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When is the last time you saw a Volkswagen Passat B3 on the road? I honestly can’t remember myself. With the B3, Volkswagen decided to finally use the Passat moniker in the US market, after a run of Dashers and Quantums. Those cars were always the outliers in the mid-sized sedan race and so it went with the B3 Passat. During a period when the Honda Accord was the king in this segment in the US, the Passat was a car for those who wanted something off the beaten path but maybe weren’t ready to move into an Audi, BMW or Mercedes. It’s front end sans grille harkened back to the days of their air-cooled products but the rest of the styling was a bit of an evolution of the B2 Passat with a bit of streamlining for the 1990s. This Passat GT for sale in Hannover, Germany was a model we didn’t see in the US. It’s 1.8 liter engine won’t set the world on fire, but the Sebring alloy wheels and two tone red/black livery is eye catching.
The Type 4, known as the 411 and 412, came about during a time of change at Volkswagen. NSU Motorenwerke was bought by the Volkswagen Group in 1969, and that brought about the K70, VW’s first foray into the front-engine, water-cooled segment. At the same time, the Type 4 was the largest, air-cooled passenger car on offer from VW, which would ultimately be the last air-cooled VW for the mid-sized segment. The Type 4 won out in the sales race, but was to be succeeded in 1973 with the Passat, which is still VW’s mid-sized entry in the sedan and estate segment. This 1974 412 Variant for sale in Illinois represents the final year for the 412 and rarely do they come this nice.
The promise of the all new Corrado was great, and on paper the specs sounded fantastic. A new and modern chassis was paired with a supercharged inline-4 and active aerodynamics. Volkswagen fans around the world united in collective salivation. But even at launch, Volkswagen was behind the 8 ball. Performance was lacking compared to the competition and the price for this attractive coupe was quite high, as generally all Volkswagens were at the time. Then the problems of running the G60 long term started to rear their heads. The G-Lader supercharger in particular was a finicky bit of kit, and coupled with notoriously poor Volkswagen electronics in the early 1990s these remained fan favorites, but also cars to stay away from – with many opting instead to get the more robust and better driving SLC model that was launched in 1992. Modern solutions have arisen to help the G60, including turbocharging instead of supercharging, but still there aren’t a glut of these cars left. Today’s example, though, certainly looks pretty spectacular and has gone the next level by swapping in a 2.0 16V from a Jetta GLi – and then turbocharging it!
Continuing with a theme I touched upon last week, I’m going to take a look at a few cars this week which are now legal for importation to the United States. It’s hard to believe more than 25 years have already passed since 1990, but that opens up a whole new portfolio of vehicles that weren’t certified by the US Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency for US sale. The Volkswagen Rallye Golf almost made it to market in the US, but sadly, an executive at Volkswagen of America trumpeting this vehicle’s cause perished in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing. With that, yet another homologation special slipped away from the grasp of the US consumer. This Rallye Golf for sale just a bit north of Stuttgart, Germany is one for the serious VW collector, having covered just over the equivalent of 20,000 miles. This is also one of the few I’ve seen with the rather tasty partial leather interior, featuring a variation on the GTI plaid in the seat inserts.
In the late 1990s, as Volkswagen introduced it’s New Beetle, few outside of dyed in the wool VW enthusiasts were aware that production of the original, air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle was still going on in Mexico. A few of these late model Mexican built Beetles made their way back to Europe. By then, these cars were a novelty more than anything else, outclassed as a mode of basic transport even by other models in the Volkswagen product portfolio. Still, there is something neat about seeing modern VW trim pieces in an otherwise vintage interior, similar to the 1967 Beetle from my childhood. In need of some nostalgia mixed with modernism this week? Read further, then.
