Junkyard Find: 1986 Volkswagen Quantum GL5 Sedan
The original Volkswagen Passat (aka Audi 80) was sold in the United States as the Dasher, and we’ve seen a few of them in this series. Then, when the second-generation Passat came out, the US-market version was called the Quantum. These cars, which were available here for the 1982 through 1988 model years (after which VW decided, what the hell, they’d call its successor the same thing they called the European version), weren’t what you’d call hot sellers, and just about all of them are long gone. That makes today’s Junkyard Find a rarity for the 21st century.
The GL5 had the Audi five-cylinder engine, which would be a lot cooler in this car if the original buyer had opted for the manual transmission.
It’s in very nice condition. No rust, body is straight, interior is nice. Why is it here in this Denver wrecking yard?
I found the original owner’s manual and a big stack of maintenance records inside. The original owner took great car of this car for many years.
The records stop after about 120,000 miles and the odometer shows 143k, so I’m guessing that something broke a decade ago and the car sat in a garage until now.
Check out these pop-out cassette tape holders!
In Brazil (and many other places, including China), this car was called the Santana.
They just stopped making this car in China a couple years back.
The 2000 Chinese model had a George Baker soundtrack.
Engineered to give you a great exit… and a grand entry.
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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I bet cassettes entered those little drawers and never left again until the car was sold, broken into, or scrapped.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Nissan Version of these they made in Japan and sold in a Nissan dealership!