Car: '02 touring
Years Produced: 1971-1974 (see note on production years)
Production Volume:
I'll write something on the individual cars at some point, but the tourings were neat cars that never got the credit they deserved. The tourings started with the basic '02 shell, straightened the windshield a little and cut off the back to form one of the first hatch backs. They came in 1.6, 1.8 and 2 litre carb versions as well as a 2 litre injected version using the tii engine.

The naming of the tourings is a bit confusing. First of all, most cars were badged as '00 tourings (e.g. 1800 touring) even though they resembled the '02 body (e.g. 1802) much more than the new class '00 body (e.g. 1800). Second, the touring body continued to use round tail lights throughout its production run, even though this extended into 1974 when the '02 sedan had switched to square tail lights.

Today the concept of the touring has been revived by cars like the Volkswagen GTI and BMW 316/318ti series. Having owned the latter I can say the '02 tourings were definitely ahead of their time--flexible space adds a lot to a great car.

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