Volkswagen Golf Country by Neo

The Golf Country was an all-wheel-drive hybrid of a regular Golf passenger sedan and an off-road car, made in collaboration between Volkswagen and the Austria-based Steyr-Daimler-Puch between 1990 and 1991, taking after previous examples like the AMC Eagle and Fiat Panda 4x4. Effectively, Volkswagen provided the bodies and the chassis came from the other source, which included dozens of different modifications to make the Golf into a real off-roader. The most obvious are of course a heightened ground clearance, bullbars and fog lights in the front, a swing-out sparewheel mounted on the back, GTi rear lights, and larger tires, along with a number of other less noticeable additions. Only some 7,700 of these were made worldwide for those two years, making it somewhat of a rare oddity in the company's history.

I've always had a soft spot for these since seeing a comparative test drive done in a car magazine in 1991 against the Daihatsu Feroza and another off-roader I don't remember what it was (maybe a Suzuki Samurai or Vitara). This is a very nice model made by Neo, effectively a reissue of an earlier one they'd done years back, and really captures the essence of this car. Really happy to add this to my fleet.

And just for good measure, a few 1:1 cars I've seen over the years.