Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
The impossibly clean ’86 Volkswagen Quantum GL5 Wagon we featured last month is back up on offer, this time with a Buy It Now price of $4,450. Let’s face it, for not much scratch, this would look a lot better than that anonymous SUV in your driveway, wouldn’t it?
The low mileage 1987 Volkswagen Quantum GL5 we featured earlier this month is back on offer. Like the Polo we saw on our Facebook page the other day, this is a great way to get maximum VW rarity for minimal money.
The B2 Quantum has always been an interesting car to me. As my first car was an Audi 4000CS quattro, there were aspects of its Volkswagen sibling that I really liked. First, while I wouldn’t say that the Quantum was more handsome than the 4000, it was certainly more distinctive looking. There are some downright odd angles on the Quantum, but somehow the design pulls it off. It’s also more rare to see them, or at least it felt so when I was driving around in the 4000. Then there were more practical things; for example, unlike Audi who ran the odd 4×108 pattern for slightly larger brakes, the Quantum stuck to smaller stock and retained 4×100 mm wheels. That made upgrades a bit easier and gave the Quantum a signature look with the GTi-sourced snowflake wheels. You could also get the 5-cylinder in front drive sedan configuration with the GL5; it was something Audi offered early on but had dropped, instead having only the Coupe GT be the front drive 5-cylinder. But the real trump card for the Quantum was undoubtedly the Syncro Wagon, as there was no Audi B2 wagon available in any configuration:
One of the unintentionally funny quotes from Stephen King’s Pet Semetery was the haunting warning from the crusty old Jud Crandall; “Sometimes, dead is better“. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “What, Carter? You’re the biggest Audi/Volkswagen fanboy who writes in complete sentences on a daily basis! And now you want to suggest that these two classic VAG wagons shouldn’t have been buried in the Micmac Indian burial grounds?” Well, I wouldn’t go that far but it does seem that 1980s Audi and Volkswagen products of this ilk are resurrected from the underworld because we see them so infrequently. And for enthusiasts, inevitably they’re not quite the cars we wish had been saved. As a result, besides both being beige in color, these two wagons are completely beige in their totality. Neither was a top-spec car originally though they were both fairly expensive – the Volkswagen stickered at around $14,000 in 1986 without options, while the Audi was the best part of $22,000 base price in 1987. Both come with the long lived but rather forgettable KX-code 110 horsepower inline-5 engine, and both original buyers opted to pay an astonishing $1,000 extra (from memory, it’s been a while) for the dull-witted 3-speed automatic. And then, if that wasn’t enough, both buyers selected their respective marques’ beige tones in a celebration of their mediocrity. Yet here we are, nearly 30 years later, smiling just a bit to see both in overall very good shape. Who wins the “race to watch the paint dry” competition?
I make no pretensions that my 2002 Volkswagen Passat is the most special car that has ever been made; heck, it’s not even particularly special amongst Volkswagens. But to me, it’s a very nice car, very fun to drive, it looks great and it’s very capable. It gets good gas mileage and can carry a huge load of cargo and it’s a rare color combination. I try very hard to keep it in good shape; to me, it’s hard to believe that it’s already 13 years old but time seems to click quickly. My hope is that someday my rather run-of-the-mill Passat will be like this car is; a throwback, a car rarely seen, and one that makes even the modest spec seem quite special indeed:
