What is it with you and your crappy old Volkswagens, Jason? — The Carmudgeon Show — Ep. 5

a fire and had to evacuate. I ask my mom to put it in the Scirocco and we leave like that. just the most important inanimate object in my life and driving the most important thing on the highway where other people just text and eat and put on makeup and you don't know they don't care, to them it's just a car if it crashes, it's scary so I bought a Cabriolet which is basically the same car underneath but it allows me to have four people in the car with the top down and they are kind of replaceable.

I can find taxi drivers everywhere and I can have the same experience with a different form factor, but I still go out. I had a Mark One Rabbit GTI as a rabbit racing car for a while; I keep coming back for him because no matter

what

he does. I drive, I've never been able to beat my mark once, so like Lotus Elise and say it again, okay, let me, you can press the button, let's not forget that we have a button if you need it hanging on it. So in case of a fire, you know that I drive cars for a living, and always have for the last fifteen years.

I've been wanting to add another card to my collection that's more fun than my chocolate, so I've tried everything I want to say. I tested every Ferrari I could get, the ones I could afford, I tested the drive, I tested the drive, I didn't know I didn't buy them because I walked away from them thinking why would I spend forty grand on a 328 like, say, when it was forty? One thousand dollars on Wednesday is gone, in fact, the guy who thought this wasn't a perfect story. I want to go test drive this 328. The owner has become a friend of mine now, you know? and it's beautiful like blue-gray with tan interior and it's just it's a spider, it was just beautiful and I drove it.

He said, “Hey, can I drive

your

caddy?”, so I drove the taxi driver to test drive this car and he said, “I'll follow you on the test drive, but I really like it.” He drives

your

real taxi and I say, well, this guy is a big car collector, he has great taste in cars, so I give him the taxi driver's keys, I get in the Ferrari, I do a good warm-up in

what

ever. and then I start beating him up. I didn't like it, so I beat this poor 328, you know, I just drove it hard, it wasn't terrible and we got it.

Back in, he's a big guy and he just comes over and walks up to me and says, give me the keys and I'm like, oh sure, I'm like everything's fine, he's like you're not going to have this car and I'm like, I'm sorry. I did something that upset you and he asked me why you would spend $40,000 on that stupid old Ferrari when your Volkswagen sounds better, has better steering, is much faster and is more fun? What are you trying to prove to someone? I'm like you. you own the 328 it's like I just bought it so I can tell the Ferrari chat people that my wife has one of those shakers haha ​​and I'm like seriously he was like yeah they drive and I'm like Me I'm so glad to hear you say that he thinks Volkswagen is magical and I think I know that and I'm trying to have fun, so I have to agree about 320 eighths, by the way, okay, I don't.

I don't think they are fun to drive and I don't like the way they sound either, they don't smell good and no, they just aren't. I would say it is best to look at them. You don't need to have it to do it, you can buy a poster, yeah, but here's me, your neighbor, buy one and then you'll be able to see it all the time and you'll never have to drive it, and you know it's payment for seat belt service and but here This is what you drove, my taxi driver. I have a photo of you.

I will find her. We'll put it in the thing. I will find her. I don't think I'll ever crack a big smile. I think I've ever seen you smile that big, tell me, you know, it's funny. My strongest memory of driving the taxi was your instruction not to slow down. I thought: what do you mean there is a corner? Don't slow down, just keep going. Are you kidding? It has an absurd amount of grip right, it's like it's not fun for a front wheel drive car, it's a funny point, so what else did you try to try and have fun with the VW?

So when I turned 30, I thought, I'm going to have a Ferrari and I drove 308,328,355,996 Corvettes, look, there must be a c6. I drove as it should and s2000. I went through everything. I want to join the 96 that was. great car, you know, the nine six hadn't come out yet so we didn't realize how bad the interior was in 97. 97 wasn't like that yet about the nine six and it was great. The first magazines say how bad the interior of the nine nine was. six it's horrendous I mean it's horrendous but we didn't know the '97 was coming once I drove that 1970 I couldn't go back so I did of course I'm only 30 and the e30 is amazing in a different way .

From two, three, sixteen, I changed a VR6 for a four-door Golf Mark Three. I had all these other cars at the same time, but I couldn't have more fun than the VW, so after that I want to move to the west coast. I drove around and made all the fries again and thought, "Oh, not only did I have a bad day, they're actually no fun. I drove an NSX and I hated it. I actually

show

ed up with a check wanting to buy it." Done, I'm going to buy the first NSX and it actually runs 140 miles per hour in the first year.

Slight exaggeration, that's what they love, but yeah, no, I like it, it was just long oriented and the steering wasn't good and it was capable, but it was. It's not fun so I was like I would go back to driving a 355 mmm it's not the same so I went and bought a Miata that I had in an enemy otter and that was fine that was good that was fun but as you know in Limit management terms, they are a disaster factory, like they were just the form of shares seized in the form of shares, yeah, it just wasn't cool.

I had a lot of fun when he was good. It wasn't about me. It was like a 150k mile car that was kind of at its limits from day one because someone hit it, so I didn't know the structure, but it was really the engine that was a disappointment, that eight was just has torque everywhere. and the VW. engines are all wrong as if they were some kind of Volkswagen's first gasoline engines were originally supposed to be diesel they were designed as diesel and the fuel crisis this is what a single platform remembers the first of the first this was the first car Volkswagen Basically I once made a beetle so each packaged beetle liked seven but the Karmann Ghia beetle is the same as the Mark one so one platform was a golf Jetta Cabriolet truck and this one my own truck , there were five and five body styles on the in the same way that there were Karmann Ghia and the bus and anyway for a type that was the beetle and the engine was supposed to be diesel, so it has a very small diameter and a long run and it started like 1/5 and then gradually I want to get up to a 2 liter engine and that thing is a 2 liter four cylinder without balance shafts, which doesn't happen anymore nowadays, plus an 82 millimeter dash and a half and a stroke of ninety-two point four millimeters. what's a recipe, this is our timer to say we need to set up a huge recipe for vibration.

I need, yes, a huge recipe for vibration, everything is wrong, but lack of refinement or lack of NVH control results in an engine that is so effervescent. and alive and all they need is a little cam like the European intake and a soft cam and they make 175 horsepower and they sound like no they are not only good for the horse owner, and I sound like I'm audited , but I have a confession for myself. I finally have a car that's close to the Scirocco in fun, is it Elise? No, the lease is good. Elise is a lot of fun, but the engine is not yours.

No, yeah, so I bought the 308 gt4 Dino from Derek's. from you and there is a round city in normal driving, that car is experienced the same as the a1 cars, yes, and not all of them are like that, dr. Park, yeah, I mean, we both know the previous owner or two owners before me and he doesn't like 20 or 30 Ferraris and he said that was the best driving one of all the Ferraris he'd ever owned and I knew I liked it. I had seen the car from below the first time I went to see it and thought, please let me.

I was in a store and I said please let me know if the owner wants to sell it and he had never seen the top. and then when I saw it at the top, I got there and I thought, oh, it's not the nicest cosmetically, and then I drove it and I thought, well, I guess I'm going to buy this car, I mean the way it works and that's what happens with old Italian cars: some of them are terrible and some of them are great and I don't know what's going on with the clutch, carburetion, transmission, suspension and steering. his car, but everything about this one in particular is really outstanding.

I have driven others and they are similar, I mean you know they are weaknesses with the clutch being held or you know whatever, but what is my conclusion. What we've come to is with that 308 GT4, that look that was produced in '74, just like the Volkswagen Mark 1 and the cars of the 1970s. I think they were the high point, as you know, before the refinement really started to take effect, so they assaulted you with everything. These are all the sounds and noises and vibrations and all that other stuff, but what the Ferrari is missing is fuel injection and, you know, everyday drivability, it's got air conditioning, power windows and all that other stuff, but when you get to e no no I don't mean it works, I charged it, it's fast, but the windows are not fast, but the air conditioning is fast and cold, but the reality is that Volkswagens still keep up with modern traffic, You know, it's realistic. a six second car 0-60 but you stay at 80 miles per hour you feel comfortable enough to do anything you're not afraid but you're really involved in everything yes, so I think to answer your original question of what is about these shitty Volkswagens is that they are the pinnacle of drivability before we started turning towards eliminating noise and vibration and the experience, yes, and that's why it's the best of the 70s cars with injection computer controlled fuel injection from the 80's that just works, I think it's like a 1 bit part, like its mechanical fuel injection with electronic adjustment, it's basically bosch C, it means electronic, but it's basically that car.

I turn the key, it starts, starts and runs. perfectly in elevation and works perfectly in 30 degree weather. In 100 degree weather, it's happy all the time, so for anyone who thinks like you said, 13 Volkswagens are just going to drive, anyone just drives more Cochiti. You know, or go even better and drive. taxi driver with a 2 liter 60 ml exchange and as you know, yes, especially per dollar, although they are getting more expensive, you see Mark one is getting expensive because the money dust, I mean, taxi drivers still are. three four five thousand dollars nine for the nicest thing in the world, you probably know, and then there's a 16-valve Scirocco that had a $30,000 restoration.

Bring a trailer right now, we'll see what it sells for, but it'll probably sell for twenty, I mean, and that's literally a shell or a perfect car, so you know everyone's like, you know, when it's the GTIs or the American cars, but most of them are like, you know, eight twelve, so they're still affordable and they're just you know the type of car, like most of the good '80s, like the CRX, and whatever, for that you can drive every day if you need to, but you know that they are sure that intrepid observers also consider the Mark two or is it really just Mark. a friend, there are two of us it is very similar mark 3 was the first big change mark 2, the evolution of Marquand is a little easier to work with because I have a front subframe so you can lower the entire engine transmission if necessary, but they're the same basic recipe 3 was a different story for was and five was great again but yeah mark 1 mark 2 these shitty old VWs are a sweet spot you just have to be a driving enthusiast if not You are, if you're the type of person who buys a big Mercedes and you expect that kind of experience because other people I know who are like that are terrible, it's like they're not drivers, you have to be a driving enthusiast.

I think to get the brand, one who has driving experience. Yeah, if you like one, a 560 SEL, you just know, cruising down the street and in isolation, those cars are 40 years ahead of VWs in technology, so okay, we're done, you're going to torture me more for that. . No, I think that's enough. I'll find that photo of you smiling and the taxi driver and we'll put it there. You know, you shouldn't just stand. Yes, it made me laugh like very few cars do. Miatas make me laugh like that too. Okay, so the answer to all your automotive questions is Miata. and Mark one Volkswagen I think it's too painful to recommend the Mark ones to everyone, right, the Miata is universal because you cut strips with them and they don't break them all, because there is an episode there, yes, that's true. there's a 90s car instead of a 70s bar, ok, we're done, that's all.

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