A few years ago, our Danish colleague Claus Ebberfeld wrote a piece about the Volkswagen Corrado, musing as to whether it was a classic or not, having at the time he wrote the article, just turned 30 as a model. He wasn’t entirely convinced, our International Editor was not convinced at all, and my UK colleague Dave Leadbetter was almost convinced.
Well, four years later, I am convinced that the VW Corrado is now a fully-fledged classic, alongside a series of late ‘80s and early ‘90s coupés such as the Vauxhall/Opel Calibra, Audi S2 Coupé, Alfa Romeo GTV, Toyota Celica, Ford Probe, and Honda Prelude. After all, it looks good, was very well received by the motoring press back in the day – more on that later – and there are not so many about any more. Of the 97,521 built between 1988 and 1995, about 10% found their way into the UK and around 1,000 are still on our roads.
VW launched the Corrado in the late ‘80s as a move up from the Scirocco but below the likes of the Porsche 944. It was mooted as a replacement for the ageing Scirocco – although the two co-existed for three years – and was based on the Mk2 Golf’s floorpan also utilising the same suspension, steering and braking. Like the Golf (and Scirocco), it was a front-engined, front-wheel-drive hatchback and was initially available with a 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine from the Golf in either naturally aspirated or supercharged form, the latter badged as the G60, with power outputs of 134bhp and 158bhp respectively.
The Corrado certainly looked the part of a sports coupé, with purposeful 2+2 fastback styling, rectangular headlamps, deep-set driving lights and an integrated rear spoiler that extended at speeds over 100kmh, retracting again once the car was doing less than 25kph. The spoiler could also be controlled by the driver if he or she so preferred.
It didn’t just look like a sports GT, it drove like one, too. Even the original base 1.8 could reach 210kmh/130mph, with a sub-10 seconds 0-100kmh time. Things moved up a notch with the introduction of the VR6 in 1991, which replaced the G60. There were two versions, a 2.8 for the US market, and a 2.9 for Europe, but both versions could pass the 230kmh/140mph mark, and 0-100kmh was reached in the region of 7.0 seconds – properly quick.
A year later the Corrado got a mild facelift, increasing capacity of the base car to 2.0-litres and 16 valves, and although overall power output and performance were not improved, everything happened at lower revs thanks to more torque. Minor styling tweaks such as a new grille and later, reshaped front wings and bumper were shared with the VR6.
Autocar magazine – already fans of the 1.8 Corrado – tested the 16V in 1992, saying it had “the best front-drive chassis around”, providing “abundant grip” and “excellent balance” as well as giving positive feedback for the “rock-solid” build quality and “excellent ergonomics”, though they expressed some disappointment with the Passat-sourced engine’s refinement, and rear three-quarter visibility was considered very poor, however.
Despite the almost universal praise, especially of the VR6, the Corrado was a poor seller, particularly when compared with the Scirocco, which sold more than five times as many – it was relatively expensive and as we’ve already noted, had a lot of competition.
While the VR6 is the “halo” Corrado and is the most sought-after, the regular 16V, especially in 2-litre form, is a fine car, with plenty of useable performance to go alongside it’s practicality. It’s also less common than the VR6, as well as generally less expensive, and our Prime Find this week looks like an exceptional example of the 16V. It also has the not inconsiderable advantage of coming in at less than half our usual budget.
It’s a 1992 example finished in a fabulous colour, Dark Blue Pearl metallic, which based on the photos we’ve borrowed from the dealer’s website looks unmarked, as does the light grey interior, despite the mileage of 96,200, completed at the hands of just two owners. According to the dealer, the dash and door plastics are free of cracks. It rides on a smart set of 17-inch alloys and the original 15-inch wheels also come with the car. Our Corrado is on sale with a dealer in Middlesex in South East England, and with an asking price of just £7,395, looks to be worth every penny. Values for the VR6 are moving up, it can’t be long before the lesser models follow especially when they are in as good condition as this one seems to be.
There’s not a lot of information about the car but what there is you can see here. As usual, if this fine-looking VW is to your liking, we recommend arranging prior inspection if possible.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk