Turo is a rent my car website. I check it often to see what’s out there because cars are fucking cool. When the girls showed up the summer of 2024, we rented a kick ass VW GTI.
Then I obsessed about a VW GTI. We obsessed.
Months of market places and geeking out and seeing them everywhere led me to one in San Antonio, about 1.5 hours from home.
Golf III · Coupe · 67 000 millas | Millas son originales. Motor 2.0, jalando todo al 100. | A/C mejor que carro nuevo. | Manual de 5 velocidades. Mas reversal. | Orlando Gomez.
It was at an electrical shop on the southside. They had been working on it chasing electrical gremlins. Evidence of rodents, but it didn’t smell like anything but an old VW. 90s VW. It’s different than its air cooled ancestors.
The VIN helped me learn It had been sitting in storage somewhere since around 1998, the last time the original owner registered it. It had extensive records… up to 1998. For its first four years, someone loved this car. Then loved it enough to park it inside. It was immaculate.
The dash and interior is in great shape. There’s evidence of a repaint, but it also looks like an old paint job in great shape.
The best feature is definitely the phone.
The fluids were at least kind of fresh. New oil. It started cold with an old battery, jumped. Engine smooth, exhaust a little janky with a split something and some new pipe. Couldn’t find any rust. Rodent evidence was a couple or few plastics chewed. But it was running and all the lights were working; the radio had power but was locked in security mode; and, a very big deal around here – the AC was blowing cold… with foam. There were different, old cracked tires on every rim. Apparently this guy had been driving it, but not clear how much. It idled a while with the AC running and no overheating. In fact, a little too cool but the gauge was registering. Maybe a thermostat?
The test drive was terrifying. The shifter was like stirring rocks. Third and fourth were defaults. Somehow I got it in reverse, and probably 2nd. The clutch, brakes, idle, and acceleration were fine. Getting it out of its own way at a stop was risky.
We went the longer, safer way… maybe. IH 10 seemed riskier, but at near highway speeds it was a very happy car. Tires sketch, but stable. Our 2 hour longer, safer route gave me too many gear change requirements.
The plan was to sell moms truck for the VW. My dumbass was taking pictures of the truck the same day I bought the VW. Their values were not the same, in favor of the VW. I swore at the time the truck was more valuable.
I spent the next month installing new shift bushings, timing belt, drive belts, hoses, all filters and fluids; shocks/struts, tires, bearings, brake rotors, pads, calipers, bleed; tie rod ends, ball joints, cv axles, alignment… and myriad other things that popped up. The plastics and rubbers were not ok. But the car is great …but the original radio could not be saved due to VW’s epic radio theft program.
I loved that radio and tried to make it work. It has tiny dials for bass and treble that pop in and out. It reminded me of our 1992 Eurovan that we drove across the country in the Spring of 2011 with our 1969 UltraVan selling Moon Pies that got us closer to Sean Penn and Madonna. But that’s a different story.
