Rare Rides: A 1987 Volkswagen Doka, Hailing From Forbidden Manual Diesel Land
A familiar German visage greets the casual onlooker. “Ah yes, this is a Vanagon,” the American viewer thinks to himself. But once the eyes have scanned beyond the upright frontage and to the side of this white rectangle, a problem comes to light. Those eyes dart to and fro in disbelief. What should be there — the rest of the Vanagon — isn’t.
That’s because this is a Doka, and it’s the verboten manual diesel van-truck of your dreams.
Throughout the 1980s and until 1991, the Volkswagen T2 Transporter was available in U.S. Volkswagen showrooms as the Vanagon. With rear-drive or Syncro 4×4, Americans could buy the standard passenger van or Westfalia camper. Other markets around the world had more choice: Additional gasoline and diesel engines, more doors, larger camper options — you name it.
The Doka we have here is the three-door crew cab truck version of the Transporter, with the engine residing underneath the flat bed. It’s like the German successor to the charming Chevrolet Corvair Rampside.
As an aside, the Doka still persists today as a version of the global Transporter van. However, it has certainly lost some of the charm it once had, sporting a less well-integrated bed. The current version appears much more a utility afterthought.
The image above is of a concept yet to see actual production. It’s the Tristar, and takes the original idea of the Doka and adds mobile office features for the contractor on the go. I like it.
But back in reality, the Doka is presently listed on Craigslist of Seattle — some miles north of downtown San Francisco. An excited owner imported it from Poland under the 25-year rule, and titled it in Washington state. An unappreciative spouse is forcing the sale, however, if the ad copy is to be believed.
As the headline states, this is a manual diesel example with a 1.9-liter engine (0-60 time = maybe). The seller indicates the 1.9 is very common in the United States, but I’ll let VW aficionados verify the claim.
There’s seating for six people on a comfortable bench, with room in the bed to hold all your weatherproof luggage items.
There’s a big list of replacement parts listed by the current owner, so only cosmetic issues remain. It’s all yours for $16,000. Common abroad but unknown domestically — just what a Rare Ride should be.
H/t to commenter JohnTaurus for showing me this Rare Ride. Have a Rare Rides listing you love? Submit it to editors@ttac.com.
[Images via seller]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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He told the wife "Yeah I'll just sell it for 16K and all's good". Except he knows he'll just be keeping it, driving it, at that crack pipe price. It's an interesting piece, but it's a $5K truck and he knows it. He could have $50K in it, it's still a $5K truck with special thanks for all the time and money he threw at. I like to throw in the extra "Hey thank your wife for me." even though I never saw her (or know for a fact he's married), when buying cars or trucks for cheap but realistic price guys are taking a huge loss on, but sorry that's the way she goes.
Cory, updated have found the holy grail of Vanagon’s . Fantastic find. Thanks.