Since a lot of younger folks tend to rent houses or just move around from time to time, it’s fun to see the where cars I’ve seen and shot around on the streets over the years end up. These two are some of my older finds; in fact the Falcon was one of the first cars I ever shot when I started CCing in 2009. And now here they are together; is it a romantic liaison between two CC drivers?
Here’s the Falcon back in the early spring of 2009, when it lived in our neighborhood near my rental houses. And here’s its CC.
And here’s the Golf, back in 2010, looking almost brand new. I never did a CC on it, but Perry Shoar did a splendid Golf Mk2 CC here.
I haven’t seen either one in a couple of years, so it does my heart good to see them both again, and together even.
Most likely the Golf is the DD, and the Falcon is getting some rest these days, and under a carport too. What a luxury.
The 1962 Falcon Futura got a new formal T-Birdish roof in April of 1962, a time of year that Ford increasingly saw as a very good one to introduce new or revised models. In April of 1963, Ford went the other direction, and introduced the semi-fastback Sprint and Galaxie 500 XL. And in April of 1964, it was the Mustang. Maybe Lee Iacocca was consulting an astrologer?
This one has a three-on-the-tree, but a Ford UK-sourced four speed floor-shifted manual was optional, but not commonly seen. That was the way to go to coax some sportiness out of the Falcon’s wheezy little sixes.
The Futura badge is affixed with what looks like a pop rivet. The good old days.
The Falcon’s tail is exposed to the elements, but the elements here are relatively benign.
I didn’t take a lot of shots of the Golf. It’s picked up a bit of a minor scar on its rear wheel opening, but still looks very solid. I’m a bit surprised to see it still wearing those full wheel covers. Were those even available on European Mk2s? They seem to be a bit of a hold-over from the Westmoreland Malibu-Rabbit days.
I see these as quite compatible garage mates. And hopefully I’ll be able to do another update on them in 2021.
The Golf is an ’85, I believe those hubcaps were available that year only on this model but most often the base model just has the really small dog-dish-like covers on the center of the steel wheel. The grille has been replaced as well, a stock ’85 Golf would have square sealed beam headlights, switching to the Aero units for ’86 (like the GTI). It’s amazing (to me) that car is now thirty years old, it seems like just yesterday that I was drooling over them at the LA Auto Show…
Yes, this is an ’85 Westmoreland-built Golf with a replacement later model GTI-type front end. The wheel covers are original; my ’85 Jetta GL had the same wheel covers.
I am lovin’ the Falcon. They’re kinda growing on me, like moss.
Paul’s hunch about the “Malibu Rabbit” is correct. These wheelcovers previously appeared on the 1984 Wolfsburg Edition Rabbit, which also came with a front spoiler. A last-ditch effort to squeeze some life out of the Rabbit in the American market. I’m sure VW knew better than to try to dress up the Rabbit in such a tasteless and baroque manner outside of the U.S.
I had forgotten that the Mk2 Golf was ever equipped with square sealed-beam lamps until I saw one so equipped in Richmond earlier this year. I suppose if they were ’85 only, that might be why I don’t have any memory of them–I was around, but a youngster, and the ones with the flush composites became much more common over their multiple years in production.
They do seem compatible driveway-mates, somehow…
Gotta say I like the original Falcon “bubble” roofline better than the T-bird style one.
Also, the buckets/console/column shift setup is just plain weird but I suppose they had a limited supply of Dagenham 4-speeds.
Oh, and the pop rivet dead center on the badge just can’t have been put there by Ford, more likely an artifact of a repaint.
Speaking of re-paints, the driver’s side of the Golf looks like it has a bit of a paint mis-match that doesn’t appear on the passenger side.
Meanwhile, the paint on the Falcon looks like a color-change from a medium blue to black.
As far as the console with a column shifter, as I’ve mentioned here before: Ford built “sporty” Thunderbirds this way…which I think is screwy. GM built the Camaro and Firebird with “standard” column shift on the base models up until about 1971. We should be thankful that the powers that be at Ford didn’t take that route, especially with the “price leader” $1995.00 Mustangs.
It wasn’t just GM. The sixties’ A-body Barracuda was the same way. The later E-body Barracuda and Challenger also came with a column-mounted shifter, but only with the base automatic (manual transmission E-bodies all got a floor shifter, even the base 3-speed).
Actually, every pony car except the Mustang and Cougar were that way.
Dad’s first American car was a white 62 Falcon 4 door 6 cylinder.
My German built 1985 Jetta GL came with those pie plate wheel covers from the factory. I’ve seen them in period photos from Europe too. They may have had aerodynamic advantages over other wheel treatments at autobahn speed. I never liked full wheel covers and took them off anyway.
The Falcon’s green license plate tabs are from 2014 or 2008 so either it is temporarily retired from driving or the owner did not bother renewing g the registration. Nice looking car, but is that the original paint showing through on the rear? Also, is that one of those fancy exhaust pipe attachments?
The Golf looks nice and if there is a paint discrepancy it could be caused by which side of its body faced the Southern (Western) side the most due to UV Rays. Wonder how they managed to bang up the fender like that? I do not think these Golfs are all that common in Portland, but maybe they are just invisible. My Godparents had a pair of 88 Golfs that were acquired in some type of buy two save money deal. The black paint and lack of AC was OK in Vermont, but not in Florida for family vacations. One died and/or rusted out, the other one would not start at -35 so it was disposed of and besides, they had a third kid by then.
I was wondering about the paint at the rear too. That interior is the same colour as Dad’s ’62, and here in Australia that shade of aqua with a white roof was one of the most popular colour choices on these. Between Dad and our neighbours, we had three of them – all looked identical, but all were optioned slightly differently!
Not too much to say about the VW, but the `62 Falcon is really cool. Sort of like a mini T Bird,especially with those seats and the T Bird inspired console. Possibly the best looking compact of `62,especially when compared to the Valiant or Rambler American. I wonder if it was available with a small block V8. Would have been nice.
The Dagenham 4-speeds weren’t tough enough for the American straight-sixes. Perhaps that’s one reason they are so rare. As one wag put it, “If you think the 3-speeds are paper in terms of strength, the 4-speeds are tissue!”
Never had a Falcon, but I owned an A2 GTI for 15 years..I’m coming up on a tie for that amount of time on its replacement (2000 Golf). I still miss the A2, though some things I don’t (need to reupholster the seat bolster material on a regular basis, and the lack of power steering (it was a pretty light car, but with the wide for the time GTI tires it was a handful to park, especially when I broke my collarbone).
The one think I still see when I look at any A2 is that huge piece of rubber that ran from the A pillar all the way back to the hatch, and had the weatherstripping attached to it…not one of VW’s better ideas, when mine went, living in the sunbelt as I do, every car in the junkyard had the piece as baked as mine was, and I couldn’t order a new one (I don’t think West Coast Metric had it at the time) so I went ahead and bit the bullet and ordered a used one from a “northern” wrecking yard…it looked like a huge hockey stick (they had to put stiffeners on it to avoid bending the “spline” which kind of had a memory so you didn’t want to bend it the wrong way until it was supported by the car’s roof and doorsills. Anyhow, after applying lots of grease, and many new clips, it was finally in place…helped me to keep the car a few more years without leaking water in, and it was “like original”. At least my A4 Golf has more pliable weatherstripping (and is still in good shape even after almost 15 years). Still, the A2 had lots of character…like the A1 Scirocco I owned before it…I miss it still.
Family member had an ’87 Golf, it was the same color as my ’86 Jetta. I found it for her and bought it, around 1997. Interior was the same color as the Jetta. As good as the ’87 Jetta has been for 24 years and over 300k miles, this thing was a pos. The paint job faded in 10 years and peeled, the Jetta’s paint is still good 30 years later. About 2 years after we got it the head gasket blew. It did have a bad radiator and rusty coolent when I got it, only paid $1500.00 for it so I figure it got really hot at some point so didn’t really blame the car for that. This was at around 130k miles. Wheel bearings failed on all four wheels. Seats padding fell apart quickly and seat covers also came apart soon afterwards. It always used oil, the Jetta never did and still doesn’t. That could be related to over heating before we got it. The dashboard always rattled and buzzed. The the biggie, the 5 speed trans failed, diff blew apart. Had about 180k on it. Just not nearly as durable as the German built Jetta. At this point it looked like crap, no dents but paint and interior were crap and it just felt loose and sloppy when driving, despite shocks being replaced, all the bushings, balljoints and tierod ends were falling apart. Finally got rid of it. The US built Golf was not well built. The Jetta has been a great car with no engine/trans problems and still is a daily driver.
it still amazes me how people keep buying old used European economy cars. When the warrantee is up on those things, they are worth negative dollars.
it still amazes me how people keep buying old used European economy cars.
Took a look at an Opel built 08 Saturn Astra yesterday. 62,000 miles. Negative dollars indeed.
Instrument panel gives a low coolant warning, but tank is full. Look inside tank and see Dexcool scum coating tank, probably coating failed coolant level sensor, probably coating inside of engine and clogging radiator and heater core.
Check engine light on. Salesman says he doesn’t know what problem is, and I didn’t bring my scanner. Probability is failed cam servos as they would have repaired it if the fix was cheap.
Absurdly short wire harness to rear doors. I didn’t try the windows or locks, but if they work now, they will soon fail. I wouldn’t touch a pre 2011 VW for the same reason.
I didn’t get far into it, but I already saw about $2,000 worth of issues, and that’s assuming flushing would get all the Dexcool scum out of it, and it hadn’t already overheated.
They wanted $7,400
Bleh on the POS Volkswagen.
That Falcon is pretty sweet though, one just like that one where I live that is someones daily driver.
I think the April introduction thing makes sense. I know my Dad used to buy new cars in the spring. That way it stays nice and clean for as long as possible before the first winter.
Maybe it’s just me, but an early sixties’ Ford Falcon and a VW together in Portland seems like the stereotype for ‘hipster’.
The only thing missing is one of those ‘fixie’ strippo bikes with the fixed rear gear and no brakes.
These two cars are not terribly common in Portland and this is the only Falcon I have seen this week.
I don’t think I have seen that generation Golf around here since the 90s. Several months ago, the German VW site has a pic of the latest generation Golf head to head with the Mk1. Amazing how much the Golf has grown in 40 years.
That was the beginning of a very unhappy time at VeeDub. The Westmorland plant closed in 88. They had bought another plant in Sterling Heights, MI, which they never operated and later sold to Chrysler. Reportedly they were nearly bankrupt in 93, and seriously considered following Peugeot, Renault and Fiat out of the US market.
All teenagers in Spain wanted to have a Golf GTI mk2 in the late eighties. It is still one of my favorite cars in the world. I was able to get my other dream car: a Cherokee XJ (and a bunch of repairs, ha, ha).
Beautiful cars.