even a golf with typical latam striped down specs (no center console, no glove box, manual windows, non adjustable side mirrors, etc) is OVER $20k

it seems to point down now, but who knows?

What does that even look like? I've driven plenty of old US cars, and power mirrors pretty much weren't a thing, but the side mirrors always were mounted on some sort of swively thing so you can adjust them. Big truck mirrors might only adjust horizontally and not vertically though, but I've never seen that on a car.