Bordeaux Red Pearl has always been one of my favorite Vanagon colors, and today’s burgundy Westy looks just about perfect after just 113k miles. It’s a good sign when the only blemish the seller can think to list is a missing center cap on a front wheel, which are now the common, perfectly-fitting Mercedes rims. It has a brand new pop-top tent and some post-production Westfalia stickers (of which I’m a big fan) and all the camping gear is functioning perfectly. If you can afford it, this is about as nice a stock, mostly-original Westy as you’ll find.
Category: Volkswagen
Time for another Honorable Mention Roundup, and we’re sporting some great 1990s style with one throwback to the 80s in this edition. With lovely coupes from Volkswagen, Porsche and BMW, two Audi sedans round out the lineup. Which is the one you’d like to grab for this holiday season? Thank you again to our readers who sent in suggestions, we always appreciate them!
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1985 BMW M635CSi at Bonhams Auctions
5 Comments
I still very much remember the launch of the A3 chassis Volkswagens and being less than impressed at the time. At least in my mind, the second generation GTi with the 2.0 16V was a hard act to follow and the 3rd generation – unless equipped with the sonorous VR6 – seemed downright soft in comparison. They looked a bit chubby, they were equipped with only 14″ wheels when everyone else was sporting 16″ wheels, and the base GTi was equipped with a lowly 2.0 8 valve inline-4. It seemed like Volkswagen was badge engineering a standard Golf just to make money, and in many ways you could argue that’s exactly what had occured. It wouldn’t be until 2007 that I would finally understand the A3 package a bit more. My dismissal of the entire “2.slow” lineup turned out to be very misplaced, as my foray into A3 ownership proved. I picked up a very second-hand but relatively low mile K2 edition 1998 Golf. Effectively, this was a 4-door GTi, with fog lights, air conditioning, heated sport seats and white-faced gauges. Was it a really special car? No. But for basic transportation, it was fantastic fun to drive, easy to maintain, got in excess of 30 m.p.g. no matter what you did with the throttle pedal and started every time I stuck the key in the ignition. Granted, it had typical Mk.3 problems with some electric gremlins and rust had started creeping through. But there isn’t a moment that I regret any part of my Mk.3 ownership other than that for so long I overlooked the 2.0 as a form of entertaining car ownership:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1996 Volkswagen GTi on eBay
1 Comment
As the 25-year importation rule ticks on, unleashing cool new (to us) cars each year, somehow the Golf Country never really crossed my mind as one to wait for. Now that this New Jersey outfit is bringing them in with some regularity, the reality has me fully enticed. El Niño has blessed the PNW with some snow and trips to the mountains are starting to be planned. Taking the M5 up there sounds fun (especially now that he wears mudflaps) but is clearly a bad idea. So I could borrow the household Forester XT to slide through all conditions, but what if I had a Mk2 VW that was just as capable? If these low-mileage Golf Countrys keep coming up on eBay, I might have to clear out yet another parking spot in the driveway for some AWD lifted hatchback fun.
Click for details: 1990 Volkswagen Golf Country on eBay
1 Comment
While I would give the current Volkswagen Beetle a second glance, a vintage one always catches my eye, especially these days when you don’t see that many in traffic. Growing up in the 1980s, you’d still see a good number of the people’s car being used as daily drivers, but not so much anymore. There’s plenty of ways you can customize a vintage Beetle to your liking and for not much money, either. One of my favorite looks is the “Cal look” as we see here with this 1968 Beetle. Powered by a 1600 cc dual carb engine and sitting on Empi wheels, this one is a real looker.