Volkswagen Coach round bout 1991 (#2002) & Nissan Serena!

Back in the early 2000s, I used to see a Volkswagen Coach cruisin’ around my neighborhood, right about the time my dad’s old Ford started actin’ up and was about to head for the scrapyard. Now, my dad pointed out that the plates on that VW were older than his Ford, which was registered way off from where we lived. I reckon it wasn’t often my dad could show me cars older than his own, but I never missed a chance to complain ‘bout that crappy ol’ Ford Sierra. We even started callin’ it 'sideways Sierra' since it was so light in the rear with that rear-wheel drive. Heck, it coulda been called 'Siddis Sierra,' too, on account of my dad bein’ from Stavanger.

That VW must’ve been an early ‘80s model in two-tone paint. Those Coaches were way tougher and longer-lasting than those old Japanese rice cookers like the Toyota Hiace MK2 and MK3, which had engines up front and were real nose-heavy. Then there was the Nissan Vanette, which was a rust bucket, and the Mazda Bongo, which wasn’t much better.

I had a teacher back in middle school who owned a Volkswagen Coach that had clocked half a million kilometers—300,000 on the original engine and 200,000 on a replacement. He tried to sell it, but sadly it ended up gettin’ scrapped. Dang shame, really, after all those miles and all that history.

One of my classmates drove a Volkswagen Coach for a while, too. He lived way up in the woods near where I used to go for cross-country ski trainin’. He joined in for a short spell, but of course, his interest didn’t last long.

This here Coach is the same one that appears in the 2013 remake of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s got six-wheeling action, plenty of lovin’, and a whole lotta mayhem. Badass car, smokin’ hot ladies, and tons of action—though the poor thing ends up takin’ a helluva beatin’.

It’s also the same model my scout leader drove, which I mentioned in a recent post, though his was a cargo van. #Volkswagen Coach was produced in South Africa all the way up to 2002.

Now, the Nissan Serena had a late ‘80s design that stuck around ‘til 1998. In 2012, I went to an orienteering event up at Mylla, way up in Nordmarka. There was this midlife crisis kinda family there—two parents draggin’ along a teenage daughter. Didn’t look like they had a great race, either. Looked like another family, who my folks knew, left ‘em in the dust.

On the way home, I saw that poor Serena broke down on the hill, with somethin’ danglin’ under the car. There they were, standin’ in the middle of the incline with the hazard triangle set up. I figure that girl’s all grown up now, probably turned out to be a fine young lady.

Earlier that day, drivin’ up the hill, we nearly ran into a roller skier—almost ended up under our wheels. By the way, you can trick out a Nissan Serena and turn it into somethin’ seriously cool, too!

Nissan Vanette is called Nissan Serena in Asia

The 4 pictures above show the VW Coach as it looked in South Africa until 2002.

The 4 pictures above are of the same VW Coach that was older than my dad's car and belonged to the family in the neighborhood