The classic claim was that the Trabi was made out of cardboard.

Of course, that's a myth: the Trabi was actually made out of cheap plastic.

The Trabant was actually a decent modern car when it debuted in 1957. The problem is that they produced it until 1991, when it was far from modern.

I was born in Zwickau, where the Trabant was produced. It's no accident that they picked Zwickau for the production, because that's where Audi's predecessor company (Horch) had made their cars before.

(Going on tangent: Audi is Latin for 'listen', and Horch is German for 'listen'.)