During this long production run, 2,818,547 Trabant 601 units were produced overall, and it was the most common vehicle in East Germany.

Still, it was at the time of its release rather modern in many ways, with front wheel drive combined with transversely mounted motor, a low maintenance engine, unitary construction, rack and pinion steering, composite bodywork and independent suspension all around.

However, two-stroke engines also powered cars such as the West German Auto Union 1000 that ended production in 1965, and the Swedish Saab 96 that changed to four-stroke in 1967.

It was planned to replace the two-stroke-motor with a Wankel engine; however, East Germany failed to develop such a motor with satisfying parameters.

Later, the lack of development funds in East Germany forced the continued use of a two-stroke engine in the Trabant, thus causing this vehicle to become outdated towards the end of the 1960s and obsolete by the 1980s.

The body was modified from the previous P50/P60 variants of the Trabant, with a heavy emphasis on the front and roof area.

The back of the car was also modified with different taillights and a higher trunk loading height as compared to previous models.

All improvements however were blocked by the East German (DDR) government, which considered them unnecessary and feared the extra costs.

The only exterior changes were a new radiator grille, bumpers, taillights, a more square bonnet, and the movement of the fuel cap to the rear right of the car.

As a symbol of a bygone era, it has inspired movies such as Go Trabi Go which presented the Trabant as a kind of East German character and could make former DDR citizens laugh "not precisely at themselves, but at the absurdities of the system under which they lived until last year", symbolised by the three main aspects of the Trabant: slow, breaks down frequently and often ridiculed by Western society.

Set in June 1990 East Germany, during the early months of German reunification, the player is tasked to maintain a fictionalized version of the Trabant 601, the Laika 601, and use it to drive the player character's uncle to Istanbul, Turkey, via Eastern and Southeastern Europe.