WHAT IS IT?

The B3 Passat was VW’s first attempt to field a true, near-luxury executive car. Interestingly, it no longer shared the same platform as the Audi 80, but the style was still unmistakably, late 80s/early 90s VAG, very much influenced by other “jelly bean” cars like the Ford Sierra and Taurus. What set the B3 Passat apart though was it’s brilliant, optional narrow angle V6 (VR6 in VW-speak). Smooth, powerful for the day, and fairly reliable the same basic engine family served VAG for many years.

WHY THIS CAR HAS BEST ONE ON THE PLANET CHOPS

B3 Passats of any stripe are rare–they’re firmly on the automotive threatened, endangered and extinct list. Having owned this exact car, in this shade of dark green metallic, (complete with the profoundly annoying automatic seat belts), I’m in a reasonable position to judge what these things looked like during the early days of the Clinton administration. This one looks like it could have been sitting on the showroom floor of Dick Dean Volkswagen in Kirkwood, Missouri. Given the fact that my car had lived a hard life as a service loaner/demo, this one might even be nicer. What’s truly astonishing though is the fact that it has over 83,000 miles on it. You could omit a zero and it would be totally credible. It’s for sale on Bring a Trailer and at the time of writing, it hasn’t even hit $2,500. RADwood royalty is seldom priced cheaper.