1990 Trabant 601 Limousine 1.1 4-stroke petrol
Summary:
A great little car
Faults:
Nothing at all!
This car is very reliable - much more so than I expected.
General Comments:
This car is the rare four-stroke version, made between 1989 and 1991. This car was very unpopular as the collapse of East Germany meant that East Germans could buy western cars and nobody wanted the little Trabi. This one came to Romania from East Germany. It had been used as a student car, and had covered very few miles.
As a result the exterior and interior are in perfect condition.
My car has had a radio and cassette player fitted and a few other things. The performance is fine for towns, but it struggles on long distance roads.
It has excellent economy and I like driving it.
It is above all a cool car to have. The styling is very "cute" and it is an ideal first car for going around town in. I love it!
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 10th December, 2002
21st Mar 2004, 04:02
Were could I get Trabant 1,1.
I'm trabillac fan and I have Traby 601 (1987).
I'd like to have also the new (if 89-91 is new) version of this magnificent car.
Jkovacic@s5.net.
Slovenia.
25th Nov 2010, 04:11
The Trabant 1.1 (actually 1043cc) was much faster and more economical than the Polo that used the same engine, due to the Trabant's light body. For me though, it's neither a true Trabant or a Volkswagen, and I'd rather have the two stroke Trabi, with its column gear change.
The 1989 one is probably the best one to have, just before the Volkswagen four stroke came into play. These last two strokes had electronic ignition, which makes a great improvement with two strokes.
3rd Oct 2014, 07:36
The 2 stroke car was made alongside the 1.1 VW engined car for a while. They made the 601 until July 1990, so there are 1990, 2 stroke cars available (I have one).
The biggest problem with the VW engined car is the gear box. The VW gear box to suit that engine couldn't be made fit into the Trabant, and the 601 column change gear box couldn't handle the torque of the VW unit, so the Sachsenring engineers had to make a gear box to suit in a short time frame. The result is a gear box that can give trouble, especially linkage problems and notchy difficult changes. The Wartburg 1.3, which used the 1.3 VW Polo/Golf engine, also shared this gear box.
3rd Sep 2022, 18:16
I suggest searching on Youtube a footage video called "Trabant quality control" filmed at the assembly factory in Eastern Germany, back in the days. Worth having a look.
23rd Feb 2023, 20:54
Not many people are aware there are actually... RALLY competitions with these cars on what appears to be stock engines. I'm not making this up, just look up on Youtube, it's fun to watch :) And yes, it sounds like a chainsaw competition indeed.
20th Apr 2003, 06:22
What exactly were the performance statistics for a Trabant 1.1? How many horsepower did it have?