1982 Volkswagen Jetta Custom Deluxe Diesel 5 speed 2 door rare VW MKI VW MK-1

You are looking at a NO RESERVE auction on a rare 1982 Volkswagen Jetta Custom Deluxe Diesel 2-door. They sold hundreds of thousands of VW Rabbits here in the U.S., but to find a 2 door MK-1 Jetta is very uncommon. I’ve only ever seen one other example in person. It has the 1.6 liter diesel engine, & 5-speed manual overdrive transmission. It gets over 50mpg on the highway (we’ve calculated the fuel-mileage at nearly every single fill up for the past decade). Our best ever recorded was on an all-day trip to Omaha, Nebraska & back where the car achieved 62.2mpg! Forget an expensive, complex, hideous-looking Prius… there’s been technology 30+ years before they came along, that beats the Hybrids of today (using zero electronics)! Even going 70mph, this car still regularly gets 48-53mpg depending on headwind & how many passengers it's carrying. It consistently gets 51-55mpg going 55mph. I’ve owned hundreds of vehicles since getting my first car at 15yrs old, and when it comes to quality, longevity, & fuel-economy… this is hands-down the best car I’ve ever owned. These cars are an exercise in simplicity. No power options to fritz out... just straightforward German engineering. They are extremely well designed, and easy to keep on the road requiring very minimal maintenance.

This car runs excellently, and doesn’t exhibit excessive blow-by, burn oil or drip fluids on the driveway. The previous owner got the car from his brother who’s a mechanic at our local Volkswagen dealership. He claims the engine was rebuilt by his brother before we bought the car, and we’ve only put 100,000 miles on it since acquiring the vehicle in 2006. The motor has approximately 110k on it at this point (which is nothin’ for a diesel). I replaced the timing belt, and rebuilt the injection-pump within the past 30,000 miles, so the heart of the engine is good to go for many years to come, now. I put a label on the radiator-support notating the date and mileage it was changed. It has tight, straight steering, the brakes work well, transmission exhibits zero issues in any gear, and newer shifter-fork nylon ball/bushings were recently installed, the clutch doesn’t exhibit any warpage or chatter. There is a newer battery which may even still be under warranty, as well as a remanufactured alternator put in not long ago. I replaced the CV-shafts in the not too distant past, did radiator hoses, accessory belt & a couple glow plugs were replaced as needed. The tailpipe & muffler were recently replaced. The parking brake & cables are new, & it works perfectly now. There’s an extra brand new water pump in the trunk, but we’ve never needed to replace it.

The ride-height in the front end from the factory was nose-high, and it looked rather stoogy, so a set of purple Eibach lowering springs were professionally installed, with a re-alignment performed to correspond to the new ride-height & suspension geometry. The car now sits level & true. It looks (and handles) a whole lot better this way! We disliked the rectangular U.S. import headlights, so we changed them to BMW-style EURO round ones with vacuum operated snow-wiper brooms (hoses are there, and will work if hooked up to the engine’s vacuum pump to wipe bugs/snow off from right inside the car!

When it was brand new, this vehicle was completely under coated AND inner-coated by the dealership (there are plastic plugs throughout the inner door jambs, etc where they stuck straws in & sprayed rubberized tar rust-proofing throughout the inner body, and insides of the doors, etc. to seal it from moisture. Bits of that undercoating on the driver’s side front strut-tower flaked away over the decades, & started to get rusty (just around the factory weld-seam). Consequently, it was starting to let go, so I reinforced it with 7 or 8 thick, steel bars. The structural-integrity is completely solid now, however I’ve since acquired a pair of nice, original strut-towers (if at some point down the road in the future, a subsequent owner wishes to replace the originals with the rust-free units). The fact that this car was treated with rust-proofing 34 years ago is the main reason it’s still on the road today after 325,162 miles! I’m not claiming it to be a rust-free car at this point, but the undercoating has definitely done its job & preserved the sheet-metal amazingly well.

The car’s nick-name used to be “Buffy”, but we changed the color from Band-Aid buff, to Flame Red. We took that opportunity to cut out & sand-blast any rusty areas back to bare, gray metal. The finish is a high-quality urethane two-stage base/clear automotive paint that never fades or dulls. It still shines like the first day I painted it 8 years ago. Since then, the car has suffered a few scars. There’s a dent on the front lip of the hood, so that’s now covered by a smoked-lexan bug-deflector. There’s also a vertical crease on the front of the driver’s outer door skin, and the door is starting to sag from needing new hinge-pins. Also, the bottoms of the doors have collected water from the deteriorated seal against the glass, so they have gotten rusty. A lower ball-joint failed back in time, causing the tire to swing back, and munch the bottom of the driver’s fender, as you can see in the current pictures. It can be straightened back out fairly easily, but I just never got around to it. There are some chips, scratches & dings, but overall the car still looks fantastic for its age, and we continue to get constant compliments on it. These cars are so seldom seen, that people just love seeing it still being driven around.

The car currently has a brand new set of factory 13 inch tires just mounted up with polished stainless steel & aluminum full-wheel covers. As you can see in the various pictures... I’ve also got a set of 17-inch ASA (licensed by BBS) wheels that are a little rough, but look sporty on the car! They have 205/40/ZR17 Kumho tires on them with about 80% tread remaining, and no weather checking. They bolt right up, but require “hub-centric” rings to make them perfectly balanced/centered as these cars were not necessarily designed to be “lug-centric”. Sets of those can be found on eBay for less than $20. If desired, I ALSO have another set of wheels that were painted red at the same time as the rest of the car with chrome trim-rings & so-so tires on them. So, altogether, 3 sets of wheels & tires, plus extra hubcaps, hubcap clips, and other miscellaneous parts that can go with the car. Finally, I have a pair of 13 inch Studded Snow Tires for the drive-wheels, too, but we haven’t driven it in Winter for years because it has become something of collector car, and we want to preserve it.

The original vinyl seats are showing wear, but have seat covers. The dashboard pad is un-cracked, and supple (not baked hard by the sun like they so often get). Nice headliner except for one small poke in the ceiling in the back seat area. The carpet was replaced at the time the car was painted red. It’s got a killer sound-system with two 12 inch Subwoofers in the trunk, 6x9s in the rear package tray area, and 3-way 5 inch rounds in the doors. I installed it all about 9 years ago, so it’s dated, but still sounds good. One of the door speakers is damaged, but I have a brand new-in-box replacement for it in the trunk ready to install. Before painting the car, I did an antennae delete by welding up the antenna hole in the top of the fender, and re-locating it internally (it’s a wire that runs around perimeter of the inside of windshield using clear-tape). Just cleans up the look of the car outside, and actually has improved radio reception now. We installed auxiliary rally driving lights below the front bumper about 8 years ago, but they were vulnerable to curbs, and the glass has gotten knocked out since then. Still wired up though, and a replacement set would be easy to install. There’s a relay and a switch still on the dash in a factory delete knockout to operate them (so we did not cut a hole in the nice, original dash to put the switch in). The 4-way-hazzard flashers have never worked on the car for some reason, and the clock on the dash no longer works. The dome light comes on when you open the passenger side door, but not always when you open the driver's door (sometimes it does still work, but it's just random). You'll have that kind of stuff with a car this old, but everything else works.

I know this car top-to-bottom; inside & out. I’d trust it to hop in and drive anywhere at a moments notice, as my wife & I quite literally HAVE driven it all over the United States. We’ve snapped photos of it at various destination locations, creating so many fun memories over the past decade! We’re both really sentimentally attached to this car. We don't want to get rid of it, but we just had our first baby, and I found a TDI Passat wagon with a 5-speed to haul the newly expanded family around in. We had to concede to not needing two diesel Volkswagens (when we have other vehicles... all diesels). That; and the fact that we simply need the money; are honestly the ONLY reasons we’re letting this car go to a new owner. We had always said we’d keep it for life & never sell it, and are regretting this difficult decision already. Hopefully the next owner will be somewhat of an enthusiast, & give her a good home. It's had a LOTTA love from us!

Thanks for looking, and if you’d like to own this sweet little car, I hope you’ll give us your very best bid for it. We've got a good, clear title for the car. Message me through eBay, or call/text 64l 5l2 5229 if you have any further questions. I welcome anyone who’s interested to come inspect it & go for a test-drive.

By bidding on, or otherwise agreeing to purchase this vehicle, buyer acknowledges that it is being sold As Is with no warranty. I require a $250.00 security deposit within 48 hours of listing’s end, and remaining balance to be paid for within 2 weeks (whether the car’s picked up yet or not). Storage for a reasonable amount of time may be an option if some time is needed to make shipping arrangements, etc. I’ve had a good deal of success with Atlas Auto Shippers (888)-285-2706 over the years when I’ve bought vehicles & had them delivered to me. They can get you a quote right over the phone.

EBay only allows a seller to insert up to 12 free pictures in a vehicle listing, so if you have any trouble viewing the embedded slideshow at the top of this page, please be sure to click on the thumbnail image below to view the web-album with 60+ detailed photos of the car:

Diesel Jetta