MORFORD: God Loves The 1974 VW Dasher

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 9/16/5 | Mark Morford

[SmithL]

Why my mom's old yellow econobox still beats the crap out of any new car on the road.

My mother, she had this car. It was a 1974 VW Dasher, Volkswagen's urgent follow-up to the then-sagging Beetle and a seminal stopgap car for VW in America as they were about to launch the Golf/Rabbit worldwide megahit and my mom's car, it was bright lemon yellow, the color of the sun in orgasm, the color of hope's underwear, the color of God's own Post-It notes -- which, by the way, hadn't been invented yet.

This Dasher, it had this tough brown vinyl interior and brutally antagonistic manual steering and rock-hard suspension, and it went from zero to 60 in about three days, and the engine sounded like a single-stroke lawn mower choking on a pillow and it took about an hour to warm up in frigid Spokane winters, but for the age it was simply a fabulous vehicle overall, efficient and trustworthy and solid and family-friendly and cute as a ladybug in heat.

But here's the great thing: This Dasher, it got at least 30 miles per gallon. Maybe more. Maybe more like 40. It was, after all, part of the small-car revolution, a response to the great U.S. oil crisis of '73, which ushered in the era of the gas-sipping Japanese econoboxes, Honda and Toyota and Datsun et al., all of which got equally impressive mileage and all of which, in terms of durability and efficiency, simply demolished the American behemoths, with their bloated big-block oil-sucking engines and their eight mpg running downhill on a good day.

And now, here we are. It is 30 years later. It is the age of the Internet and the iPod and Botox and laser hair removal and anti-allergy...

[SmithL]

Morfordite Alert

You've been warned!

[SmithL]

More Morford:

Response to Morford's orgasm column.

[Mr. K]

geez what a perverted jerk

[Yo-Yo]

God-loves-you ping! (That is if you're a VW...)

[Rebelbase]

I had the Audi Fox version of this car about 10 years later.

[Yo-Yo]

Oh, my new Audi's mpg rating? It's 25 city, 31 highway.

Here is the funny thing. Here is the pathetic thing. In 2005, this is considered very good mileage. This is considered efficient and admirable, even though it's not, even though it's far, far from it, even though you look at those numbers and you think, Oh holy hell, we have, in many ways, progressed not at all. We have progressed exactly zero.

He admitted that his mother's 74 Dasher did 0-60 in three days, and his Audi does the same in under 6 seconds. Does he admit that his Audi engine does this feat while emitting 1/100th the pollutants that his Mother's beloved 74 Dasher did?

If he wants a car that does 0-60 in three days and still has almost zero emissions, he would find that car also gets 60-70 MPG.

Sheesh.

[Dashing Dasher]

LOL!!!

They named a car after me!!!

WOOHOOO!!!

Too bad it's not a Porsche!

[KimmyJaye]

What he writes about our military being "uneducated" and what he says about the war, is despicable.

The man is a perv and totally nuts along with it.

[mak5]

This is a typically false Morford article. What Mark doesn't tell you is that his mother's Dasher was no econobox. It cost more than double what a (ugh) Chevy Vega did. His gas mileage claims are pretty selectively remembered, too: Road & Track found much to admire in the first Dasher. "The Dasher's engine is part of the fun," it wrote. "Driven hard, it sounds virile and — as we said — provides lots of performance. It's also extremely economical for such a performer, and in this sort of driving the Dasher or Fox owner should get at least 25 mpg." This was not a pre-Rabbit/Golf. VW was already selling the Golf in Europe when the Dasher came out. And the 25city/31 highway he thinks is so fine from his Audi? It is about what my SUV gets on regular gas.

[chapin2500]

This was not a pre-Rabbit/Golf. VW was already selling the Golf in Europe when the Dasher came out. And the 25city/31 highway he thinks is so fine from his Audi? It is about what my SUV gets on regular gas.

The diesel dasher got Got well over 30 mpg and I believe VW, on the watercooled end sold more diesel cars in America during those years. What kind of "SUV" are you driving that gets 30 mpg? BTW morford is sick, just plain sick.

[SmithL]

There are some conservative voices here, but they're harder and harder to hear.

Morford is the voice of the raving lunatics that populate San Francisco, Berkeley, Marin County, etc., etc., who elect people lake Barbara Lee, Pete Starkey, Nancy Pelosi, and Barbara Boxer, and who hate America, God, and anything that appears to encourage moral values.

[mak5]

The diesel Dasher was not offered in the US until 1979. Morford is talking about a 1974.

Diesels may well be the way to go now. They are getting excellent mileage and operating cleanly.

My Hyundai SUV is sold with a diesel in Europe and gets well over 30 mpg there (actually, I think it was 38 with the diesel engine). Unfortunately, it is not sold with a diesel here.

[DJ MacWoW]

I had a 1980 Dasher diesel. Golly I loved that thing!

[Argh]

Jeez, and I was just going to ping you about how lucky you are...

[DJ MacWoW]

Too bad it's not a Porsche!

Ferdinand Porsche designed the Beetle.

[B Knotts]

The two chief reasons why diesels are not sold widely here: GM and the State of California.

GM at least has done what they can to distance themselves from their misdeeds regarding diesel technology.

The State of California still embraces theirs (ridiculous anti-diesel emissions standards), which encourage fuel wasting.

Miss Morford should think about that.

[chapin2500]

Diesels may well be the way to go now. They are getting excellent mileage and operating cleanly.

We, in MA can't buy new diesel cars. They do get great mileage and have a lot more power than they used to but I must say the gen 3 & 4 VW are very expensive to maintain. I'm yet to see one with 200K on it. My customers give up on them when the turbo or injection pump goes bad.