A long story involving an underloved VW Coupe
Discussion
First of all lets get this out of the way....
This is a long story so either grab a cup of tea or beer and sit back and put your feet up or simply gloss over yet another VW scene w@nker!...
Right let us begin
This, as it shall be known "problem", started way back when I was a young teenager. Living at home with the folks we lived in a small culdesac with around 20 houses. One day a young family moved into the close, a new thing in our world as most people were old and had lived here for many, many years.
New people were always exciting and unusual (this is the west country by the way!). Turns out the new lord of the manor(!) was a VW aficionado, being young and easily influenced I had always had a bit of a liking to older VW's. I really cannot explain why, especially now after owning several... OK lots of them! But something struck home with the styling and general "crapness" of them.
Cue new neighbour having a varied selection of old VW's, Type 2's (vans & campers), a notchback, squareback, beetles, 412 you name it he could find it! Then one day it happened....
Out comes the 1984 MK2 VW Scirocco GTX.... Something stirred in me.... It is very unusual thing to admit because lets be honest its a Scirocco... They never sold well in the UK, they were massively criticised against the MK1 Scirocco (which incidently for those that dont know came out BEFORE the MK1 Golf!) and generally maligned as an average coupe and I'll be honest they are pretty average for what they are. But I cannot explain it, some of you will sit there and laugh and you are more than entitled to, why didn't he pick a Porsche or Lotus? Again I can't explain it, it just happened. As soon as I saw that first MK2 GTX I knew one day I would have one!
Fast forward a year or two and driving license bagged I bought my first car. A ford mondeo... I know what you are thinking What the Fudge!
Well at the time I was commuting for work full time and needed a cheap(ish) reliable car that wouldn't cost the earth to buy and insure. So the mundane fit the bill fairly well. It was cheap, it was large(ish) for an 18 year old and it was reasonably quick.
Boredom ensued.... Much much much boredom.. Even a few teenage Max Power "mods" with some aftermarket alloy wheels and subwoofer couldn't cure the boredom. So time to start looking for car number 2.
A friend was emigrating and happened to own a 1970 VW Beetle. As they were off on their travels very soon a deal was struck quickly and reasonably priced.
The Mundane was sold asap and the Beetle became the "daily"
I wont go into too much detail here on this one as that is a story for the grandkids but much hilarity ensued.... The piston rings going 2 weeks into ownership. Buying a replacement engine mid argument with 2 other people.... The rear wheel falling off whilst driving and over taking me whilst I scraped to a halt.... You get the gist, just your general everyday Beetle ownership
Here she is in all her glory...
Horrid car, horrid horrid horrid! But at the time it was the best thing since sliced bread.
Lets move on, beetles are not great cars and all on here probably hate them with a passion.
We'll now have to fast forward through several awful cars (one of which was a Laguna! aaagh!) and onto the point of the post.
After scraping my way through university (got a desmond) I knuckled down and found a job, moved to a new town and got on with trying to be some sort of adult. This did not last long.
Several sensible cars later I had had enough. Time to bite the bullet and get the VW I'd wanted since a young whipper snapper.
Now this would have been a good idea if it weren't that, at the time, I could only really afford to keep and run 1 car. Something to get to work everyday and generally be my main means of transport.
In a frenzy of sensibleness it was out with the reliable, practical Toyota and in with the 1991 VW Scirocco. This was circa 2005.... In my head a 15 year old VW coupe was a good idea....
I'd known that this move was coming for some time, if not the more sensible head of she who must be obeyed (at the time!), but it was coming! A lot of research later and I felt i knew fairly confidently what to look out for when purchasing one of these average coupes.
I knew I wanted a "Scala i", one of the last made with fuel injection and no sunroof and it had to be red. HAD to be red that was a deal breaker!!
Within about a month of looking one popped up. A 1991 Scala i, Tornado Red, No sunroof, low miles and within budget.
I made a call to the seller and agreed that if as described I would pay full asking price no questions asked, so a deal was struck for a whopping £699.
Here is a couple of snaps from the original advert:
There were a few small problems before we could begin this decade plus journey.
The car was in Birmingham, I was in Cambridge, Nothing major there, scabbed a lift off a friend to pick it up.
Second problem was the clutch was slipping, I must point out the seller fully disclosed this at the point of sale and a quick test drive revealed it wasn't too bad, only slipping in 5th, so I knew I could make it home and had a few months driving ahead.
With £700 cash in my hand a deal was done, the £1 change from the £699 asking price was exchanged for a well eared copy of the Haynes manual.
Lets get her home.....
This is a long story so either grab a cup of tea or beer and sit back and put your feet up or simply gloss over yet another VW scene w@nker!...
Right let us begin
This, as it shall be known "problem", started way back when I was a young teenager. Living at home with the folks we lived in a small culdesac with around 20 houses. One day a young family moved into the close, a new thing in our world as most people were old and had lived here for many, many years.
New people were always exciting and unusual (this is the west country by the way!). Turns out the new lord of the manor(!) was a VW aficionado, being young and easily influenced I had always had a bit of a liking to older VW's. I really cannot explain why, especially now after owning several... OK lots of them! But something struck home with the styling and general "crapness" of them.
Cue new neighbour having a varied selection of old VW's, Type 2's (vans & campers), a notchback, squareback, beetles, 412 you name it he could find it! Then one day it happened....
Out comes the 1984 MK2 VW Scirocco GTX.... Something stirred in me.... It is very unusual thing to admit because lets be honest its a Scirocco... They never sold well in the UK, they were massively criticised against the MK1 Scirocco (which incidently for those that dont know came out BEFORE the MK1 Golf!) and generally maligned as an average coupe and I'll be honest they are pretty average for what they are. But I cannot explain it, some of you will sit there and laugh and you are more than entitled to, why didn't he pick a Porsche or Lotus? Again I can't explain it, it just happened. As soon as I saw that first MK2 GTX I knew one day I would have one!
Fast forward a year or two and driving license bagged I bought my first car. A ford mondeo... I know what you are thinking What the Fudge!
Well at the time I was commuting for work full time and needed a cheap(ish) reliable car that wouldn't cost the earth to buy and insure. So the mundane fit the bill fairly well. It was cheap, it was large(ish) for an 18 year old and it was reasonably quick.
Boredom ensued.... Much much much boredom.. Even a few teenage Max Power "mods" with some aftermarket alloy wheels and subwoofer couldn't cure the boredom. So time to start looking for car number 2.
A friend was emigrating and happened to own a 1970 VW Beetle. As they were off on their travels very soon a deal was struck quickly and reasonably priced.
The Mundane was sold asap and the Beetle became the "daily"
I wont go into too much detail here on this one as that is a story for the grandkids but much hilarity ensued.... The piston rings going 2 weeks into ownership. Buying a replacement engine mid argument with 2 other people.... The rear wheel falling off whilst driving and over taking me whilst I scraped to a halt.... You get the gist, just your general everyday Beetle ownership
Here she is in all her glory...
Horrid car, horrid horrid horrid! But at the time it was the best thing since sliced bread.
Lets move on, beetles are not great cars and all on here probably hate them with a passion.
We'll now have to fast forward through several awful cars (one of which was a Laguna! aaagh!) and onto the point of the post.
After scraping my way through university (got a desmond) I knuckled down and found a job, moved to a new town and got on with trying to be some sort of adult. This did not last long.
Several sensible cars later I had had enough. Time to bite the bullet and get the VW I'd wanted since a young whipper snapper.
Now this would have been a good idea if it weren't that, at the time, I could only really afford to keep and run 1 car. Something to get to work everyday and generally be my main means of transport.
In a frenzy of sensibleness it was out with the reliable, practical Toyota and in with the 1991 VW Scirocco. This was circa 2005.... In my head a 15 year old VW coupe was a good idea....
I'd known that this move was coming for some time, if not the more sensible head of she who must be obeyed (at the time!), but it was coming! A lot of research later and I felt i knew fairly confidently what to look out for when purchasing one of these average coupes.
I knew I wanted a "Scala i", one of the last made with fuel injection and no sunroof and it had to be red. HAD to be red that was a deal breaker!!
Within about a month of looking one popped up. A 1991 Scala i, Tornado Red, No sunroof, low miles and within budget.
I made a call to the seller and agreed that if as described I would pay full asking price no questions asked, so a deal was struck for a whopping £699.
Here is a couple of snaps from the original advert:
There were a few small problems before we could begin this decade plus journey.
The car was in Birmingham, I was in Cambridge, Nothing major there, scabbed a lift off a friend to pick it up.
Second problem was the clutch was slipping, I must point out the seller fully disclosed this at the point of sale and a quick test drive revealed it wasn't too bad, only slipping in 5th, so I knew I could make it home and had a few months driving ahead.
With £700 cash in my hand a deal was done, the £1 change from the £699 asking price was exchanged for a well eared copy of the Haynes manual.
Lets get her home.....
Edited by Haddock82 on Monday 15th January 23:50
The journey home from Brum was reasonbly successful.
The slipping clutch was not too bad, the only hiccup being about 5 miles from home the coolant warning light threw a wobbler. A quick pull over revealed the culprit was a loose connection on the coolant bottle sensor. Shoved back on the light went out and the journey continued without any further events
So there it was, the coupe was home. The payment and drive back were painless. History showed it had a fairly uneventful and easy life up until my purchase, but now it would be pushed into service, what could go wrong?
The slipping clutch was not too bad, the only hiccup being about 5 miles from home the coolant warning light threw a wobbler. A quick pull over revealed the culprit was a loose connection on the coolant bottle sensor. Shoved back on the light went out and the journey continued without any further events
So there it was, the coupe was home. The payment and drive back were painless. History showed it had a fairly uneventful and easy life up until my purchase, but now it would be pushed into service, what could go wrong?
For all your effort writing that you deserve a response.
Re your car, I noted that this one had been for sale for a while, was £2.5k, then down to £2.1. Perhaps it still is, perhaps it's sold, I've no idea, however, if it's a general guide asking price for a Scala i you've got a bargain at £699, especially if it looks as good in reality as it does in the pics.
https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/1991-vw-sciro...
Re your car, I noted that this one had been for sale for a while, was £2.5k, then down to £2.1. Perhaps it still is, perhaps it's sold, I've no idea, however, if it's a general guide asking price for a Scala i you've got a bargain at £699, especially if it looks as good in reality as it does in the pics.
https://www.gumtree.com/p/volkswagen/1991-vw-sciro...
A long story it is indeed!
Where were we?!
I had the car back home and time to press it into daily service.
At the time I was working about 12 miles away from home so the commute was reasonably easy, plus I was working away a lot so 95% of the time the car was driven to work early Monday morning then picked up again Friday evening to go home (I was doing about 50,000 miles travelling in work vehicles)
The clutch slip was getting a bit worse, so I bit the bullet and decided to get it replaced before I had any major troubles. Through work contacts I got a local garage to fix the clutch and ended up needing a new flywheel too and all done at a very reasonable cost.
All good, so I thought!
A weekend away to Oxford with the missus came up and off we set. I think we made it about 30 miles before the trouble started....
I could not get any gears! Progressively getting worse from 5th down...
Some of you may be able to guess the problem? At the time I was fairly mechanically inept and a call to the AA saw a nice chap come out and promptly call a flat bed to take us back home. No trip to Oxford and a very annoyed girlfriend!
The AA chap asked "Have you had any work done recently? " - "Well yes I've just had the clutch replaced"
"That'll be the problem then, I bet you £10 there is no oil in the gearbox. Despite not needing to on these boxes, I bet the garage have drained it in prep for the clutch change and forgotten to re-fill it. Grab some gear oil tomorrow and fill it up, you should be lucky these boxes are pretty strong and hopefully you haven't done any/too much damage"
So next morning popped off anf got some gear oil, removed the drain plug and nothing... Nothing came out! It was bone dry.
Re-filled with the oil and crossed fingers, toes and prayed to sheeba....
And... She was fine! Gave it a good time to warm up and all the gears came back, no issues at all! And I've not had any problems since! A very lucky escape.
The garage that did the work got a rather sharp earful, to their credit they did offer to put any issues right if needed.
It was about this time that I heard of a small group called the Scirocco Register. I had used their forum to find the car in the first place and asked a few tentative questions about buying advice, but now I was a proper owner I dove straight in and got involved...
Where were we?!
I had the car back home and time to press it into daily service.
At the time I was working about 12 miles away from home so the commute was reasonably easy, plus I was working away a lot so 95% of the time the car was driven to work early Monday morning then picked up again Friday evening to go home (I was doing about 50,000 miles travelling in work vehicles)
The clutch slip was getting a bit worse, so I bit the bullet and decided to get it replaced before I had any major troubles. Through work contacts I got a local garage to fix the clutch and ended up needing a new flywheel too and all done at a very reasonable cost.
All good, so I thought!
A weekend away to Oxford with the missus came up and off we set. I think we made it about 30 miles before the trouble started....
I could not get any gears! Progressively getting worse from 5th down...
Some of you may be able to guess the problem? At the time I was fairly mechanically inept and a call to the AA saw a nice chap come out and promptly call a flat bed to take us back home. No trip to Oxford and a very annoyed girlfriend!
The AA chap asked "Have you had any work done recently? " - "Well yes I've just had the clutch replaced"
"That'll be the problem then, I bet you £10 there is no oil in the gearbox. Despite not needing to on these boxes, I bet the garage have drained it in prep for the clutch change and forgotten to re-fill it. Grab some gear oil tomorrow and fill it up, you should be lucky these boxes are pretty strong and hopefully you haven't done any/too much damage"
So next morning popped off anf got some gear oil, removed the drain plug and nothing... Nothing came out! It was bone dry.
Re-filled with the oil and crossed fingers, toes and prayed to sheeba....
And... She was fine! Gave it a good time to warm up and all the gears came back, no issues at all! And I've not had any problems since! A very lucky escape.
The garage that did the work got a rather sharp earful, to their credit they did offer to put any issues right if needed.
It was about this time that I heard of a small group called the Scirocco Register. I had used their forum to find the car in the first place and asked a few tentative questions about buying advice, but now I was a proper owner I dove straight in and got involved...
Don't seem to see these earlier Scirocco's around much any more. I owned a Mk1 GLi a while back and despite it being a looked after car it was starting to get crusty in places so I'm guessing most have rusted away by now ! The Mk2 seems a bit of a bloater in comparison. I guess it's like comparing Mk1 and Mk2 Golf GTi's.
MuscleSaloon said:
Don't seem to see these earlier Scirocco's around much any more. I owned a Mk1 GLi a while back and despite it being a looked after car it was starting to get crusty in places so I'm guessing most have rusted away by now ! The Mk2 seems a bit of a bloater in comparison. I guess it's like comparing Mk1 and Mk2 Golf GTi's.
Indeed very much like this.The MK2 Scirocco still used the A1 chassis and underpinnings of the MK1 Golf, but with a fatter wider body.
andy43 said:
700 for something in that condition is a bloody bargain! Looks very clean.
1.8 8v golf gti lump I’m guessing? Proper 80s style.
Hope you’ve got a selection of Now tapes in the fischer c box. Younger readers you’ll have to google that last comment.
Note that this was in 2005, when they may well have been considered shed level rather than upcoming classic. An easy detail to miss if you were skim reading. 1.8 8v golf gti lump I’m guessing? Proper 80s style.
Hope you’ve got a selection of Now tapes in the fischer c box. Younger readers you’ll have to google that last comment.
I owned a really early Scirroco mk2 GTI, silver with blue check seats and gold BBS wheels. It was a great car and had usefully, because my son was a toddler, a huge boot. I seem to remember It only had a single wiper which I think they changed to a standard double set up quite quickly. I went from that to a Golf cabrio and I’ve still got a Golf Mk1 GTI in the garage which I can’t bring myself to part with even though I’ve not used it for a number of years.
It's been a while since an update, apologies for the slow recollections of this long tale!
Where did we get to?....
What do you do when you own a slightly obscure under loved coupe?
You join the owners club! That's what you do
My resource for information about these cars had come from a childhood memory and a very useful internet forum
The Scirocco Register was my home for the next couple of years, sorting out problems and finding out about suitable upgrades
Time to bite the bullet and meet this bunch of vagabonds, I should head up to meet these guys at the "National"
Every year the club organises a "National" event, inviting all owners to get together and have a chat and gossip about the cars, but mainly chat b*llocks and have a p*ss up!
I've been searching for a pic of my first time attending the show for ages but alas cannot find it. I will continue the search another day and edit this post.
Needless to say the inauguration into the owners club was a smooth transition as soon as beer was mentioned
We'll come back a little to the Scirocco Register later on as it will play a large part in the role of this story
Alas what was a young(ish) 20 something lad to do with a VW coupe?
Roadtrip of course! And the first of many came soon.
After a night of a few (ok a LOT of beers) a long standing friend of mine (little did he know he'd later become my best man) and I decided that we'd take a road trip to see the D-Day sights and tour Normandy
So plans were made and I think it literally came down to the day before we were due to leave we both realised the only car available was my nearly 20 odd year old VW coupe! My friends "daily" car was actually a worse prospect than mine (a breadvan polo) and our partners vehicles (well my GF at the time couldnt drive!) and his other half needed her newer modern car for work so the Scirocco was the only option!
Good planning there!
So off we set one cold morning in March to get a ferry and visit Normandy
Now lets get this straight, we had a very enjoyable trip however the subject matter deserves some respect.
I believe everyone should make a trip to Normandy, if physically possible, and witness the sacrifices made that enable you and I to sit here and read this frankly inane waffling that I am spurting.
At the time i was mid-late 20's and still to this day believe that it is a very important part of history and should be treated with the utmost respect.
I won't go into details here of my opinions and emotions of WW2, however needless to say I am humbled by the men that stood up and fought for our rights and freedom.
A few shots:
Pegasus Bridge
Longue Su Mer:
Gun Emplacement:
Omaha Beach:
Azincourt:
French road:
I'll sign out for tonight by saying the car performed excellently
It only broke down once we were back on English soil!
The very next day that i was back safe & sound at home the starter motor packed in!
Again an easy replacement, by now my spannering hands were warming up and my DIY mechanical skills were improving. Mainly out of necessity as I had no money to spend on expensive garages and real mechanics!
Where did we get to?....
What do you do when you own a slightly obscure under loved coupe?
You join the owners club! That's what you do
My resource for information about these cars had come from a childhood memory and a very useful internet forum
The Scirocco Register was my home for the next couple of years, sorting out problems and finding out about suitable upgrades
Time to bite the bullet and meet this bunch of vagabonds, I should head up to meet these guys at the "National"
Every year the club organises a "National" event, inviting all owners to get together and have a chat and gossip about the cars, but mainly chat b*llocks and have a p*ss up!
I've been searching for a pic of my first time attending the show for ages but alas cannot find it. I will continue the search another day and edit this post.
Needless to say the inauguration into the owners club was a smooth transition as soon as beer was mentioned
We'll come back a little to the Scirocco Register later on as it will play a large part in the role of this story
Alas what was a young(ish) 20 something lad to do with a VW coupe?
Roadtrip of course! And the first of many came soon.
After a night of a few (ok a LOT of beers) a long standing friend of mine (little did he know he'd later become my best man) and I decided that we'd take a road trip to see the D-Day sights and tour Normandy
So plans were made and I think it literally came down to the day before we were due to leave we both realised the only car available was my nearly 20 odd year old VW coupe! My friends "daily" car was actually a worse prospect than mine (a breadvan polo) and our partners vehicles (well my GF at the time couldnt drive!) and his other half needed her newer modern car for work so the Scirocco was the only option!
Good planning there!
So off we set one cold morning in March to get a ferry and visit Normandy
Now lets get this straight, we had a very enjoyable trip however the subject matter deserves some respect.
I believe everyone should make a trip to Normandy, if physically possible, and witness the sacrifices made that enable you and I to sit here and read this frankly inane waffling that I am spurting.
At the time i was mid-late 20's and still to this day believe that it is a very important part of history and should be treated with the utmost respect.
I won't go into details here of my opinions and emotions of WW2, however needless to say I am humbled by the men that stood up and fought for our rights and freedom.
A few shots:
Pegasus Bridge
Longue Su Mer:
Gun Emplacement:
Omaha Beach:
Azincourt:
French road:
I'll sign out for tonight by saying the car performed excellently
It only broke down once we were back on English soil!
The very next day that i was back safe & sound at home the starter motor packed in!
Again an easy replacement, by now my spannering hands were warming up and my DIY mechanical skills were improving. Mainly out of necessity as I had no money to spend on expensive garages and real mechanics!
Edited by Haddock82 on Tuesday 13th February 00:47
Well now.
My first ever car was a 1898 red 1.8 Scirocco Scala (carb version) and I loved it. So much so that all these years later, after owning lots of much nicer cars, I still have a hankering to get another one as a little project.
I learned how to spanner on it too. Had to replace the cylinder head, cam chain, brakes etc.
Sold it because I took it to some dodgy garage to get the clutch sorted and then the gearbox packed in. I guess it could have been the same issue. Balls. I never figured that one out.
Most distressing story with the car?
My folks lived in France for years some time back. They restored a few houses over the years whilst down there. I drove down one time in the Scirocco and during my visit their Mondeo estate broke down carrying loads of cement, wood and other stuff for the house they were doing up. They called and asked if could come and get them. Turned up and my dad then insisted in trying to get all the stuff from the Mondeo in to the Scirocco.
"Just lift the rear seats to make more room" he says.
"I does not lift up, it is screwed in to the floor" says I.
"Nonsense" says he and proceeds, with bulging veins in his forehead, to rip the f
king seat clean out of the car, breaking the fixtures in the process.
Probably the first and only time I swore at my dad. I totally lost it. Still makes me angry today. In fairness this was the day after he lopped a huge branch off a tree whilst I was holding the ladder for him, and yes you guessed it - it fell on me despite my telling him that this was going to happen and that he needed to give me fair warning before it dropped. He did not even notice!
Other than that the visit was delightful and the car, apart from the lack of a fixed rear seat, performed perfectly. You would be surprise how much you can get in one of these cars – especially if the god damn rear seat is missing.
TD
My first ever car was a 1898 red 1.8 Scirocco Scala (carb version) and I loved it. So much so that all these years later, after owning lots of much nicer cars, I still have a hankering to get another one as a little project.
I learned how to spanner on it too. Had to replace the cylinder head, cam chain, brakes etc.
Sold it because I took it to some dodgy garage to get the clutch sorted and then the gearbox packed in. I guess it could have been the same issue. Balls. I never figured that one out.
Most distressing story with the car?
My folks lived in France for years some time back. They restored a few houses over the years whilst down there. I drove down one time in the Scirocco and during my visit their Mondeo estate broke down carrying loads of cement, wood and other stuff for the house they were doing up. They called and asked if could come and get them. Turned up and my dad then insisted in trying to get all the stuff from the Mondeo in to the Scirocco.
"Just lift the rear seats to make more room" he says.
"I does not lift up, it is screwed in to the floor" says I.
"Nonsense" says he and proceeds, with bulging veins in his forehead, to rip the f
king seat clean out of the car, breaking the fixtures in the process.Probably the first and only time I swore at my dad. I totally lost it. Still makes me angry today. In fairness this was the day after he lopped a huge branch off a tree whilst I was holding the ladder for him, and yes you guessed it - it fell on me despite my telling him that this was going to happen and that he needed to give me fair warning before it dropped. He did not even notice!
Other than that the visit was delightful and the car, apart from the lack of a fixed rear seat, performed perfectly. You would be surprise how much you can get in one of these cars – especially if the god damn rear seat is missing.
TD
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