Wartburg was the Knight Mk3, which was the same car as the 1.3, but it had a 650cc engine with 3 Cylinders, and each cylinder had its own independent ignition circuit, to make it even weirder, was 2-stroke with an idler wheel. The Knight Mk3 was also strange in that it had bench seats front and rear, and the seats were steel spring and horsehair (just like old Mercedes) and were fantastically comfortable (which was just as well as you spent a lot of time sitting in them waiting for roadside assistance to arrive when your car broke down). I have many fond memories of my Fathers Mk3, and its frequent hiccups. One favourite was that the ignition circuit for any one of the cylinders would fail for no reason making the car a 2-cylinder. These cars were under-powered (even in those days) tanks. Imagine a Soviet era Lada with a over-complicated Trabant engine, and you'll get the picture.

Having visited East Germany in the late 70s twice, this review was a real treat and the information was spot on. Keep up the good work 😉👌

Interesting and rare post wall E. German automobile. 13:45 Volkswagen-ish interior. Exterior angles sometimes seems a bit Volvo, BMW 1600, Saab 99 like. 4:38 The best warning device in my old bug eye sprite was my nose. A sudden strange smell invoked "Oil? water? brake fluid? clutch? electrical? :) Thank you for the learning experience

We had a Wartburg 353 Tourist (literally a kombi or wagon), it has even bigger cargo space and the backseat can be folded down to give more space to cargo. It had the same 3-cylinder 2-stroke engine (993 ccm) as the Sedan.

I completely forgot that that happened and that was the reason for the berlin wall until I watched this video. Thank you Zack for the history lesson I apparently needed ! 😂

Seeing one of those in the U.S. is just a trip! Greetings from germany! My mother grew up in the GDR and even I still saw them around when I was young. Love the vid!

6:15 The previous model 353 had door locks within the sides of the doors. When you opened the door there was an oily metal lever you could push down locking the door when you close it again. However, you couldn't open it again from inside.

That panel gap at 6.28 😂😂 you could get a socket in there and remove the door hinge without opening the door

Suspension is kind of.. older corvette, which you never complain about, acceleration is abou 16sec 0-62mph.. which is the same as MANY cars builded in US in '80 and '90 (the only difference is that Wartburg can manage 60mpg, as those acceleration counterpart made in usa could get some 20mpg) By the way, the first letter is reading V (:vi).

and i just sold my Wartburg 1.3 to get a Wartburg 353

This is the first car my dad bought from showroom back in 1990 from Belgrade and drove it back to Sarajevo. It survived war from 1992 to 1995, and it was my first learner car when I got my driving licence back in 2003. It was really sturdy and comfortable car with reliable petrol 1.3 engine from golf 2. It was later on passed to our family friends and years later it had unfortunate destiny of catching fire while driving because of some poor electrical wiring insulation or something (electrician repair guy fault).

I saw this car this morning! One of the most exciting things about this channel for me is getting to see so many of the featured cars out and about locally.

When the state allows you a car, you got this!

Extremely well done as usual! I’ve heard of these things before, but knew nothing about them. Thank you for sharing it with us! On another note, I can’t WAIT for that Mira review 😜

Drove a Wartburg 2 stroke a few times and loved it. Also owned a Trabant which was great fun. Both brands had hope to survive by fitting 4 stroke engines but development was a big investment and nobody wanted them. Thanks for posting this.

Hello from East Germany, your Videos is cool. I have a Wartburg 1,3 from the last Version 1991 since 30 Years in my Garage. I find your Video with the Lada 1600 great, i have since last Year a Lada 2106 in my Garage. Thease Cars in the GDR a very good Car and a Dream for Million Peaple in East-Europe. Greetings from Saxony

I'm excited for the video on that 90's VW you showed towards the end (13:05) We never saw that model here in the States. Kind of looks like a facelift version of a VW Fox, but it's probably called something else. I'm a diehard fanboy for old VWs, from air-cooled on up to the early watercooled cars. I personally feel the brand really lost its way in the mid 90's when Ferdinand Piëch took over as CEO. They used to make basic, reliable, affordable cars. Not like the horrendous crap they make now.

I feel old if people don't know what the Berlin Wall was.

If i remember correctly, Wartburgs frame was ending before trunk so nothing was supporting it, basically if you had heavier load on the back it could basically break it

I thought Wartburgs were rear engined? Or were they converted to front engined at some point in their later design? That would have been a big job, though they don't seem to look any different on the outside?

In Greece in the 80’s there were some of these cars like Wartburg, Skoda 100, even seen a Trabant station wagon still in the early 2010. But definitely as a minority compared in number to other brands. Though, I had the impression that Wartburg was a 2 stroke not a 4 stroke.

Wartburg cars were also imported & sold in the UK, during the 1960's & 1970's. These were all 2 strokes. The engines were popular for use in grass track sidecar racing, usually coupled to a Burman motorcycle gearbox, due to their hole shot acceleration from the start line.

Awesome car. Really cool.

I am Danish. Our neighbour - who unfortunately passed away in 2020 - drove these cars for 40 years. It was not his last name, but everybody called him first name + Wartburg.

It's beautiful. Functional and understated

The original WARTBURG KNIGHT< (as it was dubbed in the UK), was a rear engined two stroke car from the 1970's & belched out blue smoke. In Hazeldene Road in Northampton the neighbour across from house number 222 had one.

Nice video, comrade!

I am from the UK and can well remember these cars along with Lada, Polski-Fiat, Skoda and a few more east german made cars. They were sold as cheap basic transport giving new owners a chance to own a brand new car for a low monthly payment. And that is where the issues started, most buyers could just about afford the monthly payments neglecting servicing until they broke down, then they got a friend to bodge them and traded them in if they had finished paying for them! They were crude with panel gaps visible from space, the trim was cheap brittle plastic and cardboard. A few well cared for examples can still be found at classic car shows.

Before here I never seen in RU-vid videos of Wartburg 1.3 in the USA. How much was the shipping from Europa to America?

You need to know/remember, that this vehicle is produced from 1966 until 1991. It was upgraded from 2 stroke to 4 stroke in 1988. Then the wheelbase was a bit incresed with 2 inches on each side. So the pre -88 cars don't have the wheel arch "fender". Except the rally verions of the pre -88.

In 1989 there were 2 prototypes at the importer in Belgium: a sedan and an estate car. But unfortunately, the four-stroke models were never sold in Belgium. The importer stopped Wartburg shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Wartburg was not really a car for high-up people. Anybody could get it saving some money and wait for his turn in the waiting list, because delivery times were 10 years and more. Actually in the GDR Ladas were considered more luxurious. The Wartburgs from before 1988 were basically the same car, but with 2-stroke engine, by the way.

I really like these 1.3 / 353 of which there is also a neat and practical variant which is a station-wagon. And I have a Polo 86c with the same engine as the 1.3 (VW NZ-series with Digijet). Actually, the predecessors of the 1.3 (four-stroke) and 353 (two-stroke) - these being Wartburg 311 and before that IFA F9 / EMW 309 and before that DKW series F8, F7, F5, F4, F3, F2 and F1 - are ALL front-wheel-drive!

A farmer friend had the estate version of the Wartburg Knight (I think it was the Knight) in the mid-70s. It took him everywhere, even off-road, and never seemed to let him down. I think they were mostly made for export, essentially sold at a loss to bring hard Western currency into the DDR's coffers.

While living in Finland. Our aunt’s boy friend proudly boasted about his new “car”. We went look at it and first thing we did burst out laughing out loud. This was back in 1974 and had a 3 cylinder stinky 2 cycle. No one considered Wartburg a real car but a cheapest appliance on four wheels.

Ow the Wartburg I remember my dad had a 351 and being driven around in the 90s in Poland when I was little. Such fond memories

Former GDR car equipped with a three cylinder two stroke engine. Very popular in Belgium, not in the Netherlands where I'm living.

I still see these on streets. They are neglected, but still driveable

Was this the one that was for sale in Miami about a year or so ago?

Where did You get this?

If this is sold in Indonesia back in the day it would definitely sold well. 1.3 4 cylinder is the comfort zone of that era

Soviet history after WW2 is interesting in of itself. The USSR had some strength and a lot of weaknesses that really played into the downfall. You can actually tell when the weaknesses come out how it falls basically right after. It wasn’t until the mid 80s that it started showing. But little things like Chernobyl, the Berlin Wall and many other places and incidents showed the Russian people how much corruption and false information that was being shared. Cause you could actually see the affects from those incidents

If you need parts, where would you get them?

Great Video, i grew up in eastern Germany, this still awakes memories. But i miss the Sound of that Car. 😞

One of the best cars you've intoduced recently. Habe You tried the french 2CV?

Ahem, the Wartburg was originally a 3 cylinder two stroke. They were also improted into other EU countries, including the UK.

To the best of my knowledge, Wartburgs were all front wheel drive. Rather than attribute this feature to VW, rather give DKW the honours which (I Think) was the ancestor to both the Wartburg and the Trabant,

The wall everyone knows was in Berlin- not straight down the middle of Germany.