Is your Corrado the most unreliable car you've ever owned?

[g60karmann 0]

I can't say anything major has gone wrong in the two and a bit years of owning mine, but I think most of the issues people get arn't that major and are just irratents or if they are major are down to poor maintenance (even the best garages get it wrong)

 

My first car a 91 RSP mini cooper was less reliable than my corrado well in the way of electrics, brakes and body work anyway the engine and gearbox were as strong as an ox

[MikeVR6 0]

Agree 100% with the previous comments. Prevention is the best cure and quality parts rather than false economy.

 

When viewing any car, I take my mechanically minded mate with me. And first stop after purchase is his garage for a good thorough going over. My current VR cost 4.5k nearly 5 years ago. Spent around £800 getting little bits sorted there and then. Including new shocks all round. Since then, beyond day to day costs and "mods", I've spent £600 a year on servicing. Only major thing that went wrong was the alternator died 2 years ago. IIRC that was £200 fitted by my mate. £600 a year wouldn't pay for a dealership to do much on a newer car or cover the depreciation.

 

Still thinking long and hard about buying a new Rocco though.

[tonedef 9]

5 years the first Corrado from 1995 to 2000, 8 years the second one since then, both daily drivers until I bought the R32 a few months ago.

 

One let down due to an alternator......................................it's all about preventative maintenance.

 

The only reason it's off the road now is that I see some of the pampered ones on here and figured I should be looking after the old thing! My wife has the choice of the Corrado or R32, if I didn't lock the Rado up and hide the key, the R32 would never turn a wheel.

[Neil VR6 0]

Yes but it's old and has done 128K miles so I kind of expect it really. My most reliable car was my old Pug 205 TD which I did 1000m a month in when I commuted more.

[horney 0]

You see loads of people complaining about how unreliable 'Corrados' are when in fact they've just bought a high mileage dog for £1k and are now tarring all rados with the same brush! :roll:

 

Although not all £1K Rado's are nails, I paid that for mine and while it's certainly no minter it's not a complete shed either.

 

In answer to the OP's question no it's not, not by a long shot. The most unreliable car I've had was a 1983 Mini City that once broke down 7 times in 24hrs, a NYE and NYD I will never forget. I've also had Golfs, Fiats and Fords that have been more unreliable. It isn't my most reliable car either though, that accolade goes to my VW T25 Campervan which has never required an AA call out in the 3 years I've had it.

 

In about 4 months of Rado ownership I have had to call the AA once (wouldn't start), fix an oil leak, fix the heater blower and change the thermostat on top of service items like oil and filter change.

 

The real difference is with past cars I'd lose my temper with them. My last Golf GTI went because it wouldn't start one morning and I lost my rag and sold it. MY Golf GTI before that went becuase it had a few niggles and it did my head in. When the Corrado does something wrong I just shrug, open my toolbox and get busy without really complaining. My wife says it must be love.

 

Nick

[mic_VR 3]

My wife has the choice of the Corrado or R32, if I didn't lock the Rado up and hide the key, the R32 would never turn a wheel.

 

wow, that's quite an accolade for the lowly corrado!

[pete_griff 0]

You see loads of people complaining about how unreliable 'Corrados' are when in fact they've just bought a high mileage dog for £1k and are now tarring all rados with the same brush! :roll:

 

Although not all £1K Rado's are nails, I paid that for mine and while it's certainly no minter it's not a complete shed either.

 

In answer to the OP's question no it's not, not by a long shot. The most unreliable car I've had was a 1983 Mini City that once broke down 7 times in 24hrs, a NYE and NYD I will never forget. I've also had Golfs, Fiats and Fords that have been more unreliable. It isn't my most reliable car either though, that accolade goes to my VW T25 Campervan which has never required an AA call out in the 3 years I've had it.

 

In about 4 months of Rado ownership I have had to call the AA once (wouldn't start), fix an oil leak, fix the heater blower and change the thermostat on top of service items like oil and filter change.

 

The real difference is with past cars I'd lose my temper with them. My last Golf GTI went because it wouldn't start one morning and I lost my rag and sold it. MY Golf GTI before that went becuase it had a few niggles and it did my head in. When the Corrado does something wrong I just shrug, open my toolbox and get busy without really complaining. My wife says it must be love.

 

Nick

 

 

there is definitely something about the corrado which means you don't mind fixing it as much as other cars somehow...

 

mine was reliable for about 6 months after i bought it. after that the front brakes seized on me, then the head-gasket went (probably as a result of it being sat out in sub zero temps for a long long time despite having antifreeze in...) i can live with that though as brakes seizing is a common occurance on older cars. my friend drives an x-reg focus with only 60k on the clock and the same thing happened to him. if you can find a car as old as the corrado that is as solid as the corrado (or vag equivalent) then i think you would be doing well. how many F - M plate cars do you see on the road now really when you think about it that aren't complete sheds...

 

the thing is as everyone has mentioned before - they are now old cars and you have to expect things to go wrong. provided you do preventative maintenance and get on top of faults straight away as soon as they happen, you should have no dramas with it at all - the same as anything really - if you look after it, it will look after you!

:)

[tonedef 9]

My wife has the choice of the Corrado or R32, if I didn't lock the Rado up and hide the key, the R32 would never turn a wheel.

 

wow, that's quite an accolade for the lowly corrado!

Tell me about it, the last car I bought her that she turned her nose up at was an S3 :shrug: I ended up selling that one!

 

I keep telling her that she'll appreciate it when she gets to drive the Corrado on sunny days with it's new paintjob/retrimmed leather etc. One day I'll find the right daily driver, that said, she does prefer the R32 to the S3 so we're moving the right direction, here's hoping that the recession makes a 911 a viable option :lol:

[corozin 0]

"Is your Corrado the most unreliable car you've ever owned?"

- Yes. But I love it despite it's faults, and forgive it because it's elderly and because I drive it too hard when it is running

 

:(

[Kevin Bacon 5]

My first car - an Austin Allegro 1300 - was the most unreliable car I've ever owned.

 

It burned more oil than petrol and created a fog screen behind it every where it went. Rebuilt the engine and it still burned tonnes of oil, overheated pretty much every journey, stalled a lot, randomly cut out a lot and rusted away to nothing.

 

2nd most unreliable car was a Cavalier 2.0 GLI. Awful thing.

 

They were both horrible cars all of the time.

 

The thing with Corrados, even when they're being grumpy and high maintenance, they're still bloody good....all of the time!

[CTWG60 0]

I had a allegro too for about 3 months. It was given to us by the wife's mum and dad as they were, embarrassingly, restoring them for a bit! If you ever saw the first program of the Mark Evans' series "A Car is Reborn" He interviews the mother-in-law in the back of their Vanden-Plas Allegro and asks her "WHY?!?" :lol:

 

Anyway I digress, the one they gave to us used to spin you round on corners for fun with no warning and no chance of recovering it and then one day on the way home from work i braked lightly to give a stupid pigeon a chance to get out the way and the front suspension collapsed and pulled the driveshaft out the wheel hub at which point ball bearing ran all over the road. The next day after it had been vandalised by the local scum, it went the scrap yard! It was a bloody death trap! I still don't think the in-laws have forgiven me for that. We used to call it the silver bullet....... we were being sarcastic!

[David Winter 0]

I think you are forgetting how vintage these cars now are and how bodged a lot are. Original cars that have been carefully and skillfully maintained in standard condition with reasonable milage are still very nice. There are not that many cars on the road that are between 13 and 20years old.

[boost monkey 0]

Unfortunately my C has also been the most unreliable car i've owned in amongst a (nova), volvo, some very old nissans, many french cars (inc 205 gtis!), the three mk2s (2 golfs and a Jetmobile) and the C. I think i've had around 16 cars in 8 years driving?

 

But that said, The 16v Mk2 was the first car I kept for a whole year of insurance (all the others died, moved on or I got bored) and this February the C will be the second car to have achieved that... I'm onto my 5th KR engine now! :ignore:

 

VWs are the only cars which seem to last / hold their appeal for more than about 4 months! :luvlove:

 

The thing with Corrados, even when they're being grumpy and high maintenance, they're still bloody good....all of the time!

 

Sixty percent of the time, they work...every time. :lol:

[pete_griff 0]

The thing with Corrados, even when they're being grumpy and high maintenance, they're still bloody good....all of the time!

 

Sixty percent of the time, they work...every time. :lol:

 

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[bananawhip 0]

Both my valver before and VR and now approaching near comedy levels of unreliability, I can't think of a week gone by where I haven't fixed something on it.

Admittedly it was more reliable before I dropped it, slapped bigger brakes on, then demanded it give me another 30bhp but if the Rado can't carry out these simple tasks for it's loving owner, then I can think of a whole list of rice rockets will.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The thing with Corrados, even when they're being grumpy and high maintenance, they're still bloody good....all of the time!

 

Sixty percent of the time, they work...every time. :lol:

 

Pah, mine works 100% of the time....well....98% then :lol:

 

The thing is though, would you lot be truly happy if your Corrados were 100% reliable? Well, no car is 100% reliable, that's almost perpetual motion, which is impossible.

 

If you answered yes to that....and you know what's coming....."Buy a Daewoo!" Or a toyota or something equally reliable, but bland.

 

I personally like it when things break (so long as it's not mid journey!) as it gives me something to do and improve upon :D

 

What I've found with mine is, even with ruptured water and fuel lines, oil leaking etc etc, it always makes it home..... which is why I say, "Even when they're bad, they're great" :D

[mic_VR 3]

From the posts so far it would appear the corrado is taking a little bit of a bashing so I'm here to defend it's honour! :lol:

Have to say the key, I think, is that there is a difference between reliability and maintenance.

 

It would seem some people are confusing the two. I would say that my corrado is pretty reliable, in the sense that it's never broken down on me or not made it to a destination etc etc...... but..... It certainly isn't the most hassle free motoring ever.

 

Weekend odd jobs are a reality for most of us no doubt and that's just part and parcel of owning any old car, just buy any classic british car and you'll know the true meaning of car maintenance! :cuckoo:

 

I'm always happy that when I turn the key my car will start, and I spend a fair bit of time and money making sure it does.

 

If I wanted a car that started first time everytime and that I never had to touch I'd just buy something brand new, they're pretty much all the same and made in the same factories these days but I think that kind of maintenance free reliability only lasts for about 3 years then you'll be back to doing some form of maintenance on it.

 

e.g - My missus' mk5 Golf Tdi is just over 3 years old now and is starting to need a little more love and care than she used to treat it to. But it is still 100% reliable and has never failed to start/stop/corner/retain vital fluids/etc etc

 

Just my opinion..... :camp:

[Wendy 0]

No, but I do find as it has got older odd things will catch me out.

Water hoses in particular.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Have to say the key, I think, is that there is a difference between reliability and maintenance.

 

It would seem some people are confusing the two. I would say that my corrado is pretty reliable, in the sense that it's never broken down on me or not made it to a destination etc etc...... but..... It certainly isn't the most hassle free motoring ever.

 

Yeah spot on that man, have a big fat cuban on me :D

 

Of all the Corrados on this forum and the ones that aren't, how many have actually left us stranded by the side of the road, more than once? It's totally down to maintenance as you say. Crank sensors, fuel pumps etc killing the engine stone dead, they're maintenance parts and should be regularly checked. Plugs, coilpacks, leads, MAFs, lambdas, cam sensors etc causing rough running, again, all maintenance parts.

 

Now, if a wishbone decided to suddenly snap in half for no reason, that would be a reliability issue.

 

Breaking down through lack of maintenance is totally down to the owner and not the car.

 

Mine has needed AA assistance 4 times in 6 years. All 4 occasions since going turbo and all my fault for not doing things properly. When mine was standard, it never broke down, ever.

[Jay2 0]

Thanks Kip for the advice! :lol:

 

On a positive it has never left me stranded at the side of the road and on extremely long journeys its never missed a beat, even making it down to G-Werks & back from Yorkshire with a 75% working Charger! :clap:

 

Its just that my Corrado is the newest car I've ever owned, is serviced regularly and all parts are replaced, where available, with VW parts. :(

[KIPVW 0]

A Pleasure mate :lol:

 

But ask yourself this! Would you really be happy with anything half its age? Would it have a heart like a Corrado? so many questions like this I and everyone else can ask to make owning a C justifiable :lol:

 

Yeah they have problems now and then but then it makes us appreciate them more when they are behaving themselves.

[kwala 0]

Most unreliable? No way.

 

My VR6 has been locked up in my garage for 6 months and started very rarely during that time, it had a loose connection on the wiring and was running like a 3 legged dog as a result. A mobile mechanic fixed that 2 days ago, and this morning it needed only a foglight bulb to pass its MOT!!!! I had set aside some funds to get it through the MOT, so now i have some Bonus xmas Beer tokens!!! HO HO HO!!!

 

I think i just fell in love again!!!

[davidwort 0]

13 years in feb and it's only ever let me down twice, and both times because I ran out of petrol :lol:

 

Up until this winter it's been a daily driver and if it doesn't have anything that needs fixing on it I start looking for things that don't really need doing :)

[andy 0]

Mine has been really good, I've done 50k miles in it over the last 4 years, most of the work I've done to it has been my choice, not because anything has gone wrong with it. A few mods, a bit of preventative maintenance. Its not let me down once, I once had a pin sized hole in a hose caused by a worn engine mount, just leaked a bit of steam, repaired at the roadside. A noisy cv joint was the only other fault to develop whilst driving. Its been brilliant overall. Its got 130k on the clock, no rust, original chains, pulls like a train and doesn't lead an easy life! Can't think of many cars of that era that could make that kind of claim.

[the delta force 0]

My first car (Fiat Punto 'N') was pretty :censored:. The valver has had a few major problems but not the most unreliable car.