The seller of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Rabbit pickup says he doesn’t need your money. Why he’s then advertising the truck is beyond me, but he does say it’s the cleanest you find. Will its price tell yet another story?
A lot of good things are wrapped. There are tasty gyros, thoughtfully planned presents, creepy mummies, and perhaps even yesterday’s 1995 BMW 530iT.
In that Bimmer’s case, the body wrap may have been hiding a multitude of aesthetic sins, but it sure looked good doing so. Less attractive was the Light Bright™ dashboard, which would take some work to address. Not even that could quell the attraction of its $4K price though, and it took home a 58-percent Nice Price win for its trouble.
Well, I guess that about wraps it up.
Do you think highly of yourself? I mean, really put yourself on a pedestal even if several personality or appearance issues call that position into question?
I’m feeling like that’s perhaps how the seller of this 1981 VW Rabbit pickup, nee Caddy, sees his car. He describes it in his ad as “by far the cleanest caddy in the northeast” and goes on to say that “finding another tdi swapped caddy in this condition would be almost impossible.”
Take a look at the car in the pictures. Do you think he’s talking about the same car? Let’s consider that question in a sec.
First off though, the fun stuff. This is a VW Caddy, a model we all know and love. Built in Westmoreland, PA these were introduced to the U.S. market in 1979, and spread to Europe three years later. They didn’t actually carry the Caddy name here in the States, but that’s what we all call them so what the hell.
This one eschews its mouse fart of an original engine—either 1.5-litre diesel or 1.7-litre petrol—for an AHU 1.9-litre TDI out of a 1997 Passat. That’s 90-horsepower and 149 lb-ft of torque, and miles per gallon out the wazoo.
Attached to the swapped-in mill is the Passat’s five speed and those come to the table with an apparent 125K on the clock, Their new Caddy home has done 115K in total. Along with the drivetrain swap the ad lists a litany of updates and add-ons. Among those include the truck being dropped and riding on a set of BMW baskets.
Inside, there’s a set of Recaros and a Momo wheel. It’s all unceasingly brown in there, but the interior is also where the seller’s assertion that this is the cleanest Caddy in the Northeast begins to crumble.
First off, it looks a little beat up in there. Then there’s the issue of the missing armrest on the passenger door, and the fact that the window on that side is raised and lowered by means of a pair of ViceGrips™.
The exterior is also a bit ratty, with a left-front fender that’s a different shade from the rest of the car, and dinged up to boot. The rest looks okay, but then there’s the admission that the frame had to be notched to allow the halfshafts from the Passat box to fit. How was that accomplished and who did the work? I don’t know about you but I get a little nervous when people start talking about cutting frames.
On the plus side, the car has a new windscreen, comes with a set of VW 14-inch wheels with nearly new tires as extra, and the bumpers, while detached are still in the picture. The seller says it’s a turn-key daily driver and warns that it’s a “neck breaker.” Yeah, maybe if it ran you over.
Okay, so there’s a good bit of hyperbole going on in its ad, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t take this Caddy at face value—or more accurately at its perceived selling value. The ad lists its price at a cool $6,999.
What do you think, does this VW pick up seem to be nice enough and well kitted enough to command that much? Or, does that price just tee you off?
You decide!
Providence, RI Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to FranticHalibut for the hookup!
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