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Tuner Tuesday GCFSB Alumnus: 2002 Ruf Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S Concept

Tuner Tuesday GCFSB Alumnus: 2002 Ruf Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S Concept

Published November 14, 2017 by Carter

Update 2/16/18: After showing as sold in November for $14,900, the mega-cool Ruf Bug is back again for the same $14,900 ask.

It’s back!

This is a car which has haunted these pages since we first began writing up German cars, if you can believe it. Originally, Aaron wrote this car up nearly 6 years ago to the day – November 8, 2011. Back then, the seller was asking an incredibly steep $60,000. Three years later in 2014, Paul spotted it again and revisited the concept. It was then up for sale for a scarcely more reasonable $50,000. In both cases, it was really hard to justify the substantial premium even if it was a neat looking car.

Fast forward to today, and we’re finally getting somewhere. Although the car appears to have changed little since 2014, the asking price is now $14,900. Mileage is far below average at only 51,722 and condition generally looks very good. It has only accrued 10,000 miles in the last three years. Although this car lacks true RUF credentials, the general concept pulls together pretty well and the execution looks nice. Is this the one to have? It’s certainly a lot more compelling than a standard Beetle in many ways and has big dollar mods, but do those mods justify a $11,000 premium over a standard Turbo S?

-Carter

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 2002 Ruf Volkswagen Beetle Turbo S Concept on eBay

The below post originally appeared on our site November 9, 2011:

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2.Slow Double Take: 1996 Volkswagen Jetta and 1998 Volkswagen GTI

2.Slow Double Take: 1996 Volkswagen Jetta and 1998 Volkswagen GTI

Published November 9, 2017 by Carter

I was thinking about how to relate my feelings about the first few generations of water-cooled small VWs, and I came up with the analogy of the BBC Doctor Who! reboot in the 2000s. The first generation was Christopher Eccleston; edgy, completely different from the prior generations with a fresh face, impossible not to view with a smile but also something you didn’t completely trust. The second generation? David Tennant took ‘The Doctor’ to new levels of popularity; more refined, more fun and with an infectious smile, he was quirky but somehow much easier to live with than Eccleston had been. He also developed a rabid fan base that consider him the best (this author included) even if he had some faults.

Then came Matt Smith. There’s certainly a fanbase who appreciates Smith’s rounder, softer and…well, weird portrayal of the Doctor. I’m not a fan personally, and often find myself pleading with other Who watchers to go back farther because the earlier variations were much, much better. Yet floppy and oddly proportioned, Smith was nonetheless very popular and took the show to a wider audience. See the Mk.3 VW.

Not really the best at anything aside from being pretty expensive relative to its contemporaries, the 2.0 inline-4 ABA-equipped VW’s nonetheless outsold the prior versions. The were poorly built and even more poorly owned; this was clearly a move towards disposable automobiles for the company, and it worked. I never really got the appeal of the third generation until I somewhat reluctantly owned one. And you know what? It wasn’t as good-looking as my ’86 Golf was to me, but in every aspect it was better. It was more reliable (amazingly), got better mileage, had a nicer interior, was faster and had both heated seats AND air con. And both worked! Plus it had fog lights and more stuff fit inside. In short, it was just better at being a car.

While I still don’t lust after Mk.3 VWs, I can appreciate them much more when I see them today. They’re affordable and fun transport that’s quite efficient. In 1993 they felt huge compared to their predecessors. But today? They’re downright tiny. And though this duo has high mileage, they don’t often come to market looking anything like these two anymore:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1996 Volkswagen Jetta on eBay

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Feature Listing: 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit Convertible Wolfsburg Limited Edition

Feature Listing: 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit Convertible Wolfsburg Limited Edition

Published October 26, 2017 by Carter

In the early 1980s, there were precious few options for open-air German motoring. Sure, there was the tried and true Mercedes-Benz SL; a luxury car aimed more at boulevard cruising and polo club grand-standing than the Sport Licht moniker would indicate. Porsche’s 911 Cabriolet was certainly more sporty, but also too expensive for most to contemplate as a fun second car. BMW and Audi? The latter was over a decade away from having a factory convertible, and the former took until the mid-80s to introduce its drop-top 3-series. For the plebeians, then, the only real option was Volkswagen’s Rabbit convertible.

Rabbit Convertibles were produced by Karmann in Osnabrück, Germany – about a two and a half hour drive west from Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg plant. As they did with the Scirocco, Karmann’s distinctive badge adorned the model, here on the front fenders. The intensive construction process laden with chassis strengthening and bespoke items like the added roll-over bar meant that VW’s normal production line couldn’t handle the task. Although these were the heaviest of the A1 models, compared to today’s metal they were downright lithe; a manual early Convertible like today’s, even with air conditioning optioned in, weighed less than 2,300 lbs. While never the most powerful in the lineup, the light weight and manual transmission made the original Rabbit convertibles one of the more entertaining ways to experience compact German engineering and open-air motoring in the notoriously malaise early 80s.

While the persona surrounding the model, and more generally the people who bought the model new, tends to steer away from the typical ‘enthusiast’, the Rabbit Convertible has nonetheless moved solidly into collector territory. It’s a smart-looking, practically packaged and fun to drive convertible that can be run on a budget, fit four people in relative comfort and generate smiles throughout. In a world of increasingly serious automobiles, the Rabbit Convertible and Cabriolet models were just simple fun. Because they were so good at what they did, they’ve often been treasured more than the standard Volkswagen. But even then, few appear on our radar like this 1983 example:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1983 Volkswagen Rabbit Convertible Wolfsburg Limited Edition on New Hampshire Craigslist

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1977 Volkswagen Scirocco

1977 Volkswagen Scirocco

Published October 22, 2017 by Carter

If you haven’t been paying attention and like the early Scirocco, you’d be forgiven for thinking this was a cheap classic. But over the past year several exceptional examples of the first generation Giugiaro coupe have popped up and the result has been sticker shock. For a while it was only the GTI which generated really big numbers, but a niche appreciation for these little 2-doors has sent prices through the roof.

The first shot across the bow was in April 2016, when a pristine and original survivor ’81 with 51,000 miles hit $17,100 after 95 bids:

1981 Volkswagen Scirocco


That was followed in September of this year by two strong but not original examples; the New Dimensions Turbo example brushing up against $15,000:

First Dimension: 1978 Volkswagen Scirocco Callaway Turbo


And the clean resprayed ’80 hit $9,300:

Wild or Mild? Double Take: 1978 and 1980 Volkswagen Sciroccos


But the culmination of these examples was the best I’ve seen yet. It was a massively impressive ‘1978 that appeared throughout near new, and it was no surprise that bidding at the last moment rocketed up to $17,700:

1978 Volkswagen Scirocco with 27,000 Miles

So it was somewhat without surprise that suddenly my filters are full of early Sciroccos. Over the past few weeks, even more examples have hit eBay in what I can presume is an attempt to capitalize on the capital generated by these cars. The same trend happened a few years ago when we saw big numbers on A1 GTIs. So here we go again, this time with a pre-facelift ’77 model in California:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1977 Volkswagen Scirocco on eBay

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1978 Volkswagen Scirocco with 27,000 Miles

1978 Volkswagen Scirocco with 27,000 Miles

Published October 6, 2017 by Carter

Edit 11/28/2017 – though it reportedly sold for $17,700 this car has been relisted at $17,495 HERE – $2,000 more than the original listing’s Buy It Now option.

Normally I write fairly verbose introductions, covering the history of a particular model or some interesting tidbit about its history. Sometimes they’re my personal connections to the cars. I’m sure on more than one occasion you’ve wished I’d just shut up a bit so that you can get to the car. Today’s that day, because the presentation and condition of this 1978 Volkswagen Scirocco are so staggering I was literally left mouth agape looking through the photo reel. Enjoy:

CLICK FOR DETAILS: 1978 Volkswagen Scirocco on eBay

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