European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 20, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes automotive saturday november .20,1993 the Federal transportation Secretary is the demand for a recall of the general motors pickups that allegedly Are prone to catch fire in collisions a newspaper reported. Secretary pc Scrico Pena s review of the Case a highly unusual move suggests the government May Back away from its earlier request for a recall the Wall Street journal reported. A forced recall of the 6 million trucks with Side mounted gasoline tanks would be a huge undertaking for the Detroit we re moving look for the stars and stripes automotive Page on mondays be ginning next week. Based corporation. A recall was being considered for trucks built from 1973 to 1987 that allegedly could catch fire in a Side Impact collision. Pena definitely wants a Compro Mise one National Highway traffic safety administration official told the journal speaking on condition of s state controlled automaker Renault a will launch a new midsize Model in january to replace its 7-year old Renault 21, the manufacturer announced tuesday. The new Model to be called the la Guna is a five door Sedan with four Cyl Inder 1.8 or 2.0-liter engines or a six Cylinder 3.0-Litcr engine with 170 horse Power All gasoline engines. A 2.2-liter i Csc version will also be offered. The Renault 21 was launched in 1986. Production of the 21 will be phased out As output of the Laguna is stepped up. Renault will continue to manufacture the Nevada a station Wagon version of the 21. A general motors spokesman says itis still too Early to announce an agreement to sell cars in Japan under the Toyota nameplate. Ray do incl spokesman for pm s Lansing car division called reports that the no. 1 . Automaker is about to Ink a Deal with Toyota possible within a week As speculative. Some time Back pm president Jack Smith had discussions with Toyota about business opportunities said do Ibel. There s been rumours and speculative stories about this for some time but no agreement has been signed and we have nothing to monday s automotive news reported that pm would sell 20,000 right hand drive Chevrolet Cavaliers and Pontiac sunbird in Japan under the Toyota name beginning in the 1995model year. Deibel would not discuss the Auto motive news piece except to say it is a speculative Story and we Don t com ment on speculative Volkswagen a saw its new car registrations in Europe Tumble 19 percent in october from the same month last year but the German giant remains the no. 1 automaker in Europe the euro Pean automobile manufacturers association said this week. That makes vow s plunge in the european Market Over the first 10 months of this year 20.4 percent compared with the same period in 1992, second Only to Fiat which saw registrations plummet19.9 percent in october and 21.4 per cent so far this year. General motors Europe s second largest automaker saw registration skid by 12 percent so far in 1993, Ford by 14.1 percent and France s Peugeot citroen by 14.7 percent. From wire reports Security shifts to High tech anti theft systems aim to discourage foil Auto thieves by Jeffrey Cohen the new York times the purpose of technology is usually to make life easier. In the Case of car Security the opposite is True the purpose is to make life More difficult for car thieves. What used to be merely a matter of placing a Siren under the Hood has be come a High tech game of cat and mouse Between a car thief and a car owner. There Are Security systems As simple As the club a steering wheel Locking device that Sells for about $40, and As Complex As systems that track a stolen car and Call the police which can sell for $2,000. There Are essentially three types of car Security devices mechanical tools that lock the steering wheel in position so that the car can t be turned even if the engine is activated the traditional elec tronic alarm and tracking systems. The club this device is considered 1 an obstacle More to juvenile Joy riders than to professional thieves although the new York City police department s Auto crime unit recommends such de vices As part of a series of Security Mea sures. Detective David Conception of the Auto crime unit said steering wheel locks were effective on one level they Are visible and will Alert a thief that the owner is doing something about Security. Electronic alarms usually this system will include a loud Siren a cutoff switch for the ignition Glass and sound sensors motion detectors which when too sensitive cause the false alarm prob lems evident on City streets and Remote control features. One problem is that the Remote con trots Send out radio frequency codes that can be duplicated with scanning devices thieves can make themselves. One com Pany Clifford electronics of Chatsworth calif., manufactures a system with codes that it says Are so Complex it would take a scanner 19 years to try every possible code to disarm the system. Prices for electronic alarms can Cost $200 to $1,500 or More. Car trackers there Are two major systems. To Jack available in eight states claims a 95 percent rate of car return after theft. The system which is activated by the car s owner Over Telephone lines contacts a police radio network and sends out a homing signal. The police can then Trace the car and the thief. But there is a problem with states that Don t have the system available. If the owner does t notice the theft right away the thief for example can drive a new Jersey car into new York or Pennsylva Nia and the police can t track it until the car is driven Back to a state where to Jack is available. To Jack costs about $595.the intercept system by code alarm is $1,495. It can track a car anywhere in the country where cellular phone service is available. The system includes a cellular phone and when intercept senses a break in or theft the phone will automatically dial a monitoring station to report the vehicle s latitude and Longitude Ever two seconds. The new York police department recommends layering Security devices. Concepcion said there should be at Lea Stone sign like a steering wheel lock As Well As an alarm system of some sort. Father of Traci merrily crushes offspring by Dan Fesperman the Baltimore Sun Zwickau Germany yes Werner Richelt has heard the laughter about his life s major achievement. The kindly old Man knows that the car he helped design the sputtering two Cylinder trabant sounds and smells like a Weed whacker on wheels Only with less head room. He knows that the Traci As the cars Are called has come to symbolize Al the Chintz and hapless Ness at the Mushy Core of the former East Germany. He s even heard some of the brutal jokes. Why does a Traci need a rear window defroster to keep your hands War when you push it what then does one do when one s Masterwork becomes a stale National joke one makes Money by smashing it to pieces. Reichelt Silver haired at 66, is presi Ding Over the destruction of Travis one by one at a recycling Plant in Zwickau the Birthplace of More than 3 million of the tiny cars. In doing so he has established the perfect metaphor for transition in the reunified Germany turning the clutter of the former communist regime into building blocks for the future. Because that s just what the Cotton and plastic husks of old Travis Are becoming the stuff of insulation slabs Flower pots noise muffling panels Park benches Road foundations Ana carpet backing. I consider it a Good thing a Correct thing Reichelt said of his new project. It was a lot of fun to develop such a car. But it was Only right under the economic conditions that existed at the time. It was totally wrong to keep producing the tra Bant for years and years. In the end you were Only making Antiques. That s Why i was very satisfied when in 1991, production but forgive Reichelt for hanging on to some of his Pride in the Traci not so much for what it became during 33 years of production with practically no modifications but for what it once was an innovation in plastic Auto bodies cheap transportation for a people of Little Means and a minor Triumph of mass production for a nation Long on socialist slogans but Shorton raw materials. Or. As Reichelt likes to put it we had the Chance to produce the right car at the right time at the right necessity was the Mother of the ugly Little Traci. World War ii had ended. The new state of East Germany was struggling exhaust fumes spew out of the East German trabant production of the can stopped in 1991, and they Are now being recycled. Under the weighty Misnomer of the Ger Man democratic Republic and the people needed cars. There was a leftover Audi Plant in Zwickau but the rights to its name and More important most of the remains of the German steel Industry were in West Ger Many. So Reichelt said the idea was to use plastic and i was one of the seven people who had to realize this production began in 1958 on the tra Bant. The car took its name from a Ger Man word for satellite a reference to the soviet Union s sputnik which launched the space age. There were some modifications in the Early years. But by 1964, the 18-horsepower Traci was set in Amold that would never change. From then on its Fate was roughly the same As its country s an illusion of Success built on mounting sales and production figures within a closed captive Market although both the Traci and the Cdr were steadily sliding toward obsolescence. By 1989, there were nearly 2 million Travis on the Road in East Germany 53 percent of the country s autos. The rest were mostly either Wartburg a roomier car also made in East Germany or one of several Clunky models from the soviet Union or Czechoslovakia. But that same year the Berlin Wal came Down. And As streams of Travis began pouring through the breach in Haze of Blue exhaust it was quickly apparent to everyone in the West How far be Hind the East had fallen. On april 30, 1991, the last Traci rolled off the Assembly line number 3,096,099. It was pushed straight onto the floor of Zwickau s Auto museum. Volkswagen soon took Over part of the Plant and began building 200 polos a Day. It was a Day without crying without sorrow Reichelt said. It should have happened 15 years he ought to know. He had t owned a Traci since the 1970s and now drives a shiny new Audi. Nowadays 2vi years after the Assembly line closed Travis make up Only 10 percent of the cars in the former East Germany. Travis that break Down Are generally Given up for dead on the spot and they be been piling up around the country like empty cans of Beer. That s where Reichelt re enters the picture. Dead Travis Are collected at 187 Sites in Eastern Germany and when they reach Zwickau they re stripped of their engines tires windows seats and Glass. Then they re flattened by a big roller and the plastic bodies Are shredded and chopped emerging As a pile of chips. The Glass is re sold the seats Are used to make carpet backing and the chips Are sent to factories where they re mixed into the ingredients for blocks and panels and folded items
