Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
This classy E12 that we featured last summer is still looking for a home. I would assume that the 300k miles have led interested parties elsewhere, which is a shame. It’s still just as clean inside and out with the great Zender bits. 10 months and $1k later, it’s a better deal on a clean survivor that needs a good home!
When you see copies of your first car on the road, do you get pangs to drop everything and go buy one? I do, and will always feel fortunate that my first year of driving was spent in a car as unique as Rabbit Pickup. Look around at the trucks available today; even the well-reviewed “small” Chevy Colorado is a pretty substantial beast. How great to be able to throw your stuff in the bed of a truck that weighs about a single ton, gets 45 mpg, and looks as good as a Mk1 Rabbit? Unless it’s a mediocre example for stupid money, I’m itching to get back in one. Today’s bronze Caddy gets me all hot and bothered as it looks exceptionally clean and comes with some serious Mk2 upgrades. The turbodiesel 1.9 liter is a significant improvement over the 1.6 non-turbo from a decade earlier, and this one also comes with the seats, steering wheel, and transmission from the donor 1992 Golf. The side graphics (which almost give a wood-panel look on the bronze paint) and front bumper delete help to make this funny little truck extra-unique.
Instead of Friday Fail, today we’ve got Sunday Smokers. I’m not sure what kind of dust is floating around the Dusty Old Cars warehouse, but I think it might be crack. I love Rabbit Pickups – not only was my first car one, but they’re precisely the kind of European oddity that we rarely get in the US but, for some magical reason, were blessed with for a few years in the early 80s. Practical and putting a heavy dose of fun in funky, they even came with a diesel! Today’s example is one of those oil-burners, wears a fresh coat of baby blue paint, and – despite 187k miles – the engine bay looks a great. However, a little closer look reveals some big question marks (like any description at all?) and possible rust spots that were just painted over. Even if it is just cosmetic and the truck were perfect, their asking price of $14,950 (down from $17,899, lucky you!) is top dollar for perfectly restored, low-mile, and modified Caddys. I realize New Hampshire is all about Live Free or Die, but with the amount of drugs these guys are doing, it doesn’t sound like they’ll be living free much longer.
The E12 5-series is kind of like the E21 3-series, being the first of its name but not quite as cool as the Bavaria/2002s before them, nor as desired as the E28/E30s that succeeded them. This is a pretty sweet example though that has been subtly updated over time so that after nearly 35 years and over 200k miles, it still looks and runs great. The original 2.8-liter inline-6 has been replaced with a stronger 3.2, the wheels are from an E28, and both the interior and exterior have been tastefully redone. It’s old and has a few issues that will keep it a project, but odometer gears and door handles are easy items to start with. There’s definite interest but bidding is very low, making this a nice opportunity to get in a rareish classic BMW for cheap.
We feature the Porsche 930 with a fair degree of regularity here at GCFSB as it remains a long-time favorite of a few of the writers (and it’s a particular favorite of mine). Thus we naturally gravitate toward these extremely capable machines both for their prodigious performance and also their aggressively ’80s style. Yet even given the frequency with which we come across these there are still a few that make me take notice more than might be the case with most 930s. I’ve come to realize that an example in the color palette we see here will almost always be one that grabs me. Here we have a paint-to-sample Rosewood Metallic 1981 Porsche 930 Coupe, located in California, with 71,575 miles on it. Rosewood Metallic was available for the 1981 MY 911 so we may need some confirmation that it is indeed the paint-to-sample color that is indicated by the CoA, but even if Rosewood is not the correct color, this remains a visually striking Porsche in an excellent period-correct configuration.
