My wife and I were on the search for a fun summer car. I had my eye on some sort of convertible, as we used to run the ’71 Scout without the roof in the summer. I looked at a few cars – but after driving a MK3 Cabrio, that’s what I wanted.
The first one I drive was a well-ragged out 5-speed. The dash was lit up with warnings, and the shifter was all sloppy. No thanks. A look on the Kijiji classifieds found what looked like a nice one 550 KM away, in Mahone Bay. We went to look at it, and found a good, solid ’98 Cabrio. Originally an American car, the body and underframe was in excellent shape. It started well, and sounded healthy enough. The transmission shifted OK. Really, the car drove very tightly for the 160 K miles on it. The engine and transmission felt a little loose, down to a bad motor mount. It had a rebuilt title. Apparently, someone had stolen it, and sideswiped another car, and the low value of the car caused the insurance company to write it off. I couldn’t find any issues, so we discussed a price with the owner, and it was ours.
Again at work.
On paper, the 2.0 litre engine looks laughable – single overhead cam, 115 horsepower, but in reality it works really nicely. It is a little rattly at idle, but the bloody thing pulls evenly from stop to redline…it doesn’t run out of breath at all. The engine looks all the world like a 2.2 Chrysler engine, but works a whole lot better in my limited experience. It also gives over 30 MPG on the highway, despite being geared low. The ABA and related engines seem to have a reputation for being durable – I read somewhere that they were engineered to be turbocharged, with the older ABA engines having piston cooling jets – like the bigger diesels that Cat and Cummins make.
The transmission isn’t quite as good – it shifts OK, but is slow to engage when cold. There are a ton of miles on it, so I can’t complain too much. The car feels like it weighs two tons or more – very solid and fun to drive with sharp handling. Brakes, too are pretty good…they grab well.
Geared really low…3K at 100 KM/H, and no check engine light!
We both love driving the little car. Most everything feels pretty good for a 20 year old car, and well over 80 percent of things work. There is some wind noise, with it being convertible, but no rattles or clunks. When I bought the car, I replaced the water pump and timing belt, motor mounts, and brakes. That tightened it up a lot.
At the beach.
The Mark III cars have had a bad reputation for durability, and this one had its share of issues. There had been some water get in the door lock pump motor, so that was replaced. What’s a door lock pump motor? Well, unlike most other cars, these VW’s had a central locking system based on a vacuum/pressure system. The motor runs one way to suck the locks down, and the other way to push them up. Once replaced, they worked OK. The cruise control doesn’t work…apparently the control module fails. Again, the cruise control is different to everything else I’ve seen – it relies on an air pump mounted behind the front fender to pressurize an actuator that acts on the gas pedal under the dash. Rube Goldberg at its finest. The car also has an ongoing issue where the speedometer will start bouncing and reading slow. A replacement cluster was ordered, but it didn’t help. I still haven’t figured that one out. The worst issue, by far, was the heater ejecting greasy bits of foam out of the vents. We just chalked it up to being old at the start, but after a while we lost our heat.
What a mess! You can see the goofy cruise actuator with the green rod on it.
A bit of research told me that the annoying foam was most likely off of the blend door, and it could no longer force heat through the heater core, leaving us with no heat. We drive the car from May to October, so this wouldn’t do. I started pulling the car apart on a Friday night, and by lunchtime Saturday I had it all apart – about 8 hours. There was lots of extra brackets there to keep the body solid. I was able to replace the foam with a better quality type foam board. The fun part was trying to get the thing back together with all of the wiring hooked up correctly.
And the other side…
It went together almost without a hitch, aside from the transmission not shifting. A bit of hunting later, I found the transmission plug to the fuse box was not plugged in. Got that done and it’s been fine.
My mother and father spent some time driving the car the first year we had it. In 2014 they took it while we hauled the camper to Prince Edward Island and we stayed in the same campground, and toured around. She and Dad liked it so much, they bought one themselves…a green 2001 model that needed a bit of body work. It was mostly in fine shape, but the front fenders were rusty. We lucked into a good parts Jetta, and swapped the front clip off of it onto the Cabrio.
Vacation, PEI, 2017
I kind of like the result. Unique. It’s funny though – Mom likes the white one nicer, while I prefer the green one.
Despite having a few issues, we’ve had a lot of fun with these cars. For not a lot of money – $3200 for mine, $33o0 for Mom’s – we’ve had a ton of fun with them. Last year, 2017 – we did a Maritime tour around PEI, NB, and NS without an issue. They’re easy enough to fix, and easy to get parts for – we have a good VW dealer in town that sells German aftermarket parts. I can’t see us getting rid of it any time soon. Too much fun!
Fun for Gracie too!
Ah… the quintessential “chick car”
I suppose it is – but it didn’t stop me from taking the guys at work to lunch in it with the top down on a nice summer day.
I see a lot of women driving VW’s here.
Compared to the earlier Cabrios, these always seem to be rare. I remember they were pretty pricey for the size & power when new, probably didn’t help sell them to the younger clientele they attracted.
I agree with you on the Jetta front clip, it’s simpler and more handsome than the Cabrio one, makes for a very interesting looking car. It does seem like 75% of these 3rd gen ones were dark green like your parents’ car, I think the white suits Cabrios better generally though.
So much for fixing the “speed limit”
Speed limit?
Nice to read about how you’ve enjoyed this car the way a vert should be enjoyed. Kudos to you as well for being able to keep a VW from that era in good working order. When you pull a car apart as thoroughly as you did to chase down a gremlin, sometimes it never gets put back together again!
The basic parts of the car have been great. We both love the car, and where it isn’t the main car, we can handle its quirks. I did have my doubts about getting it back together again, though.
It is fun to read about a car that someone really develops a bond with, even when the model is not one with the best reputation. A sound example to start with and an owner who works through its issues is not common with these, I would imagine.
That your parents got one too is fabulous.
I find it hard to develop a bond with a vehicle – but there’s something about this one I really love. It’s endearing. I can’t put my finger on it.
They love theirs too. Mom drives it all summer, rain or shine.
This is a terrific story for anyone contemplating VW ownership, particularly an older, used one with many kms. The quirks and idiosyncrasies for many would be maddening but, OTOH, none of them were bad enough to leave the driver stranded and, given enough perseverance, can be fixed. Most stay away, and the few who are entranced enough to take the plunge quickly give up and move on, but the VW faithful remain steadfastly loyal.
In some ways, the car was very advanced. The windows were all somewhat automatic. The front ones had one touch up and down, and the rear ones were one touch down…in a car 20 years old. It still works. The door locks were vacuum/pressure operated on the door key locks, and if you held the key in unlock, the windows would all go down…same with locking, the windows would go up. A nice feature.
But the cruise doesn’t work, and the speedometer still flutters down and up from time to time. I’ve bypassed all the wiring and it still does it, so I don’t know if something is slipping in the transmission, or what’s going on.
I can see someone being disappointed in the issues that can be had in a new car, but in a beater the expectations are different.
“The door locks were vacuum/pressure operated on the door key locks”
I have not locked a convertible since about a month after I bought my first in 1977. There is nothing easier to break into than a convertible, and if someone wants in that badly, I would just as soon they do it without slicing the convertible top. I do keep the glove box(es) locked though.
My drop top rationale also, J P!
I’d rather suffer thru a few moments of irritation when finding the Corair’s interior gone thru than paying for a new soft top that has been sliced open to gain access to the locked up interior.
Speedo fluctuation is the speedo drive gear mounted on differential. The one that drives speedo sensor that sticks out of the transaxel. Differential has to be removed to replace it.
German engineering – nein I say! but Gracie the cat is cute!
Yeeessssssss! I heard ALL about “Superior German Engineering” when giving a friend of mine frequent rides, in my “inferior” Japanese and American cars, to and from the Audi service department. (Roll Eyes)
LOL! We’re on the same page Mark!
Lovely! This could be the car I need: a car I DON’T need and providing enough opportunities to tinker.
I had the fun of repairing a speedo on my Ford Windstar. It was built like multi layer cake: bezel, lens, face, printed circuit board, and housing. There were pins connecting the actual instruments to the PCB. Those pins had corrosion on them and made the hands jump around wildly. Taking it apart and putting it together removed enough of the corrosion to fix it. But yours may be easier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFKoru0WYvk
If it is not that try the vehicle speed sensor on top of the tranny.
That’s what I like in a fun car…opportunities to tinker when I have the time or desire to do it. They are a good driving car, comfortable, fun.
As for the gauges – I replaced the cluster with another working one with a readout in KM/H, but it didn’t make a difference. I also swapped the sensor from my mother’s car to mine but the problem still shows up from time to time. I suspect it’s the gear on the shaft in the transmission slipping, but it’s a job to look at it.
The thing that used to cause speedometer bounce was simply that the mechanical cable from the gauge to the transmission needed to be lubricated. I can’t imagine a relatively modern VW still using that sort of archaic device but with other, seemingly ancient vacuum-actuated accessories, who knows?
Yes, that is very common issue with mechanical cables. Over the time, the dirt enters in the tube one way or other and accumulates until the cable seizes due to friction betwen cable and tube then loosens up due to torque then seizes then loosens.
My brother’s first-generation Sciroccos (three, 1975, 1977, and 1980) had the same issue. He simply took the mechanical cable out and disassembled it for cleaning with compressed air and lubricating with graphite powder.
That’s what I was thinking.
I had a similar issue show up on my old vanagon after a tow in reverse with the front wheels on the ground as the tow truck driver was to lazy to put the fronts wheels on a dolly to drag it over to my mechanic buddy’s place. It only showed up once in a while around 50kms/hr and the needle would bounce about 10 kms/hr. I think either the cable or gear on the front wheel had been damaged. I never did fix it but it taught me a good lesson on how not to tow a vanagon…
A modern interpretation of my older Drop Top Fun In The Sun car.
“Chick Cars” (often small, attractive convertibles) have been around since the early days of automobiles.
Ford Model T convertible, early 1950’s Chevy Bel-Air convertible, 1960’s Chevy Novas, Oldsmobile Cutlass, various V-Dub convertibles, Mazda Miata, Fiat 124 Spyder….
A “Real Man” drives what he likes and is not perturbed by other people’s small minded assumptions and prejudices .
I see Gracie follows Rule #345 for cats;
“If I fits I sits!!”
I was reminded of this quote when reading about the power lock and cruise control systems on your Cabrio:
“Warum sollten wir es einfach machen, wenn wir es kompliziert machen können?”
Or, in Englisch: “Why should we make it simple when we can make it complicated?”
This quote was allegedly attributed to a Mercedes engineer. I cannot verify that, but is seems to fit with my view of German cars.
Regardless, it seems nice that you’ve been able to overcome the issues with the car and enjoy it. Gute Reise!
Real World Automotive Truth.
I totally agree with your thoughts on the 2.0, while not super quick, it’s responsive, reliable and gets the job done. The short gearing makes highway travel a bit exhausting for me as speed limits are 120kmh over here, resulting in the car running at 4K. My mk4 Golf is extremely basic, manual everything, no cruise, etc I feel this has let me avoid some of the usual VW quirks that everyone seems so frightful of.
I also have a mk4 Golf with the 2.0…manual transmission..I know it is considered an old engine (even when new) but as I had previous good luck with the same basic block in my ’78 Scirocco and ’86 GTi, it doesn’t bother me…getting around town is more important to me than specs.
Yes, VWs have their foibles, for me the power locks are a pain…haven’t gotten to work on them and 2 of my 4 doors don’t work. Unfortunately power locks were standard even with this generation and they seem a common trouble point. On 2 of my doors I must push the door in to get the latch to release now, but I don’t want to tear into the doors if I can work around it.
I’ve likewise had problems with the cruise control since the car was new…I think mine is electric, not vacuum, most of the time it fails to engage…once in a while though it will actually cause a problem where I have to shut down the engine to get things working…before that pressing down on the accelerator actually causes the car to bog down and stall.
The shift mechanism has never been a strong point on VWs, and mine actually became detached from the transaxle while driving earlier this year…almost stranded me but I opened the hood and manually put the selector on the transaxle into 2nd and nursed the car home. The rubber/nylon on the selector cables deteriorated (18 year old car) as I live in the sunbelt, rubber stuff tends to deteriorate often. Also yes on the short gearing, I think the final drive on my manual is 4.11….it is OK for around town but busy on the freeway, but as I do almost all around town driving it doesn’t affect me much.
I have longed for a soft top of some sort ever since I bid goodbye to my Renault, with it’s huge, vinyl sun roof. A Cabrio like yours, Beetle convert, 500 Cabrio, all have caught my attention over the last few years. Dinky, one car garage, and being disinclined to boot the wagon out into the snow, have prevented my doing anything impulsive.
Mine was happiest around 70 mph on the highway. Once you got over 80mph the buzziness got tiring. I clocked quite a few 300+ mile days in mine and 70-75 was the key to sanity. My Subaru was the same way.
What’s a door lock pump motor? Well, unlike most other cars, these VW’s had a central locking system based on a vacuum/pressure system.
Very common feature in German cars from 1970s to 1980s. Our 1977 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL had that feature, and the system was real pain in the neck to fix or replace if there’s a leak somewhere. My father considered retrofitting them with electrical door locks from American cars, but…
My 1962 Lincoln, which was 40-50 years old when I had it, had vacuum door locks. They worked. No remote of course. The insanely complex heat/AC system was also vacuum controlled, including temperature, with about ten miles of tubing and god knows how many vacuum actuators and it was a little more erratic.
I would maybe address the low gearing problem with the biggest, highest profile tires that will fit, and forget about speedometer accuracy.