Crazy idea: GM and Ostalgie - let's build a Wartburg!

[Bravada]

OK, in this thread I will discuss why GM should build a modern Wartburg. As GMI is not kind to me today and I didn't manage to post whatever I wrote before, I will post it now piece-by-piece, so wait until this notice goes away for a complete piece (though please discuss now if you want, I'd love your comments!)



OK, so where I am coming from:

1. Retro cars can be a good way for an automaker to introduce an offbeat model, garner positive popularity and extend a model's lifetime - MINI, Beetle and Mustang are still selling reasonably well, despite their novelty factor wearing off.

2. "Specialty" small cars are a growing market, as many people, especially in Europe, either do not want or cannot afford large cars (both pricing and fuel price concerns play a role here), but want something more "special" than the usual econobox.

3. Contrary to BMW, Fiat, Citroen or VW, GM doesn't have a legendary small car to revive - Opels have always been good value, but hardly any became a legendary car, not to mention that Opel was notably absent from the "Kleinwagen" class before the Corsa.

4. However, Opel has a factory in Eisenach!


OK, so what's a Wartburg?

Wartburg was a car made in communist East Germany in Eisenach (J.S. Bach's birthplace) by Automobilwerk Eisenach, an automobile factory of a varied history, involving notably BMW. Although it does not exist as a running business anymore, GM built a new plant in Eisenach in 1992 (when the old Automobilwerk was closed) to utilize the potential of the skilled workforce (and a subsidy from the East Germany Recovery Agency).

Named after Eisenach's Wartburg Castle, the Wartburg was perhaps the most desirable Soviet Block car available to the common man. The BMW heritage, reflected in the car's engineering, coupled with rather attractive styling for what was essentially a socialist budget-built small family car and relatively good build quality made it a dream car for many families behind the Iron Curtain. With a three-cylinder, two-stroke engine of a displacement not exceeding one litre, the Wartburgs chuftered through Hitler-built Autobahns, carrying happy Ossis. The car pictured above is the Wartburg 311 sedan, launched in 1955, and replaced in 1966 by the squarish 353 - which might be what you know as "Wartburg", but that's the original one I want to talk about.

OK, so what's Ostalgie?


Ostalgie is a German word for the general nostalgy for East Germany, or, better said, various aspects of living there. One prominent example is the unfaltering affection towards the Schasenring Trabant. Even once reviled and ridiculed, the "Ossi" cultural icons make a comeback as something cute and cool. As a sidenote, reviving the Trabant might be a better idea, but unfortunately German model-car maker already secured the rights to do so (and they are bound to screw it, as what is the point of building a new Trabi that has nothing in common with the original?)

How could GM do that?

A few ideas here:

1. Eisenach, IIRC, currently makes Corsas. The Corsa chassis is a very worthy one, and the underpinnings have proven reliable, and it is relatively cheap to make.


Stretch it a bit, add more room in the rear and a trunk for family needs, and kiss Dacia Logan goodbye!


2. The relatively close Gliwice plant in Poland continues to build Astra B Classics - by now, they were honed to bulletproof reliability, retain their great driveability and utility, and with production costs and prices lowered, they make a very good proposition for people looking for an inexpensive small family car. There is just one problem - the styling is as stale as bread in socialist East Germany...



Why not give the proven and popular (still among 10 best-selling cars in Poland and many European countries, also a sales hit in Australia in its own time) platform a new lease of life with some new yet old styling?


3. Polymer body panels!

GM has perhaps the most extensive expertise among mainstream automakers in making complete bodies out of those. Although, contrary to the "Ford Carton" Trabbi, Wartburg didn't have a Duroplast body, doing a bit of an Ostalgie mix-up can a good solution. Here are some advantages of plastic panneling:

1. Cost-effective for low-volume production - even if the Wartburg would not outsell the Corsa or Astra, it could still be a commercially viable product

2. Easier to make fancy shapes and colour combos (essential to recreate the Wartburg magic).

3. Lightweight - in view of raising fuel costs, this is a big advantage for the indended market. Also, keeping weight down would allow the car to stay true to tradition and even come with a one-litre three-cylinder from the Corsa (though two-stroke is not on the menu anymore), and still afford reasonable performance. OK, even without the Ostalgic one-litre, a lighter car is always a better car.

4. GM has already shown they can take a metal-bodied Opel and turn it into a polymer-bodied production car with the L-Series, which underneath was, to a large extent, the Opel Vectra B (with a Saab 9-5 flavoring)



5. While you don't see it, manufacturing of polymer panels is a growing industry, with more and more parts, such as roofs, fenders and obviously bumpers being fitted into otherwise metal-bodied cars.

The one big disadvantage of polymer panels is their propensity to thermal expension, which leads to the much-maligned panel gaps on older Saturns. But, this is one thing customers would probably forgive a Wartburg!

In general, a Wartburg-branded car would allow GM to do the necessary cost-cutting moves not possible in Opels or even Chevrolets. Renault would have taken a hard beating if they tried to apply the cost-cutting they did in the Dacia Logan even in the development of the developing-country-destined Renault Thalia. In a Wartburg, you can always say it is a Wartburg after all, so don't expect all the fancy stuff - just a fun car at a low price!

Anything more?

Yes! Do note the original Wartburg 311 didn't only come as a sedan - let's start with a stylish coupe:



The Wartburg also came in the highly-desirable sportscar form, as the Wartburg 313 Sport:




Do note the 4-door "Wartburg Camping" station wagon variant with cool wraparound side glazing!



Tagline: Wartburg Camping - howcamp can you get?

[DuSpinnst]

I am speechless....

This is up there in the pool of REALLY bad ideas.

People are nostalgic for East Germany? Maybe they need a Stasi visit to change their minds...

[Bravada]

65 views and ONE reply. DuSpinnst, you need to go to East Germany to see that. Aren't people in the US nostalgic for the spectacularly ugly 1980s cars of their youth?



People just are like that and they will!

BTW, the Mini, 2CV, Beetle et al. weren't any worse than the Wartburg, although they weren't products of centrally-planned economies (at least not of that kind).

[DuSpinnst]

Originally Posted by Bravada

65 views and ONE reply. DuSpinnst, you need to go to East Germany to see that. Aren't people in the US nostalgic for the spectacularly ugly 1980s cars of their youth?



People just are like that and they will!

BTW, the Mini, 2CV, Beetle et al. weren't any worse than the Wartburg, although they weren't products of centrally-planned economies (at least not of that kind).

I've been to East Germany, back in 1996. East Berlin was a construction zone. The A9 was still the ORIGINAL paved road (potholed to ****). The offramp we got off on to get gas was COBBLESTONE!

And I hate 1980's cars, they are boxy and hideous! Even the C4 Corvette is ugly IMHO.

[GMCSonoma]

I think it's a neat looking bloc-car, often in the shadows of the Trabant as far as western "reporting" went...

Maybe Opel/Chevy/Daewoo could market "Wartburg" for an entry level model...

Who owns the copyright for the name???


How popular is the Hindustan Ambassador???

[Bravada]

And I hate 1980's cars, they are boxy and hideous!

Good for you, so do I (though I was young in the 1980s, believe it or not). As to you being in East Germany, I guess you might have not got the flavour of Ostalgie - while living in East Germany was a nightmare, some things still had this special feeling to them. You did dream to have a Wartburg. Now you can laugh at that looking back, but you did, and that's what makes your heart melt now that you see one.

And the 311 wasn't a bad car to that - while the 353 grew catastrophally outdated, Wartburg were essentially well-engineered and quite good-looking cars originally. They weren't that poorly-built either.

[Bravada]

Who owns the copyright for the name???

My wild guess would be the museum that Automobilwerk Eisenach is now. Or perhaps the Treuhand (the Federal Agency that took over East German state-owned propoerty), or whatever its legal successor ist. Or perhaps it just expired, though I've heard that Herpa had to PURCHASE the Trabant moniker, so I guess there might still be a pending copyright.

Admit it, it's cute

[GMCSonoma]

Originally Posted by Bravada

My wild guess would be the museum that Automobilwerk Eisenach is now. Or perhaps the Treuhand (the Federal Agency that took over East German state-owned propoerty), or whatever its legal successor ist. Or perhaps it just expired, though I've heard that Herpa had to PURCHASE the Trabant moniker, so I guess there might still be a pending copyright.

Admit it, it's cute

I did...I was always the kid who wanted a Skoda!

[Bravada]

We all did here - seriously! They were called the Porsches of the East - and they kinda were!

[GMCSonoma]

Originally Posted by Bravada

We all did here - seriously! They were called the Porsches of the East - and they kinda were!

You got it!!!!! They were rallye champions if I'm not mistaken!

[Bravada]

Even good old Polski Fiat was!

[tomprice]

Brav I'd be VERY surprised if the museum at Eisenach owned the Wartburg name.

It's a sorry sight the home of the Wartburg, what I presume is the factory behind it looks very neglected and the museum only survives on the goodness of the people who operate it and the few visitors they get..

I must admit when I visited (2005-ish??) it really did tug at the heart strings seeing the site abandoned like that. Very sad.

[Slideways]

I didn't think I would ever come to like an Eastern European car, but that thing is cool!

[Bravada]

Brav I'd be VERY surprised if the museum at Eisenach owned the Wartburg name.

Why would you? That an underfunded museum in the heart of nowhere is in a decrepit state, and the factory closed down 15 years ago is a ruin is no surprise, but why wouldn't they own the rights? As I said, the only other owner I could think of is the Treuhand.

[mgescuro]

Retro cars do well for a time. And then they invariably falter.
it is an interesting looking car... but i dunno how successful it woul dbe....