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Ludicrous to even think of installing an automatic choke in a car with a cardboard body and a 36 cu. in. 2 cylinder two-stroke smoke-generator. That'd be like fitting sat-nav on a tea trolley. They were and still are popular, heaven knows why. Perhaps BMW will bring out a 'retro-model', like the new Mini!

Alan

I've owned 2 vehicles with Automatic Chokes and I must say that an Automatic Choke is ok, but if it ever turns faulty or fails, watch out!.
Personally, I'd sooner have a manual choke any day.
Alan,
You mean yours hasn't got one?.
Boy, you're just so old-school!.

Ok here come the trabi jokes(from the ol' east german days):

Q: know how you triple the value of a trabi?
A: put a bananna in the back window

Q: why does a trabi have twin exhaust pipes?
A: so that when it breaks down you can push it like a wheelbarrow

Trumpy is dead right about the manual chokes too. As I recall it was also a feature of Datsun (now nissan) Z cars in the early years too. And god help you if the thing ever sticks..

Of course, 'chokes' don't exist any more on cars. The computer works out the required fuel-mix from the sensors' data, and via the fuel injectors, adjusts the air/fuel ratio and the advance/retard accordingly. The only difference from the old way of mixture-control, is when it goes wrong: $1500 for a new Engine Management Computer vs. $1.99 for a bit of bowden cable and a clothes peg. Anyone remember that trick?
The 'cardboard' body was actually quite a good idea. It's a resin composite using cellulose wood fibers; it's light and won't rust, and they gotalotta trees in East Germany! Downside is in a slight bump, you're driving a naked shopping-cart. But, nobody laughs today about modern flimsy plastic fenders/bumpers which collapse if you hit a wasp at speed, now do they?

Alan

Actually that car has more metal to it than anybody would believe... I've seen rusted Trabants! Basically only the outer sheathing is plastic. They're cool though... it was the first car I got to drive when visiting relatives in Eastern Germany... beware of the weird stick shift! It can compete with Citroen 2CV and Renault R4!

Speakin' of French voitures, 'Top Gear', a 'cheeky' BBC motoring show, ( I hesitate to call it a programme ), just completed a 'customer satisfaction survey'. Gess wot cum larst? You got it, mostly the French.
159th= Peugot 806; 158th= Peugot307; just behind the Renault Espace, R.Laguna, Mercedes M. Class, Fiat Stilo, Rover 25, R.Megane, P.205 Citroen Xsara. Peugot refused to let them have an 806 to take the p155 out of on air, so they had a large galvanised bucket of steaming horse-droppings in the studio instead. I don't know how they get away with it.
Top? Honda, Lexus and Skoda. http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/survey/last_10.shtml

Alan

One thing that I find strange from the first advert is the fact that we imported electric motors from the US??.
General Electric is not really a name that you associate with appliances and stuff here.
I'm not sure wether they would have been custom-made for our 230V system here or our system had a different voltage at the time.

HMV means His Masters Voice. I don't really remeber, I guess the dog on the pic hears his master's voice, that's why it became this.

The other thought: I have never thought I would find a Trabant on ECN LOL

(You know 15 years ago we only had Trabant, Wartburg and Dacia here as a part of the economical community. Well some rich people could bring her Alfa or Rolls home after leaving in '56)

Yes, and the dog's name was "Nipper."

In the U.K., the symbol became the trademark of The Gramophone Company Ltd., and appeared on the H.M.V. record label for decades. Here's an example from the 1940s:




It became somewhat less prominent in later years, however, as this example from the late 1950s shows:



(H.M.V. became part of the giant E.M.I. group in the 1960s.)


In the United States, however, the symbol was the trademark of RCA Victor:



When RCA started issuing British pressings of records over here in the 1950s, they had to use a completely different label as "Nipper" was already the HMV Trademark.



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 12-20-2005).]

Here's a 1952 ad for Hoover washing machines:




P.S. Note the purchase tax at the time for such a "luxury" item -- Over 41 percent!




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 12-20-2005).]