1979 Volkswagen RABBIT

Diesel

Manual

Clear

Diesel

Please note that I will need a $200 deposit within 24 hours after the auction closes. The car must be paid for within two weeks and picked up within 3 weeks after the auction closes unless we discuss other terms before the close of the auction. Please consider this carefully before placing a bid. Here is a really great little Volkswagen diesel Rabbit that I planned to fix up and use to run around town. I heard that the diesels with the manual 4-speed can get around 50 MPG or even better! Unfortunately, my work situation has changed and now I am pulling a trailer with a truck most of the time. It looks like that is what I will be doing for quite a while, and I could use the money, so the Rabbit has to go. I will probably regret it later when things change, and I will not be pulling a trailer as much! As you can see, other than the driver's side fender it is a really straight little car with only a few very minor parking lot type dings in a few spots. You can't see them unless you look really close and they wouldn't show up in my photos. The bumpers look straight and the chrome looks good. I looked on the net and found new fenders for around $90, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal to just order one, paint it white, and put it on. I am busy working and just don't have the time. The previous owner sanded the car down to repaint it so it had some bare spots in a few areas where he sanded through the paint. Well, winter came and he didn't get it painted so it ended up having the bare spots painted over with a white paint that is a bit brighter than the original paint so the car has some spots of white that don't quite match. It needs some black trim for the front bumper, and as you can see in one of the photos, it has some holes drilled in the top of the car for a roof rack, which I have since temporarily plugged up with some caulk. As far as the interior of the car goes, it does have the usual cracks in the dash, a torn up driver's seat and some rough spots here and there, but this is normal for a car this age. It does have its original radio that needs to be hooked up, and the speaker holes in the doors need to have speakers installed in them. It also needs some work on the seats. As you can see they are pretty rough in places with some parts needing new upholstery and others needing new foam as well. The interior door handles need trim. The floor covering is pretty solid, but a little worn in places. The headliner looks good though and doesn't have any tears or rips anywhere that I can see; it isn't even sagging down like you might expect for a car this age. The emergency brake doesn't work and needs to be fixed, and if you want a passengers side outside mirror you will need one of those too. The ignition switch also has a glitch to it. When you turn the switch on to start it, it starts right up, but then quits when you let go of the switch. The key to the problem is to simply start the car, and then instead of just letting the switch go back to the run position you quickly turn it back to the position just before the off position. If you do this quickly it keeps running just fine. After a few starts I got used to it. The switched should probably still be replaced, but should be OK like this for a little while. Now for the engine. When I bought it the previous owner told me that it would drive fine for a few minutes until the engine warmed up and then it would start spitting oil out of the dip stick tube. I took it for a drive and that's just what it does. I have some pretty steep hills around here and it runs right up them with no problem and seems to have lots of power for a little diesel car. Once it is warm it seem to run fairly clean except when you are going up a steep hill and pushing it pretty hard. When I do this and look in the mirror I can see a little bit of smoke coming out. It does not billow out smoke, it just puts out a sort of haze, but I imagine some of this could be from the oil that spits out of the dip stick tube onto the exhaust manifold. The previous owner also told me that he overheated it once and I guess burned the valves or something so he took the head in and had it redone with new parts etc.. at a local shop. He said he hasn't put many miles at all on it since the head work was done so the head should be in really good shape. Could the oil spitting be a problem from overheating the engine in the past? I don't know. I was also told that the engine is not the original one either. From what I understand years ago someone drained the oil and didn't put the plug in tight, so while they were cruising down the highway the plug fell out, all the engine oil drained out of the engine and from what I understand it threw a rod and was destroyed. The owner went to a local wrecking yard and bought and engine out of a 1990 Volkswagen and put it in this car. I had a local parts store help me look up the numbers and he said that the numbers on the engine say it was actually a factory rebuilt engine from the mid to late 1980's. So the engine is older than the 1990 Volkswagen that it came out of, but newer than the 1979 Rabbit it is currently in (at least that is what I was told). It starts right up, even in cold weather, and seems to have good power, but since it spits oil out of the dip stick you can't drive it far. Some good news is that the tranny feels solid and the clutch feels firm. (I believe the clutch was replaced when the engine was installed.) The odometer reads 63515, but does go over so I'm not sure how many miles are on the body. I do have a clear title for the car, and I have a few misc. pieces (shown on the hood) that do go with the car. I guess that is about it. With a little work it would make a great car for someone, especially when fuel is almost $4.00 a gallon! If you have any questions or need more photos just let me know. Like I said earlier, fuel prices are going up, so if it doesn't sell at auction I will probably just fix it up, and keep it as an extra vehicle for the occasional town trip when I don't need a trailer. It wouldn't take long to pay for it in fuel savings. Thanks for viewing this auction!