I recall a few years ago when gearheads and tinkerers happened upon waste vegetable oil as the answer to the high fuel prices of the day. In theory, recycling used fryer grease seems like an elegant solution. In practice, however, restaurants quickly realized there was gold at the bottom of the vat, and the price advantage diminished.
Back in those days, the hot car for WVO conversion was the Volkswagen Rabbit. Cheap, reasonable reliability, and light weight meant a 45-50 mpg package for a few grand out of pocket. I knew of a few people who converted and, for a while, the cost savings was tangible.
I can't, however, imagine what driving one of these was like. I happened upon a period road test from Car And Driver of the then-new 1977 Rabbit Diesel, and they go out of their way to praise the performance and the relative lack of "diesel-ness". I have to imagine that they were holding something back, however, as 48 horsepower and a 16.8 second 0-60 time had to be dreadful even in the context of the late '70s.
So, considering the mess VAG currently finds themselves in, I figured we'd look back a bit. This 1978 Volkswagen Rabbit three-door is the oldest VW diesel I can find for sale. At $3,900, it seems entirely too-high priced for a rusty, underpowered crapwagon. VW owners are an interesting lot, however, taking on more lost-cause projects than most other enthusiasts, and I can see this one getting snapped up offline for around $2,200 or so. Besides the obvious panel rot, the car seems reasonably solid and, with virtually no options, there isn't much to go wrong here.
A great line from that CD review: "The Diesel/gas Rabbit team should be every bit as irresistible as the Carter‑Mondale ticket last fall." With hindsight, we can draw parallels between that ticket and what is happening to VW now. A few years later, everyone ran away from both Carter and Volkswagen diesels.
The post CrapWagen Outtake: 1978 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel appeared first on The Truth About Cars.
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