this post was submitted on 18 May 2026
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VW Polo Harlekin

Source CC BY-SA 3.0 Thomas doerfer

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[–] SW42@lemmy.world 68 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Günther, we have all zese Body Panels in different kolors wat do we do wir zem?

Just Slap zem together and kall it a speshal Edition ja?

[–] Anchorxiety@reddthat.com 27 points 2 months ago
[–] plyth@feddit.org 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Almost. They made one car for a trade show to show off some new paint finishing skills. People saw it and wanted it so they made more of it.

[–] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 months ago

Naw it was a throwback to Beetle advertising from the 60s.

And

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (6 children)

Repair shop down the street has had one on their lot for 3 or 4 years now, now I know why...

edit Street view or it didn't happen:

[–] Sturgist@piefed.ca 18 points 2 months ago (3 children)
[–] wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ain't nothing but a heartache

[–] SavinDWhales@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

Tell me why?

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Micromot@piefed.social 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The one left of it is about 60 years old

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[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 34 points 2 months ago (9 children)

Specific to VW paint job called Harlequin. Looks terrible but is legit OEM paintjob and is super rare to see in the wild. If you saw one, consider yourself lucky. 10 times the luck if you saw one somewhere outside Germany.

[–] Soggy@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Looks terrible

Agree to disagree, I think it's fun and whimsical. People take their cars too seriously nowadays.

[–] Karjalan@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Knowing nothing about this car I assumed it was just a Jamaican custom paint job, as it's pretty much the Jamaican colors

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 6 points 2 months ago

It looks like an old beat up car for which the owner bought used body parts and didn't bother painting them.

[–] imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 2 months ago

To me, it just is a special kind of whimsical. I maybe not gonna like it as much as many nice colors some cars offer. But I'd take it over modern black/white/gray painted cars any day.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 2 months ago

Not even just rare, but each color combination is unique

There are websites who track their current known status

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[–] homes@piefed.world 27 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (5 children)

I had a jacket like that c. 1991. It was fly

[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'm guessing you're a white guy

[–] squirrel@cake.kobel.fyi 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 months ago
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[–] nahostdeutschland@feddit.org 25 points 2 months ago (7 children)

It kind of was peak car:

  • small (3,7 x 1,65m)
  • wasn't that expensive
  • no fancy electronic entertainment systems with subscriptions and problems. Just put in your System of a Down-CD and you're good!
  • Goes up to 150km/h, which is enough speed for everyone
  • Uses between 6 and 7 liters of gas. Which is better than your pickup truck
  • You can drive around with 5 people and transport more stuff than you think.
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[–] lasta@piefed.world 24 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I was curious what color would be used for the registration for these. Online it says that either the chassis/unibody determined the base color or they were registered as “multi-colored”.

I for one would love to see more colorful cars on the market :)

[–] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 17 points 2 months ago

The rear quarter panel is the original chassis paint and registration color. This one's red.

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[–] WanderWisley@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It would be nice if car manufacturers made fun, affordable, reliable cars again. Instead of monster trucks or high end luxury cars with paid electric limited performance packages.

[–] nomecks@lemmy.wtf 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That particular generation of Golf had some insane issues that only a German company could engineer. Did you know that the coolant tank would start leaking, and the symptoms showed up after coolant had wicked up the wiring harness and started shorting out the gauge cluster?

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[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 15 points 2 months ago

Hello, I'd like to drive around in an unsolved Rubik's Cube please.

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 15 points 2 months ago (3 children)

The driver's mobile phone:

https://gsmcollection.ro/product/motorola-startac-70-rainbow-edition-the-ultra-rare-multicolor-icon-of-the-gsm-era/


One of my teacher had a phone like that, but she drove a convertible 1995 Ford Mustang, and smoked using a cigarette holder.

Not sure what is says about my school....

[–] SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago

The driver's house

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[–] argl@feddit.org 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Almost perfect - only thing missing is a set of Ronal Teddy rims, like on this Golf Harlekin.

These were unironically great cars, would absolutely still drive today.

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[–] pjwestin@lemmy.world 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This car is dressed like it's got a sitcom on UPN.

[–] edg@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This should have been the livery for runabouts on Voyager.

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[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 2 months ago

I swear this was VW's equivalent to trying to cook with all the items in the fridge that are about to expire.

[–] rethnor@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

This is the Volkswagen Harlequin, and are very rare. Only 264 were made. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/what-is-volkswagen-harlequin-car/

[–] Wrufieotnak@feddit.org 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I just checked: your numbers are for the north american region for the golf Mk3 version, this picture is of the VW Polo III version, where apparently 3806 were made.

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[–] earlstilt@feddit.uk 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The Benetton Polo, there was a golf too and an F1 team

[–] squirrel@cake.kobel.fyi 6 points 2 months ago

Found it :)

Multi color Benetton F1 car

[–] mech@feddit.org 7 points 2 months ago

Wow, I was JUST looking for this color scheme yesterday, to recreate it in My Summer Car.

[–] Sualtam@lemmus.org 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ok bear with me:

A Fiat Multipla with this paint.

[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not just any Multipla.

The 1300 horsepower 1000tipla:

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] SomethingBurger@jlai.lu 4 points 2 months ago

It's a custom Multipla built by French YouTube channel Vilebrequin.

The channel ended but one of the guys created his own, and has started a new project: reach 500km/h with a Citroen Xantia.

[–] SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social 5 points 2 months ago

Buntglascontainer

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 4 points 2 months ago

It's like a kindergartener was asked to pick out paints.

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