21–30 of 107 posts
> Volkswagen settled in Zwickau, Chemnitz and Eisenach and developed the Golf and Polo models there. Opel has been producing cars there since 1992, along with numerous new suppliers that call Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt their home. The author mixed something up there. VW only settled in Zwickau and Chemnitz, which were involved in Trabant production. However VW neither settled in Eisenach nor was there anythi…
Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower. Meanwhile the west had BMWs. Tells a lot about how things were.
And the car body was made of paper.
https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact...
Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower. Meanwhile the west had BMWs. Tells a lot about how things were.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1966-saab-850-gt-monte-car...
Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower. Meanwhile the west had BMWs. Tells a lot about how things were.
> Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower. And the car body was made of paper.
There's this American car collector who has every fancy car imaginable, but then he hears that there is a car in East Germany that is so popular that the order backlog is many years. So he orders one. At the factory, they're perplexed that someone from abroad would order one, and so keen to satisfy their first foreign customer that they ship one out immediately. Later, a friend asks: "So, did you get your East German car yet?" - "No, but they sent me a fully functional cardboard model."
Yes iconic. It has the iconic sound of a lawnmower. Meanwhile the west had BMWs. Tells a lot about how things were.
At the time when production started in the 50's and 60's, the East German cars weren't all that bad compared to the rest of the world (especially if you compare to anything else than West Germany, which after all built the best high-end cars in the world). The problem was that the East German economy quickly went downhill starting in the late 60's, and there was no will, and no resources to bring new cars into produc…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the time when production started in the 50's and 60's, the East German cars weren't all that bad compared to the rest of the world (especially if you compare to anything else than West Germany, which after all built the best high-end cars in the world). The problem was that the East German economy quickly went downhill starting in the late 60's, and there was no will, and no resources to bring new cars into produc…
> had almost invented the VW Golf class of cars if the engineers had their way, but such developments were blocked by the "higher ups" Interesting. But yes, that's what you get when you have politicians making decisions about products and market (doesn't apply only to Eastern countries and doesn't apply only to governmental politicians - think office politics/people "falling up").
Does “politician” just mean “person who makes decisions for reasons I don't like” to you? Politicians can also make good decisions.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the time when production started in the 50's and 60's, the East German cars weren't all that bad compared to the rest of the world (especially if you compare to anything else than West Germany, which after all built the best high-end cars in the world). The problem was that the East German economy quickly went downhill starting in the late 60's, and there was no will, and no resources to bring new cars into produc…
> had almost invented the VW Golf class of cars if the engineers had their way, but such developments were blocked by the "higher ups" Interesting. But yes, that's what you get when you have politicians making decisions about products and market (doesn't apply only to Eastern countries and doesn't apply only to governmental politicians - think office politics/people "falling up").
I'm Hungarian, born in '81, so I grew up around Trabis, Wartburgs, Skodas, Moskvitch, Ladas. My mom's first car was a Trabant. At some point in the 80s we moved to W-Germany for a few years and we took the Trabant, it was not a good look (we were living in Boeblingen, near Stuttgart, location of the Porsche HQ). The magic of social and geographic mobility and the tech boom: today, 30 years later, I live in Dubai, whe…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> had almost invented the VW Golf class of cars if the engineers had their way, but such developments were blocked by the "higher ups" Interesting. But yes, that's what you get when you have politicians making decisions about products and market (doesn't apply only to Eastern countries and doesn't apply only to governmental politicians - think office politics/people "falling up").
> governmental politicians Does “politician” just mean “person who makes decisions for reasons I don't like” to you? Politicians can also make good decisions.