I have had the experience of driving several versions..

The last 20 or so years of them have been very good cars, although not worth the money.

What I simply cannot understand is the adoration for the ones from before say, 1985...They were so obviously from the VW beetle parts bin it was embarrassing...(even the magazines used to point out how the oddballs like the 924, etc., were easily recognizable as having everything from window cranks to door hinges right out the VW groups' parts catalog - and not from the expensive end either...