Posts Tagged ‘german’

Watercooled Freitag – 1976 VW Scirocco

April 15, 2016

If you’re looking for a coupe with trend-leading 1970s styling, but can’t justify a Lotus Esprit or Maserati Bora, you’d be remiss in not considering the Mk1 VW Scirocco. It has many similar design elements, including the trapezoidal windshield, sloping hood, and fastback rear end. Of course, you won’t get exotic stuff like a Renault 4-cylinder (wait, what?), fiberglass body, or thumping Italian V8, but the aftermarket and knowledge base for modifying older VWs are not exactly lacking. If you go looking for a Mk1 Scirocco, you’ll no doubt find plenty of series 2 cars with updated plastic bumpers, wheels, and more, but VW geeks will appreciate the purity of the original version’s styling. That’s why you should look at this 1976 VW Scirocco for sale for $3200 in Vancouver, WA.

1976 VW Scirocco left front

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Watercooled Freitag – 1980 VW Dasher Turbodiesel

April 15, 2016

In 2016, if you tell someone you have a water-cooled VW, they’ll look at you funny. After all, it’s been nearly 40 years since the last aircooled cars were made (in German, at least), and quite a few of the early water-cooled cars have virtually disappeared. With the benefits of hindsight and attrition, they’re quite interesting cars that can be fun to drive. Except when they’re lumbered by a 49hp diesel, which is why some marque enthusiasts have had fun replacing the diesel engines on their first-generation water-cooled cars with later powerplants, as seen in this 1980 VW Dasher Turbodiesel coupe for sale for $4400 in North Portland, OR.

1980 VW Dasher Turbodiesel right front

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Must Be Coupe Week – 1988 Mercedes 300CE

April 14, 2016

If you like the style of Mercedes’ sedan-derived coupes, but don’t want to put up with some of the downsides of the earlier W123 diesels, or the higher price for those in good condition, you can try searching for a European market W123 280CE or 230CE. But if you’d like to own a Mercedes coupe in your lifetime, perhaps it’s worth another look at the W124 300CE. Equipped with Mercedes’ 177hp inline six, throttle response should be significantly better than its predecessors, though you’ll pay for it in fuel costs (especially now diesel is actually cheaper than gasoline). Moreover, while the W123 coupes are certainly attractive, the shape of the W124 seems to have had a more successful coupe conversion. Check out this 1988 Mercedes 300CE for sale for $3650 in Chehalis, WA.

1988 Mercedes 300CE right front

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