Before being caught outright deception and to make the promise of full electrification to redeem the innocence, Volkswagen was one of the great propagandists of the diesel. Once imagine that there is a market for some Golf GTI, in the economy version. That’s how you can describe it VW Golf GTD, launched in 1982. Aesthetically, it was a mistake. Fender flares, a grille with four headlights, a sports steering wheel and a golf ball-shaped gearshift knob—all the sportswear was there. And even the chassis setup was close to the GTI. But of course the badge was different. GTD announced the color: there was a diesel engine under the hood.

Ancestor of TDI

Better than diesel, it was one of the first engines turbodiesel to equip a car of this category. This allowed the 1.6-liter unit to develop 70 hp. (instead of 54 hp in a simple Golf diesel). Power is still quite far from 112 hp. of the Golf GTI of the time, but the GTD made up for it with 133Nm of torque, which was only 20Nm behind the GTI, but which only sent it all up to 1500rpm. In short, without being flashy, the VW Golf GTD still had enough to offer some driving pleasure. Apparently, these were the beginnings of a recipe for TDI enginesto which VW owes decades of success and… its infamy.

Impeccable

So this is the VW Golf GTD we found at Collecting Cars international car auction. She is from 1982, which makes it one of the first in the world. According to the site, it displays a little more than 121,000 km on the clock, and would only know 4 owners, the first of which kept the car until 2012. Anyone who had a gas turbine in their hands must have been very scrupulous, because this example is “in its own juice”. Never restored, kept in excellent conditionas seen in the pictures.

full resume

With all transparency, the seller mentions several small dents, gravel chips and other body defects. Recent mechanical interventions are also listed and the car is being sold with a full service history. The Key That Kills: Pioneer cassette radio, perfectly vintage. This is a great first generation VW Golf GTD for sale in Italy, where she lived all her life. In our opinion, this is a bargain not to be missed. Because if the original Golf GTI is certainly more desirable, the GTD is infinitely more very rare Today. And yet, it’s also infinitely cheaper.

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