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1971 VW Squareback: Room For A Cooler

1971 VW Squareback

One of my best memories of last summer was taking my 1987 325is to the beach with my wife. It was a simple thing, but the car was finally comfortable enough with a fresh interior and working A/C that we could enjoy it on daily jaunts. A ’71 Volkswagen Squareback like this example here on craigslist for $1,800 looks like a great candidate for summer cruising, thanks to ample cargo space and just how good these things look with some surf racks!  I can’t really tell much from the ad, but this example doesn’t look too rusty and appears largely stock with a complete interior and all glass in place. It may not be the fastest thing on the road, but cheap and cheerful air-cooled power is hardly a bad way to cruise. Would you snatch this up for some summer fun?

Comments

  1. Avatar tony

    Dont see many of these anymore!

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  2. Avatar Rancho Bella

    With all the great hop-parts for sale for these engines………..what a hoot. But, as usual, the value isn’t there so you better do it for the luv

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  3. Avatar charles hefner

    A friend of mine had one of these and blocked out the rear side windows for a panel wagon look….had a Porsche engine in it and had a set of Puchs wheels on it…..Awesome ride once he got it completed!!

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  4. Avatar charlie Member

    Was in Europe in the early ’60’s where these, and the fast back version, were everywhere, one was called the “Variant” (being a variety of the 1500 series) and I swear, but many doubt me, that the other was called the “Deviant”, the name being changed for the exports to English speaking countries.

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    • Avatar Rich

      It was never called Deviant. The original saloon was the VW 1500, later refered to as the Notchback (never exported to the USA) and the estate was the Variant (often referred to as a Squareback). Later fastback was called just that – Fastback!

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  5. Avatar Bobsmyuncle

    I’d need more detailed pics, but it looks pretty solid.

    These are fun cars, and I’d disagree with Rancho Bella, there is room here as they go for a few bucks when clean even these later models with the impact bumpers.

    With cargo room in the back and under the hood, folks get real confused real quick, including the police officer 20 plus years ago LOL.

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  6. Avatar DT

    Im pretty sure all the cars without the fan tower were called Variants, My parents test drove one when they first imported them and they refered to it as a Variant,Luckly they passed on VW’s

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  7. Avatar Hans

    My parents weren’t too happy when they saw a VW 412 being dragged up their driveway behind my friends rusted out Gran Torino back in 1982. I don’t remember why I had to have this POS but I do remember it was fuel injected and had an automatic transmission. My dad didn’t want this thing languishing around our newly built country home so I needed to get it running as soon as possible. With the help of my good friend Martin who was a mechanical engineering student at RIT and my brothers friend Kevin who was a mechanic at Irmer Porsche in East Rochester we actually got the engine to run for about 10 seconds. If I learned anything from this experience it was that not all cars are created equal. A week later the 412 was stuffed full with left over building material and garbage and hauled off again to it’s new resting place, the abandoned Lehigh Valley railroad track in Mendon where it sat for twenty years until the town took it away when they converted the old track into a bicycle and walking path.

    Like 0

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