VW has ended production of its historic Scirocco nameplate – for the second time.
The original Scirocco first debuted back in 1974, replacing the Type 14 and 34 Karmann Ghia.
For the new car, Wolfsburg switched styling houses, employing the talents of Italdesign’s Giorgetto Giugiaro.
A refreshed second-generation, this time designed in house, followed in 1981. Produced until 1992, it was pulled from Volkswagen’s line-up favour of the Porsche 944-baiting Corrado, in an attempt to take VW upmarket.
It wasn’t until 2009 that the name was revived in the form of the Mk3. The Mk3 received a facelift in 2014, involving some much-needed design tweaks, and has now finally ceased production in 2017.
The death of the Scirocco comes as Volkswagen streamlines its model line-up in the wake of the two year old ‘Dieselgate’ scandal. The three-door Polo model, a historic range mainstay, was recently axed, with further cars expected to be pulled in the near future.
Back in August, Auto Express the Scirocco would be reinvented as a sporty two-door hot electric coupe for its next generation, which will be based on the company’s new all-electric MEB platform. Volkswagen research and development boss Frank Welsch told the publication: “In order to use the Scirocco name – which joined the VW range in 1974 – there were aspects of the new car that would need to remain intact.
For me, we can only use [Scirocco] for a sporty two-door coupe. We are not clear on how we will do such a car, and are thinking whether we do an interesting concept based on our electric platform; this could be a great and fun car.”
Despite production for the Mk3 Scirocco ending, Volkswagen UK has confirmed that there are still a limited number of new already-built cars within its retail network available for customers to purchase.
