dr_mat

Trade prices for these cars are very low, and don't really reflect what you will have to pay to a private seller for a good example. The canny traders have picked up on this and are picking up some bargains from people with no clue and whacking good mark-ups on the cars when they pass them on. My own observation of the market over the past few years has seen the value of Corrados stay more or less the same (at least for the VR6 end of the market). This has been despite the WHOLE used car market tumbling significantly in that time due to major competition on new car prices, so to answer your question - yes, mostly, VR6s are holding their value quite well. Bear in mind, however, that maintenance costs can be high so this may well cancel out the benefits of low depreciation.. At the end of the day, you should never ever invest in a car unless you can afford to lose ALL of that money in the event of a bad thing happening... Cars are bad investments! As for your example price above, it really depends on a lot of things. At the 100k mark you've really got to assume a car will need a timing chain renewal done soon, so the value starts to drop .. until that work has been done, at which point the values are strong again. But also consider: a £22950 (when new) Storm VR6 can fetch as much as £10000 now (in MINT cond), ten years later. How many other VWs can make that sort of claim?

You get 9mpg at full throttle in third gear? A 1.8 can't pump as much fuel as a VR6, so there's something wrong there! But it's a 1.8 though - no catalyst, and no lambda, and no closed loop running. That's where you get the more uniform economy from. Also it's probably lower geared. That makes a big difference at cruising speeds.

Hi devils_advocate, good luck on starting up the VR6 vs G60 flame war again. I think we're all too tired of this one to go back over it again .. :) I don't understand all the "unable to decide" between them. They're like chalk and cheese. But in terms of MPG, read what it says in the Parker's used car guide and take that with a pinch of salt. From most discussions around here (and there have been many) G60s and VRs come out round-about the same, fuel economy wise, with the G60 maybe edging it slightly in most circumstances. But then, that makes sense. You only get out what you put in, so the 160bhp G60 isn't physically capable of burning the same amount of fuel as the 190bhp VR6 without massively overfuelling or having a leak somewhere!

That's because while you hold the arm in place it turns on BOTH the main and dip beams.. Not entirely practical, let alone putting 115 watts through a bulb designed to do 55 or 60 ..

Off to Scotland shortly .. in the missus' 206. :( I would love to take the C, but frankly paying an extra £100 on petrol AND me being the only person who can drive it would make it impossible. (12 hours straight to get there? No way.)

Well you've seen yourself what they cost to buy. When mine was replaced I did ok - 2.5 hours labour and the part cost very little because it came from a breakers. No warranty though, so I was screwed if it had been dead, too, but so far, touching anything made of wood ..

You know them well .. ? :)

Now that is the kind of PR that should make it to the local press ... Make VW UK sit up and take notice...

Err... YUP! (Oh, and not only does that land you with a big bill, but you are probably also in posession of a non-legal MOT certificate, cos the car definitely shouldn't have passed if the light wasn't working when it was tested! :( )

I don't wish to speculate on what the Great Kev does with his mars bars. Me, I deep fry 'em and try and increase my risk of heart disease.

See this is the other problem.. I don't apply for positions, they are offered to me, and the great Hayward is unlikely to offer me a used mars bar .. ;)

Two reasons: they don't like me, and I don't like them .. ;) Just joking. I'm not really interested in being a mod, but am happy to regurgitate what knowledge I have that can be helpful for people.

You're getting ABS fault codes and you never get the ABS light on? Does it come on during the power-on-self-test cycle when you turn the ignition on?

I have rotational play between the wheel and the top UJ, the rest of the column is pretty solid. Yes, I looked at the whole assembly and thought "well, it's not brain surgery", but I have to say don't fancy dealing with drilling out all those bolts, so will leave it to the pros. Worst thing about this play is it's *variable*. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not, and the car feels great to drive again... I blame this on it being one of the very earliest adjustable columns VW used. It's that fairly complex CV joint in the middle, or the collapsable lower shaft that's at fault, I have no doubt.

Miracles never cease .. Fixing mk4 windows - only £35? As in you take it to a dealer and he charges you £35 total? I'm surprised!

Well - if you are getting occasional "abs light on from ignition on" and the ECU is reporting "left rear outlet valve" then you almost certainly need a new ABS block. I wouldn't even consider buying one from the dealers though, when 2nd hand ones are plentiful, cheap and on the whole quite reliable. Think of it this way. How many mistakes can you afford to make with dodgy 2nd hand ones and STILL have it massively cheaper than a new one? Lots...

What's wrong with this thread? Christ, if the Corrado was perfect wouldn't there have been 10 million people queueing to buy one? Nothing wrong with acknowledging where VW got it wrong. After all, the budget for the Corrado design was miniscule compared to many of their other models, so it's to be expected that every eventuality wasn't covered. Like I say, more annoying is Golfs with windows that fall into doors. They spent how many £billion and they still have window mech probs?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. There's the shear bolts on the ignition switch housing to be dealt with too..

ABS Left Rear Outlet Valve *often* means you have a failed valve block on the ABS unit. I think it tests the left rear valve first during ignition-on tests, so that's the one that shows up first. Certainly it did for me. The upside is that apart from the 2-3 hours labour for fitting, they're on the whole quite reliable, so if you buy a 2nd hand one, warranty or otherwise, chances are it will be ok. My replacement pump unit cost me £20, and most of that was postage .. :) (Of course, now that I've said that, it'll break ... :( )

The thing that must pee you off is having a run-of-the-mill Golf (for example), of which there are literally millions on the road, and which also has little "idiosyncrasies" ..

Let me know how much hassle and cost changing it is if you would, cos mine needs doing too..

If the cam position sensor is actually being ignored by the ECU, it will run with fully retarded timing, so pinking should not be an issue. (The ECU has, iirc, 11 degrees of knock-sensor controlled timing that it can adjust.) Of course, VAG-COM won't report poorly responding knock sensors, but as you say it will report open/short circuits on those sensors. The same goes for a temp sensor. If its value is not changing, the ECU is unlikely to flag it as faulty, but clearly it IS faulty if it has a fixed output. The only times I've had pinking on my VR has been since fitting the Schrick manifold, but as said above, it pinks once, maybe twice, then the ignition timing gets retarded and it's ok again.

New steering column too? What's up with your old one?

Yep. That's the one. Sure there's nothing stuck to the back of the belt or something silly like that? If your brand new tensioner is clacking then it wants taking back!

If it's temperature dependant you may have a temp sensor problem. VAG-COM will reveal all ...