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Year: 2017

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Fahrvergnüzilla: 1992 Volkswagen Golf

Fahrvergnüzilla: 1992 Volkswagen Golf

Published December 29, 2017 by Carter

Update 12/29/2017: After reportedly selling for $2,650 in October and after originally having a $6,500 ask, this Golf has been relisted with a $4,999 Buy It Now option.

Infrequently do we look at a standard Volkswagen Golf. To be fair to us, they’re not the most impressive vehicles ever designed, especially when you go back a few generations. They were oft the most expensive in category, but seldom the quickest, most tech-laden, most efficient, best handling, neatest or most reliable. Those items are the domain of vehicles like Hondas and Toyotas, who mimicked and improved upon the ideas of others many times over. Their sales reflected that.

But there’s still something nostalgic and lovely about the simplicity of the first two generations of the Golf. It grew up considerably between the A1 and A2 chassis, in weight, size, power and refinement, but the recipe remained the same. Recently I’ve looked at two of the best performers in the chassis overall (and the fastest offered to U.S. customers) with the 1991 GTI 16V and 1987 GTI 16V. Deep seat bolsters, special trim, dual overhead cam high compression inline-4s, close ratio 5-speed manuals, alloy wheels; these represented the pinnacle of performance in the hot hatch segment. Today’s car has none of those things.

What we have instead is a bit of a curiosity. As you can no doubt see, it’s a pretty standard 4-door Volkswagen Golf. It appears to be Ascot Gray Metallic (LA7U) with cloth interior. There’s nothing special under the hood; it’s a standard RV 1.8 inline-4 counterflow engine, running Digifant II injection and good for 100 horsepower. No, what’s unique about this car is where it’s come from…

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1939 Horch 930V Phaeton

1939 Horch 930V Phaeton

Published December 28, 2017 by Carter

Okay, I’ll admit that we don’t spend a lot of time on pre-War German cars. The why is quite simple; outside of an occasional Mercedes-Benz model, there just weren’t a lot of pre-War German cars exported to the United States. Heck, there just weren’t a lot of pre-War German cars, period.

Contrary to popular belief, German wasn’t a nation of drivers until well after World War II. It was something that Mercedes-Benz and upstart conglomerate Auto Union lamented to a certain then-new German Chancellor by the name of Adolf Hitler. Hitler agreed; he wanted and needed the automobile industry in Germany to prosper to help resurrect the economy. But he also needed German car firms to take to new markets. The results you likely know; Hitler spurred the industry through lowering of automobile taxes, and more notable, the encouragement and funding of international-level automobile racing. It’s one of the few times in history that a government has undertaken full sponsorship of a race effort, and without a doubt it was the most successful and evocative. Should you care to on this blustery and very cold late December evening (at least here in New England, where temperatures are struggling to reach double digits), you can read all about it in my dissertation:

Motorsports Monday Special: Racing to Sell – The ‘Silberpfeil’: Part 6

The result of all of that racing and support of the automobile industry was that both Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union prospered – for a while. The unfortunate side-effect of the buildup for the Spanish Civil War and World War II, along with re-arming several areas of taken from Germany through the Versailles Treaty was that by the late 1930s, automobile production had ceased to accelerate because of artificial shortages of items like metal and rubber. Couple that with the fact that most Germans, though much better off in aggregate following the NSDAP takeover in 1933 than they had been during the Great Depression from 1929-1932, still weren’t very rich. So although both Auto Union and Daimler-Benz produced ultra-luxury models like the Mercedes-Benz 540 series and the Horch 853, few outside of high-ranking party officials could afford them. And even then, they were often gifts to gain favor with the notoriously corrupt government.

Today, some 80 years on from that time period, these incredible machines have gained a new appreciation in the market place. Long second fiddle to the pre-War stand-bys – Rolls Royce, Packard, Bentley, and Duesenberg, the rare models from Mercedes-Benz have come to surpass the value of nearly all pre-War cars outside of some real exotics, and Horch models, too, have come to be much more highly valued:

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2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0

2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0

Published December 28, 2017 by Rob

I’ve been looking for one of these to feature for a little while. Not the GT3 RS 4.0 itself; I’ve featured a few of those. Rather a paint-to-sample GT3 RS 4.0. When Porsche announced it would release the 4.0 as its ultimate send-off for the 997 they also announced the standard colors: Carrara White or Black. This being a special edition Porsche that didn’t stop some buyers from opting for a different color palette, thus making an already rare car – only 600 total were produced – even more rare.

If I’m honest this isn’t the best of the PTS 4.0 I’ve seen, at least with regard to color. There are a few running around with better and more historic Porsche colors. This owner opted for Orange. As Orange goes it is a nice color though and it certainly shows more flash than the standard black or white. Also, this one is for sale and those others are not.

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1966 Porsche 912

1966 Porsche 912

Published December 28, 2017 by Rob

When I read about entry-level 911s these days they never really seem all that entry level. Even the most basic model will run you pretty close to six figures and selecting a few options can quickly move that price well above six figures. There’s always the Cayman and with a starting price below $60K we probably shouldn’t expect any Porsche to go much cheaper than that. As a luxury brand they have certain standards to uphold. But a Cayman isn’t a 911.

I don’t expect it to ever happen again, but I would love another 912. I know technically it’s not a 911 either, but it’s a heck of a lot closer to a 911 than a Cayman so for entry-level purposes it would do nicely. It’s been more than 40 years since the last 912 was produced and even that final one-year run in 1976 wasn’t really intended. For all intents and purposes 1969 marked the end for the 911’s little brother.

Its brief existence was a good one though. With its smaller 1.6 liter flat-4 many thought it a better handling car than the 911 due to its better balance. Sure, the 912 wasn’t as quick, but it could be just as fun. In the present market, relative to the typical high prices we see for a long-hood 911, the 912 still represents a nice value as well. Like many early Porsches that value isn’t quite as good as it once was, but outside of a few very high priced examples most 912s can still be had fairly reasonably.

This one, a Light Ivory 1966 Porsche 912 with Red interior, makes for an interesting example as it looks quite good, but isn’t entirely original. So we’ll have to be careful in fully understanding the details, but I think it makes for a worthwhile investigation.

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1995 BMW 325iS

1995 BMW 325iS

Published December 27, 2017 by Carter

The takeaway from my recent E36 M3 Double Take was that many sellers were looking for strong money, but if you looked you could still find some deals on the third generation 3-series M. Some searching yielded a 70,000 mile Boston Green ’97 M3/4/5 Sedan. Clean and a desirable model on its own, it still sold for only $10,800. With asks for normal E30 325iS generally higher than that, where does the follow-up model lay?

That model is this E36 325. Launched in 1992 for U.S. shores, the third generation 3-series instantly cemented itself as the new benchmark. In fact, for all of the attention fawned on ‘God’s Chariot’, the reality is that the 3-series didn’t appear on notoriously BMW-leaning Car and Driver until the 1992 model year. Equipped with the M50 DOHC 189 horsepower inline-6, the modern yet still driver-oriented design would go on to become a regular thereafter. They were a sales success too, and like the E30 was for some time, they’re currently being largely ignored in the used market. After all, if you can get a clean M3 for $11,000, why would you buy a 325iS?

Because they’re a damn good car in their own right, and they’re also damn cheap – if you can find a clean one:

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