A long story involving an underloved VW Coupe

A long story involving an underloved VW Coupe

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Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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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.....


Edited by Haddock82 on Monday 15th January 23:50

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Monday 15th January 2018
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that's enough for tonight folks

Part 2 coming soon.

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Friday 19th January 2018
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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?

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Saturday 20th January 2018
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Thanks for the replies!

I will update more as and when I can

As for the price remember it was 2005 when I bought it....

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Tuesday 23rd January 2018
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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...



Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Wednesday 24th January 2018
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Fermit The Krog and Sexy Sarah said:
Nice car OP, if not my thing as such. I assume you still have it?
Yes I still have it tucked up in the garage at home smile

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Wednesday 24th January 2018
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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.


Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Tuesday 13th February 2018
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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!


Edited by Haddock82 on Tuesday 13th February 00:47

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Sorry for the lack of updates, things have been hectic and not found time to properly sit down and carry on the story

Hopefully find some time soon to update this thread, I don't want to post up short rambling incoherent posts so bear with me! ;-)

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Wednesday 6th June 2018
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Blimey It has been too long since I updated this thread! Sorry!

Thanks for all the replies and comments, nice to see some other Scirocco fans out there!

Unfortunately this one is going to be a bit text heavy as I have little photo's from this period.

Where were we?.... Normandy!

Yes I remember now....

The car continued to be my daily driver for quite some while

Leaving it parked at work Mon-Fri whilst I whizzed around the country in various work vans kept the mileage down, but also left it sitting in a car park for several days. Despite CCTV and several audible warning systems in place around the building, the car was broken into twice.

Firstly just the stereo nicked, second time they tried to start the car and steal it. Luckily both attempts were thwarted but it did leave me with annoying repairs to carry out on the vehicle (Both time I billed my workplace!)

Around 2009 work was becoming a ball ache, I was travelling 30-40,000 miles per year and doing 60-70+ hours a week. Living in hotels Mon-Fri, then bed early Sunday ready to be up early for work Monday morning again....

Needless to say this put pressure on my relationship at the time, until breaking point and we went our seperate ways (albeit still to this day on good terms)

This left me in a quandary, I moved back to shared accommodation (Privately rented house with 3 others) which I'd lived in before and luckily some of my old housemates were still there!

Dah Dah Dah! Enter symbolic music and life changing event......

After a night out on the town with a few friends we found a restaurant that would serve booze past closing time, so off we trotted and were ushered in to a back room of this place.
Sat around we had some more beers and were having a good time, pretty much ready to go home.
Then a whoosh noise and my friend sat at the end of the table saying "Ow F*kin ell!"
Someone had thrown a bottle of beer across the room at the owner as he was walking round saying they were closing up and no more beer etc.
As you can imagine the bottle had missed the owner but cleaned smacked my friend in the back of the head!
Well the usual ensued... Knob heads decided to start some trouble and unfortunately my friend ended up worse off, luckily I stepped in and broke it up when I did (despite getting a few punches in the face) as he was quite badly injured. Still limited movement in one hand where he used it to protect his head whilst someone smashed a pint glass into his head repeatedly until it was just the base left.....

Any way long story and you are wondering why this is important?!

Well long and short of it is that my friend got some compensation money from this ordeal due to victim support and time off work.
So he used it to pack up and move to Oz....

Now i was recently single, no prospects as my job was bloody awful, no girlfriend, cheap rent, no commitments basically

I guess you can see where this is going?

I sold everything i owned.

The car; my guitars; my TV; Xbox; basically anything i could lay my hands on (that i legally owned)

I quit my job and moved back to the profession I was in before as it was short term contract work and easy to leave if and when I wanted.
Set myself up some contacts in Oz for work from previous mates that had moved there
The plan was to run around in the cheapest car i could find (A £150 Ford escort) just needed to last until I had enough to pack up and go off to Australia.

Said escort, bought from grandson of the owner who was selling due to stopping driving



Sadly the Scirocco of my childhood (mis-informed) dreams was sold :-(

I posted up on various websites & forums and eventually sold it to a nice chap in Reading

He know his stuff about them and seemed like a genuine guy, so a price of £899 was agreed.

4 and a bit years ownership and £200 up on the selling price from when I started! My man maths will discount the bills in between!


And there we have it, 2009(ish, it's all a bit vague in my head!) - Single, no Scirocco and plans to move to Australia

But then.................

Edited by Haddock82 on Thursday 7th June 00:29


Edited by Haddock82 on Thursday 7th June 00:31


Edited by Haddock82 on Thursday 7th June 00:34

Haddock82

Original Poster:

498 posts

139 months

Thursday 7th June 2018
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Sneak peak......