No seriously, hear me out. Currently available here on Craigslist, these two Dashers a steal at $1,000. They are located up in Poconos, Pennsylvania. The selling point about this pair is the two-door Dasher seen above. There are not many pictures of the cars and I would venture to guess that the best option is to combine these two into one driver. Dashers are hard to come by and the ones that do exist usually have a quarter panel you can put your fist through. The owner does not list many facts about the car, but this one looks cleaner than I have ever seen. I have gone to many Volkswagen car shows and I have yet to see one of these in person.
Here is what information the owner does offer, one of the cars has a title and the other does not. One runs and the other needs a belt. It is, however, unclear which is which. The four-door is also in remarkable shape. The body is clean and looks decent the way it is. There may be potential for both of these cars. It has a very unique body style; the slant back and the triangle shaped window have an interesting look. Personally, I love it but I know it’s not for everyone. The owner lists the engine as “diesel” but is not clear on whether both or only one is diesel. You can get roughly 45 MPG with the diesel engine as is and are mated to a simple front wheel drive 4-speed. The naturally aspirated diesel did not pump out a lot power but, like cockroaches, could survive a nuclear blast.
There are no photos of the inside but from what I can make out of the interiors, they both appear to be fully intact. Viewing the passenger side, it would not need more than a coat of paint to bring it back. Silver is not the most flattering of colors but these cars do have interesting body lines. They share similar lines with the Mk1 Scirocco and the two-door just seems like an enlarged Scirocco to me. These cars went by many names; they were Dashers, then Quantums and then Passats and elsewhere they were Santanas. The year is listed as 1978, the first year of the facelifted front. Due to US regulations, they did not receive the single beam headlight from their European counterpart.
The car has a simple understated look that is very classic of this generation of Volkswagen. If it were mine, I would take that two door, paint it a bright yellow to offset the black trim, get a new set of wheels, the Euro-spec headlights, and maybe get a plaid colored insert for the seats. So what do you think? Will you be dashing around town in a Dasher soon?
Sadly, the coupe is the car without a title (although both cars are equally uncommon compared to the dasher wagons) but is the one with the good engine.
Combine the fronts of both cars…keep the diesel. Now you have a coming or going car that can be titled.
Bada bing….all problems solved.
I’d rather have the Rabbit pu.
No interest, and I wasn’t alone. A shame, as these were probably one of the best small cars you could buy. I think it was an image thing, took people a long time to accept the fact, VW made something good besides Beetles. I heard German cars, generally have a better parts network than most foreign cars. I read, people restoring German cars can still get most parts from dealers, unlike with vintage Asian cars, whom I was told, were ordered by the factory to dispose of all spare parts before a certain year, and they did.( the money is in new cars, not supplying parts for old ones)Found THAT out repairing an early Suzuki 4 wheeler) Your only hope, is if someone grabbed those parts out of the dumpster, and you’ll pay dearly for it. Limited interest here,,,very limited.
I have a 1980 with 59K on the clock and may be the only one left with 2 doors, manual, gas engine, sunroof and air cond. It was with it’s first owner until this year and was never stored.
I love the styling on these.
Amazing what 40 years hindsight will do. {Although I have always held the Audi 100 in high esteem].
Would that VW’sproducts looked as good as these two [although I think VW/Audi offerings are the cleanest and prettiest and most sane looking of the current crop of all the manufacturers today].
I knew someone who used a 70s Dasher wagon for decades delivering swingers newspapers around Los Angeles. And she still had her 64 Bug, which she had also purchased new.
That wagon was still being used even after someone who claimed to be Joe Dimaggio’s son rear ended her and used his “name” to intimidate her into not calling the police.
Eventually she gave up on it and purchased a new Scion three door hatchback.
Underneath these are the same as the Audi Fox/80.
With the updated head ( water outlet between cylinders 3 and 4) these engines will go forever. ( also helps if you put a restriction in the vertical bypass hose making the restriction about a 3/8″ to force more coolant through the rear head water outlet) My daughter has an Early Fox that we also installed a 5 speed from an Audi 4000. A very fun car!
I had a maroon ’77 equipped like the one in Dave’s post. Had an Audi Fox emblem on the steering wheel hub. I was in my late 20s drove it hard, put a lot of miles on it. Had fun with this car, the memories make me smile.
I bought a ’75 Rabbit new but it would shut off on the freeway and VW couldn’t fix it. I traded it for a new ’75 Dasher GT. It was an OK car but my girlfriend at the time rolled it. Sold it after it was fixed to a guy that hydro locked it in a flood. Not a good luck couple of cars.
Are they still available