Manta was a custom car company based out of Southern California (run by brothers Brad and Tim LoVette) in the 1970s/1980s that built speedy looking fiberglass superkits using donor parts from Vettes and Beetles. The Montage was one of their later offerings and used a Volkswagen Type 1 donor engine/transmission to underpin a fancy looking fiberglass shell. Find this 1984 Manta Montage M6GT offered for $15,000 in West Palm Beach, FL via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
Dick Dean was born Richard Dean Sawitskas, but ditched his unpronounceable and cringeworthy last name when an announcer at the 1959 Autorama car show gave it an impromptu shortening. A customizer by trade, Dick went on to run George Barris' famous Kustom City, where he did much of the dirty work on classics like the Batmobile, Munster Koach, and others -- but he also built a few custom VW based buggies, about 10 that were called the Shala-Vette. Find this 1970 Shala-Vette offered for $15,000 in LA Inland Empire, CA via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
Most of the cars built with Volkswagen Beetle pans as backbone have considerably compromised styling due to various constraints but a few have escaped the blight of the”ugly kit car” style department (TM) and emerged from the custom fiberglass body shop with something that you might want to be seen with. Find this 1969 Kelmark GT offered for $10,000 in Miami, FL via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
The second generation of the VW GTI soldiered on until 1992 in the USA. The later MK2 cars benefited from a roarty 16V 4 cylinder engine which made a respectable 134 hp. Today's GTI rewrote the playbook for what can be done with one of these cars. It's close to 300 hp 3.6 V-6 engine comes from a late model VW CC and has cool custom touches everywhere you look. The custom GTI modifications are so well executed that it is hard to believe there is a reasonable asking price. In the metro NYC area, there are tons of slammed VW's with stretched tires that literally are on different planet than this beast. Find this 1991 VW GTI for sale in Lake Hopatcong, NJ for $9,800 via craigslist. 
Turbo diesel engines large fan base out there love their ability to rack up miles and produce stump pulling amounts of torque. VW and Mercedes were the only two brands who offered passenger cars with diesel engines back in 1998. Today's GTI has had the venerable 2 point slow engine swapped for the same year TDI power plant. It would seem to be an unusual move for all but a die hard diesel fan, but when you dig into the numbers further it makes more sense. The stock 2.0 8-valve gasser was good for 115 hp and 120 lb-ft of torque, while the TDI engine made 90 and 150. This TDI engine has a Malone stage 1 tune that takes things up to 110 hp and 188 lb-ft so this should be a good bit quicker than stock due to that mountain of torque. Find this 1998 VW GTI for sale in New Fairfield, CT for $5,500 via craigslist. 
It's getting pretty tough to find any running & driving car for less than $2,000 these days - the proverbial $500 car may still exist, but more than likely the engine is long gone and a family of feral cats have set up base camp where the back seat used to be. Blame a variety of market forces: inflation, gentrification, consternation, whatever. A fun, early '90s hot hatch for less than $2k though - there has to be something wrong with it...right? Find this 8-valve 1992 Volkswagen GTI for sale in Covina, CA for a paltry $1,800 via craigslist.
If you are a gear-head, your taste in 60's spooky sitcoms probably leans more towards the Munsters vs. The Addams Family. The Munsters had their Barris Koach and Grandpa's Drag-u-la whereas all the Addams Family had was a V-12 Packard. Maybe if they had this VW with a 351 Windsor in it, your viewing habits might be different. Find this 1975 VW Beetle Custom for sale in Grand View, ID for $12,000 via craigslist. 
The VW Cabrio has a well earned reputation for being a hairdressers car and is not normally associated with performance engine swaps. The factory Cabrio SOHC 1.8 engine only put down 94 hp so there are no tears lost at its disappearance here. Somehow today's car ended up with a 16V engine, but this large detail is not revealed by the seller in the listing. It is beyond rare to find a Craiglist's seller that downplays or does not even mention any modifications made to a car. Find this 1993 Volkswagen Cabrio for sale in CT for $1,900 via Fairfield County Craigslist. 
The now iconic Rabbit GTI hatchback helped usher in a post Brougham era into the 1980's. It is almost laughable to think that a 75 horsepower car could made such a big impact on the auto landscape. Things like a zippy 4 cylinder engine, slick shifting 5 speed trans, sharp handling, great ergonomics, 60 series tires, and space efficient design were all very difficult to find on any price point cars back in 1983. The first generation GTI is a sure bet to become a future classic to Generation Xers. Find this 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI for sale in Northfield, MA for $5,000 via craigslist. 
"Oh look," you're probably thinking, "Yet another zany kit car from a company with a strange name that I've never heard of... I bet it's built on a Beetle chassis." You'd be right, the chassis is from a Beetle, and some did leave the factory with the Beetle's engine too. Others had I4 Ford units, but this particular 80,000km example has neither. Instead it's got a 13B rotary engine from Mazda. It's also listed as a "1 door" vehicle. This isn't exactly yet another kit car. Find this 1980 Purvis Eureka for sale in Ferndale, WA for $16,900 AUD ($12,600 USD at the time of writing) via Carsales. 
Do you have anything in your garage worth between $800-1500 that you're willing to swap for a Bradley GT? The seller is willing to weigh all options, including your to-be-proposed Renault GTA and snowblower smoked-motor package deal. Find this 1974 Bradley GT for sale in Yale, MI for $2,500 via craigslist.
Ever tune into one of those cringe worthy tv shows about botched plastic surgeries? Our subject below may give off the same vibe to some of you. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder or DT reader. Is this car a Mona Lisa or more like The Kramer? Find this 1986 VW Karmann Ghia for sale in Lorain, OH for $4,000 via craigslist.
Part AC ME3000 and part Matra 530, this conglomeration of influences is mostly VW, as you may expect. Then something brilliant happened; the VW pancake motor was exchanged for a Mazda rotary, thereby reducing the kit-car-ness by at least 50% and miraculously transforming it into something you want. Find this 1968 Hebina Gazelle for sale in Hillsboro, OR for $2,500 via craigslist.
If you've been pondering membership in the European classic car scene but are stymied by prices for a decent road worthy specimen, you can't go wrong with a Karmann Ghia. The Italian penned German engineered 2+2 will whisk you around in style demanding only minor maintenance and attention. As an added bonus, the diverse bloodline earns embracement at virtually any cars & coffee event on the planet. Find this 1970 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia for sale in San Fernando Valley, CA for $9,500 via craigslist.
Back in the 60's when Volkswagen Beetle carcasses littered America's streets like used syringes in NYC's Central Park, a California surfer / artist / boat-builder / engineer named Bruce Meyers started a company out of Fountain Valley building kit bodies that mounted on shortened Type 1 chassis. This next feature might not be an original Meyers Manx, but it looks like a lot of fun for the cash. Find this 1960 Volkswagen Dune Buggy offered for $3,895 in Campbell, CA via craigslist.