By the late 1980s, Volkswagen’s lineup seemed decidedly dated. While the entire lineup of German motors wasn’t particularly innovative or new (I’m looking at you, R107 and 911), for some reason the Volkswagen lineup seemed more ancient. Outside of the Golf and Jetta which were launched in 1985, you had the Quantum – a chassis shared with the B2 Audi, but it lived longer as a Volkswagen. Square and tall, it looked like a mildly updated 1970s car mostly because it effectively was. Then you had the Scirocco; fun, angular and sporty, it too was a mildly updated Scirocco 1 from the 1970s and might have been the last use of sealed-beam headlights in the U.S. market. Of course, there was the Vanagon; the T3 would amazingly carry over into the 1990s (barely) from its 1979 launch – but it always felt straight from the 1970s, even when presented with updated bodywork, wheels and interiors. And then there was the true Jurassic-era product in the Volkswagen lineup – the Cabriolet. While Volkswagen didn’t chop the top off the first generation Golf until 1980, it was already a reasonably old car by that point, having been launched in 1974. Yet the last of the Cabriolets would roll off the assembly line astonishingly in 1993, having outlived the A1’s successor, the second generation Golf. Such was the enduring appeal of the Cabriolet, however, that it was a bit long in the tooth didn’t matter. Nor did poor build quality, relative unreliability, buzzy engines, short gearing, oppressive wind noise and poor performance. It was, after all, a convertible – and that meant people anted up amazing amounts of money to get their hands on what was the cheapest German convertible one could buy. It wasn’t an expensive Rabbit – it was a cheap 911 cabriolet. Sort of.
