My father worked at Volkswagen when the Berlin wall fell. Volkswagen considered a cooperation with Sachsenring (the producer of the Trabant cars) and my father's team had the task to find ways to keep the production of the Trabant running until a line for a new car could be set up at the Factory in Zwickau. They held a competition for artists to style the Trabant's body so it could become something like a lifestyle car. My father asked me about the opinion on the designs and I remember that some were quite cute, but not enough to make that outdated car attractive for buyers.
Anyway, it was soon decided that the technology of the Trabant was already so far behind that nobody wanted to buy the Trabant anymore and keeping up the production made no sense economically or ecologically. But I can assure you, they tried and Volkswagen's top management actually was a little bit idealistic about this.