Every few months, it seems another one of these unusual Volkswagen-based Puma GTEs shows up for sale. Most of the time, they are project-grade cars that somehow made its way to the United States, usually the work of a very committed owner who made the effort to bring one up from South America. As such, they have a few battle scars and parts missing, most of which will require some heavy lifting to track down. But then one pops up like this 1974 GTE here on Facebook Marketplace and living in Brasil. It looks like a near-showroom condition example with none of the tricky parts missing, but you’ll have to determine whether you still want it after the importation costs and the $35,000 asking price are paid.

The fact that the Puma keeps coming up for sale tells me a few things: one, for the cars that are already stateside, more than a few ambitious enthusiasts made the investments of time and money to bring these exotic coupes stateside. And two, for a seller to post up what looks like one of the best examples left on a classifieds site targeting U.S. buyers likely means there are still a few Puma fanatics lurking out there. This one is said to be mostly original with an unrestored interior and exterior paint job, which clearly indicates a Puma enthusiast in Brasil has been looking after it. Look at that interior – it looks like no other air-cooled VW of the same era.

The seller reports that this is the original engine, which is mounted in the rear, but that it has had some sensible performance modifications made to make the driving experience slightly more entertaining. Like every VW-based kit car that came to the U.S. (and I know the Puma is not a kit car), the Puma has exotic looks but a fairly humble powerplant. Although the seller doesn’t go into detail about the scale of upgrades made, I’m sure whatever level of upgrades were performed will yield noticeable improvements to the hum-drum performance capabilities of a bone-stock example. Perhaps it was a hot cam and free-flowing exhaust? Maybe some bigger sway bars?

Despite the head-scratching history of the Puma in the U.S., there is no doubting the fact that it was a very pretty design. What would have happened if Volkswagen officially imported the Puma during the height of the Beetle craze in the United States? Would it have completely changed the perception of VW in the U.S., or would it have distracted customers from buying the bread-and-butter Beetle given the questions that usually arise when a bargain basement brand attempts to move upscale? This Puma GTE is evidence that suggests VW should have imported it and laid all of its cards on the table rather than keeping it a secret from U.S. buyers.