I couldn’t pass up this colorful pairing, especially since they’re so…different. They espouse two schools of thought that are about as far apart philosophically as possible, and still have four wheels. This generation of VW Passat, (B3/B4), was as Teutonic and practical as possible; it was dubbed the “Raumwunder” (Space Wonder) for its exceptional space utilization, in part because it used a transverse engine instead of the longitudinal one of its predecessor and successor.
The Mustang II? Let’s just say that space utilization was not exactly high on its brief.
This generation of Passat has become quite rare, and rather quickly. Gen 2 Passats, called Quantum in the US, are long gone hereabouts, but there are a few gen1 Passats left in the hands of loyal owners. Which of course applies to the Mustang II; it clearly has a cult following. Whether that’s out of genuine appreciation of its qualities or irony is debatable, but given the part of town I shot this, I can almost guarantee the latter.
That Passat is from a time when VW would usually only produce cars that were utilitarian and practical. Not even a hint of design. Yuk !
That Mustang looks tacky as can be. I like it.
Hmm, I always thought this Passat was very attractive. Especially the earlier versions with no visible grill.
Put me down as another who liked the grille-less Passats. Good-looking cars.
ugh – I dislike that generation even more…
Put me down as another fan of the grille-less Passat.
Disparate indeed. Is another difference that only one of them can be counted on to start every day? Or that one was popular in showrooms? 🙂
Seriously, my sister had a B3 Passat sedan that she liked a lot. They were almost unsellable at a time when Jettas were pretty popular. The dealer discounted the stick/diesel Passat for her to virtually a Jetta price. She was told that VW was forcing Passats onto dealers.
Having driven versions of both of these I agree that they are two polar opposite approaches to engineering and building a car. Almost the poster children of the differences between the German and American philosophies of their eras.
It has always puzzled me that VW switched from a longitudinal to a transverse engine for this car…then followed it up by going back to a longitudinal engine (do I follow you correctly?)
I always thought this generation of Passat looked odd, then with so many Tauruses on the road, it began to look “normal”.
In the last 6 years I have seen only 2 or 3 of these wagons on Craigslist, one in northern Florida and 1 or 2 around Atlanta.
Not hugely popular, and disappeared too quickly.
The B4 generation Passats like this red one are very thin on the ground these days, much like similar vintage Jettas for whatever reason. The B5 successor is still very common around here, but I haven’t seen a B3 in years.
As a former and believe it or not, proud owner! Of a 78 Mustang II. Back in the day. Was a fun car to toss around. And the 2.3 could be tweaked pretty easily with better exhaust, and a turbo from a wrecked Thunderbird turbo.
Now that being said, I don’t believe orange was a factory color, especially with a full
Vinyl roof. Poor II’s are the Rodney Dangerfields of Mustangs. The purists hate them, as not being real Mustangs. But let’s look at the last two “real” Mustangs before the II’s. Look at the big bloated ,smog choked,72 and 73. Mustang II’s came out at the right time, I feel. Kept the name going. And if it was hated so much, why was it built from ’74 to 78 and sold 1.1 million ( per Hagerty Articles 10/17/2016) Somebody liked them!
+1… I know I am in the minority amongst my fellow Mustang enthusiasts, but I really don’t hate these cars. I never have. I was between 12 and 18 during this generation’s run, so that may have some influence. Guys older than me that actually remember the pre-malaise era, and all the muscle & early pony cars, looked at these cars quite derisively when they first came out. But having learned to drive in an era of low performance, with each car I owned getting progressively faster and faster (with an exception or two), I can’t really relate to the pony emblem in the grille going from a gallop to a trot (Hell, disappearing all together on the Fox ‘Stangs).
Like you say, this car was right for the times after the ’73 energy crisis, and Ford sold A LOT of them. No hate from me. I actually like the looks of a 1978 Mustang II Make mine a Cobra II please… It was a good looking car in a That 70’s Way… I’ll take a black on trimmed in gold, or go full Charlie’s Angels here with Wimbledon White with Guardsman Blue trim… ala ’65 GT-350 style for the 70’s. ;o)
As to dropping in a Turbo-Coupe Engine… Yeah, that might make for a fun little Pinto-Cobra-Stang. I had an ’88 Turbo Coupe and that engine in a much lighter car would be a blast to drive!
Somehow the edit function did not work due to a glitch… most likely on my end here… not with CC…
Correction: I was between 13 and 18 during the Mustang II’s run… Fall of 1973 to end of model year after I graduated in 1978… Point being, most of us fondly remember the cars of our teen years.
I think I may’ve messed up some punctuation too, but thankfully, the Grammar Police don’t patrol this site. ?
If I recall a member at Curbside Classic has a Mustang 2 with a engine from a Merkur Scorpio and made it into a real nice cruiser
Here is the write up
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/curbside-classic-1974-mustang-mach-1-the-soul-survivor/
I agree with you. I am not big fan of the vinyl roof on them but I do like the Mustang II. Though I actually like the hatch version better. Looking at the M2 specs, they come up close to the original 1964 1/2 version.
I saw a 1973 Bloatstang a few months ago and a family of 4 could have a full dinner on that hood.
I worry about the car fan of the future who will wind up thinking that every 79-93 Mustang had a 5.0 V8 in them where as the real truth is that only about 20% or so had V8 engines and the rest had the 2.3l 4 cylinder in them.
Leon-
I did an article on that topic as well-
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-87-90-mustang-lx-our-dirty-little-secret/
Thanks,
Dave S
Vista Orange was available in 1977, but the smaller grille on the Mustang II seems to make it a 74, on which there was no orange offered.
It’s hard to pick out the grille differences in these pictures, but I believe this is a ’75-’78 model.
In ’75, Ford moved the fuel filler above the rear fender character line, to accommodate an auxiliary fuel tank. As this picture shows, it’s a very noticeable change, and updating a ’74 to the newer look would require major body work.
Wow, never knew about the change in the fuel filler for 1975, but I knew that the grille was moved a bit outward that year to make room for the newly-optional V8.
The fuel filler change also related to the V-8-
The original fuel tank had insufficient range for the thirstier engine (call it 12 gallons), so they added 4 gallons of capacity using the auxiliary tank. It was standard on the V-8s, and optional for the V-6 and 4 cylinder models.
I see the picture did not attach to my earlier comment- Here’s the location on earlier models
I am very familiar with both of these cars, since I still own a 1996 Passat TDi which I drove to work this morning. And I knew several people who owned the Mustang IIs of various years which I helped work on (from the late 1970s to the late 1980s).
The Mustang is solidly from the Malaise era, and both component and assembly quality left a lot to be desired. If you have one of the early ones that came with ignition points, you can upgrade to the Duraspark II system that came on later ones (I did this in a parking lot at my university, at 15 degrees out in January, on a friend’s car that refused to start in the cold with the point-type ignition system).
The Passat has a better, more-functional design and is a fun car to drive when it is running, and the headliner hasn’t drooped down so far as to completely obscure your rearward vision. Another bonus of the Passat is that you get to play “what part will fall off or stop working today” every time you get up in the morning to drive it.
Anybody still daily-driving either of these cars gets an award from me! It’s getting a lot harder to keep this era of Passat on the road, as the peak wave of B3/B4 Passats into the junkyards has now passed (based upon my periodic visits to the local self-serve junkyards).
“the peak wave of B3/B4 Passats into the junkyards has now passed”
LOL-
I’ve noticed this peak wave effect as well, and it’s a critical component to keeping your daily driver on the road. For Mustang fans, the SN95/New Edge models are currently dominating in the yards (especially the V-6 models), so that’s your best option for a daily driver/winter beater.
SN197s have started to appear over the last year (the first arrivals of the next wave), while the Fox bodies have become very rare.
Mustang IIs? Nonexistent.
Well “red” don’t feel like the lone ranger! I had a Rabbit oh late 70’s vintage that was made in Westmoreland Pa. Believe it was Germanys revenge for loosing the war…twice! What a piece of crap! Fix this part here, and That part over there craps out, then that in the right front breaks. Could’ve held a lottery based on
“Gee what part on John’s (real me!) Car is going be the reason he’s late for work today! And I stipulated I got to keep 10% of the total of all bets off the top, I’d have been able to buy another car!
I can say, almost in amazement, that I’ve come across several of these II’s on the streets, ratty and all, since I’ve seen one of these Passats. Ironic.
My first thought on seeing the Mustang II in that colour was it reminded me of another 70s icon… the Bricklin, and its safety orange paint.
Bright orange was also synonymous in the 70s with the iconic Canadian burger chain, ‘Harvey’s’, which took off during that decade. 🙂
My buddy bought a first version of this gen Passat. Other than hideously expensive stock tires which he replaced with S rated ones and an ignition switch that gave out it served him well. I think the previous owner had kept it up or it was a rare one that had been put together correctly. It was an auto and even in “sport mode” wasn’t that much fun. His next car a 00 BMW with a 6 cylinder and 6 speed manual was a lot more fun.
The automatic transmission is probably what took his car out eventually. At least the TDi models only came with the 5-speed manual, and I have a short-shifter in mine which makes it better to operate.
My roommate in Germany had this car – same red color as well. It was not a reliable car and it showed that VW could make a car as boring as a Camry. I have no interest in them at all, even though I have great memories of my college days overseas. There were so many better cars during this era, I have no idea why VW felt it was necessary to put out a car without any personality.
I had a girlfriend with a Mustang II. It was an awful car. The quality of workmanship was practically non-existent. It was a tiny thing that I practically needed to wear like a Halloween costume every time we went anywhere. It looked cool but it was an incredibly bad car in reality.
These cars are from different eras and different approaches to auto design. What they have in common is their completely undesirability as vehicles.
this one grab me even better
Apparently the dead horse that is the Mustang II hasn’t been sufficiently beaten to death.
In a decade of cynical automotive dreck, the Mustang II and Versailles have to be nadirs. The original Falcon was a far better platform than the Pinto,and had at least the ability to stuff a V8 into it. The Pinto was a wheezy economy car aimed at the Beetle which was doddering into its fourth design decade. The original Mustang may have been smallish but the II was ridiculously cramped. Take a Pinto, slap some overstyling, a vinyl roof, some awful graphics, and a venerable name on it, and we’ll sell it to the proles as a Mustang! They’ll buy anything.
The original mustang meant something, sporty styling on a reasonably good car optioned up to be appealing to the youth. It had pizzazz and flair and developed a genuinely sporty image with the additional horsepower that could be added.
The Mustang II didn’t have anything sporty about it and was cynically faking it. It was cramped, slow, and flaccid.
It was the 70’s, you say. Everything was bad then.
But the Camaro/Trans Am, although they suffered, stayed roughly the same size from inception all through the 70’s and GM put V8s in them. By comparision, the II really lost its way.
yes, it sold in huge numbers, but even well after the Vega’s flaws were well known, it sold. Really wretched cars still sold in the ’70’s. Yes, the previous ones were too bloated, but the Capri/Maverick would have been a much better II.