Cars,trucks,and vans of DDR. Did they have power steering?

[Paul Spain]

Fellas I just thunk up something..

I saw on a OLD TV show called Degrassi that Canada had some Ladas and Wikipedia says that Wartburg was one of the few DDR vehicles to get clearence to be shipped to U.S.A. and some was sold here, So when I ever get enough doe I might just look for them or go check about getting a Lada from Canada..Would be much quicker and a hell of alot cheaper than buying them direct from Germany .

But those are just thoughts for now, I don't have enough money to get a VolksPolizei car or make one from a compatable vehicle just yet.

[Dag]

don't get too exited about the Wartburg. It is true that some Wartburg where exported to the US but as far as I know that was a very small number of Wartburg 313 in the late 50ies. This model won, as far as I know, a prize at the New York Motor show.
Mind you, it may automatically have included the later Wartburg 353. That model was also exported to the UK (as right-hand drive version) as Wartburg Knight.

[KevinH]

I've been searching high and low for years and have never seen a single Wartburg 353 on this side of the pond. There is a guy based in my home town of Minneapolis who has imported Trabants before. In fact, he used to have two for sale. I looked at them, but I was in college at the time and much too poor to afford the $7000 or so pricetag. In any case, they both must have sold. I did however see one of the two in neighboring wisconsin while at a wwii reenactment of all things. I tried to track down the owner, but could not. I have a picture of me with the car somewhere.. lol it was a light plue p601.
I can't remember the name of the importer's company, if I find it I'll post it here.

[KevinH]

Also I forgot to mention there are indeed ladas for sale in canada. The Toronto lada club has some for sale from time to time on their forum. The most popular seller over here was the lada niva. This was a very capable off road vehicle which rivaled the jeep. You also see some samaras and lada rivas (2101) pop up. To import aforegin car into the us it must be older than 25 years. So a 1987 model year and older.

[torstenbel]

I've been searching high and low for years and have never seen a single Wartburg 353 on this side of the pond. There is a guy based in my home town of Minneapolis who has imported Trabants before. In fact, he used to have two for sale. I looked at them, but I was in college at the time and much too poor to afford the $7000 or so pricetag. In any case, they both must have sold. I did however see one of the two in neighboring wisconsin while at a wwii reenactment of all things. I tried to track down the owner, but could not. I have a picture of me with the car somewhere.. lol it was a light plue p601.
I can't remember the name of the importer's company, if I find it I'll post it here.

my very first car was a light blue P601 built in 1969. Had to scrap it at the end of the summer of 1990. The rear axle broke after a camping trip to Czechoslavakia. The Trabant took me and a mate there and back w/o any trouble and two weeks later said rear axle broke. I was quoted 250 DM for a new one, which was too much for a poor student like me and so I scraped it ;-) ... still have the keys here with me, though ...

[KevinH]

Oh, I guess it was kind of a greenish grayish color.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/77062656@N05/7885367846/" title="2011-11-05 17.19.34 by flailhyena, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8033/7885367846_d2b18fc022.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="2011-11-05 17.19.34"></a>
The uniform is strictly to increase political perception with regard to the great patriotic war. >.> As I said, I spotted this car while at a WWII reenactment.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/77062656@N05/7885368906/" title="2011-11-05 17.13.09 by flailhyena, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8314/7885368906_d6f8291411.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="2011-11-05 17.13.09"></a>
Wisconsin collector plates.

How did you break your axle Torsten? Driving through a big pothole?

[Dag]

....


Well that being said one other thing..Did the DDR/U.S.S.R. vehicles atleast have CRUISE CONTROL?

.

I know it is a bit late...

No, certainly not the standard cars available to the public. Maybe the Zil/Tschaika and Volvo's used by the government had it. Having said that, I have seen one Wolga Gaz 21 with a kind of cruise control. When in third gear (it had only three) a bowden-cable could be attached to a little hook on the dashboard. It only worked for a fixed speed of 90 km/h. But the family did drive a lot between Rostock and Berlin and 90 km/h was a good compromise between speed and fuel consumption (the car did have a drinking habit).
Of course, it was a self-designed solution.