It’s rare to see a 25-year rule car like today’s Golf Country offered by a dealer, and even rarer that the dealer is willing to provide a warranty for an additional cost. Let’s see if the price of this oddball Vee-Dub is worth that consideration.

Yesterday’s suffered from what looked to be a good bit of rocker rust, which, when I think about it, sounds like the name of a band chasing their former glories playing the state fair circuit. The rest of the Benz coupe appeared intact and in good shape, but apparently, that wasn’t enough to build much enthusiasm behind its $13,500 asking price. A 67 percent No Dice loss was the result.

It’s hard to pinpoint the appeal of off-road 4WD vehicles to people who never actually intend to stray off the asphalt farther than the gravel parking lot of a roadside strawberry stand. The simple fact of the matter is that these sorts of vehicles — even those that only strive to look off-road tough — have long been a category that gets people juiced up.

Germany’s Volkswagen has a long history of building both off-roaders and cars that give the appearance of such capabilities. This is one of the former, featuring AWD, a front brush guard, and a raised stance for fording streams and clambering over rocky terrain. Heck, it even has an externally mounted spare since the tire is too big to fit under the boot floor.

The model started as the Golf Montana, a show car built for the 1989 Geneva Motor Show. Enthusiasm for that car got Volkswagen thinking that not building a production version would leave Deutschmarks on the dinner table, so the company engaged Austria’s Steyr-Daimler-Puch to assemble a production version of the car, renamed the Country.

This is one of about 7,700 jacked-up Golfs (Jack Rabbits?) so built over the course of the ’90 to ’91 model years. None of those made it officially to the U.S., however, so we know the country in the name isn’t us. Since then, a handful have made it here in private hands, and owing to the commonality of many of the parts shared between foreign and U.S. versions, it shouldn’t be too tough to keep it running.

Bodywork is standard Golf Mark 2, although with wheel arch and rocker extensions similar to those of the GTI. The bumpers are unique, however, as they have to carry the brush guard up front and spare tire in the back. Those bumpers, along with the headlamps and front wings, which have been stamped for European turn signals rather than American side marker lamps, are obvious differences between this and VW’s officially imported Golf. Of course, the almost five-inch higher ride height and Syncro AWD are other dead giveaways.

Inside, there’s some nice cloth upholstery covering the door cards and seats, including on the front Recaro sport buckets. Everything looks tidy and VERY ’80s. A five-speed stick with special lowered gearing mates the 97 horsepower 1.8-litre four, and seemingly, there’s no A/C to eat up any of those ponies, so wear deodorant when driving.

According to the ad, the car has 168,173 miles under its belt. That had to be calculated from kilometers since that’s how the car’s speedo reads. Not much more information is provided by the dealer offering it, although the seller does claim the car’s condition to be “very good” in the ad. It’s being offered “As-is” although the dealer notes that an extended warranty could be negotiated as an add-on to the purchase price. Maybe buying that would keep all those phone calls wanting to talk about even more warranty extensions at bay.

The asking price is $17,945, which, while at the high end for what these cars tend to command in this market, does seem to represent this particular car’s better-than-average condition and appearance. It’s also enough of an oddball car that it might be worth it just for the fun factor.

What’s your take on this Golf Country and that $17,945 price? Does that seem like a deal, considering the car’s clean presentation? Or is that too much to go up to the Country?

You decide!

out of Addison, Illinois, or go if the ad disappears.

H/T to Jason McDowell for the hookup!

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