Chick Cars. There is a whole subset of small, fun, and affordably priced vehicle that has traditionally received the stigma; the Mazda Miata, Honda Civic del Sol, VW New Beetle, VW Jetta, and of course the drop-top VW Cabrio all come to mind. But who cares? Is the stigma earned - are these actually terrible cars to drive? No. In most cases they are fun, light, and cheap. Every track day and cheap racing series across the country is littered with countless Miatas. Get over it. Why not get some kicks out of a car that other guys are too insecure to drive, and get some Vitamin D in the process. Find this 1993 Volkswagen Cabriolet Collector's Edition for sale in Glen Burnie, MD for $4000 obo via the turbobricks.com forums (membership required to view; sorry).
Today's particular example is lined in an '80s-fantastic white interior that channels all sorts of Miami Vice references, of which I will spare the reader. The white top needs some repair or replacement, the AC isn't functional, and the airbag light is on, but overall this car presents extremely well for the price. It's got a 5-speed manual and only 78k miles. The little 8-valve 1.8L four cylinder won't get testosterone flowing with its 94hp output, but at only 2300 lb the topless Rabbit will at least scoot out of its own way.
Is your Don Johnson big enough to drive this without fear of ridicule? Hey, at least it doesn't have K-Jet like a Mk1 GTI!
Back in the day this was the "hot chick car". If you were driving on the 101 and you saw long blowing hair and a cabriolet you were almost guaranteed a nice sight.
ReplyDeleteOnce in a while it would be total disappointment. Ahhh! a dude with long hair!
I just remembered that my friend use to drive his wife's red Cabrio around, red with a white top and cow print seat covers. Frikin' classic
DeleteThis car is one of those that you couldn't go two blocks without seeing one 20 years ago, and now can go 2 months without seeing one. It's like they've disappeared, and it makes me wonder if "collector status" is far behind.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, the teardrop wheel is one of the awesomest OEM wheel designs of all time, but I'm biased, since they were also on my 16v GTi.
@ FTB - those teardrops look great on the right side but backward and awkward on the left, would prefer Mk1 snowflakes.
ReplyDeleteMy (now ex-)wife had one of these, I'll confess to borrowing it quite a lot as out on a sleepy backroad on a sunny day it's hard to pick a nicer place to sit and enjoy the drive, girlie-car be damned.
These nearly require a strut tower tie-bar though, one of the few fitments where there is a real, measurable reduction of body twist...lower bar's not a bad idea either...
I had a Neuspeed upper strut tie bar on my GTi that made a noticeable diff (I imagine it helped even more on this application).
DeleteIf you had the snowflakes, you probably remember like I do with the teardrops, what a sad day it was when Pirelli stopped making the P600 in the 195/55 VR14 size. Been almost impossible to find 14" performance tires since.
Not sure if you've seen these, but they have reproduced both the snowflake and teardrop in 15 and 16" sizes now....look really good on some of the newer VW's. http://www.amourperformance.com/products-page/search-by-brand/brand-label/fifteen52-rml-snowflake/
I had this year cabby but dark green. Lots of fun to drive, I'd love to have another one someday.
ReplyDeleteIt was dead reliable too, other than a hunger for upper strut bearings.
Ooooh, I just had a flashback to an ex's dark green one----it was the limited edition "Aigner Edition" as I recall, complete with the logo on the seat fabric. How about finding one of those unicorns DT?
DeleteThe white center console and lower dash really aren't to my liking, but they're not horrible to swap out with a black set. Though the lower dash is pretty darn heavy if I recall correctly.
ReplyDeleteIf you wanna get too far into one of these, this one's got digifant injection, so it's not the easiest cabby to hop up once you get past the basics. I'd always dreamed of dropping a 1.8T into mine, or a 2.0 ABA.
I am interested in purchasing the blue canrio. dbaliko@hotmail.com
DeleteWhat color blue is this??
ReplyDelete