Back in the 80?s such a car, like any other imported goods was really hard to come by, but I got really lucky to know somebody really important so I bought one even in 1980. That is how I joined the very exclusive club of the Trabant drivers. There was always a special bond tying the Trabant drivers. When they met in traffic they said hello to each others with the headlights. If one had pulled right due to one problem or another, the others would never pass him by without stopping to give him a hand; they went all the way to offering some spare part for free. I remember that once in Predeal, a Trabant driver needed a spare wheel. I thought it only natural to give him my own one until we arrived in Bucharest on condition he gave it me back, should I need it myself. But eventually I didn?t so I could indulge in one random act of kindness for a fellow Trabant driver.

The other drivers though looked down on us, the Trabant drivers. Our exhaust fumes were nothing short of a fog so the others swore at us and raced to engines to just leave us behind, which wasn?t much of a task really.

If you had an accident, it wasn?t difficult to get the problem fixed in two seconds: you just bought the damaged part (whether wing, door or bonnet), replaced it with screws and painted it all over. That was how in just two hours all the damage was sorted out and you didn?t have to get it fixed by a panel-beater thus facing a major rip-off for a mere nothing. And a car that?s had an accident won?t ever look like a new one again anyhow. Another good point?The Trabant worked with just any kind of petrol. For two years I never had to see a Peco petrol station because a truck driver gave me as much petrol as I needed; he just stole it and sold it to for less money. My supplier nevertheless agreed to clinch the deal on condition I bought some 120 liters a week from him; he wanted to keep the business small as he didn?t want too many customers who could turn him in at some point. He would give a call, we met on some side street, I gave him 6 empty cans, I went some distance from his truck, collected 6 full cans, gave him the ?corn floor? ? code name for cash for the ?juice? i.e. the petrol. I remember we both almost cried when, on economic and economical grounds, Ceausescu ordered that all trucks should become Diesel powered. Later on I used a mix of petrol and petrosyne; the performance was radically reduced but the price defied all competition.