Posts Tagged ‘vw’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Same Same But… – 1984 VW Jetta GLI

November 23, 2015

Searching 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.

1984 Volkswagen Jetta GLI left rear

(more…)

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Feature | 1 Comment »

Defeat Device – 1973 VW Squareback (plus bonus 1972!)

October 22, 2015

One 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.

1973 VW Squareback right front

(more…)

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Feature | 2 Comments »

Car For Sale! – 1979 Volkswagen Dasher

October 10, 2015

Joining the VW lineup just before the Golf, and being the first launched of VW’s current lineup of modern, economical front wheel drive cars, the VW Passat must have seemed scary for the company at the time. So far, VW had been very conservative, sticking to its lineup of flat-4 powered, rear-engine rear-wheel-drive, air-cooled cars, but given the complaints from the public about the ancient technology upon which their cars were based, they were forced to do something drastic. Imagine any major car company changing their whole platform strategy today – suppose BMW dropped all their six-cylinder engines, and went to front-wheel-drive, turbocharged four cylinders as their dominant powertrain – it’s really a pretty remarkable move. Of course, VW held on to the old Beetle-based cars for six more years in Europe, US/Canada and Asia, and continued far further in Mexico and down through Brazil, as well as South Africa and doubtless others. Check out VW’s first successful (you wouldn’t call the K70 successful or VW’s, would you?) foray into conventional powertrains here with this 1979 VW Dasher for sale for an unknown price that can’t be more than $1000, right?

1979 VW Dasher left front

(more…)

Tags:, , , , , ,
Posted in Feature | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »