Name That Car Clock: VDO Analog With Fuel and Temperature Gauges
Yesterday, we saw a majestic Cartier chronometer out of a ’76 Lincoln Continental Mark IV, which was a pretty easy call for many of you. Today’s NTCC contestant should be a little more difficult, though it should be an obvious call to certain single-marque-obsessed types. Make your guess, then make the jump to see what it is. Year/make/model?
1984 Volkswagen Golf Wolfsburg Edition
The VDO name indicates that it’s probably from something European, and the built-in gas and temp gauges smack of VW-ness. It’s a bit subdued for the mid-1980s, but VW never went for Mitsubishi-grade wild gauges. Did you get it right? If not, what did you think it was?
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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Saw the Cartier clock post but somehow missed this one and I'm not the only one who did. I have known that VDO gauges were used in VW's for years, going back to at least the 60's. Back when the Beetle (old one that is) were still manufactured, the speedo had the idiot lights and the one, lone turn signal indicator within it's confines but later in the late 60's IIRC, they incorporated the gas gauge in at the bottom with the 3 idiot lights right above it. My best friend once had a base '77 Rabbit that had no clock or tach, just the large, single speedo and i think it had the gas gauge incorporated within, all other idiot lights were large rectangular things along one side, including the SINGLE turn signal indicator. That was a neat little 3 door bright yellow rabbit and the only options was the Golde hand cranked sunroof (broken, a stripped gear) and perhaps the AM radio was the only other option and it even had the basic argent wheels with the black rubber center caps. Sadly, he had issues with it and sold it off (this WAS bought used in the mid to late 80's but it looked really nice otherwise) and that owner took it to LA and it got totaled I think on the way or while down there.
The square headlights indicate this is a Westmoreland, PA Rabbit and those cars were "adjusted" for American consumption. In other other words they were slightly more bland vehicles compared to their European cousins. I had an '84 Rabitt 'vert and it came with tach, speedo, digital clock, oil temp and oil pressure, water temp, and volts. Much more stylish. ;) Sold that car with 190K miles on it and the car had alot of miles left in it. Regularly drove it on the autostrada at 100+ mph for hours. It was an American spec, Germany produced car that I owned in Italy.