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The Therons were so attached to their 1981 VW Jetta, which had clocked up just 108 000 km over 32 years, all of it without collecting a single scratch or dent, they couldn’t bear selling it. So they donated their treasure to the AutoPavilion car museum in Uitenhage.
A 2008 Volkswagen advert features an old Beetle that gives a couple wheels for adventures, serves as their wedding car and then becomes a family car. When their eldest son turns 18, the same car, in which they rushed to hospital for his birth, becomes his birthday gift. Truly a family car!
One family who can identify with this advert are Kobus Theron and his family. The Therons were so attached to their 1981 VW Jetta they couldn’t bear selling it. So they donated their treasure to the AutoPavilion car museum in Uitenhage.
“Our VW Jetta has been in the family for 32 year and it’s meant so much to us we simply couldn’t sell it,” Kobus said in a statement. His father-in-law had bought the Jetta 1500 automatic for R7 217 in 1982. “In 1997 I bought it from him as a gift for my wife. She’s been driving the car until now.”
The car is in an excellent condition, considering its vintage. In 32 years it clocked up just 108 000 km, all of it without collecting a single scratch or dent. The original mats and seats are still in the car – only the windscreen has been replaced.
Kobus looked after the car with loving devotion – the Jetta got serviced annually, or every 5 000 km, and he personally saw to it that the oil and other fluids were kept topped up.
Selling it to anyone who might not take similar good care of it was unthinkable. “By donating it to AutoPavilion, we can also visit our car every now and then,” Kobus says.
-Shané Barnard
