While there are dozens of high-performance vehicles now being offered with genuinely-capable turnkey off-road trim levels and packages, this was far from the case 30 years ago. And that’s a huge part of what makes the early ‘90s-era Golf Country 4×4 model so unique, as for a brief period, Volkswagen offered a lifted and kitted off-road-ready variant of the Mk2 Golf.
Looking like a particularly dated SEMA build, the Golf Country was co-developed by VW and Austria’s Steyr-Daimler-Puch and featured a slew of off-road upgrades. On top of coming loaded with VW’s Syncro four-wheel-drive system from the Golf Rally, the Golf Country also got new suspension and a lift kit that offered more travel and 8.3” of ground clearance, plus front and rear bull bars, a rear-mounted spare wheel on a swing-away rack, grilled fog and auxiliary lights, mud flaps, a skid plate, smoked taillights and plastic flared wheel arches from the supercharged G60 Golf GTI, a protective, full-length, sub-body trellis-style subframe, and a special set of Speedline wheels. Powering the Syncro-equipped model was a 1.8-liter inline-four engine that was good for 98hp.
The Golf Country also featured unmistakably ‘90s livery designs as well as equally-period gray tweed interiors with green, blue, and red accents and details. Originally purchased on October 9, 1992 in the Netherlands, the example seen here wears its original factory blue metallic paint and “Country” decals. Having accumulated only 138,764km (~86,223 miles) since leaving the factory, this 1992 specimen remains in just as good of mechanical shape as it does cosmetic, having been meticulously well-kept. Built for only a few short years, the Golf Country would only ever see around 7,800 examples produced (depending on whom you ask) before the car was discontinued. When coupled with their worldwide cult following, this makes finding one of these cars for sale extremely rare. What’s more, as turnkey factory off-roaders, most specimens were driven into the ground and generally abused — making this particularly clean 1992, for-sale example all the more noteworthy.
Currently being offered through Philadelphia-based exotic and collector’s car dealer LBI Limited, this 1992 Volkswagen Golf Country 4×4 (Chassis # WVWZZZ1GZMW630162) is available now with an asking price of $37,000. Alongside the car itself, the sale also includes two sets of keys, a jack with a covered spare tire, an extensive amount of documentation and service records, and its original factory manuals — all of which point to how well this example has been cared for over the last three decades.
