1981 VW Rabbit, Berkeley, CA, $2000

For sale is a 4-door, cream-colored 1981 VW Rabbit diesel. Rabbits were an economy hatchback that fit a fairly large amount of cargo.

Pros:

40+ miles per gallon on diesel or biodiesel, which makes a huge difference at current fuel prices.

been running on biodiesel for a couple of years

I just had new timing belt installed, re-did the head gasket, and got a new injection pump that is fitted with Viton seals for biodiesel use.
This vehicle also has Viton fuel lines between the injectors , a common point of failure with these vehicles regardless of fuel.

I've done some work over the years, but overall it's been spectacularly reliable- I used it for 3 years, re-did various bearings and a motor mount or two. We installed an extra switch on the radiator fan control so that you can manually turn it on if the factory switch ever goes out (which, in these cars, they're prone to doing). I can't think of much else that I've had to do besides the (preventative) injection pump seals, a replaced head gasket job, and timing belt replacement.

Parts for these vehicles tend to be really cheap and very easy to install they're very simple, it's easy to reach everything, and efficient as a result of the simplicity (no A/C for instance on this one)

Decent tires
4-speed transmission seems to be fine, there's not much to these to go wrong

new green seat covers on front seats and no major sags in the seats. Headliner will be re-done this weekend.

Cons:
There's 248,000 miles on the motor. It'll do well enough for a few years, but don't expect another 200,000 out of it. It looked somewhat worn during the head gasket repair work, but is not so damaged that it's smoking or has power loss. The drawback of VW motors is that they're not a Mercedes- they are lightweight diesels built for fuel economy, and they do wear out sooner than heavier engines. The most common point of failure is the cylinder head cracking due to blown head gasket, and since I've just done the head gasket that's not likely to happen anytime soon.

paint is faded and there's one dent. Body's OK, no rust. It has the average 80's Rabbit condition. One ding on front fender, can be pulled out.
Interior is ugly, though I hope to make that less ugly with a new headliner before selling it.
no stereo to speak of (original cassette player doesn't quite count).

The carpet is typical of 23 year old carpet, and the drivers' seat belt has some cosmetic fraying on the edges. Dashboard has some small cracks but nothing massive. Headliner is gone- I'll try to replace it with fresh fabric before showing it. There are brand new seat covers that cover up dirty but not torn up seats.
No power steering. You could install it if you wanted to, though.
Like any 1.6 diesel VW, it's not too terribly peppy. It drives fast enough (70+) once you get up to speed. This is typical, and the tradeoff for 'good fuel economy' and 'simple to work on'. All of these pre-TDI engine vehicles were exactly the same.

it's a 4-speed tranny instead of a 5, and of course Rabbits were not a turbodiesel. However, you can install a 5-speed transmission relatively easily if you're interested- they're a dime a dozen as engines tended to die before the transmissions did.


I'm selling it because I'm out of town for several more months and don't want to store the extra vehicle while I'm gone.


Color: cream yellow with beige/cream/olive interior
Also for sale: 1986 Ford F-250 in really fantastic shape: http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/car/690170231.html 

Can you send me some pictures.?

I'm really intersted.