New York Times Scirocco article

[rogercv1 at gmail.com (Roger concha)]

*By DAVID PUNER *

Published: April 15, 2005
  
 RIDING piggyback atop a flatbed truck, cloaked only by the translucent 
dawn, a sunflower-yellow Scirocco recently arrived in Westmoreland County, 
Pa., sending a 1970's ripple through the region. The '75 Volkswagen may not 
have blown into town quite like the desert wind for which it was named, but 
at least one driver out at 5:30 a.m. took note. "Some kid in a hot red Honda 
pulled up beside the truck, and it looked like he was going to break his 
neck the way he was staring at the car," said Trevor Hill, the Sirocco's new 
owner. "Before the Hondas, these were big," he explained. 

Mr. Hill, 34, acquired his Scirocco on eBay after placing a last-minute 
$5,600 winning bid, then made an overnight trip to St. Louis to haul it 
home. "The more I looked at it, the more I wanted it," said Mr. Hill, who 
runs a garage specializing in Porsches and owns and operates Subway sandwich 
franchises. He figures he has owned more than 100 Sciroccos and, at the time 
of the eBay auction, had three (if you count the sandblasted 1975 carcass 
leaning against a wall of his garage). But he couldn't resist the yellow 
coupe. With its unblemished dashboard, a swinging-70's yellow plaid 
interior, unworn pedal pads and a dealer-installed AM/FM/8-track player, he 
said it was the most nearly period-perfect Scirocco he had ever seen. For 
another $1,000 he plans to make it stock-perfect. "It's a first-year car," 
he said. "I've seen four of them in my life." He owns two of those four.

When the Scirocco arrived in American showrooms in 1975, it was a distinct 
departure from VW's previous sports coupe, the rear-engine, rear-drive, 
air-cooled Karmann Ghia. The Scirocco was a front-engine, front-drive, 
water-cooled design. In North America, it was marketed as a car with German 
engineering and Italian style - a nimble performer that didn't guzzle gas 
and looked good. Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Scirocco had stylish 
quad headlights, a hatch and a wide-stance wedge shape. But the Scirocco was 
never a big seller in the United States, with only about 230,000 sold from 
1975 to 1988. (In the same period, more than 1.5 million Toyota Celicas hit 
American roadways.) Still, the car has maintained a devoted following and 
may be on its way to becoming a collector's car.

In 1975, the Scirocco, priced at about $5,000, was not inexpensive. Its 
roomier econobox sibling, the Rabbit, also introduced in 1975, was cheaper 
at $3,300. Unsurprisingly, the Rabbit had a bigger debut, selling 98,000 
cars in the United States that year. Only 16,000 Sciroccos found buyers. 

The first-generation Scirocco - officially designated the Mk1 - was sold in 
the United States from 1975 to 1981 with few major changes. The next 
generation, Mk2, was a few inches longer and had rectangular headlights, a 
more powerful engine (including VW's first 16-valve as an option in 1986) 
and softer lines. The Mk2 was available in the United States from 1982 to 
1988.

First-generation Sciroccos were notorious rust buckets. Of the Sciroccos 
sold in the United States, 150,000 were Mk1's and 80,000 were Mk2's, and it 
is far easier to find examples of the latter still on the road. And though 
Scirocco fans are devoted to the cars, they have yet to push prices into the 
stratosphere. Today, a decent-running Scirocco can still be found for less 
than $1,000. For $6,000 you can buy a pristine one, even an Mk1 if you're 
patient and lucky. 

"I don't think people see these cars as collectible yet," said Brett Van 
Sprewenburg, 36, who operates Scirocco.org <http://scirocco.org/>, a 
comprehensive enthusiast Web site, and is a software engineer for Eastman 
Kodak in Virginia. He added, "Cars are not a good investment unless you're 
buying Ferraris." 

Scirocco enthusiasts admire both generations. "If you're a Scirocco head, 
you tend to like the Series 1, but the lack of Scirocco 1's brings you right 
into the Scirocco 2, which has close to the same feel," said Eric Ryzerski, 
33, who owns a swimming pool company in Bedford Hills, N.Y. 

That distinctive feel has a lot to do with its weight. "They're very small 
cars by today's standards," Mr. Van Sprewenburg said. Indeed, a Scirocco Mk1 
is almost 20 inches shorter than one of today's smaller cars, the 2005 Honda 
Civic Coupe.
 Page 2 of 2) 

 Mr. Van Sprewenburg has owned a dozen of the cars over the years. "They 
look like little go-karts," he said. Driving a Scirocco, regardless of 
model, he said, is an experience that connects a driver with the road. "The 
car really talks to you," he said.

It speaks to nostalgia as well. "Guys generally like cars that came out when 
they were in high school," said Mr. Ryzerski, who has owned six Sciroccos 
(two Mk1's and four Mk2's) and has had his current Scirocco, a 1988 16-valve 
- the last of the Mohegans, since 1991, when he was in college. He said that 
over the years he had spent easily $50,000 on the car. "The bottom line is 
you spend a lot of money on it, even if it's in perfect condition when you 
buy it," he said. "And it won't be worth more."

Also the owner of a 1988 16-valve, Mr. Van Sprewenburg got his first 
Scirocco, a 1978, when he was 17 years old. "I was bit," he said. "This car 
is unique, unusual, cheap to run, easy to maintain and fast. Remember, the 
Mustang in the day was a four-cylinder. The American cars were big and slow. 
The Sciroccos were light and could turn," he said. "Did I mention that it 
was fast?" A stock 16-valve Scirocco had a top speed of 124 miles an hour. 

FUN-TO-DRIVE, inexpensive sports cars became increasingly plentiful in the 
80's, and the Scirocco's rising price put it at a disadvantage. "The 
downfall of the Scirocco," Mr. Van Sprewenburg said, "is they were too 
expensive. No one could reconcile paying so much for a Volkswagen." The 
price on a loaded 1988 16-valve had grown to around $18,000 - with leather 
seats, a sunroof, air-conditioning and other options, the Scirocco had 
become weighed down with creature comforts that some purists considered 
un-Scirocco. Volkswagen, which had continued to sell the car in other 
markets, discontinued it after the 1992 model year. Over its entire run, 
about 800,000 Sciroccos were sold worldwide. 

With time, Trevor Hill said, Scirocco values will increase significantly, 
"when people who grew up with these cars will have expendable money and want 
to buy them." Mr. Hill added, however, that there would always be a limit on 
how much someone would pay for a Scirocco. "Volkswagens are nice, but if you 
want the really cool Volkswagen," he said, "you buy a Porsche." 

Sitting behind the wheel of the yellow Scirocco inside his shop, wearing a 
Volkswagen baseball hat, Mr. Hill looked as if he could still be in high 
school as he fired up his new car. "It revs up pretty good," he said 
matter-of-factly, filling the room with fumes. "My wife thinks I'm nuts," he 
said with a trace of a grin. "She hates the fact that I have so many cars. 
She says, 'How many cars do you need?' I say, 'As many as I can get!' " 


On 4/15/05, Patrick Bureau <patrick.bureau@gmail.com> wrote: 
> 
> care to cut and paste the article, some of us really don't care to
> register yet to another web site just to read 1 article of news (as
> excited I was to read about it)
> 
> Cheers
> 
> 
> Gordon Forbess wrote:
> > Not a bad writeup. Who else on the list did this guy talk to?
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/15/automobiles/15scirocco.html?
> >
> >
> > Gordon
> >
> > 75 Mk I/Drake 1.9
> > http://pws.prserv.net/gforbess/scirocco/scirocco.htm
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Scirocco-l mailing list
> > Scirocco-l@scirocco.org
> > http://neubayern.net/mailman/listinfo/scirocco-l
> >
> 
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