I’m thinking about buying a VR6 Corrado at some point in the future, as an early mid-life crisis type of car.(so not for a little while yet)

I’d be interested to hear the views of anyone on here that has owned one, or is still driving one.

Handling? Fuel Economy? Running Costs? etc.

Not fussed about the amount of space inside for bikes / family etc as we have a Subaru outback for those duties.

Ta in advance.

had a vr6 passat estate, good fun but quite dated, not very fast compared with more modern 4 cyl whizzy things. i liked it but I like most vws of that vintage.

PS Just bought a triumph trident for a mid life crisis masel

For the price of a good corrado there are a lot of cars with more power, better performance, better handling and which might not be so hard or expensive to service and get parts for.

To get a good one you’re gonna have to spend about 4k at least for a low miler or a rebuilt engine. You can pretty much guarantee that most of them will have been thrashed/crashed/godknowswhat so take care.

Some of these ones look pretty clean and unthrashed if you ask me.

if you aren’t in a big hurry you should still be able to get a nice unmolested version, take your time and look at lots of them. mine had a fsh and was two owners from new. I had no real problems with it, the engine was superb, brakes failed once but that was a valve in the abs somewhere.

I had one for a couple of years, 4 years or so ago..
I loved the car, the engine is great and so is the driving position, handling etc. I used mine as a daily driver though and was doing a 40mile commute which it was not really suited for (well, not when it already had 100k miles on the clock..)
It was quite expensive to service but then I was racking up the miles.. I can recommend Goodyear Eagle F1 tyres.

As a weekend “fun” car it should be fine, try and go for the Storm model as it has air-con. The ventilation in the standard car is pretty poor and imho what air does come into the cabin smells of petrol..
When I bought mine I saw many chavved up nightmares so shop around. Avoid red paint as it fades (well, mine had..)

I would recommend registering on this site, the technical information and buying guides are worth it..
Corrado Club of GB

I think GNARGNAR has a point though, if you’re looking for “an early midlife crisis” car, there may be better options out there. The Corrado (if you find a good one) would be more of a garageable future classic..

I’ve got a Corrado Storm sitting in storage waiting till I can afford to run it, and my present golf gti to die, so I can use that as the excuse.
Lovely car when I have driven it, but as with all cars there are good and bad ones out there so be careful.

Thanks all.

I’ve had several – fantastic driving cars, great engines, early 30’s avg mpg, fast (or feels fast), vaguely practical, comfortable over distance, robust, never had any mechanicals/big issues with any of mine (over a total of 80K miles) … and loads of character. The price premium is for that character I reckon as my last one cost a tad more than our 4 yr old, posh-ish family Passat estate with 20K miles! I reckon 1-2 owners, with 50K and FSH is a good start point. At 100K miles likely to need a bunch of stuff replacing. But they’re hugely enjoyable

Cheers Aus, I thought you might provide a positive response having seen your ad in the classifieds.

Would you buy another if your circumstances allowed?

Yeah, I run a Storm VR6 – they don’t have air con btw, that’s just wrong, one or two might but generally the Storm just has a standard engine, heated leather and is a limited edition in two colours.

Love mine to bits, the VR6 motor makes great noises and goes quite fast if you rev it, not as quick low down as you might suppose though – Schrick variable manifold reckoned to be the answer to that. Does around 28mpg cross country driven briskly and around 35mpg on the motorway at fastish speeds.

General issues? The bodywork is galvanised, so should be rust-free unless pranged or neglected. The cooling system gets a caning because it’s a big old motor in a small engine bay so runs hot – thermostat housings crack and hoses sometimes split. The ideally wants its chains and tensioner changing somewhere around 100,000 to 120,000 miles and rattles if not, though a lot of this may or may not be an issue, I’ve not heard of one snapping, but they get noisy and the tensioner pad wears away. Sun roof mechanisms are made of pot metal and snap, fiddly to fix, the spoiler thing control unit goes sometimes so the spoiler won’t go up and down.

You have to remember that even the latest ones are now 1995, so around 14 years old, so some things are just dying because, well, they’re old. Coilpacks go and cost about £100 to replace, makes the engine sound like a Scooby as they run on four. Rear brake calipers can seize, like on a Mk 2 Golf GTi, just replace with reconditioned Golf Mk4 ones. Clutch slave cylinder wears with age. Second gear synchro is a tad weak and can go with use.

If it’s still got the original suspension and steering bushes, they’ll be well on the way out and getting the car re-bushed will make a huge difference to handling.

Really you need to buy on condition, try loads of different and, preferably, find one that’s been enthusiast owned and looked after, possibly upgraded.

best place on the web for corrado information is the Corrado forum which is arguably the friendliest, most useful forum I’ve come across. There used to be an excellent buyers’ guide in the Wiki there, that’s well worth downloading and printing off as a reference.

Anyway… brilliant fun to drive, still nice and visceral, bodywork and some specialist parts expensive cos they’re one offs, but lots of other stuff not so bad and lots on eBay and on the C forum. Yep, there are faster modern cars etc, but it’s not really about that. And there’s a nice stealth thing going on where most people don’t really know what the car is. Lovely 🙂

I’ve had one for 3 years now, it’s just passed 80k, 3rd owner full service etc. and (touch wood) haven’t had any major problems with it.

I think Aus pretty much summed it up…

There are faster and more efficient cars out there, but the Corrado is good fun, has nice handling and feels bloody fast, also the VR6 sounds good. 🙂

If anything when buying be a little wary of the Storm model, despite being only slightly different from a regular VR6 (paint colour, alloy style, colour coded grille and two badges) some people seem to put a stupid amount of money on top of the asking price.

Couple of links to help you out:

WIKI with a buyers guide.

The Corrado Forum

As a weekend “fun” car it should be fine, try and go for the Storm model as it has air-con. The ventilation in the standard car is pretty poor and imho what air does come into the cabin smells of petrol.

.

There was something wrong with yours then. overfuelling, split fuel line, leaking crankcase breather thing?

gits

thats another evening of reading about things i shouldn’t get silly idea’s about.

couple that with the s2forum.com and that 4wd golf turbo, makes me think about a 4wd vr6 golf with supercharger on it…. with ebay searches for a nice mig welder.

thank you.

jt

Great stuff guys.

I really want one now.

Do it beamers. The only car I ever regret selling was my Corrado VR6. It had character in spades and could put a lot of newer cars to shame. The performance and handling was fantastic especially after I fitted slightly lower and stiffer springs. The week before I sold mine it went on a rolling road after a service and new SS exhaust and it was pushing 198bhp. That was with 104k on the clock so as long as they’re looked after they’ll keep rewarding you.
This was mine