1989 VW GTI 16V in Bright Blue Metallic
I was on vwvortex in January and someone posted up a "What are you searching for on Craigslist?" thread. I thought to myself - What are you looking for? The answer was nothing at the moment.
My love affair with VW's really began with an '89 GTI in BBM back in the early 90's. It was a car I shared with my G/F at the time and we had traded in her tired Rabbit and financed it under her parents name as neither of us had credit or money.
I loved that car - probably more than I loved her - and it was heartbreaking when it started having repeated mechanical issues. In the end her dad traded my favorite car for a then new Subaru Justy.
Fast forward to the thread on vortex and I thought, hm why not see if I can find an '89 GTI 16v. Not a small order here in NH as many of them met their fate at the junkyard years ago due to mechanical issues and mostly rust.
Craigslist search keywords entered and up pops a 89 GTI nearby. I should say that I believe there were only 300 or so BBM GTI's delivered to the states and only in 1989...so I wasn't really expecting to find another, especially not one in any kind of good condition.
Open the link and voila! What looked to be a very original, VERY good condition BBM car!!! I made my way over there the next day to check it out in person. The kid selling it met me at a repair shop. Apparently he had a bad alternator and the battery wasn't holding. He told me what he wanted for it ($3500) and I said I may be able to make it work pending a pre-purchase inspection. He agreed that was fine and I had the car towed to a local Indy Euro shop.
Turned out the battery was getting a draw from the poorly installed radio by the OP so they fixed that and the car would start fine...BUT that was just the beginning of the bad news.... In the meantime I settled on a number much lower than the PO was asking as the shop I took it to was slow in doing the inspection and he was in a hurry to sell due to bills and a wife out of work. I took my chances (again) and passed him the loot.
Fast forward to April and the car was still at the shop. It was being fixed more as a "project" than an urgent matter so I finally had to do some prodding and let him know I wanted the car.
After - Timing belt, water pump, gasket set, head gasket, suspension work, t-stat and housing, TT catback, and about a million more things the car was deemed ready for pick up.
Finally home and cleaned up...
I couldn't stand the wheels and they had some funky allen key lugs, so I painted up the 'rado Steelies from the Jetta in silver and swapped them out.
I've put quite a few miles on and for the most part she runs great. I am still in love with the BBM color which changes shade depending on lighting. I also love the red/gray striped seats although the "velour" is more like a cats tongue at this point...
I will be posting updates as this progresses. It is the GLI's turn for now though.
