This WTF Italian 4×4 Convertible Is Actually a Familiar Car

The Volkswagen Golf family runs historically deep. Want a Golf convertible? Then take a look at the good-old Cabriolet. What about a four-wheel-drive Golf? Volkswagen’s got you covered with the modern Golf Alltrack or the Golf Country of yore. But let’s say you’d like a four-wheel-drive Golf convertible? Bad news. Volkswagen never made one. Fortunately, another company did.

Meet the Biagini Passo. This four-wheel-drive droptop combines the underpinnings of the go-anywhere Golf Country with a number of exterior pieces from a first-generation Cabriolet. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of sorts that simultaneously manages to disgust and delight—a bit like Herman Munster, actually. 

Credit its brutish design, which includes tacked-on fender flares, a front bull bar, and an externally mounted spare tire. The Passo’s certainly no Murano CrossCabriolet, even if it’s fundamentally similar in concept. No, this Golf-based convertible truly looks ready to tackle tough terrains (the Nissan, meanwhile, looks ready to cruise down Rodeo Drive). That’s good, too, because the Passo’s measly 98 horsepower from its 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine surely struggles to get the little convertible up to highway speeds. Around town or on low-speed trails, however, the five-seat Passo probably putters about confidently enough. 

Good luck finding a Passo of your own, as Biagini reportedly built just 100 to 300 (sources vary) of these wonderfully goofy convertibles for central and eastern European markets in the early 1990s. Few survive today, though, as a general absence of rustproofing eventually doomed most Passos to the big junkyard in the sky.

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