It may look now something very distant from our reality, but there was a time when Germany was separated into two different countries. East Germany was part of the Soviet Union, under authoritarian rule, while West Germany was a democracy and integrated into Europe. The division between the two countries was symbolized by the Berlin Wall, which divided the city into two.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, the wall was quickly dismantled and people from East Germany suddenly became free to go to the other side. Many were so fed up with life in the Soviet Union that they just took their Trabant cars, drove to the other side, and just abandoned them, starting a new life, never to return.
The Trabant was a really funny car. It was even worse than the Ladas people were driving in Russia. It was a tiny and uncomfortable car and propense to many mechanical problems. It was practically impossible to keep a Trabant in perfect working condition. However, good or bad, these were the only cars people had. When the opportunity arose to get out, they just drove the cars they had, without caring about the discomfort or problems. When they would get to the other side, they would just abandon their Trabants and start their new lives.
Similarly, there is a clear division between the material world and the spiritual world, and life here is not very comfortable. We also have very uncomfortable cars (the material body) and they give us a lot of problems. However, these are the vehicles whe have. Therefore, when the opportunity of getting out appears, we should just take it, without caring much for the discomforts of other problems the car may have.
If on the other hand, we want to first fix all the problems of the car before doing the trip, chances are we will never go, because there is going to be always something wrong with the car. We can imagine that if someone in East Germany would first try to somehow would want to first transform his Trabant into a nice car, he would never go anywhere because it was not really possible.
Similarly, we have different problems in this life. If the body is not sick, there is some financial problem, political problem, or something else. The more we try to reach a comfortable situation, solving all these problems, the more we become entangled, because the situation is not really solvable. For each issue we can solve, two new problems appear.
The idea of Krsna Consciousness is therefore to use the body and the current situation we have now as a vehicle to go to the other side, just using it the way it is since if we first try to fix the situation, chances are that we will become distracted and end up never going.

We hear that there are two types of karma: prarabdha karma (the karma that is already giving fruits) and aprarabdha karma (the karma that is stored in the form of seed). When we start practicing Krsna Consciousness, and especially after we are initiated by a bonafide guru, all the vast stocks of aprarabdha karma are very quickly destroyed. However, the prarabdha karma, the karma that is already giving fruits continues. Therefore, we continue with the same material body, with the same imperfections, and we continue often in the same material conditions, without much change.
We may question why is it so, and the answer is actually quite simple: If Krsna would take all our prarabdha karma from us, together with the aprarabdha karma, there will be nothing to maintain the material body, and we would just drop dead. The problem is that we are not ready to just drop dead, we still have a trip to do, and for this, we need a vehicle. In this way, Krsna allows us to temporarily keep the vehicle we have, be it good or bad, so we can go through the lessons we still have to learn and successfully complete our trip back to Godhead.
Therefore, it doesn’t matter much if the engine is making smoke, or if the windows don’t open, the idea is to just use it for the trip and then abandon it. It’s just for a short while.
In one sense we need to be practical and maintain the body in working condition since if it breaks prematurely it will not reach our destination. On the other hand, however, we need to understand that it is just for a little while and thus not become distracted from our final goal.
The point about spiritual life is thus not about fixing our current situation, but just using whatever resources we have now (be it money, intelligence, attention, or whatever else we may have) to serve Krsna and thus use the opportunity to purify ourselves and conclude our journey.