1984 Volkswagen Jetta GLI Sedan MK1 MKI VW 4 door

1984 Volkswagen Jetta GLI 4 door Description

For sale is my incredibly rare 1984 Volkswagen Jetta GLI. It is a genuine GLI – the VIN number confirms this. It kills me to put the car up for sale, but as the winter approaches, I realize how impractical it is to have to store 2 cars (and have none to drive for the winter – my other car is an M3, so I need to make space in my garage and invest in a winter vehicle). The Jetta is perfect mechanically, needs absolutely nothing engine/drivetrain wise – it’s a blast to drive and is one of the most reliable cars of its age I’ve ever owned. I bought the GLI from a mechanic who used the car as his daily in the summer. He bought it from another mechanic (his partner) who performed an engine swap - it's a 1.8L 16v from a Scirocco. It's got a ported and polished head and a 5 speed manual from the same Scirocco - the engine was taken from a Scirocco that only had 70xxx miles on it. So it's estimated the engine has a little over 80xxx miles on it now - you can definitely tell the engine is a baby by driving it. Almost everything is new: new alternator, new OEM Bosch fuel injectors, new spark plugs, new ignition cap, new ignition rotor, new air filter, new ignition wire set, new fuel pump, new fuel driver wires, regular synthetic oil changes (just had the oil changed last week), radiator is a year old, the PO put a new high-speed fan in over the summer that's controlled by a switch inside the car next to the ignition, the sloppy shifting was fixed with better bushings by PO as well, brand new battery as of a month ago, and I'm sure I'm forgetting some other things that the previous owner just did before I bought it earlier this year. Part of the $1500 service I just had done on the GLI included a full up and down diagnosis of the car - body is in phenomenal condition with no structural rust at all. The shop was really surprised by this - only classic surface rust here and there on the underside. Nothing else. I'm unsure how many miles the body has, but I know it's not what the AutoCheck report says it is - I have no idea where the information on the record comes from, but according to the report, the car accumulated 200,000 miles in a one-month time span...that's clearly impossible. Somewhere along the line, there was a misrecording of information. As you can tell, the car had a very recent respray, so the paint is in phenomenal condition. The shop was extremely impressed with the car's condition and the way it drove, even before the tune-up. They recommended replacing wheel bearings at some point - not an immediately pressing issue, but it was next to do on my list. The wheels are OEM VW Steelies from a Corrado, and the mechanic that did the swap also put the car on coilovers. The PO included so many extra cosmetic parts for the car, including the original OEM US spec double-square headlights and a set of MK1 GTI circular headlights (and corresponding grille sets). He also gave me 2 MK1 Rabbit doors for the parts (mostly for the manual window mechanisms, as the passenger side needs to be replaced in order to work properly - was meaning to get to this by doing a simple swap of parts from that door). I’ll include all of this with the sale if you’d like the parts. The front seats are original MK1 Jetta seats, and the back bench is a blue leather MK1 Jetta bench. They don't match, but I was planning on sourcing a set of MK2 Recaros at some point anyway. PO also included another fan in addition to the high speed fan he put in that's a dual-speed one, although it's not as powerful.

As is the case with a lot of MK1s, the instrument cluster is extremely inaccurate, especially the coolant temp gauge (since the car has MK1 sensors with MK2 mechanics). The gauge was never calibrated to the new engine and hardware, so the info it reads is all over the place. On humid days, the needle will go straight to the top - this is something the PO dealt with and had diagnosed and checked plenty of times, and his shop and another shop he brought it to used a pyrometer to determine it was never even close to overheating. I did the same thing - after a full day of driving, I brought it to my shop to run diagnostics on the engine. Despite the coolant gauge reading high, the engine never comes close to overheating. Again, I was planning on replacing all the gauges and sensors with newer ones so that I could have gauges I can rely on. Heat fan only works on full blast, but the shop said that was a super simple fix too. So really the only work to be done is in the interior in terms of aesthetics and personal preferences. Interior has a lot of original parts, and all the necessities work, but my goal was to replace things inside to get it to the visual degree of the exterior. Nice to have a project car that is only a project in terms of the interior, not in terms of engine and drivetrain needs!

Things you can’t tell from the pictures: there are a couple miniscule rock chips here and there from driving. There is a small horizontal dent below the gas cap – it blends in and looks like a trim feature. The headliner was removed for the respray and was never replaced – same with the fabric covering the rear decklid behind the rear passengers’ heads.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions – I’m happy to answer any and all of them. You can call or text 4015334841. Buyer pays shipping, but this can be negotiated in the price. $500 non-refundable deposit required immediately at end of auction.

Rabbit Golf GTI Jetta MK1 MKI 1984 Scirocco