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Imagine living in east Berlin in the Seventies and Eighties, peering across the wall to the western sector of the city, the yoke of political, economic and intellectual repression bearing down on you. No more potent symbol existed of the West German economic miracle, and of freedom itself, than the German luxury car. Now, two decades on from the fall of that hated wall, people from the old east have got more prosperous, and at the same time the price of driving a German luxury badge has come down to meet them. Here's the Audi A1.

It's a small car with just two fairly cramped back seats, but it leans on the zeitgeisty allure of low fuel consumption, customisable cosmetics, and connectivity for music, phones and the internet. Ah, a car for the youth market, then.

Words: Paul Horrell
Photos: Lee Brimble