I have a 1993 Corrado that has been sitting in my parents driveway and/or garage for the past 15 years. My dad parked it around 2004 due to an electrical issue. Obviously it would have been better for him to diagnose the issue 15 years ago, but that ship has sailed. He did nothing to prep the car for storage. The car has about 30k miles and a ton of sentimental value. What should I expect trying to get it running again? Where should I start? Anything that would be a deal-killer? Will my kids be able to go to college after this? I have a 2 year old and a baby on tne way, so this will all be done by a professional mechanic.
Thanks for the advice!
-Dan
Much Longer Backstory:
In 1994, I was a junior in high school. It was the end of the school year and I had just broken up with my girlfriend. Prom was on the horizon and I wasn’t going (but my girlfriend was) and I was bummed. Dad and I went out to look at a Corrado (for him) at a repo auction. I immediately fell in love. I didn’t hear anything more about it until the afternoon of prom. My mom and dad took me out to run an errand and we went to pick up the Corrado. He let me drive it home. On my way up our street, I passed my ex on her way to prom and didn’t care anymore. To this day, I don’t know if they planned it that way, and I don’t want to know. I just love holding onto that memory.
Even though it was my Dad’s car he was very liberal in letting me drive it. I drove it every chance I could, to school, on dates, everywhere. It was a wholly inappropriate care for a 17 year old to drive, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I used to race my friend whose dad had a 3000GT VR4 spyder and smoke him regularly - he was rubbish with the manual transmission. After I left for college and graduated, Dad continued to drive it but didn’t really care for it that well. To him it was just a car. The car had only a few thousand miles when he bought it (for $10k!). Eventually it developed an unknown “electrical issue” and dad just stopped driving it. That was probably around 2003-2004. It sat in the driveway for a number of years, and eventually they pushed it into the garage.
I was content to let it sit in the garage until I was 60, Corrados were selling for $100k, and I was ready for a retirement project. (I already own an Austin-Healey 3000 that I hardly have time to drive). Unfortunately my parents house was destroyed by a fire this spring (they are fine, as is the Corrado), and they just sold the remaking shell of a house. So the timetable moved up quickly. If I don’t take it, then they’ll probably just sell/scrap it.
