Used Car of the Day: 1996 Volkswagen Derby

by Tim Healey

Published: April 18th, 2024

used car of the day 1996 volkswagen derby

Today we bring you a car that wasn't, to my knowledge, sold new in the United States. It's a Mexican-spec Volkswagen Derby. Which was basically a rebadged SEAT Cordoba.

Basically, the car was built in Mexico using parts from Spain.

This particular example has about 82,000 miles on it and a five-speed manual. It apparently has just 90 horsepower from the 1.8-liter engine (some Googling shows that there are different versions of that engine, and indeed one version does make 90 hp).

There are no airbags, due to the different European safety standards of the time.

A tuneup has been done recently, the battery is new, and so are the tires. The clutch is new, too.

This car is based in Mexico, and it appears that the seller may be a dealer. So keep that in mind. Nothing against dealers, of course, but the buying experience, especially with a car based over the border, may be different than with a private seller. Importing vehicles can be tricky, too, but this car is more than 25 years old. That should make things easier.

If you want to check it out, the price is $5,200 and you can see more by clicking here.

[Images: Seller]

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#Volkswagen #SEAT #SEATCordoba #VolkswagenDerby #Mexico #VW #1996VolkswagenDerby #UsedCars #UCOTD #UsedCaroftheDay

Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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4 of 7 comments

MaintenanceCosts on Apr 18, 2024

So this is really just a restyled VW Fox. Craptacular tin can but fun to drive in a "makes ordinary traffic seem like a NASCAR race" kind of way.

1 Reply
- Ajla on Apr 18, 2024
  
  "but fun to drive in a "makes ordinary traffic seem like a NASCAR race" kind of way."
  That's how I felt when I drove my Diplomat in heavier Interstate traffic. I wasn't a fan personally.
  Driving something from pre1970 is actually nicer because you'll usually get a little "classic car courtesy".
  
  1
- MaintenanceCosts on Apr 19, 2024
  
  I think a car has to be somewhat agile to make that sort of thing fun. One of my families growing up had a 1.0L Subaru Justy (1900 lbs with me sitting in it) hanging around, and I honestly had a blast just keeping up with traffic in it. I don't think an equally slow two-ton sedan would have been nearly as fun.
  
  Like
FreedMike on Apr 18, 2024

Apparently this car, which doesn't comply to U.S. regs, is in Nogales, Mexico. What could possibly go wrong with this transaction?

2 Reply
- See 1 previous
- Theflyersfan on Apr 19, 2024
  
  Day 1: Arrived at the border after a wonderful drive through Mexico. My friend who came along for the trip has never been through Arizona and Mexico so this will be a fun trip for the both of us. I can't wait to see this car!
  Day 2: Stayed at a nice hotel in town. Called the seller. He is sending a couple of his friends to pick us up as he said that finding his ranch well outside of town is difficult and our phones might not get a signal. That works. I know enough Spanish to kind of talk with them. Here they are now. That's a nice van the have!
  Day 3: Something has gone horribly wrong. We were jumped in the lot of the hotel. I swear I saw the hotel manager look the other way before a bag was put over my face. I heard my friend hit the ground hard after being slammed from behind. The bag smelled funny and I think I fell asleep as when I came to, we were done moving. I don't know where we are.
  Day 4: I know what they want. They think we are rich Americans and are trying to shake me and my family down for cash. I told them that we have just graduated from school and we don't have a lot of money. I was called a liar and I think punched hard as when I came to, I could taste blood in my mouth. This is getting serious. My friend, I have no idea where they took him.
  Day 10: I am starting to think that I am not going to leave this dungeon. They took the money I was going to use to buy this car. They have probably spent what they could on my credit and debit card. They have told me that I am never going to leave until I can give them more money. I don't have it.
  Day 30: Something about kidneys and the end. All of this over a VW. F*** VW...
  
  6
- SCE to AUX on Apr 19, 2024
  
  Yeah, I'm trying to figure out just who would cross the border to buy a 28-year-old VW.
  
  Like

Recent Comments

TheEndlessEnigma I would mandate the elimination of all autonomous driving tech in automobiles. And specifically for GM....sorry....gm....I would mandate On Star be offered as an option only.Not quite the question you asked but.....you asked.
MaintenanceCosts There's not a lot of meat to this (or to an argument in the opposite direction) without some data comparing the respective frequency of "good" activations that prevent a collision and false alarms. The studies I see show between 25% and 40% reduction in rear-end crashes where AEB is installed, so we have one side of that equation, but there doesn't seem to be much if any data out there on the frequency of false activations, especially false activations that cause a collision.
Zerocred Automatic emergency braking scared the hell out of me. I was coming up on a line of stopped cars that the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) thought was too fast and it blared out an incredibly loud warbling sound while applying the brakes. I had the car under control and wasn’t in danger of hitting anything. It was one of those ‘wtf just happened’ moments.I like adaptive cruise control, the backup camera and the warning about approaching emergency vehicles. I’m ambivalent  about rear cross traffic alert and all the different tones if it thinks I’m too close to anything. I turned off lane keep assist, auto start-stop, emergency backup stop. The Jeep also has automatic parking (parallel and back in), which I’ve never used.
MaintenanceCosts Mandatory speed limiters.Flame away - I'm well aware this is the most unpopular opinion on the internet - but the overwhelming majority of the driving population has not proven itself even close to capable of managing unlimited vehicles, and it's time to start dealing with it.Three important mitigations have to be in place:(1) They give 10 mph grace on non-limited-access roads and 15-20 on limited-access roads. The goal is not exact compliance but stopping extreme speeding.(2) They work entirely locally, except for downloading speed limit data for large map segments (too large to identify with any precision where the driver is). Neither location nor speed data is ever uploaded.(3) They don't enforce on private property, only on public roadways. Race your track cars to your heart's content.
GIJOOOE Anyone who thinks that sleazbag used car dealers no longer exist in America has obviously never been in the military. Doesn’t matter what branch nor assigned duty station, just drive within a few miles of a military base and you’ll see more sleazbags selling used cars than you can imagine. So glad I never fell for their scams, but there are literally tens of thousands of soldiers/sailors/Marines/airmen who have been sold a pos car on a 25% interest rate.