July/August 2024

Dashing again

After mom drove beloved 1981 diesel wagon for 32 years, family finds a savior

By Lois Grace

Back in 1981, my parents, Richard and Jeanne Kile, bought a new VW diesel Dasher wagon, with a sunroof, narrow whitewalls and factory A/C. My dad was one of those guys who always wanted a car no one else had, and he indulged that by buying models the rest of us thought were a bit odd. 

That’s how he ended up with Vernon, my 1959 single cab VW Transporter. But before Vernon, he’d also bought a brand new 1957 Beetle, one of the first VWs in our area at the time. He’d even test-driven a Messerschmitt KR200, a three-wheel bubble car, before deciding on the VW. 

In the meantime, he had a succession of cars that were unusual, including a 1961 NSU Sport Prinz, a strange little two-seater with a two-cylinder engine. 

His diesel interest began in 1978, when he bought a new Peugeot 504 wagon. The Peugeot quickly lived up to its reputation for unreliability — even though it semi-successfully made a cross-country trip the same year — and he didn’t keep it for long. 

Enter the Dashing Machine.

Jahnai Pearson has taken the VW to heights not imagined.

The car’s name itself, Dasher, was an odd contradiction. It was among VW’s new line of mid-1970s front-wheel-drive, water-cooled models named Passat, but the company decided it should have a name North Americans could better relate to. (The Dasher name gave way to Quantum in 1982 and finally Passat in 1990.)

Mom’s ’81 was truly dashing in appearance, really lovely, and compared to the Peugeot it looked like a showgirl. Ultra shiny chocolate brown paint with a saddle tan interior, it became her garage queen. She loved that car, even though it “dashed” painfully, thanks to a power plant that delivered a mere 52 hp. 

The late Jeanne Kile poses with her daughter’s 1959 VW Transporter in the early 2000s.

The ’81s got VW’s new 1.6-liter engine, with improved torque. So it was slightly more spritely than earlier models that would need about 19 seconds to go from 0-60 mph. (The gasoline version for 1980 had a fuel-injected 1.6-liter four producing a respectable 78 hp and was more in line with similar cars of the era.) 

Even with the air turned off, driving the diesel felt like you were towing a barge full of wet cement. But the car was reliable, and easy on fuel, and Mom drove it nearly every day for 32 years and about 110,000 miles until she gave up her license at age 90. The Dasher, known as Buster Brown, then went into the garage and was covered carefully, to await whatever its future held.

Mom died in 2019, at almost 97, and we kids were faced with the monumental task of finding new homes for her three vehicles. Her 1971 Datsun 240Z, a birthday present from my dad in that year, was sold to a collector in Texas. More on that in a minute. Dad’s 1982 diesel Rabbit Pickup came home with me. And, our nephew Matt took the Dasher. He had always liked the car, and it was comforting to know Mom’s baby would stay in the family. 

“The car was reliable, easy on fuel, and Mom drove it nearly every day for 32 years and about 110,000 miles until she gave up her license at age 90.”

But Matt decided after a couple years that Buster was not for him, and he began looking for a new custodian. He found one at the Vintage VW Club of America’s Christmas Lights Tour in December 2023 in a Home Depot parking lot in San Jose. Matt decorated the Dasher with lights and drove it in the event. Jahnai saw it, approached Matt and said he’d been looking for a Dasher wagon. A deal was done.

Little did we know that Jahnai possibly loves this car more than anyone before him. As it turns out, we could not have found a better caretaker for a beloved member of the car family. It has been a wonderful journey for me to watch Jahnai get this car back to better-than-new condition. 

The Dasher cruises at a casual double-nickel speed.

Red flag in the 240Z deal 

For the family, the sale of Mom’s 240Z was heartbreaking and will always be a gut punch for me. Mom decided she wanted to sell the car herself, so she could be sure it got a good home. My older brother set up the sale with a collector of unusual and/or rare vehicles. The man lived in Texas, so if he bought Mom’s California car it would be going to the Lone Star State. Mom reconciled that, and the buyer came to see it. He was impressed with the original state of the car, the fact that Mom had been the only owner, and he loved the price. 

Lois Grace’s father, Richard Kile, was attracted to offbeat cars in the 1950s and ’60s. From top, a Messerschmitt KR22; a 1961 NSU Sport Prinz, almost as tall as young Lois; and a 1978 Peugeot 504 Wagon.

Uh, oh, red flag there. He bought the car faster than Superman could leap a tall building. He told my mother he was going to keep the car himself, he wanted to keep it original, it would live indoors and he was looking forward to displaying it at shows. The day it left, Mom stood in the doorway of the garage and watched him back it out. She had told me she didn’t want to watch it “drive away” — for once in a very long time, she was not behind the wheel. Tears filled her eyes as she turned and went back inside.

Then, three weeks later an envelope from the buyer arrived. Inside was a request that she send all the original service documents, the paperwork for the car, the old registration cards and anything else associated with the car. He was selling the Z, and the new buyer wanted this documentation. 

We were appalled. Mom was crushed. After all the assurances he’d given us that he would keep the car and not sell it, he had apparently changed his mind. Instead of being sad about this, my mother got angry. I was often the target of that anger growing up, so I knew it well! 

My brother asked, “So what should we do?” And she told him, “I have no intention of sending him anything,” and she stomped off, as well as anyone who was 92 years old could actually stomp. It was effective though as we never mentioned the buyer or that letter again. And he never followed up. 

The Dasher earned three awards at a show near Sacramento, California: Outstanding VW Water Cooled; Outstanding Unrestored; and Outstanding Station Wagon.

Dasher lovers salute Buster

But the Dasher story makes up for the loss of the 240Z. My mother is not here to enjoy the knowledge that Buster now has the only owner who would treasure the car as much as Mom did. I am doing all the enjoying for her though, as it has really warmed my heart to see someone be so thrilled by this car. 

This Dasher wagon is not a VW model that is lusted after. The diesel engine makes the car even less desirable to some. But thanks to its new owner, Jahnai, I am finding that there actually is a segment of the VW population who really love these cars. And, at the top of that list, is Jahnai himself. 

The first thing he did after buying the car from our nephew was to share photos of it on Facebook. The comments rolled in, and I was amazed to see how many of his friends were Dasher lovers too! From that time on, it’s been one car show after another, at which Buster always wins something, usually a First Place or Best of Show. 

All I can think of when I see Jahnai’s photos are how tickled Mom would be by all this attention her former car is getting. He didn’t wait to start lavishing the Dashing Machine with care either. After noticing a marked shimmy and shake in the front end, Jahnai replaced the front strut bearings and did an alignment. He had the paint ceramic-coated and bought new narrow white sidewall tires for it, the same ones Buster wore when he was new. 

He reinstalled the correct beauty trim rings on the wheels. He replaced the missing passenger side mirror — the one Mom knocked off when she clipped a rubber garbage can. He even went so far as to order personalized plates identical to the first plates issued to this car. Mom had lost the front plate long ago, so the DMV took the remaining plate and gave her a pair with a new number and color scheme on it. Jahnai wanted the car to be as original as possible. 

Possibly the pièce de résistance is the original, VWoA roof rack specific to the Dasher wagon: if you have ever searched for one of these, you will know they are near impossible to find. Well, he found one, bought it and had it powder coated. 

The next project for this car? Getting the balky and stubborn three-way sunroof to open and close the way it’s supposed to. My mother was not a fan of convertibles or sunroofs and barely used Buster’s. But if anyone can get it working correctly, Jahnai can.

Speeding Dasher spurs quip for a cop

The Dasher had a lot of adventures in its life with my mom. She was stopped once in Wyoming for speeding through a small town. When the officer approached the window, she laughed because this car had never “dashed” anywhere in its life. The cop was unamused, and on the way back through town she had to stop at the courthouse to pay a fine. 

Then there was the time a truck carrying gallons of white paint lost one of those gallons on a turn, right in front of her chocolatey brown Dasher. I happened to stop at her place that day and found my 80-something-year-old mom sitting on the floor of the garage, desperately removing sticky white paint (lower left) from almost everywhere on the sides and undercarriage. 

And now, only good things will happen to this car, because of the adoration his new owner has for it. His devotion is priceless. What does Jahnai think about it? He only says, “It’s been an honor and a privilege to own Buster.” 

It’s a one in a million chance that you find the perfect caretaker for a precious family vehicle, and he is that one in a million.

Lois Grace | vlkswmn@sbcglobal.net

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

  • GOLF SPORTWAGEN: A Vermont member’s TDI sat parked for nearly 600 days after the diesel scandal, awaiting the part.
  • ATLAS R-LINE SEL: It’s not as cargo friendly as a minivan, but the three-row SUV lets you live large.
  • NEW CAR WOES: Consumers who once had many style options in a new model are keeping their existing ones.

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