'81 VW Rabbit Diesel, manual, NMNA, $2800

Looks like its in pretty good condition.

https://keys.craigslist.org/cto/d/summerland-key-1981-vw-rabbit-diesel/7342486334.html

The second slowest vehicle I have ever driven was one of these. The other was SanFord. The Samurai is a speed demon by comparison.

68 mph, flat out on level ground and it took miles and minutes to attain that terminal velocity.

Neat car. I'm glad it's not local.

In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :

Guy on another forum I was on took a TDI engine and transaxle and shoved it into a similar year Rabbit.  Turned into a screamer.

In reply to Toyman01 + Sized and :

I had a Jetta from the next generation with the same engine. 52hp and you looked at the world like a bicyclist does.  "Dang, there is a slight hill"

I remember getting about 12.5 gals into it and going 550 miles though. I would forget what state I last bought fuel in.

I did 42,000 miles in my 1.5 caddy in a year and after awhile I just got used to it. You really plan your drive when the max speed is 64 and it takes forever to get there. My Dd for a couple years was a two door w/ac and you had to shut it off when you exited the freeway or it would die...

I drove my buddies late 80s Golf around Europe many times ,  50 plus MPG and it would do  80mph on flat land and up small hills ,  and slow down to 50-60MPH on the larger hills , 

If gas was the same cost in the USA as in Europe it would be a good choice :).........except for the extra diesel tax in California ,,,,,grrrrr

This brings back such great memories!!!  

The year was 1987,  I'd just finished  about 10 months of electronics school at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center (Electronics Technician) and was home in Kentucky for 2-weeks of leave before reporting to Ft. Gordon Georgia for even more electronics training.  My generous Navy salary of ~$400 per month wasn't gong to support much of a car purchase budget, but I was damn tired of being without wheels, so I was determined to find something.

Saving the day was, unsurprisingly, my Grandfather.  He had retired a few years earlier from TVA, and he had a tan, 4-door 78 Rabbit Diesel, 4-speed manual that he had used for his long (150 mile round trip) commute.  ~220K miles on the odometer, and with some "unusual" modifications typical of his style.  The most typical being a second, 15gal fuel tank (that he fabricated himself) on the floor of the rear hatch area. He and I got it running, but at 220K that little diesel had lost a fair amount of the compression that it had when it came out of Wolfsburg in 78, making it hard to start, particularly in colder weather.  His solution?  A big relay/solenoid, a second battery, and wiring to allow 24V to the starter only when cranking.  I kid you not.  Later I also installed a switch that bypassed the ignition switch and went directly to the fuel solenoid on the injector pump. This was needed because in the winter, if the temp dropped much below 30 degrees, even with 24V to the starter, it became almost impossible to start cold.  If cold weather was called for, I'd park it, set the handbrake, leave it in neutral, flip that little switch, turn the ignition key off, lock the doors and just leave it there in the parking lot, idling happily away until the next morning. 

A set of new tires, lots of cleaning and scrubbing, and a banging stereo (of course), and I pointed that little car south and headed for Augusta GA.  500 miles away.  When I think back, I;m amazed at how confident and worry-free I was on that first trip.  But I was 19 and without a care in the world...  The little car made the trip without issue....that time.  81MPH flat-out on level ground, as much as 87 if I drafted behind a semi  a LOT less on any sort of hill....."Rolling Coal" like nobody's business and getting 53 MPG while doing it. 

What still amazes me about that car to this day is how amazingly well it drove on the highway.  Apart from the serious lack of anything remotely resembling acceleration, and the noise of that little engine at speed, it was really very comfortable, tracked straight as an arrow and actually handled fairly well, which is a good thing because if you had to slow down to take a curve, it took a LONG time for get that speed back.

I was dating a gal in my hometown at that time, and I have no idea how many round trips between KY and GA I made, but it was a lot.  Being 19 and fearless, I would start out in any weather.  Including at least one full-on blizzard, great fun on I-24 going up to Monteagle.   Even in the dry, by the time I would get up that stretch I'd be in the right lane, 2nd gear and doing all of 30.  Good times....

I have to say, that despite it's age and mileage, it never once left me stranded.  Until it did.  I had some "challenges" on my road trips to be sure.  Including an Alternator failure In Nashville as I headed back to Augusta, on a Sunday, just after Christmas....when I absolutely had to be back the next morning ot face being AWOL.  No problem, it's an all mechanical diesel!  As long as it has enough juice to hold the fuel solenoid open, it'll run.  I did have to stop for a few hours at a truck stop in north GA to charge the batteries (it had 2 remember?).  Then there was the time that my dad accidentally filled it up with gasoline and had to drive it a couple of hundred miles that way.  (I'd left in in KY to have a local VW diesel mechanic work on the injector pump for me, dad was bringing it back to GA). The time the mechanical vacuum pump exploded, and other fun challenges. I also ran it out of fuel multiple times, the gauge didn't work and with that 15-gal tank feeding the stock (12gal??) tank, re-filling unless on a long trip was something that just didn't cross my mind.  I changed the oil more often than I filled the tank.  

Finally, the little car gave up the ghost.  It was in August of 88.  My roommate, myself and another classmate took it to Charleston SC one VERY hot Saturday.  We were making a run to the Navy Exchange on-base there because we needed some uniform items, no internet back then, and oddly enough, Army bases don't stock Navy uniform stuff.  Probably because they are jealous and embarrassed at how much better looking Navy uniforms are...    It got us there, no problem, but on the way back to Augusta it started to die. 

It was running a little hot, which wasn't all that unusual given the outside temp, and if I babied it, it was always manageable.  Not this time though.  All of a sudden the damn little thing would just "take off" like someone had hooked up a 100HP Nitrous kit.  Power like it had never made in it's life.  Taking my foot off the accelerator made no difference at all.  None.  By basically standing on the brakes, I got it to stop accelerating, and driving continued as normal, but I knew something was seriously amiss.  About 20 miles down the road, it did it again, then again.  Now I'm just hoping an praying that I can get it back, or at least close enough that my AAA membership will cover the cost of the tow.  Finally, about 50 miles from our destination, it did it again, and no amount of braking would stop it. Wound up on the side of the road, ignition key off, brakes locked, car in gear, just slipping the clutch. Engine screaming at high RPM.  All I could do was pop the hood and put my hand over the air intake. That stopped it.....for good.  AAA to the rescue. 

What was happening, I discovered the next day, was pretty simple.  The car had developed so much blow-by (it is well over 250K miles now) that the crankcase vent was just spewing engine oil from the crankcase into the intake, just behind the air filter. It was literally running on it's own engine oil.

I actually re-ringed it, and replaced the head gasket in the barracks parking lot and the base auto hobby shop.  I was too poor to get it the machine work that it needed on the head and the cylinders.  It did run when I finished, but not well, not well at all.  I sold it to a guy in my hometown when I left the US for my next duty station in Sicily.  He rebuilt it (the right way) and I would see it around town from time to time for several years when I was back visiting.

What a great car!!  

I was going to say I’ve generally had good luck with my Volkswagens but that particular model was the single worst car I’ve ever owned.

But thinking about that’s not actually the case with all of them ending in catastrophic failure. 

In reply to mikedd969 :

Great story!