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Tag: 1996

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1996 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe

Let me start by saying that I do like this 911. I like it quite a bit actually. It’s a Black 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe with Tan interior and 38,769 miles on it. It looks to be in very nice condition, the mileage is low, it appears well cared for, and the colors – while not bold – are a combination I enjoy on almost any car. Even the modifications look to have been carried out well and pretty thoughtfully and the ad states that all of the original parts come with the car. So if you want to revert it to full originality, or just change out a couple of things here and there, then you have that option. I imagine it’s quite nice to drive as well!

All of that is good and I’ll go into some more details below. The problem: price. High asking prices aren’t an uncommon thing in the air-cooled 911 world, but this one just seems so high that I’m not sure what to make of it. You should easily be capable of finding a good 993TT for this money. I do wonder if part of the issue is the recency of the modifications, all stated to have been performed in the last 1K miles. Is the seller simply trying to recoup all of that expense? It’s the only thing that would make sense, but as we know you’re not getting your money back on modifications. So we have a nice looking, but high-priced 911. I feel like I’ve been here before.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1996 Porsche 911 Carrera Coupe on eBay

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2.Slow Double Take: 1996 Volkswagen Jetta and 1998 Volkswagen GTI

I was thinking about how to relate my feelings about the first few generations of water-cooled small VWs, and I came up with the analogy of the BBC Doctor Who! reboot in the 2000s. The first generation was Christopher Eccleston; edgy, completely different from the prior generations with a fresh face, impossible not to view with a smile but also something you didn’t completely trust. The second generation? David Tennant took ‘The Doctor’ to new levels of popularity; more refined, more fun and with an infectious smile, he was quirky but somehow much easier to live with than Eccleston had been. He also developed a rabid fan base that consider him the best (this author included) even if he had some faults.

Then came Matt Smith. There’s certainly a fanbase who appreciates Smith’s rounder, softer and…well, weird portrayal of the Doctor. I’m not a fan personally, and often find myself pleading with other Who watchers to go back farther because the earlier variations were much, much better. Yet floppy and oddly proportioned, Smith was nonetheless very popular and took the show to a wider audience. See the Mk.3 VW.

Not really the best at anything aside from being pretty expensive relative to its contemporaries, the 2.0 inline-4 ABA-equipped VW’s nonetheless outsold the prior versions. The were poorly built and even more poorly owned; this was clearly a move towards disposable automobiles for the company, and it worked. I never really got the appeal of the third generation until I somewhat reluctantly owned one. And you know what? It wasn’t as good-looking as my ’86 Golf was to me, but in every aspect it was better. It was more reliable (amazingly), got better mileage, had a nicer interior, was faster and had both heated seats AND air con. And both worked! Plus it had fog lights and more stuff fit inside. In short, it was just better at being a car.

While I still don’t lust after Mk.3 VWs, I can appreciate them much more when I see them today. They’re affordable and fun transport that’s quite efficient. In 1993 they felt huge compared to their predecessors. But today? They’re downright tiny. And though this duo has high mileage, they don’t often come to market looking anything like these two anymore:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1996 Volkswagen Jetta on eBay

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