What Has My Trabant Ownership Experience Been Like? 

That looks EXACTLY like my mom's stolen Ford Taurus.

The trabant wasn't a symbol of oppresion to the people of the eastern block, it was quite the opposite. It may have been a sympton of a broken system, but to the people that owned them they stood for freedom.

That are not problems, that are features.

“Actively choosing not to worry about it until I absolutely have to” sums up the life of a Trabant perfectly

That car looks like a stolen Ford Taurus!

We have a joke in Germany about Trabants. How do you double the value of a Trabant? By filling the fuel tank.

We used to go on vacation to hungary back when i was a child. 4 people all their luggage and a trailer. My dad were able to fix most of all problems that accrued with just simple adjustments or replacements. I still have that trabant in my barn. I converted it recently to a 12 Volt system with vape ignition and now i am going to do some body work. Next year "we" will travel to Balaton. My wife is from cologne and the only experience she had with that car is the smell and the noise when i started it last year in the barn after two decades and it immediately backfired on her a dark and oatmeal thick cloud of old two-stroke smoke. To say the least she is concerned . Greetings from Germany

you should really take the holes out of the engine. maybe replace them with non-holes. it's not cheap but worth it.

Something about the Trabant's headlighs and grill makes it look like it's always slightly worried or nervous about something. It's like the little car that hopes it can but won't be surprised if it can't

If this car passed safety inspection, it tells everything about safety inspection on the US

Yeah the engine has holes where there shouldn't be one, but show me any other car that can still run in this state.

A Wartburg next?

As much rust as a shark has eyebrows. Now that's a remarkable thing to say...

Nice summary and great to hear that you are planning to further restore the car :) The short VIN is definitely something that is fun to deal with even in Germany. It does not fit any format. What you are experiencing with your engine, and also diagnosed yourself after seeing the exhaust leak, probably results from leaky gaskets on the top or bottom of the cylinders. Since you have a new carburetor (ruling out float valve problems) and your ignition was already finetuned multiple times, that seems to be the only problem for me. Luckily all (externaly applicable) engine seals are only a couple of bucks on Trabantwelt. As for electrical problems: Check the grounds! Especially if everything is making contact in the headlight assembly. In the engine bay there are only 2 connection points to check. My left blinker magically came back to life after I reattached the ground wire to the front left wheel arch. Buffing for me worked well with a mildly abrasive household cleaner (the one you use for the kitchen sink etc.) Three friends and I roadtripped my Trabant this summer. Made it 3200 kilometers to Portugal in a 29 hour non-stop driving session + 14 hour session. Never had a single problem. However, the engine "gave up its ghost" shortly after beginning the return trip by sucking crankshaft bearing parts into the cylinder. I never knew its true age, but if the 95000 km on the odometer are correct, that's a good lifespan. Now I need to save up for a rebuild after I get my car back on a trailer...

Some additional info for your license plates - those are not "normal" Hungarian plates. The ones beginning with "Z" and followed by 4 numbers (the smaller numbers are for the date) are temporary plates for vehicles that were exported abroad. The normal license plate is in a "ABC-123" format with 3 letters and 3 numbers.

An Amerikan was visiting his Norwegian cousin and claimed: My farm is so big that I use a day to drive around it. Oh, the Norwegian mumbled, I also had such a car!

Your description of installing the halfshaft boots was entirely, unabashedly accurate. It is less difficult to re-compress & assemble the front spring without the correct tools than it is to put those buggers on.

Oh my god! I'm hungarian and my dad, my grandfather and my uncle all used to drive one of these. Still have one in working condition back home. Good stuff!

Oh the car just felt bad that you had to take the spark plugs out to prime it so it made you some priming holes.

Kraftstoffmomentanverbrauchsanzeige = momentary gas consumption gauge. Wie bekam der Zweitaktmotor eigentlich Löcher im Zylindergehäuse?

I'm glad you own a Trabant so I don't have to! LOL Thanks for posting

Long time viewer, first time comment. Thanks for tempering my lust for Trabant ownership with a lethal dose of reality. But I still sorta kinda want one as a daily driver because adventure.

Holy hell... just found out Trabant made a pickup truck!! You up for a trip to Hungary?

When you get the Trabant sorted out, you should take some vacation time off of work to drive it to Yellowstone National Park, for no apparent reason but to say that you did it.

Hello Sir from north west England, I always look forward to putting my feet up with a cup of tea to watch your videos. You have great presentation/communication skills which comes across very well not to mention really good video editing skills, very cool indeed. It should be compulsory to wear a east European 'newsboy' cap when driving a Trabant which on another note are excellent at killing mosquito's via the tailpipe emissions. Looking forward to you unleashing major horsepower with the engine rebuild project.

My dad once owned a trabby we kids loved it to bits. It was a fun driving experience for us and the Motorsound was one of a kind. We were really sad when he trashed it. So yeah I'm always glad to see a trabby.

Love the videos. Thanks for uploading them.

You make me happy. Thanks for making us smile with your experience and your awesome video making skills.

They have to come all the way from „Das Vaterland“ made my day! Greetings (German guy)

I just stumbled over this video and I cried from laughter while watching. Thank you from Germany.

New Aging Wheels videos make my day. Thanks for posting.

Good to see others struggle with their Trabants. The positive cheers on the streets keep me going too. Keep up the good job, I love your videos.

Thank you for the video. It was entertaining and informative as always. And thanks for sacrificing yourself to the trabant horrors for our sake!

The Trabant: master machine, and King of Road.

This is awesome!! I grew up around these in the Czech Republic in the 1980s. Thanks for having such an awesome attitude toward it.

I sincerely thank you for showcasing this wonderful piece of automotive history. I can see the joy in your face as you telling us things that's wrong with the car, looks to me that you're living in automotive heaven.

This whole video is simply excellent

Poor running in twostrokes is usually an exhaust leak.

Love the editing, especially the ending! :D

Can't wait for that project series, ever since I discovered trabants I've been watching your channel and I've been interested of purchasing one when I get older, any opportunity to learn more about them is very helpful

My favourite RU-vidr

Do a dyno pull with the cute Trabant.

There is so many of you haha, I love your video editing. I hope soon your trabant will be mechanically perfect(ish) soon, best of luck for engine rebuild!

You are great. Thanks for taking care of this car. It was probably build by one of my relatives and I really appreciate it.

I get the feeling that these two twins don’t like each other, when one comes over to make a comment the other walks off....

Hey aging. Have you considered taking a synthetic clay bar to the paint? It should clean it up really nice without damaging the paint. Much better ideal than buffing it

So pleased to discover you're having the exact same electrical problems with your Trabant as I am with mine. I don't feel nearly so inept now. Thank you.

Good to see a great channel based in my home state

I use an 1988 601 as mine daily driver in Germany without much problems. :D And your windshield wipers position is to high. They need to be way lower.

My hat's off to you. I used to live in the eastern part of Germany where the Trabants were still put-putting around. The owners all swore to me that they could do all the maintenance themselves because the cars were so mechanically simple. But they did seem to "maintaining" them constantly at all hours of the day. At the very end of the German Democratic Republic, the Trabants were delivered with four stroke Volkswagen engines. Maybe those would be more reliable although I don't think they make that adorable "put-put" sound.

These are just the best videos, every one puts a smile to my face!

Really enjoyed your video. Obviously owning a Trabant requires a sense of humour and you have that. Happy motoring!

Oh my god! I owend a Trabant for... 4 month. I mean, I really liked it and it was fun, but the engine was going to kill itself, so I just sold it after 4 funny month. I life in germany and my dad use to own one of them in the GDR. So good job! keep it running and have fun with it :)

just keep it on the road comrade.

Looking forward to the engine re-build!

Love just to see it drive again! Maybe a road trip to show us the comfort of this mean machine

I love love love the fuelleveler under the hood. To check the fuel, open the hood, open the tank, put the ruller in, tata the level is readable on the stick. Simpel, not easy, not fast.

hey I a me from Romania and I lern to drive on a Trabant

What a cool lil machine. Good work, good luck too

Holes, Eyesight 20/20 love vid bro. Working way catalog and having a blast.

Flextape the cylinders! The compression isnt that high. Other youtubers make great content with it...(no garanty it works longer then 5 minutes)

597 likes and 0 dislikes. That’s what I like to see.

Yay! Another Trabant video, I love them!

I used to have a Trabant and it had a few problems even on a very cold day, it was minus 1 in Fahrenheit and the blinkers stopped working as well as the headlights and the rear window heating and Ihad to bring some people home safely, but still I loved it.

hey check your exhaust manifold, maybe its loose

5:45 to 6:10, sounds like a rotary haha

I’ve never seen a video with this many views and likes with no dislikes! Great job man 👍

Love your series!! i would be greatly interested in purchasing your trabant when your finished with it. Just keep me in mind.

Stupid idea: replace all of the lights on the trabant with LEDS.

The Hungarian plates are temporary "zoll" plates toll plates. Normal Hungarian plates have tre numbers tre letters like large parts of the EU.

Having owned several 2 stroke motorcycles back in the 70's as a youth, I am now very nostalgic about anything 2 stroke. To see the smoke coming out the exhaust brings back many happy memories. I had the chance to buy a West German made 2 stroke car while stationed in Germany back in the 70's but I bought a VW bug instead.

Its funny to see an trabant in america. I love your trabant videos, please make more of them, cant wait.

This Trabant is best Trabant

How much does it affect performance if you're carrying four passengers?

I LOVE this video! I just saw my first Trabant at the Lane Motor Museum here in Nashville a couple weeks ago. Not sure why I am so fascinated with these cars. haha Great job!

Brilliant video Robert 👍🚙

1:50 Government stupidity in a nutshell...

The cylinder heads cracked due to pure Russian horse power...

Greets from Thuringia! :D To be more exact, Eisenach ... where the Wartburg stands and were the Wartburg 311/353 build.

This is absolutely brilliant! If you ever work on motorcycles I suggest you try and find a CZ, Jawa or (more likely) an MZ. All Eastern Bloc bikes from the same period as the Trabant. They do also require the same sense of humor and ingenuity :-) In your case they'd tick all the boxes. (Former Trabant and present MZ owner) :-D

I consider myself lucky to have seen this along with your Saab 96 as the St. Louis European Auto Show this year!

Cool! I replaced the plastic cap on the wiper fluid reservoir of my Rav4.

This is extremely interesting. I like the types of quirky cars you do also. A former marxist East German car is very interesting. Great video.

You know, Robert, I saw about 4 Trabants hanging up in the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland. Amazing!

No one else is saying it so, nice job on the SFX editing. Looks great.

As an east german who survived his early childhood in one of these I'm very happy to see an american being so dedicated to keep a Trabant running and functional xD

I'm from hungary and that plate is a toll plate. We use plates like ABC-123. Can't wait the second installment of the engine rebuild! :)

Nice piece, and looking forward to the restoration series. Have you any forthcoming plans for a continuation series on the Saab 96?

I love your split screen.

Im looking forward for your future videos

My 1972 Lotus Europa's full vin is 2577R. No problem registering it in IL thank god.

I have Trabant for almost 5 years, this was my first car :) Its never broke, hard to drive but i learn alot driving with it :P Got my special trick for starting it in -30 celcius back then when here in Poland

Would be an idea to keep a back-up engine on the work bench, rebuild one to keep it ready for the next transplant, thanks for explaining the start-up routine, something very different, love your car, Trabant. 😊

My father had a Trabant when I was a child. And when you started yours, I swear to God I could smell the exhaust of that thing...

At first when i saw your video like a years ago, i wondereder what happened then, but i am happy about to see that car again. I watched a series about how somebody fixed his trabant, and maybe he made a 110% job so now he just only use the car only on events and on a sunny sundays. Welcome from Hungary. I will have the oportunity to drive a Trabant. Maybe if you can ask some trabant specialist you can have some god advice. Have a good adventure with your cars.

I lold many times. Good stuff man, love the channel 👍

You bought a Lemon. We purchased a New Trabi after waiting for 5 years in the 80-s. It was the VW of the DDR. Great car ,always started even at -20C ,never missed a beat.

i absolutely love the sarcasm. it’s actually really funny

4:53 You need to look into that by taking the fender off. There's usually rust on the body under the duroplast, and you need to fix that if there aren't any holes yet

We still have our Trabi's licence plate in our garagewall, even though poor fella got destroyed by an accident around 2003. God, I miss it so much. On the bright side, my grandfather still have a 2-stroke Wartburg 353 (made in 1986) in almost mint condition.