From Berlin to North Carolina: A U2 Fan Gets His Trabant
I’ve traded emails with a fellow U2 fan named Chris S. for several years now, and it’s always been obvious that he has a thing for Trabants — those tiny East European cars that U2 used prominently during the Achtung Baby/Zoo TV era. I vaguely remember Chris trying to track down the locations of all the Trabants that U2 used, and he may have said something at one point about wanting to own one. I probably wished him luck in my reply, while simultaneously thinking to myself, That ain’t gonna happen, buddy.
I was wrong.
Chris emailed me a few days ago to share the news that his U2 Trabant — the male, dark “UNO” car from the “One” video — arrived in the U.S. last week.
Chris found the car for sale on eBay Germany over the winter and won the auction. (He didn’t say how much he paid.) He made arrangements to have it shipped over from Germany to Baltimore, picked it up there, and hauled it home to North Carolina.
From what he can tell, Chris says he’s the car’s third owner since the video shoot and he thinks there have been some minor touch-ups on the exterior paint (mainly around the face and hands).
Overall, the car’s not in great shape — the rear window on the driver’s side is missing and the window on the driver’s door is stuck and won’t roll up, so years of rain and snow have damaged the interior. The kind of weather you see below in a photo Chris took when he went to Germany (near Frankfurt; the Berlin in our headline is a reference to the music video) in January to claim his purchase.
So, what have you added to your U2 collection lately?




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