Just like a Rolls Royce!

[texases]

Trabants were ‘hand crafted’:

[common-sense-answer]

It’s kind of classy the way the fit & finish guys working the assembly line look both ways and then quickly kick in an adjustment with a foot wedge.

I can imagine a slogan for the cars’ Rolls Royce type body construction… ,
“Trabant quality, where close enough is good enough.”

I did read where these East German cars had a lifespan of approximately 28 years and that new ones took so long to get when ordered that used ones often sold for more than new ones. That’s one way to drive up the value of your product, just provide extremely poor customer service.
CSA

[jtsanders]

Did the Trabants last 28 years because they were well made or because the East Germans would do anything to keep the one they have running, like Cubans do with their cars?

[shadowfax]

The latter.

[common-sense-answer]

@jtsanders

Did the Trabants last 28 years because they were well made or because the East Germans would do anything to keep the one they have running, like Cubans do with their cars?

Yes, because they’d do anything to make it happen. Perhaps they didn’t use road salt? Having owned Volkswagens, I’d guess that road salt would totally dissolve a Trabant in a decade or two. Then again, these cars had some molded plastic body parts that would make the rotting hulk less conspicuous.
CSA

[George_San_Jose1]

For your amusement, in the vdo below late-night comedian Conan O’Brien Test-drives a rickety Trabant through the streets of Berlin …