According to Wikipedia, the Maned Wolf is Brazil’s largest canid. I take issue with that as today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe VW Fox comes from Brazil and it’s much bigger. Let’s see if its price proves equally questionable.
Geez, a number of you took issue with the posting of a Japanese car on Memorial Day. Holy cow amigos, let it go. You didn’t even fight in that war. Happily, fully 60-percent of you felt that 1975 Toyota Celica GT could go for its asking price, so I guess it resulted in a happy ending after all.
We’re shifting entire hemispheres for today’s candidate, heading south of the Equator as it were. That means you should feel perfectly free to get your Samba on while you feast your eyes on this 1990 Volkswagen do Brasil Fox GL wagon.
The Fox was VW’s attempt to counter cheap seat imports like the Yugo and original Hyundai Excel that were invading America in the ‘80s. Unlike other VW’s that may have been engineered in Germany and built in, say Mexico, the Fox was all-Brazilian in its design and execution. The Fox was a derivative of the Gol. That was the Brasilia replacement, and a car that rode on a platform developed from the original VW B1. That car you might recall, was also sold in the U.S. as the Fox. The circle of life!
This model was sold was the Parati in Brazil, but since that sounds a little too close to pariah or parasite, it was renamed Fox here.
The cars were just like your standard issue Volkswagens of the day, just really effing cheap. Things like excess flashing on the plastic switchgear, and a general lack of refinement separated the cars from their more well appointed German siblings.
That doesn’t make them bad, and sometimes a lack of sophistication can be endearing on its own.
This one has the added benefit of looking as nice—if not nicer—than the day it left the dealer. We all like wagons, and the two-door variant of that model is one that’s always been fairly rare here in the states.
The black paint here certainly dresses the car up, as does the edition of Ronal alloy wheels. This being a pre-’91 (as are all wagons), it has the somewhat institutional-looking sealed beam headlight nose instead of the later composite lights. I think that just adds to the charm.
The good times keep rolling inside where the upgraded seating surfaces (this being a GL model) seem to have held up admirably. Everything here is manual—windows, mirrors, seats, etc.— so there’s not much to go wrong, but that doesn’t mean that things certainly can’t.
The ad notes a recent replacement of the heater corse, under a recall. Who the hell fixes 27-year old cars under recall? Other updates include R134 in the A/C, a new battery, new tires, a new windshield, fuel pump, and clutch. That’s a tidy bit of parts and service right there.
You’re probably wondering, if the car features minimal accoutrements it must be light—would that also help in the performance department? Well, yeah it’s light—only about a ton—but the 1.8-litre fuel injected four only manages around 80-horsepower, so it’s still going to be leisurely in all its endeavors. Fortunately a five-speed manual helps to make the most of that power.
There’s 146,000 miles on the clock, which just makes the car’s appearance even more eyebrow-raising worthy, and, according to the ad, the title is clean.
You will be hard-pressed to find one of these on the market, much less one in as nice of shape as this one. The question then is, could this Fox be worth the $4,800 price its seller is seeking?
What do you think, could he possibly get that kind of scratch for this kind of car? Or, is this one Brazilian that you could not see yourself waxing?
You decide!
Houston TX Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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