Having recently read something about the pancake-engine Type 3 Volkswagens having more power, which I realize may be untrue, I got inspired to try to find one of these for sale within the RustyButTrusty budget (about $3K). Oddly enough for something called a Volkswagen, these are not really priced for das Volk, either being complete heaps with body or mechanical damage and 3-figure prices, or restored/survivor cars in the high 4-figure or low 5-figure range. I was also hoping for the earlier 1960s Type 3 with the more delicate lights and chrome bumpers that give much more of a 1960s European family car feeling. My other mistaken assumption was the oddball Type 3 cars would be more reasonable, much like many other cars documented here. But, no such luck, so I looked at the 1970s cars. Even that was hard, but I did manage to find a couple of interesting examples.
The main feature is a 1971 VW Squareback in yellow. There’s been recent work to the interior and the injectors, and it only seems to have one small dent. Notice the quad (!!!) exhaust tips poking out the rear end. The VW logo is in an odd location at the lower left corner of the hatch, and the wheels are mismatched, so I’d check for previous crash damage repair. The pale yellow does lend it a bit of the feel of the earlier cars – the later ones tended to show up in more bright colors like orange. Find this car in Priest River/Newport, WA, near Spokane, for $2400.
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Rusty But Trusty 