If you had to pick the top affordable sport sedan or coupe of the early 1990s, where would you land? Despite the general feeling that 1990 was on the tail end of the malaise era, with affordable cars like Toyota’s Tercel doing nothing to dispel that notion, there were good choices from each major region – America with cars like the Ford Probe GT and various captive imports, Asia (mostly Japan at this point) with Nissan’s 240SX and Toyota’s 4AGE-powered cars, and Europe with, uh, Yugo’s GVX? Well, the one that probably really stands out for most of you is the Nissan Sentra SE-R, widely compared to the BMW 2002 and by extension, the Datsun 510. But that’s a shame, because it meant the excellent VW Jetta GLI was in its shadow, with a sweet 16-valve engine, sure-footed handling, and period-typical design cues like BBS wheels, Recaro seats, and a body kit with spoilers and fender flares. Let’s have a look at this 1990 Volkswagen Jetta GLI for sale for $2350 in San Jose, CA.
Posts Tagged ‘volkswagen’
Three Box – 1990 Volkswagen Jetta GLI
January 7, 2016Same Same But… – 1984 VW Jetta GLI
November 23, 2015Searching online listings sometimes brings up interesting dilemmas, like the fact that you can choose between a car that originally sold for $8610 in its year of manufacture, or one that sold for $36,000 in the same year, both in apparently similar condition. Both are faded silver, one has 26,000 more miles, and both have 1980s-ish mesh wheels with rubber that’s too low-profile. All that said, one might be a little more complex to repair and more durable, while the other will have you scrambling to keep up with flimsy rattling plastic trim, but reward you with simpler construction. Yesterday’s 733i is one half of this equation – the other half is this 1984 VW Jetta GLI, for sale for a surprisingly familiar $2400 in Wilsonville, OR.
Defeat Device – 1973 VW Squareback (plus bonus 1972!)
October 22, 2015One of the RustyButTrusty parts runners – the new car that enables all the old car fun – is a VW fitted with the now-infamous TDI engine. Without excusing VW’s actions, a recent article on defeat devices exposed some interesting facts about the history of these cheats and their employment since the early days of emissions systems. Interestingly, while VW was slapped on the wrist 42 years ago for employing such devices on their cars, manufacturers including GM, Ford, Chrysler, American Motors, Nissan, and Toyota, in addition to various semi-tractor manufacturers, have all been caught using work-arounds to get their cars past the EPA while maintaining othe rthings consumers care more about, like power, drivability, and fuel mileage. So for an early example of an emissions-cheating car, let’s take a look at this 1973 VW Type 3 Squareback, for sale for $2495 in Deville, Louisiana.