After about nine months with my first gen Scirocco, never-ending repairs and insoluble electrical problems led me to search for a replacement. As a college student, I was tired of spending what little money I had on a car that showed no signs of ever being dependable again (if it ever actually was). I was earnestly hoping to step up to a ’79 or ’80 Accord hatchback. Alas, while I had the sense to want something better, I didn’t have the cents to afford one.
So, I settled on a gen 2 Scirocco, reasonably though perhaps incorrectly figuring a VW dealer would be more amenable than others to a trade-in of my disintegrating gen 1. After thoroughly unpleasant negotiations with the combative sales manager, during which time the AC compressor on my gen 1 died – thanks for the parting gift! – I walked away the owner of a metallic red 1982 Scirocco. It was used but had only about 25,000 miles on the odometer (and the ubiquitous VW dashboard crack). I couldn’t help but be wary but thought a four-year-old car with low miles had to be more reliable than my previous one. Right?
For what it was worth (as it turned out, absolutely nothing) the gen 2 looked sporty and did feel more aesthetically and ergonomically up-to-date than something from the 1970s. It drove almost identically to the gen 1, which should have been no surprise, considering the cars were almost identical mechanically. So much for the very few positives. Trouble – a reckoning, if you will – loomed.
As with the gen 1, the head unit died not long after I purchased the car. The dashboard lights conked out about a month later, this time without any prompting from me. The oil pressure warning light and buzzer suddenly activated a couple of months after that and didn’t go out for the following two-and-a-half years I owned the car. A sickly sounding “meeeep,” not REM and Let’s Active, was my constant companion. The A/C blower died – no small matter in Georgia (I had transferred closer to home) – about the same time the oil pressure buzzer proved astoundingly resilient. After sitting in them for longer than a test drive, I realized the seats were plaid because they must have been made from recycled leisure suits. The dashboard cracked even more and then peeled like a $1.99 styrofoam cooler. The rear deck shelf was laminated cardboard, attached to the inside of the hatch by something like Pay Less-grade shoelaces. Knobs and interior handles fell off, exterior handles packed up and stopped working, and the vehicle rattled like a maraca.
It got worse. Despite the electrical problems I had in my first Scirocco, it remained fun to drive. In contrast, this thing was shoddy inside and out. The brakes were bad and failed outright twice. The engine stopped running right after about a year and remained sluggish from then on. I never bothered taking it to a mechanic to find out why (a bad fuel injector?) because, between being able to buy beer or continue subsidizing VW shops, I chose the former.
The last straw was in the spring of 1989 when the steering went one rainy Saturday as I was driving with a friend from Athens to Atlanta. There had always been a weird rattle emanating from the steering column. The rattle finally disappeared that day – as did my ability to maneuver the car. My mother had to come pick us up as we huddled in the mist by the Wolfsburgian POS. I had my final reminder that, with this car, every word meant no.
As I was writing this post, I looked for some photos of me with the Scirocco. Considering I had it for three of the most enjoyable years of my life in a town that was know for sweet Georgia breezes, safe, cool and warm, I was somewhat surprised there aren’t any. After all, there are plenty of photos of me with my friends. But maybe it’s not so surprising. Like a crazy bad girlfriend (and I had a couple of those, too) the car was good for Fahrvergnüthin’ and I constantly yearned for something – anything – else that wasn’t awful.
Even worse, despite the non-stop party train those years were, I can’t recall having many good times in it. Not even so bad they were good times like with the gen 1 Scirocco. Ever-present mechanical problems – especially the sluggish engine – meant the car wasn’t any fun to drive. The increasingly decrepit interior and constant meeeping from the dash made it embarrassing on dates. If romance was in the air, the crazy hazy kisses had to happen somewhere else. Whenever I do think of the car – which I do on occasion – I remember it with a grimace.
Okay, my friends still think it’s hilarious that I squatted out of it one summer, hatch full of Polo shirts and Duck Heads. Four of us had … Well, never mind what we did. I don’t know the statute of limitations in the state of Georgia and don’t want to raise any suspicions asking. Let’s just say we had to change residences in our small town in a hurry. One guy went out to LA to stay with his girlfriend, two others snuck over to our fraternity house, and my domicile was wherever in Athens the wind blew me. Fitting for someone driving a car named Scirocco, I guess.
Anyway, as a wrecker towed the unnavigable car to a garage that soggy day in 1989, I obviously needed something new. But what was it going to be – other than NOT another Scirocco – and how could I swing the purchase?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1982 VW Scirocco MK II – We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Italian Designers
Everybody knows that old Vokswagens are cruel mistresses. I documented my own struggles here on CC with a Eurovan I took a gamble on about a decade ago. And the aborted experiment didn’t prevent me from buying two more crapper Westies after that. I still have one of those, sitting in the driveway, inactive. It’s mostly a playhouse for my toddler now, lol.
Great writeup. It takes some self-deprecation to see the dark humor in the ownership of a vehicle like this.
I’m not sure if “insoluble” was the intended wording… but it works well!
I’m sorry yours were so unreliable, my family’s experience with A1 Volkswagens was much better. I guess the dashboard crack was a southern thing, more sun and hotter weather because none of ours had it. While it felt more retro inside I always preferred the sharper looks of the first generation Scirocco. I can still smell that interior, I think it was the same trunk carpeting as a Beetle since it smelled like my roommate’s 73 Beetle.
I admit that I have very few car photos from that era either, film was expensive. Because I did the dirty work myself owning older VWs was inexpensive. My mom’s 2000 Passat convinced me to avoid newer VWs and I have transferred my allegiance to Mazda.
1989? Not much money for a purchase? I’m going to guess with your luck either a Yugo GV or Hyundai Excel.
My COAL progression was from used Chevy Vega to used 1st gen Scirocco to new 2nd gen Firebird to new 2nd gen Civic hatch. The Civic was of course trouble-free, but #2 for reliability was the Vega. I had several small cheap plastic trim parts fail on the 3 year old VW. The dealer parts guy didn’t need to look them up; he just reached under the counter and pulled them out: “We keep these handy” he said. So far after about ten years, our Mk 7 Golf has been perfect mechanically and the interior looks and feels like new. It’s a good thing they don’t make ‘em like they used to.
My Golf VII is a 2018 model, and in eight years of driving there has not been a single issue. It always starts and runs perfectly. It seems that VW has learned at least a few lessons. For one, you’ll never compete with Toyota in cars like the one featured.
That reminds me of my second Scirocco which was an 81 that had the 16V engine out an 87. When I went to a dealer and mentioned the car, the parts guy knew the seller by name. I also surprised another dealer by bringing in the steering column to have the bearings replaced since it needed a press.
Door handles were a common failure in the A1 cars to the point where VW started offering a cheaper stripped handle as well as the complete assembly. It was annoying but I once did it in the dealer’s parking lot in 10 minutes.
My recollection is the late A1 cars were generally reliable and the A2 cars were very durable but the A4 and later were money pits.
When VW switched to building FWD cars, it was essentially like starting with a clean slate. And not unlike Hyundai, their first efforts were very much lacking in terms of reliability and durability. But why did it take them so long (seemingly forever) to get their shit together? Now Hyundai/Kia is totally eating their lunch.
“But why did it take them so long (seemingly forever) to get their shit together?”
One also could ask: “Why did people take so long to realize it was (has been) shit?”
People convince themselves that VW means the best engineering and assembly.
It means nothing of the sort. Basically, VW have been riding the myth for a long time now and they do occasionally make a great car. The first Tiguans were great, as were the 2013-up Polos. The GTi was ridiculously high performing and held together very well.
All in all though, I would not touch most VW products even as a last resort.
In the mid-70s, VW was facing the challenge of reinventing their product line when they were running (actually?) out of money. The FWD models helped get the company out of its liquidity crisis but there had to have been a lot of corner cutting. And even after the crisis had passed, they obviously kept cutting corners. This “gen 2” was just about the same mechanically as a gen 1. And though the gen 1 models certainly weren’t robust, they didn’t seem as flimsy as their successors. At the time – as things started breaking left and right almost immediately – I noticed how much cheaper and lower quality the ’82’s interior bits were than the ’79’s. (Again, not that the ’79’s were Mercedes-Benz-worthy.)
Related aside: There was no excuse for all the mechanical problems on an essentially 8-year-old platform.
German cars, even when perfect, always require “touching” . I’m a long retired German vehicle Mechanic and I still love the darn things .
My old W123 Mercedes’ always need some little thing corrected, adjusted or fixed .
I had two first generation Rabbit convertibles, both were seriously neglected and both gave sterling reliable service although my psychotic girlfriend at the time drove the ’85 right into the ground .
Either you like them or not, I still love my battered old 1959 VW DeLuxe Beetle survivor and ’71 BMW R75/5 Motocyle I saved from scrap in Feb. 2024, it now runs and rides a treat, hopefully this year will get prettier .
-Nate
W123 sedans are amazing until the vacuum leaks start.
Man, just reading your story makes me crazy!! All these years later, I still feel badly for you. And just like your story about the first Gen 1, I can relate to those years. However, I can’t relate to the car issues.
My first car was a hand me down that my parents purchased used at one year old with about 12,000 miles. It was a 1979 Toyota Corolla Deluxe Liftback. It was an A/C car with an AM/FM radio and one speaker. Auto and nothing else. It was a great car till about 105,000 miles when it began giving us minor issues. Dad thought it best to trade it and get a new car that would serve me well into college. Due to a friend of his, we ended up looking at a Renault Alliance and I liked it. But the sales person was an idiot and wouldn’t even look at me. So I went to the Chevy dealer across the street and found the Cavalier much more to my liking. We ended up ordering a 1985 brand new from his Chevy guy back home. That car was fantastic and serves us well and thus began my long running Chevy guy status with a couple of other brands sprinkled in for fun.
And thinking about those other brands, exactly two of them were VW’s brand new (2002 and 2024). And you know what? Both gave me issue. Especially that 2002 Passat. It took me 22 years more before I had the courage to try another VW and I leased a 2024 ID.4 EV. It was way better than the Passat years ago, but it still gave me way more issues than any of the Chevy’s I’ve had. So now I’m back to a 2026 Equinox EV and love it.
Any German car outside of warranty is INSANE.
Not much better inside, either. I know someone whose car was stuck at the dealership for 71 days…
Eric – you were kind enough to let me borrow/swap cars with me for a long weekend with a girl I was dating at the time to drive to my family’s beach place at Fripp Island. The only problem we encountered with it was running out of gas 15 miles from our destination! That’s also the same girl that somehow shorted out my main wiring harness in my ’76 280Z, rendering the A/C useless during the summer of ’88 – until I got the Fahrvergnǔgen bug myself and bought a Jetta. My lessons learned were to pay better attention to the gas gauge and be wary of uppity Chi O’s. Hope you’re well my friend.
Chuck: I forget, did the Scirocco’s gas gauge not work? Considering I rarely put more than $3 in the tank at a time back then, I probably just assumed 2 millimeters off E was accurate. Well, I guess it was, even if the gauge was broken.
That 280 had a lot more torque than the Scirocco. Between yours and mine, I wasn’t sure which car was more clapped out though.