Word: trabis
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...certainly isn't easy being a Trabi. Trabant jokes are now a national pastime in the Federal Republic, just as they have been in East Germany for decades. Some are flattering. "Why did Erich Honecker refuse to drive a Trabant? Because the brakes kept pulling to the West." But others simply pick on the helpless little car's shortcomings. "Why is the Trabant the world's quietest car to drive? Because your knees cover your ears...
Then there is the one about the customer who walks into a Trabi dealer. Says the customer: "I want a Trabi with a two-tone paint...
Andreas Kippe of West Germany's ADAC Auto Club has a favorite. "How many workers does it take to build a Trabi? Answer: two, one to fold and one to paste." But Kippe says the ribbing is all part of West Germany's tough love for the ungainly auto. "Some of these jokes sound nasty," says Kippe, "but people who love each other make jokes about each other." In fact, ADAC's emergency service aids any Trabi in trouble, free of charge...
...awkwardness, the Trabant has aroused protective instincts in West Germany. Auto Zeitung magazine gave the Trabi honorary top billing in its 1989 test results, praising the car's "respect for the people who must live with it." A Trabi graced the centerfold of Autobild's "Best Autos of 1989" edition. The Frankfurter Allgemeine-Zeitung even compared the Trabant with the Porsche Carrera. Both, said the paper kindly, are "useful as getaway cars," but the Trabi has twice the Carrera's trunk space...
Soon, however, the Trabant that Germans both love and hate may be no more. In 1990 East Germany plans to begin producing Trabants fitted with cleaner, four-cylinder engines manufactured under a 1984 contract with Volkswagen. VW is also negotiating a joint venture to develop a successor to the Trabi...