Just a little late for Halloween, today’s examination of my new favorite eBay seller’s offerings is quite the pumpkin. Another low-mileage DoKa Syncro, this one also has a factory 1.6-liter turbodiesel churning out a whopping 70hp, 16 more than the naturally-aspirated 1.7-liter diesel. When you’re counting horsepower by the dozens as opposed to the hundreds, 16hp can make quite a difference! With just 37k miles, it should still be making close to that amount. The oil-burner is a nice addition to the real meat of this T3 that makes it exceptional: the 4WD and truck bed. No matter how many this New Jersey outfit imports, DoKa Syncros are going to remain extremely rare in the US. The color and condition are both outstanding, and the impeccable black undercarriage completes the Halloween (or SF Giants?) theme. As usual with this seller, there is no reserve, so have at it, people! You too could have the near-twin of Grandpa’s Adventure Truck.
German Cars For Sale Blog Posts
There’s always been a fascination for me with the W8 Passat. Not only did Volkswagen take the B5 and B5.5 models upscale by offering the Audi-based chassis, but they pioneered the new engine configurations that would be the top-tier mills in the Passat. Truth told, the “W” configuration had been around for a few years before it finally entered into the mid-sized sedan and wagon. It was first floated in the Bugatti EB116 16/4, but really came into the minds of enthusiasts with the Volkswagen W12 Nardo concept. Now in appropriately named W12 configuration and powering all four wheels, the 600 horsepower mid-engined Volkswagen captured headlines with its 200 m.p.h. 24 hour run and Italdesign-penned Group C for the road looks. While the Nardo was the prototype for what would become the Veyron after some heavy revisions, the W12 would be an exotic engine only powering the most elite of the VAG range. However, Volkswagen also launched a smaller version of the engine for 2001 in the Passat. It was the first introduction to U.S. customers of the W configuration that would later appear in Bentleys, the D3 Audi A8L and the Phaeton. There was something unique about the Passat’s package, though. First, you could option the mid-ranger in long-roof 5-door configuration. More importantly for enthusiasts, you could select a manual 6-speed, too. The combination of these items coupled with the stratospheric price tag of the model meant very few sold. But briefly, until the new S4 launched in 2004, this was the most powerful manual VAG product you could buy in the U.S.:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2008 Volkswagen Passat W8 4Motion Variant 6-speed on eBay
4 Comments
I have to admit, I’m not normally drawn to trucks or even cars that masquerade as trucks. You know that expression ‘It’s a Jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand!’? They’re right. I don’t understand. They’re loud, uncomfortable, hugely unreliable, rust quickly and accelerate slowly. They get horrible fuel mileage, launch their occupants out when they crash, and aren’t really particularly attractive. And I’m pretty thankful that I’m married to a woman who generally agrees with me when it comes to these things. That’s why I was particularly surprised when she rather unceremoniously announced that she’d be happy to drive around in a Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen. The surprise was doubled because in spite of my claims above, the G-wagen is something I love too.
For the last few decades, the G models have remained effective unchanged. While models like the Jeep Wrangler and Toyota FJ-Cruiser have tried re-imagined retro-rough styling, the Geländewagen marches on as an unapologetic Dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period. Sure, it’s been updated with swanky interiors and more modern electronics and engines. Indeed, you can get some pretty nutter supercharged models if you need to pummel trails that much more quickly. And the Geländewagen has opened up into a new crowd who doesn’t hit the trails, but fits large wheels and blacks out everything. It is one of the few mass appeal, truly do-anything vehicles ever produced. There are plenty of models to choose from, but the ones that always capture my attention are the rare Cabriolets such as this 2000 G500:
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 Mercedes-Benz G500 Cabriolet at Sun Valley Autos
3 Comments
The BMW M Coupe is a perennial favorite of ours here at GCFSB and for good reason! It follows a tried and true formula to produce an enthusiast’s dream: take a small car, in this case a roadster with the addition of a fixed roof, throw a wonderful engine in the front, and mate that to a manual transmission delivering power through the rear wheels. The results were tremendous. The original M Coupe always has possessed something more. It’s shape – typically referred to as a shooting brake, though lovingly also called a clown shoe – gave it an additional character that produced a delightful synergy between the car’s performance and its appearance. It’s never really been considered pretty, it’s almost over-the-top muscular and bulging, but it has a purposeful aggressive look that is no-nonsense and, dare I say, energetic. There is just no mistaking the purpose of the M Coupe and they truly are wonderful examples for enthusiasts to enjoy. With the additional power of the S54 engine they have become incredibly desirable. Here we have just such a beast: a Black over Tan 2001 BMW M Coupe, located in Chicago, with 67,652 miles on it.
CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2001 BMW M Coupe on eBay
Comments closed
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve gone through a run of interesting colors on the Porsche 911, or at least they’ve been interesting to me. We had a week of blues and a week of greens. Now we turn to…purple? Here we have a Royal Purple, also known as Lilac, 1972 Porsche 911T Targa, located in Ohio, with Tan interior and 72K miles on it. Unlike the blues and greens I don’t suspect that I’ll come across a large number of purple 911s for this week, but with this one we have an extremely rare example in, if my mind serves me correctly, one of the few non-metallic purple shades we will ever come across.