Enthusiasts Blogging Our Favorite Classifieds
Following on to the Montana Green Mk2 GTI that Carter featured earlier, here is a nicely preserved, one-owner 1989 GTI 16V sure to appeal to our fans in right-hand drive markets. This one is for sale about forty miles northeast of London and looks like it just rolled off the showroom floor. This one is sure to put a smile on the faces of Mk2 fans everywhere.
About a week ago I posted a 1991 Volkswagen GTi 8V in Montana Green on our Facebook fan page. It wasn’t the best example, but it wasn’t horrible either and as I said finding these Mk. 2 GTis in rare colors such as Montana Green in original condition is really quite hard. For whatever reason, the questionable tastes of the watercooled crowds have claimed many victims who have suffered countless horrendous modifications in lieu of strong maintenance and careful ownership. Consequently, original condition GTis tend to command the strongest money out there, and today is no exception. Sure, you can find a VR6 or 1.8T swapped GTi from this generation for less money just about any day of the week, but if you really want to relive the days of the hot hatch at Volkswagen, the hottest setup you could get was the 1990-1992 GTi 16V 2.0, and today we see one in original configuration and relatively unmolested. Care to play the lottery? You might just need to to afford one of these:
It’s been a while since I’ve found a GTI that sticks out, but in a nice green on gold BBS wheels and an old-school BBS bodykit, this one will definitely turn a few heads. It seems like its been around a bit (Autocheck shows 9 owners), but the GTI is probably the best “project car” to continue working on without fear of something that you can’t find/fix/replace. Similar to the exterior, the interior has sweet Recaros and some other add-ons that are fine but not great. Overall it’s a pretty good GTI with many desirable upgrades inside and out. A little simplification would help it become a sweeter ride.
Dan’s recent acquisition and post about the new GCFSB Project GLi got me thinking about GLis again. Truth be told, I’m firmly in “Camp Golf”, but I had a few friends with nice GLis growing up and they were always great looking and fun. One in particular was a very clean black 91 model, correct with the original BBS wheels. One day my friend came to me and asked if I wanted to buy it; I did, but it was pretty far outside of my price range at that point, so I watched it disappear to some distant land and new owner. That seems to be the story with many GLis and German car fans; everyone seems to know someone who had one at some point and now misses it. I have a feeling that today’s owner is someone who will miss this particular GLi very much, as likely will be all of his friends – who probably like me want it very much but can’t swing buying it right now. But unlike my friend’s clean 1991 2.0 GLi, today’s example shares very little in common with most GLis at all. A bunch of runs to the Volkswagen parts bag have yielded a pretty unique GLi – a VR6-swapped, Syncro-swapped sleeper. Yes, please!
I’ve spent quite a few recent posts examining alternatives to my dream life-machine, a VW Westy Syncro. We’ve seen G-Wagens and O309s, to Mogs and Pinzgauers, and even two-wheel drive Westys, all looking for a go-and-live anywhere megavan. The reason I’ve spent so much time looking at these other options is that while $15k for a 70s 4×4 seems significant, $65k for a 1991 Volkswagen seems UTTERLY BONKERS. And that’s not even the top of the Sycnro Westy market! But alas, if you had an extra $50k to spend on a Mog after you spent $15k, you could probably make it pretty fricking awesome. It’d be on off-the-wall choice, but you still wouldn’t get your card to the cool-kid club, which is stingily only handed out to Vanagon owners whose vans also have name-brand pop-tops and transfer cases. But like the 911 or a Ferrari, there’s a reason for the ever-building legend of the “right ones.”