1981 Volkswagen Pickup Reviews, Pricing & Specs

I’ve owned 2 Volkswagen rabbit diesel cars. The Volkswagen pickup is based upon the car platform just lengthened with a pickup bed. The Diesel engine is super reliable and gets 45 mpg. That’s the good part. The bad is that it’s severely under powered. At 52 hp it’s dangerously underpowered . That for the 1.6 liter engine, the 1.5 is worse. It’s naturally aspiratorated meaning that there is no forced or mechanical induction. It needs a turbo charger to make it mediocre at best. Now the is a 1.9 liter conversion engine. It’s a turbo with direct injection which doubles the horse power out put of the 1.6 liter. It’s also a major investment. Last time I looked these conversion engines were going for around $3500. With today’s ultra low sulfur diesel which is garbage, you really have to give some thorough consideration in buying one of these. Yes you can raise vegans rating on diesel fuel with additives. 2 stroke oil being probably the easiest. And a sulfur additive. For a real pickup I think I would go for a Chevy s10 or for ranger. Or even a full size truck with a v8 over the Volkswagen. Mar 09, 2020