Which Cheap VW Is More Your Style? 1987 VW Fox vs 2003 VW New Beetle

Once upon a time, Volkswagen was the undisputed king of cheap cars in America. Beetles sold like hotcakes. Rabbits did pretty well too, despite mounting pressure from Japanese brands. But as Robert Frost once wrote, nothing gold can stay, and VW’s fortunes took a turn for the worse by the early ’90s. New boss Ferdinand Piëch turned the company around by abandoning the bottom end of the market almost entirely, and moving the brand upmarket, where it remains today. Cheap Volkswagens are a thing of the past – unless you’re looking at the used market, like we’re going to do.

We looked at two front-wheel-drive cars with way more power than sense yesterday, and I was surprised to see so many of you go for the Dodge Daytona. I thought for sure it was going to lose. But I guess the big Chevy just wasn’t interesting enough to make a convincing argument. The Daytona won by a nearly two-to-one margin.

You know I agree. I have no use for a GM W-body that isn’t one of the early Cutlass Supreme coupes with a Quad 4 and a stickshift. And I’ve always regretted having to sell my old Chrysler Laser, but it just wasn’t the right car for that point in my life. And I passed on an ’85 Daytona Turbo with a blown head gasket for $500 when I lived in Portland, because my MGB was in pieces at the time and there was no way I could take on another project. I’m not even thinking about project cars right now, but if I were, a Daytona would certainly be something I’d consider.

My earliest automotive memories are of a Volkswagen, a beige ’69 Beetle that my dad drove. He took me to see Star Wars at the drive-in in it when I was four years old. Later, we had a Dasher and a Golf, and my first car was a ’79 Scirocco. I have great admiration and respect for VW’s simpler offerings, and frankly some contempt for overpriced follies like the Phaeton and the ID.Buzz. Today, for your consideration, I have a couple of simple VWs that can be had for cheap: one from the late 1980s, and one from the early 2000s. Let’s check them out.

1987 Volkswagen Fox GL – $2,300

Engine/drivetrain: 1.8-liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD

Location: Kingsport, TN

Odometer reading: 64,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives, but needs brake and fuel injection work

When automakers need to fill in the bottom of their lineups, it’s common for them to import an inexpensive car from another market. When Volkswagen wanted a cheaper model than the Golf to compete with the likes of Yugo and Hyundai, it turned to its Brazilian operations for this little car: the Fox. Despite offering practically nothing in the way of options, and pricing the Fox as aggressively as possible, VW still lost money on it, and didn’t sell too many. These days, a clean Fox is a rare sight indeed. Sadly, this isn’t the cool two-door wagon version; it’s a four-door sedan, but it’s still neat to see.

The Fox used the Audi-style longitudinal engine layout rather than the transverse arrangement of the Golf and Jetta. Its engine is the basic EA827 four-cylinder displacing 1.8 liters, and only manual transmissions were offered. Since this is the fancier GL model, it should have a fifth gear; base-model Foxes made do with a four-speed. This one has only 64,000 miles on it, but the seller says it needs some help. They claim its Bosch CIS fuel injection system is “trashed,” and they recommend converting it to a carburetor, but that feels like a step backward to me, especially considering that the car does currently run. To me, it’s always better to fix a stock setup than go off on your own modifying things. It also needs brakes, but the parts to do them are included.

The interior of the Fox is about as basic as it gets, and the only options i remember were air conditioning and various stereos. If you wanted power windows, or even power steering for that matter, you had to look elsewhere. But simple is good when it comes to inexpensive cars. The interior of this one is in decent shape, but it’s dirty. A little elbow grease would go a long way.

The clearcoat on the paint is shot, so it’s pretty dull outside. But it looks straight and rust-free. It also has a little spoiler on the trunk lid that most of them don’t have, which looks kinda cool. I seem to remember these coming in only a handful of colors, at least in the early years: this cranberry red, dark blue, silver, white, and maybe black?

2003 Volkswagen New Beetle GLS – $2,750

Engine/drivetrain: 2.0-liter OHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD

Location: Little Falls, MN

Odometer reading: 187,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

VW’s move upmarket made room at the bottom of its lineup for something cool, and that something was the New Beetle. The only trouble is that because VW didn’t really offer a base model of the New Beetle, it ended up being more expensive than the more practical Golf. Hardly the dirt-cheap “People’s Car” that the original was. But now, twenty years later, you can pick up New Beetles for a song. This one is for sale at a wholesale used car lot in Minnesota, for less than three grand.

The New Beetle was basically the same as the Golf under the skin, including this one’s nice, simple “two-point-slow” four-cylinder engine. It may not have the juice that the turbocharged variants did, but it’s a whole lot more durable and reliable. No need for premium fuel or synthetic oil; this thing will run just fine on the cheap stuff. It has a lot of miles on it, but the seller says it runs and drives great.

It looks all right inside for its age and mileage, but there are some popped seams on the driver’s seat, and some other signs of wear. Of course, it wouldn’t be a 2000s VW without at least one warning light on the dash; in this case, it’s the airbag light. Could be worse, I suppose.

It looks really good outside – for a Minnesota car. But then you look closely, and you see that rust hole at the front edge of the rocker panel, and you start wondering how it looks underneath. I guess at this price, it doesn’t matter too much; you just run it for a few years until it gets to be a problem. In the meantime, that orange paint is pretty sharp, and it should be easy to find in a parking lot.

I know that because of the issues with some of the fancier models in recent years, a lot of you are gun-shy about Volkswagens. But these are not the over-complicated nightmares that you’ve heard so many horror stories about. They’re straightforward cars, and should be pretty reliable if you treat them right. So which one would you take a chance on?