At $13,337, Is This 2002 VW GTI 337 An Anniversary Gift You Would Give Yourself?

Today's Nice Price or No Dice VW GTI is a special edition honoring the model's 25^th anniversary and named—337—after its original internal code designation. That anniversary was almost 25 years ago, so we'll need to see if it's still just as special.

It's possible to go off "half-cocked." It's also quite possible to do a job "half-assed." That's often because enthusiasm for the task only rises to a "half-hearted" level. In my opinion, the worst half to be is "half-baked." Frustratingly, that just implies so much unrealized potential, or maybe some pretty weak weed.

General Motors is famous for producing half-baked products. Whether it was the original swing-axle Corvair or the Cadillac 8-6-4 gas engine two decades later, the company sometimes comes in hot and simply fails to stick the landing.

The 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon Brougham we looked at on Monday is an example of GM reaching for the layup and missing the basket. Its fastback body style was a loser with car buyers, something that should have been discovered in pre-launch focus groups, not by cars gathering dust in dealer showrooms. With its V8 engine and extremely rare five-speed stick, our Olds is a worthy survivor—a cautionary tale in the metal, as it were—but at $6,500, many of you were cautious about recommending its purchase. An overwhelming 73% 'No Dice' loss proved the result.

While it's not the first hot hatch, and potentially not history's best, when most people think of small, three- and five-door, performance-minded cars, Volkswagen's GTI is most likely the first to spring to mind.

When Volkswagen engineers first bandied about a tauter, more capable version of the company's bread-and-butter economy car, they assigned the project the internal code number 337. A production model resulted, debuting in 1976 for the European market and anointed with the now-legendary GTI name. North America had to wait seven more years to sample the GTI's wares, but it proved worth the wait. Flash forward a quarter century from that 1976 introduction to 2001, when VW decided to fete the model's 25^th anniversary with a special edition, unceremoniously dubbed the 25^th Anniversary GTI. All were painted silver, befitting the tradition of 25th-anniversary gift-giving.

Since that anniversary was irrelevant to North American GTI fans—and VW USA always seems a day late and a dollar short compared to its European sibling —that model got a pass. Instead, it was introduced as a 2002 model: the nearly same-spec 337 GTI, named for that original internal code, a nod to the depth of knowledge expressed by the marque's most rabid fans. Only 1,500 337s were made for North America in the 2002 model year, all, again, in Metallic Silver, although this time with less relevance for the color.

This 2002 VW GTI 337 appears to be an excellent, albeit not entirely original, example of this rare car. As with all 337s, it has the turbocharged 20-valve EA113 1.8-liter four under the hood. From the factory, that made 180 horsepower and 173 pound-feet of torque, enough to move the GTI's ton-and-a-half weight from zero to 60 mph in under six seconds.

Mated to that mill is a short-ratio six-speed manual actuated with a dimpled shift knob. Intended by Volkswagen to be a step up in features and capabilities over previous editions, the fourth-generation GTI was the first to get six cogs, and the first to offer a turbocharged gas engine. According to the ad, this 337 has been sprinkled with the Neuspeed fairy wand. Updates and additions include suspension components, an under-hood shock tower brace, turbo pop-off, and a cold-air intake. Apparently, the engine internals and turbo remain stock. The seller says the car runs without issue, sounds great, and gets amazing fuel economy, and that it "just purrs in sixth."

The car looks the part of a well-kept, loved family member with two notable exceptions. The first is on the exterior: a noticeable scrape on the front-right valance. That's a sad blemish on what's otherwise an almost perfect top coat. On the plus side, the BBS (yes, real BBS) wheels look to be in perfect shape and fill the wheel arches nicely when the car's lowered an inch or so. The ad mentions nothing, and no photo is close enough to read the date code on the Kumhos wrapping those wheels, so we don't know if a trip to the tire store is in this GTI's near future.

Craigslist

The other, and weirder, issue is in the cabin. The 337s all came with Recaro front buckets, and while this car has those Recaros in residence, with upholstery that matches the back bench, they are oddly embroidered with "GLI" on the backrests, not "GTI." As we all know, the GLI is the Jetta edition of the Golf's spin-off GTI. Nothing else is amiss in the cabin, and it all looks to be in good shape, though the driver's footwell floor mat does seem to have gone AWOL.

The ad notes the car has a modest 96,500 miles on the clock, comes with a clean title, promises a passing grade on the title transfer smog test, and includes mention of an available Carfax report showing it to be accident-free.

The seller calls the car "no nonsense," but then prices it at a badge-reflecting $13,337 asking. What we'll have to do is see whether or not we think that's a fair deal, or actual nonsense.

What's your take on this GTI 337 and that $13,337 price tag? Does that feel justified by the car's rarity, desirability, and presentation? Or is that too much even for the model's own upcoming 25^th Anniversary?

You decide!

San Francisco Bay Area, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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