Portent

One of the things that I think makes the Corrado leather interior so nice is the three slats in the door cards. So getting a set of them, or retrimming, would again add to cost. It's starting to mount up and may be cheaper to wait for an original set. Leather seats and cloth door cards just doesn't look right to me. I assumed you'd be retrimming in cloth. However, the advantage you have with retrimming is that they will be like new. You can even add an aftermarket heating kit to them if you want. But, there is another approach. On the continent you could get a half leather interior. Maybe you could consider this? It wasn't an option (to my knowledge) in the UK but it's still close to OEM. So have you considered cloth/alcantara base and back and leather side bolsters? I've sat in both leather and cloth recaros. There's no doubt that a good set of leathers looks more special but having recently bought some cloth recaros I absolutely love the feel of them. So half cloth and half leather may be the best of both worlds and would solve the door card issue. It also negates the need for aftermarket heating elements or suffering a cold bottom in winter and sticky back in summer. As for mounting them, you could find someone to weld your current subframes onto them. That might be a cheaper and better solution.

They look exactly the same shape. Maybe the upper side bolsters on yours are a touch bigger but that could be an illusion due to the colour difference. The seat bases are different though. Do yours have adjustable thigh supports? i.e. does the front part of the seat base slide forward to give more support? The Corrado one's don't (and the Corrado cloth ones aren't heated either). I wouldn't worry about them not being electric or possibly being a slightly different model. They are close enough. Just get all the seats retrimmed in black and enjoy :) This sub frame might help too... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/recaro-sparco-vw-volkswagen-CORRADO-GTI-seat-bases-/120703997705?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c1a84d709

This is how I feel about mine. It genuinely makes me happy when driving it and there's nothing in the same price range I'd like instead. There are plenty of more capable cars on the road now but part of the experience for me is knowing it's an older rare car and there is very little else like it anymore. It's from a previous era and an era that was such a happy time in my life back then. I love returning to it in a car park after walking past all the same shape modern cars and then seeing the nose or the rear peering out. I didn't think I'd use it much but I'm already wondering if my limited mileage policy will be too low this year. If I had the money I'd buy a G60 to go alongside the VR6. Sadly I don't. Prices seem cheaper to me now than when I was looking last year. But I have noticed quite a sharp divide starting... sub £2k cars and over £4k cars. I think we'll see the sub £2k fall away as they get broken and the over £4k cars might just possibly gain in value. A few top end £5k+ cars have sold recently so I wonder if we are indeed just starting to see their values turn around? It's not something I bought mine for and I still feel that it's unlikely. But if they did then it would be the icing on the cake :) The mid range cars (mine is one) could go either way depending on how they are looked after. One of the things I'm trying to do with mine is make sure I do the 'right' thing to at least maintain and hopefully improve its condition. I've no intention of selling right now but if I do sell in the future then I'd want it to go to someone who will keep it on the road and not break it. VW have sadly mostly abandoned the car and it's up to us to keep the hsitory alive. It is a real pity as I genuinely think it's up there with the absolute best of the early VW's, alongside the original mk1 GTI and the mk2 16v. If I had the time and money I'd do a full restoration but sadly that's not an option so it's a matter of small improvements over time; getting the OEM steering wheel back on, fixing any little niggle like the mirrors, improving the interior, making sure it has pro-active servicing such as replacing various mounts, greasing everything, etc. A tidy up of the front end paint is on the cards at some point. ** EDIT ** Blooming heck I just looked on PH. Hadn't done that for a while and prices of the higher end stuff are higher than I expected. There's an interesting 1 owner Storm on there for a decent price though (mileage not mentioned). Lots of £4k+ stuff on there. Also the number of cars for sale is 52 compared to around 70 to 80 earlier in the year. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues.

The leather gear knob I bought in July was £29.99 + VAT. The part number was V357 711 141 A 1BX

I will have a look at my receipt over the weekend and confirm the part number of the one I bought.

Very, very nice.

I bought a leather one from VW about 1 month ago. Approx £35.

You could try this... 1) Cover the symbol with semi transparent scotch tape (the type that's like sellotape but not as sticky and only slightly semi transparent). 2) You can then use one of two methods. But you want to end up cutting out the symbols. Throw the symbols away so you end up with a negative cut-out: a) With the tape still in place, cut out the symbols. or b) Trace over it in place, then take the tape off and cut out the symbols. 3) With the negative cut-out tape in place, paint the symbols white. Let if fully dry. Don't yet remove the tape. 4) Using a fine brush, just lightly brush on some normal silicone from a DIY shop (e.g. sealant silicone). Remove the tape before it fully dries. Then let the silicone fully dry. The silicone now forms a barrier over the freshly painted symbols. 5) With the tape removed, spray over the trim. The silicone will prevent the spray covering the symbol. Let the paint fully dry. 6) Gently rub away the silicone to reveal the previously painted symbol. This will probably take a bit of practice and a lot of care to get right so I'd suggest practicing it several times on some spare trim.

That's looking very nice :)

If my wife has something in her hands then she often swings the Golf door open without holding it, until it bangs fully open and rebounds. It drives me up the wall and does cause some 'discussion' between us. She hates the Corrado though and rarely gets in it. So that's safe :)

In the few months I've had my VR6 I'd say prices have fallen another £500. The problem is that they are expensive to maintain and getting parts is harder now. So it means that most people wouldn't get one even if they happened to remember them. But I like the rarity :)

These are for sale for considerably less on another forum. The advert here is out of date. If he can get them cheaply enough then a retrim may become an option. A standard black leather interior is worth quite a bit less than a rare cream recaro leather interior. Now I own a pair of (cloth) recaros I definitely think it was money well spent although I appreciate that's not everyones opinion and we are all looking for different things in our cars.

I reckon the GUnit ones would be your best bet to be honest. They have hung around for months. I think they started off at £1200 or some ludicrous price and haven't sold. As you're aware they are on E38 for quite a bit less than on here now and there are a couple of people after the door cards, rear bench, etc. I asked about them when they first went up for sale and if I recall they don't come with either of the looms. But you already have the heated loom in the car, and the movement loom is literally a couple of wires so simple to make up. You might need to retrim them as, frankly, they don't look in the best of condition in the pictures. In fact, knowing how good the rest of your car is I think you should plan to retrim them. I don't think you'd be happy with anything less (hope you don't mind me making assumptions there - it's meant as a compliment). So one plan might be... 1) Buy them at the cheapest price you can get them. 2) Sell the rear bench and door cards. This will help pay for a retrim. 3) Retrim the front seats and your existing rear seats and doorcards so they all look fresh. 4) Keep your existing standard front seats and use them as daily's. 5) You will then have the retrimmed, and rarely used, recaros for shows. To quote Karl when I sought his advice on the car... "get it bought!" :) One caveat though... check whether all motors, switches and heating elements work before buying.

Thanks for putting that up :)

If they are heated but not electric then they will be standard leathers, not recaros. I'll take a stab at price; £500 to £650 depending on how bad the doorcard damage is and whether the loom and switches are present. Probably best to get a second and third opinion though.

Can you lock the tilt? ie if you tilt it back and then get under the front, can the car suddenly tilt forward again by accident?

Welcome to the forum. The Corrado is a really lovely car regardless of which model you buy. It seems to have a character that few others do. However, you say that you want a cheap runabout that won't cost much to run. I'm afraid you are unlikely to find this in a Corrado. Even when new they were fairly rare and nowadays replacement parts can be hard to find. Many body and trim parts are no longer made and so the price of them on the seond hand market can be reasonably high. I would also be a little concerned buying at the lower end of the market as any car at that price point is likely to need work. I suspect that a BMW E30 would be cheaper to run. This is mainly due to them being a more popular car when new and so parts availability is much better. BMW are also much better than VW when it comes to supplying parts for their older cars. That said, I would think that the 1.8 or 2.0 16v would be the best/cheapest car to buy in your circumstances, especially as it shares engine components with the Golf's of the time. They were also the slightly less diesirable models at the time so are less likely to have been abused. And they are more fuel efficient of course. Typical things to look out for: * Rust. * Heater matrix needs replacing on higher mileage cars so check whether it has been done - Thepart is cheap but the dashboard needs to be removed to replace it. * Sunroof is prone to failure (motors fail and also the mechanism snaps). * Spoiler fails (usually the motor). * Heater dials break on the post-facelift cars. * Ignition barrel fails. * Fog lights cracked due to low frontal area. * (on the G60) The supercharger needs frequent servicing. * Electric mirrors fail (could be a motor in the mirror or the switch itself which is cheap).

Just noticed this is on shortly (11th Sept). As it's only about 20 mins drive from me I'll probably pop along. I can only see one other Corrado signed up but thought it worth linking to it here in case anyone else fancied it: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=65&t=1044324&mid=0&nmt=RE%3A+Mercedes%2DBenz+World+Sunday+Service%3A+11%2F09%2F11+

Thanks so far. I'll get the cat on there sooner than planned and see if that makes a difference.

Looking good. Did you get the 90mm splitter? If not then the 70mm spponfed ones may be worth considering as the car looks quite low.

My car currently has a Milltek exhaust which was recently fitted by the previous owner. It looks great and does sound fantastic when at speed. I love it at high revs. But being 42 I'm wondering what I can do to quieten it down just a little when driving casually. I'm in no urgent hurry but want to start looking at options for the future, budgeting for it if necessary, etc. The exhaust is currently de-cat but I do also have a cat for it which I will get fitted before the next MOT. Am I right in assuming a cat will have little effect on the sound? What other options would I have? If I did want to quieten it down a touch then am I looking at a new exhaust or can it be modified in some way? How much would a new system be? Any advice appreciated. I've only ever had standard cars before so exhausts leave me a little :scratch:

Faulty sensor? Is the oil temp normal?

To me that looks like someone has used another old switch and modded it for a button. I doubt it's anything to do with petrol (the mb looks like the end of a word that has been covered over). Pop it out and see where it goes? That's quite often where an alarm LED would be fitted so could it be something to do with the alrm (or an old one)?

Yes the stitching could be replicated. If you're going to retrim then you may be able to get the proper bolsters from Recaro so you end up with exact replicas. Also is this of any use for a subframe? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/recaro-sparco-vw-volkswagen-CORRADO-GTI-seat-bases-/120703997705?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item1c1a84d709 One last thing - yours won't be heated but you can get aftermarket heating kits. It might be worth adding one.

Lovely car. Hope it sells quickly to make it less painful.