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Tag: Import

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2003 Audi RS6 Avant

The C5 Audi RS6 was the first full-fledged RS model to head legally to North America. It was the stuff of instant legend, too, with a 450 horsepower twin-turbocharged V8 and enough tech to get you to and from the moon. And despite its relatively limited run, it’s been no stranger to these pages – thanks in no small part to the plethora of used examples on the market at any time. Indeed, just a month ago I counted no less than 10 for sale when I wrote up the unique 6-speed converted sedan:

2003 Audi RS6 6-speed

That car’s asking price has been reduced to a much more enticing $20,000 today. Yet for some, including this author, the fact that there was an Avant form of the RS6 that was left out of our market has always been a sticking point. Well, a few enterprising individuals have eliminated that need:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2003 Audi RS6 Avant on eBay

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Fahrvergnüzilla: 1992 Volkswagen Golf

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…

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1992 Volkswagen Golf on eBay

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Double Euro Content: 1991 Volkswagen EuroVan

As much as I like to talk about the high prices being fetched for Corrados, GTIs and Sciroccos, the reality is the biggest numbers being asked and pulled from 1980s and 1990s Volkswagens are the vans. They’re not something I generally cover, but once in a while one pops up that is surprising and worth note. Today’s is no exception.

What attracted my attention first was the year – 1991. Of course, the main problem there is that in the U.S. market, the Eurovan didn’t launch until 1992. Volkswagen of America was still selling the niche and expensive T3 at that point. So was this a case of a transposition error or just an uninformed seller?

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1991 Volkswagen EuroVan on eBay

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1989 Mercedes-Benz 250D Ambulance Body

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I run across some odd vehicles during my travels around the internet. Today is one of those vehicles. What I thought was a normal taxi cab spec W124 diesel turned out to be an ambulance — at least what used to be an ambulance. This 1989 250D underwent a conversion from Binz, a specialty company in Germany that has been converting Mercedes into limousines, ambulances, fire trucks, hearses and everything else for over 75 years. So lets take a look at this long W124 for sale in New Hampshire.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1989 Mercedes-Benz 250D Ambulance Body on eBay

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2000 Mercedes-Benz G500 Europa

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So lets start off with a quick Thursday evening history lesson. Way back in the grand time known as the year 2002, Mercedes-Benz finally decided to officially grace North America with its wonderful Geländewagen, or ”G-Wagen” for short. Or, ”G-Wag” if the next words in the sentence are ”sittin’ on 22-inch rimz.” So with the G-Wagen starting production 1979 and Mercedes never officially offering them for sale at dealers until the model year 2002, someone had to feed the need of wealthy North Americans who saw these on their vacations in Swiss Alps and wanted to get something else besides a P38 Range Rover that had a permanent EAS Fault message on the dash.  That ”someone” were the guys at Europa G-Wagen located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their business was pretty straight forward, they would bring over G-Wagens from Europe, do all the very expensive dirty work of federalizing these SUVs so they weren’t subject to the 25-year import rule, then distribute them all over the country. Their business did so well that they became the exclusive U.S. importer of the G-Wagen and eventually gained U.S. Small Volume Manufacturer status. This all went really well until 2002 until Mercedes gave them the ”we’ll take it from here” and bought the U.S. distribution rights from Europa. This left the company to focus more on service, parts and accessions. Today, Europa still dabbles in importing G-Wagens, but mostly in the models we never got here such as the three door Cabrio.

So, every once in a blue moon one of these W463 Europa SUVs pop up for sale. Today, we have a 2000 G500 in Colorado that deserves a closer look.

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2000 Mercedes-Benz G500 Europa on eBay

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