Old money, no reserve: the Mk3.5 VW Golf Cabriolet

It’s a question I asked myself recently while driving through a quaint Wiltshire village where the houses are built from Bath stone, the English country gardens are kept tidy by a gardener named Jim, and Land Rovers and German SUVs grace the immaculate gravel driveways.

As I passed one house, a suitably well-heeled woman emerged from her cottage and placed her no-doubt-Gucci handbag on the passenger seat of her Mk3.5 Golf Cabriolet. Not a new T-Roc Cabriolet, god help us, but a 25-year-old Golf that most likely requires as much upkeep as the lavender bushes and bay trees Jim keeps trim for her.

The car looked entirely at home in the sort of village where houses cost upwards of a million and a new Defender is the weapon of choice in the daily school-run battle. Not some nouveau-riche footballers’ enclave, but the sort of place that appears on Escape to the Country.

Few affordable convertibles from the same era could pull off the same trick. Park a 2001 Renault Mégane Cabriolet on the drive and it’ll look like the cleaner has arrived. A 2001 Vauxhall Astra Convertible? That’ll be somebody who got lost while using Waze to avoid congestion on the A36. Even a Saab 9-3 Cabriolet lacks the aura of the original Saab 900 Convertible, once a fixture of the stockbroker belt.

It helped that the Gucci woman’s Golf was as well kept as her box hedging. Sparkling Indigo Blue Pearl paintwork. Cream leather seats. In my head, it still wore the original dealer plates and rear-window sticker from when she bought it new in 2001, probably from Dovercourt Volkswagen, back when she was a hotshot in PR, fashion or law.

A tired Golf Cabriolet with aftermarket alloys, cheap tyres, gaffer tape on the roof and lacquer peel on the bonnet wouldn’t make the same impression. But a tidy example, preferably in a dark colour, whispers old money.

Like every Golf Cabriolet before it, the Mk3.5 was built by Karmann in Osnabrück. While the industry was turning towards a new breed of coupé-cabriolet with folding metal roofs, the Golf remained strictly canvas. That alone feels more old money than the average just-stepped-out-of-the-tanning-salon coupé-cabriolet.

Sure, the Mk3.5 is essentially a Mk3 Golf Cabriolet with a Mk4-inspired nose job, but that feels entirely appropriate for our Gucci woman. Besides, the Mk4’s styling is ageing far better than the Mk3’s, although much depends on colour, condition and the complete absence of modifications.

And that, at long last, brings me to KB51 EAJ, a 2001 2.0-litre Avantgarde being offered without reserve at H&H Classics’ Buxton sale on 29 July. It ticks all three boxes: dark blue, remarkably well preserved and apparently untouched by the aftermarket. The cream leather seals the deal.

Supplied new by Citygate Colindale, it has had two former keepers and has been with its current registered keeper since 2010. It was in regular use until 2016 but has covered fewer than 10 miles since, so recommissioning will be required. H&H says it started readily and drove for the photographs, but no reserve doesn’t mean no risk.

What will it fetch? Far less than a good Mk1 Golf Cabriolet, that’s for sure, and a tiny fraction of the price of the premium SUVs doing so little for the aesthetics of our quaint towns and villages. If it’s good enough for our Gucci woman, it’s good enough for you.

Photos © H&H Classics