Junkyard Find: 1977 Volkswagen Dasher

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

When Volkswagen finally decided to try this newfangled water-cooled engine idea, their first effort was the Audi 80-derived Passat. In North America, this car was badged as a Dasher, and it didn’t exactly break any sales records. Prior to finding this example in a Denver junkyard earlier in the week, I hadn’t seen a Dasher for at least a decade.

The ’77 Dasher two-door hatch listed for $4,510, which was about $450 more than the Datsun 710 hardtop, $850 more than a six-cylinder Chevy Nova hatchback, and $700 more than a Plymouth Volare six-cylinder sedan. With front-wheel-drive and generally more modern design, the Dasher was somewhat more sophisticated than much of the competition, but on the expensive side for car shoppers accustomed to paying under three grand for a Beetle.

DPD air conditioning! That must have presented a challenge for the Dasher’s 78-horsepower engine. I’m going to see if my friend with a ’76 Audi Fox has any use for parts off this thing.






Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Dingram01 Dingram01 on Sep 30, 2011

    Ah memories. We had the uppity Audi Fox in my family all throughout my childhood. A string of them actually, the first two lasting a year or so before being squished in accidents. The third one was the charm: a brown Fox wagon. Lasted for us for nine years, ultimately with sheet metal riveted to the rusted-out driver's door bottom. No memory of how many miles it accumulated or whether it was particularly unreliable. I think it was mechanically sound for us??? It certainly had a great personality and was considered the "fun" car in the family. I remember it had no power steering! I think of it often as I drive around in my 09 TDI Sportwagen. I wish the TDI had much to remind me of the old Audi, but it doesn't really. The A2 Jettas I had sure did though.

  • Gornzilla Gornzilla on Oct 01, 2011

    The first VW water-cooled car was a rebadged NSU K70. I don't own an NSU K70, I have an earlier 2 cylinder Sport Prinz, but this conversation pops up now and again on the NSU mailing list. The rebadged NSU was sold as a VW from 1970-1975. The Passat came out later.

    • Th009 Th009 on Oct 01, 2011

      And the Passat (Dasher) was built on the Audi 80 platform -- the 80 debuted in 1972, and the Passat a year later. Back then VW didn't have much front-engine, water-cooled technology of its own, and Audi and NSU helped get things started.

  • MaintenanceCosts Nobody here seems to acknowledge that there are multiple use cases for cars.Some people spend all their time driving all over the country and need every mile and minute of time savings. ICE cars are better for them right now.Some people only drive locally and fly when they travel. For them, there's probably a range number that works, and they don't really need more. For the uses for which we use our EV, that would be around 150 miles. The other thing about a low range requirement is it can make 120V charging viable. If you don't drive more than an average of about 40 miles/day, you can probably get enough electrons through a wall outlet. We spent over two years charging our Bolt only through 120V, while our house was getting rebuilt, and never had an issue.Those are extremes. There are all sorts of use cases in between, which probably represent the majority of drivers. For some users, what's needed is more range. But I think for most users, what's needed is better charging. Retrofit apartment garages like Tim's with 240V outlets at every spot. Install more L3 chargers in supermarket parking lots and alongside gas stations. Make chargers that work like Tesla Superchargers as ubiquitous as gas stations, and EV charging will not be an issue for most users.
  • MaintenanceCosts I don't have an opinion on whether any one plant unionizing is the right answer, but the employees sure need to have the right to organize. Unions or the credible threat of unionization are the only thing, history has proven, that can keep employers honest. Without it, we've seen over and over, the employers have complete power over the workers and feel free to exploit the workers however they see fit. (And don't tell me "oh, the workers can just leave" - in an oligopolistic industry, working conditions quickly converge, and there's not another employer right around the corner.)
  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh [h3]Wake me up when it is a 1989 635Csi with a M88/3[/h3]
  • BrandX "I can charge using the 240V outlets, sure, but it’s slow."No it's not. That's what all home chargers use - 240V.
  • Jalop1991 does the odometer represent itself in an analog fashion? Will the numbers roll slowly and stop wherever, or do they just blink to the next number like any old boring modern car?
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