Welcome back to Shitbox Showdown! I’m writing this on Sunday evening from drizzly Portland, Oregon, after having spent the day installing new flooring in my basement, rather than from sunny southern California, basking in the afterglow of what I’m sure was an absolutely epic car show at Galpin. It’s all right. I’m not mad, just disappointed. But whatever. I have something they don’t have – a line on two cool little diesel-powered pickup trucks for sale. But before we get to those, let’s check the final tally from Friday’s bad ideas:
Unsurprisingly, the running and driving project won out over the incomplete basket case. That’s probably the right call. But I do hope that LaDawri finds its way to the right owner who will finish it up the way it always should have been.
Now then: For a while in the 1980s, not only did nearly every automaker offer a genuinely compact pickup truck, most of them offered them with the option of diesel power. This option didn’t find many takers; small trucks were generally pokey to begin with, and diesel engines, while they did wonders for fuel economy, didn’t exactly help in the horsepower department. But the buyers who did choose them really seemed to love them, and hung on to them forever, racking up the miles one long slow freeway on-ramp at a time. These days, it’s impossible to find a small diesel truck like these with fewer than 200,000 miles showing on the odometer, and I’ve seen some with a 3 or a 4 in the first digit. Slow and steady wins the race, they say. Let’s see which one of these is the winner.
1981 VW Rabbit Pickup – $4,750
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter turbodiesel overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Vancouver, WA
Odometer reading: 281,000 miles
Runs/drives? Yep
Volkswagen’s entry to the small truck market was a unibody ute based on the first-generation Golf, sold here of course as the Rabbit. As such, this truck is front-wheel-drive –an uncommon layout for a truck. The only other small pickup driven by its front wheels at the time was Chrysler’s L-body-based Dodge Rampage and Plymouth Scamp. VW Rabbits offered the option of diesel power, so the pickup (also sometimes known as the Caddy) did as well. In fact, most of the pickups I’ve seen are diesels.
From the factory (VW’s Westmoreland plant in Pennsylvania, to avoid the “Chicken Tax”) this truck would have come with a 1.5-liter engine good for around 48 horsepower. It’s not quick. You could listen to the whole intro to “Blitzkrieg Bop” before reaching sixty miles per hour. Add a load in the bed, or a bit of an incline, and you’d probably make it through the first verse. This one has a bit more “hey ho, let’s go” under the hood from a later 1.6-liter turbodiesel, but I bet it’s still pretty leisurely.
The Achilles heel of this era of Volkswagens has always been rust, and this truck does have some. The seller claims there’s nothing “serious,” but those rocker panels look pretty ugly to me. A closer inspection is warranted, I think. The paint is still shiny, at least, though it’s missing the caps on the front bumper. Not a big deal – just take it off; these look pretty cool without bumpers.
Tiny and front-wheel-drive though it may be, this is a real pickup truck, with a payload capacity of 1,100 pounds. You can use it to do truck stuff, just like any Ranger or S-10, and you’ll get forty miles a gallon doing it. You just need to be patient.
1982 Chevrolet LUV – $3,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2-liter diesel overhead cam inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: La Pine, OR
Odometer reading: 245,000 miles
Runs/drives? Indeed
The LUV, of course, isn’t a Chevy at all. It’s a rebadged Isuzu truck, known in some markets as the Isuzu Faster. That moniker is even more ill-suited to this particular truck, powered by a naturally-aspirated 2.2-liter diesel making 58 horsepower. It’s faster than, say, a bulldozer, or maybe a 2CV, but that’s about it. The second-generation LUV lost the charming ’70s styling of the original, becoming boxier and smoother. It’s still a good-looking little truck, but I like the early one better, personally.
The LUV is a conventional body-on-frame design, with a longitudinal engine driving the rear wheels, like most other trucks. Four-wheel drive was available on the LUV, but not with a diesel, I don’t think. This one looks like a pretty basic truck, with a bench seat, rubber floors, and dog-dish hubcaps. The owner claims to be an old guy, and this feels like an old-guy truck, the sort of truck that has seen many fishing trips and hauled lots of mulch home from the local hardware store.
This truck runs and drives well, and has recently received new brakes and shocks, as well as a new water pump and alternator. The seller notes that it needs new tires, but they should be cheap. That’s sort of the beauty of a little truck like this; it’s cheap and easy to keep it on the road. And at 35ish miles per gallon, fueling it won’t cost you an arm and a leg either.
It also comes with a topper on the bed, which I’ve never particularly liked – I know it offers a dry place to carry things when it’s raining, but it also reduces rearward visbility drastically. The nice thing is that they’re usually either just clamped or bolted on, and an aluminum topper like this one is pretty lightweight, and easy for you and a buddy to take off and reinstall.
So there they are, two little diesel-powered trucks. They won’t get you anywhere very fast, but they will get you there. One is a traditional rear-drive truck, and the other is a front-driven ute based on a hatchback. Which one is more your speed?
(Image credits: Craigslist sellers)
Of course I LOVE old/small diesel trucks, but these both feel like they’d have cost HALF as much (or even less) just four years ago. Though that’s just our current reality, it doesn’t make the asking prices any easier to swallow.
Of the two, I’ll take the Chevy nee Isuzu. I’ve seen plenty of VW pickups since I was a kid, but not that many Luvs of any kind. Plus, maybe I’d get an ‘old guy discount’ from the seller and snag it for $3K, which is a bit closer to sanity. I dig its simplicity and basic, work-truck aesthetic, including the bench seat and roll-up windows. I’d remove (but keep) the bed cap and drive it as a daily, except when it was too hot (I assume it doesn’t have A/C).
Jeez, now I’m talking myself into it dammit! 😉 Thank goodness it’s a grand more than “F-it” money, and more than a day’s drive from where I live in SoCal.
Must say the VW pickup was slow, smokey and didn’t have much power to go uphill. It was not quite as useful as it could have been, with a few more HP. Also had a LUV. It lasted forever, never, never broke and hauled enormous loads of debris to the dump when we remodeled a hotel my family had. Nothing to say, “oh what a great car because…” Nope just ran and hauled stuff, loads of it for a decade and a half. It was also startlingly cheap new. Less than most truck tuner guys spend on wheels alone and never haul anything. The LUV was an honest work truck, it worked, didn’t pose.
Fun fact: the Volkswagen Caddy (as Rabbit Pickup is named in Europe) sold in Finland during the 1980s had the bed stretched to 185 cm, moving the entire tailgate, bumper, and taillamp assembly about five centimetres. The new finder fillers were custom-made and installed. This modification was to comply with the Finnish tax law as to qualify as a “commercial” vehicle.
Finnish Caddy and another Finnish Caddy
This was tough, I have always liked the VW pickup but the LUV is more interesting and in better shape. As a bonus it’s 30 minutes away where the Rabbit is 4 hours.
I’d love, he he, to have both as they’d make perfect teach someone to drive cars. Utilitarian, manual transmissions with little enough power to have to learn to feather the clutch just right so you don’t stall it on a hill, and old enough to be simplistic.
The rust is a bummer, but I’m looking past it to vote for the VDub. First-gen Rabbits and their kin are charming as heck. That said, the LUV is an outstanding survivor, and probably deserves to win.
I want a whole lotta LUV.
The Rabbit appeals to me but picking the LUV. At the end of the day, the LUV is probably more reliable (and definitely less rusty).
Some guy named Joe told me that the LUV would tow Mount Rushmore while getting 100 MPG so I had to vote for it.
I’d have to ask the owner of that chevy about how high the sides of the bed are. I want to know “how deep is your LUV?”
I prefer a Rabbit PU to a LUV because of that sloping hood, but I prefer THIS LUV to THIS Rabbit because of everything else.
I’ll take the stock LUV for less money over the VW with that non-stock engine.
I wanted to vote for the VW, but it was more expensive and in worse shape.
If only the LUV were 1980 or earlier, it would have my vote. So gimme that VDub.
I’ve owned two Rabbit Pups, one diesel one gas powered. I used the heck out of both, got huge numbers of miles out of them and the only thing the gas one wouldn’t do was pull my boat (which weighed about 500lbs more than the trucklet) Most useful vehicles I’ve ever owned…….except – at 5’10” I didn’t fit well in them. The upright rear windows in these really compromises your seat position.
All that said, I’d probably go with the LUV, it looks well cared for and completely non-stressed. With fresh oil changes and good fuel it will probably go another 258K.
LUV for me. Not only less money, but appears to have been LUV’d by the previous owner. Well taken care of and quite a few new parts. I actually dig the updated interior, except for the mass of blue that looks like what I’ve seen in spray painted interiors. But I like the steering wheel and seat.
The VW, even here in the rust belt, I’ve seen quite a few of these. I saw one for sale about 7-8 years ago in similar condition for $3800, and that was the going rate. So if I ever really wanted one, they’re out there. These went for a lot of money because they were a high mpg vehicle easy to run on fryer oil or whatever. And they were never really forgotten.
I don’t remember the last time I saw a LUV. Little sleeper in regards to mpg. And I could sleep in the shell if I wanted.
Luv due to the rust and price for the VW, but I kind of like the VW better. As I like to mention Regular Car Reviews, the VW reminds me of a clip where Mr. Regular is checking out his buddy’s beater diesel Rabbit. They start it up and the first quote is just “Wow that’s loud. Is it broken?”
I really wanted to vote for the VW, but the LUV wins this one based on price and condition.
Subaru BRAT: “Am I a joke to you?”
Yes, I’m aware they had a 4WD drivetrain. Part-time, though. 99.9% of the time you were in FWD unless you genuinely lived on a farm or something.
All you need is LUV, Luv, Luv is all you need …
SHE LUVS YOU YEAAAH YEAAAAH YEAAAAH…
Old VWs fill me with a bit of fear of the unknown (between rust, electrical, and general pre-Mk4 Golf issues).
Old Isuzu rebadged as a Chevy? Now there’s enough unknown, to me, that I would actually consider that it.
Had an ’84 P’up diesel, basically that LUV, rust was also an issue on those. Going with the VW as I think the smaller diesel might rev a tiny bit higher, redline on the Isuzu Diesel as any was so low that 5 speed didn’t help much, either 3rd and 4th or 4th and 5th had a big gap in trying to get up hills over 40mph, unloaded.
some say the answer is always Miata, I say the answer is always LUV/PUP. gimme the chevy!
Like both of these pickups. If the LUV was a 1st gen, I’d probably have picked it. The rust on the VW could be worrisome, but maybe not. I know four people who are still driving one of these and love them. I had a Rampage for several years and I really liked it, so I’m sticking with FWD Pennsylvania cousin. Rabbit me. Plus, looking for LUV on the street just seems tawdry.
I will go with the LUV because I have two experiences with these VWs and think they’re mostly junk. The first experience is when my dad bought one brand new from the dealer. He stopped to get take out food on the way home from the dealer and noticed a puddle in the parking lot of the restaurant. He opened the hood and found a massive fuel leak in the engine bay. This was a brand new vehicle.
My second experience was when I was in college and I owned a really nice condition ’81 non-turbo 5-speed Caddy. Even though it was in great shape, it was still a POS. The mirrors went out of adjustment every time you shut the doors, the plastics of the dash and interior were all aging in weird ways causing vents and things to pop out. Felt unsafe at 55mph despite brand new suspension, tires, and brakes.
Vehicles weren’t built that poorly before or after that period of time, so it’s my view that they are junk. I expect more of a vehicle.