At $18,000, Will This Tidy 1990 VW GTI 16V Turbo Clean Up?

Back when today’s Nice Price or No Dice GTI was introduced, having a 16-valve engine was uncommon in its class and, hence, worth an extra badge. This one has gone way beyond just that performance feature, with a turbo and every cool name in accessory-land. Let’s decide what one might be required to pony up for such name-dropping.

A Volkswagen Golf GTI Is A Great First Car | WCSYB?

Malcolm Forbes once said, “The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys.” He didn’t allude to a similar schism between women and girls, proving that money can only buy so much sage wisdom. The 2013 Ford F-150 Tonka Edition truck we looked at yesterday could be considered a toy—at least it was designed to look like one. At $29,995, it came with some big boy pants of a price, and very few of you were interested in such a grown-up game. That ended up in a massive 92 percent No Dice loss for the big yellow beast.

Let’s think for a moment about how archaic cars once were when compared to the models of today. Many of the features we now take for granted were at one time rare and often noteworthy. Because of that, modern features were often touted with body badging for aspects such as FUEL INJECTION or on wheel caps that announce the DISC BRAKES that reside behind. Today, every vehicle sold offers fuel injection, all have disc brakes, at the very least on the front axle, and most everything out there, save for electrics, offers multi-valve breathing for their engines.

That wasn’t always the case, and as this 1990 Volkswagen GTI 16V proves, some cars had a lot to say about what was going on under the hood.

The sporty version of VW’s small family hauler debuted in 1975 and went on sale in June of 1976. The acronym given to the model—GTI—called out the car’s performance bona fides and that it was fuel-injected, something unique in the model line at the time.

Why VW chose the English “Injection” rather than the German “Einspritzer” is somewhat puzzling, and GTE (which was used by Opel) doesn’t sound all that bad. This MKII car has another feature that, while common now, was rare at the time and hence badge-worthy. That’s the 16-valve head on the 1.8-liter four under its hood. When new, that pumped up the ponies from the 8-valve’s 102 to a slightly more raucous 123 with torque making similar gains. That was a sizable improvement which VW felt was worth boasting about with GTI 16V badging.

This GTI has its badges, but those are fitted to a car that we didn’t get in the U.S. at the time—a five-door GTI. While the only way to get a GTI (or any Golf for that matter) in the U.S. today, the five-door GTI didn’t hit these shores officially until after the turn of the millennia.

According to the seller, this car was imported from Japan where the five-door apparently was offered, albeit in LHD form. That makes it perfectly suited for American roads and drive-thus. Another unique aspect of this particular GTI is the intercooled turbocharger that now feeds its 16V mill. The work looks very tidy under the hood, and the ad claims top-notch parts and full documentation of the build. A Peloquin limited slip diff has been bolted into the five-speed to ensure none of the turbo engine’s extra power goes to waste.

It all looks pretty nice, too. The ad claims the car to have “about 100K” on the clock, and it comes with a slew of big-name bits and pieces to spruce things up even further. Those elemets, the Recaro seats, BBS alloys, and a Momo steering wheel, give the car some added panache. Both the exterior and interior look to be in excellent condition, even if the overall impression the car gives off isn’t all that flashy. A nice touch in the cabin is the business-like flipping of the placement of the triple auxiliary gauges and the stereo in the dash.

The car comes with a clean title and, as it’s offered in the salty Midwest, the assurance of no rust. In fact, the seller touts it as “One of the best sorted MK2 GTIs you will find that hasn’t rusted through.” The price tag is $18,000.

What’s your take on this name-dropping GTI and that $18K price? Does that seem like a deal for a unique turn-key classic VW? Or is this too unique a car to ask for so broad a price?

You decide!

Chicago, Illinois, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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