Shall I take the plunge?

[Bio 0]

Hey all,

 

Been looking at Corrado's again (seems to happen at least twice a year over the last 4 years now!) and having finally convinced the missus we are looking at getting one.

The question (and I ask here because of the masses of combined wealth) is, should I?

 

We are looking at a local 2.0 16v which looks pretty tidy but what I am concerned about is of course, repair costs should it all go belly up and reliability. If it is anywhere near as good as my 1994 E36 has been to me I will be a happy bunny really (£400 or so over the last 3 years in repairs and replacement parts) and this will be a weekend car rather than a commuter.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

(sorry if things seem a little disjointed, its been a looooong day at work)

[Adz The Rat 0]

Hiya and welcome.

 

First of all, have a look at the WIKI thing at the top of the forum that should answer any questions you have about Corrado's.

Now, down to business.

If its going to be a weekend car who cares if its going to cost you less than a E36 BMW. If you want a Corrado then get a Corrado. You only live once.

A lad I know used to have a tuned E36 M3 which he let me borrow quite alot and yea it was faster but nowhere near as much fun and involving as my Corrado.

Ive got a VR6 and I use it every single day, wouldnt change it for anything in the world!!

 

And I really mean that, I want a M5 next but wont get one unless I can keep my Corrado too.

[Sonicriot13 0]

Yes. :D

[Bio 0]

Thanks for the replies, all very appreciated :)

 

My main concern is that if I spend £1700 on it to just buy the car then I may end up spending the same again just to repair and replace stuff around MOT time. I guess the same is true of any second hand car though, I could spend £8k+ on a newer Audi or similar and still have something expensive explode in 30 seconds time.

 

I'll go for a viewing though and take that Wiki buying guide as a check list, maybe see if I can view any other local ones at the same time and try and get some indicators of what I am likely to get for my money.

 

Thanks for the re-assurances though. I guess viewing a car won't do any harm and until any cash if fronted I can still think it all over :)

[PROVR6 0]

Like you say, you just never know buying any used car. I would just look for smoke out the exhaust, check the fluids and for any nasty noises. If you can, try to have a lengthy drive say 1 hour +.

[bcstudent 0]

Corrados don't *have* to be expensive. Clearly you can spend as much on them as you like to make them into the car that you desire. I bought a Corrado because I wanted a cheap-ish car that was a bit more interesting than the run-of-the-mill stuff. I had it for four years; it never let me down and it cost me very little to keep on the road. That's only because I wasn't bothered about having perfect paintwork and stuff though.

 

I guess it depends what's important to you about car ownership.

[coullstar 0]

Can you do work on the car? If so then the 2l 16v is relatively easy to work on so I dont see it being a problem. When looking at this car factor in how old the tyres, brakes and suspension is plus has the cambelt been replaced recently?

[Bio 0]

I went for a test drive this morning and man does this car make me smile and its only the 2.0 16v!

 

Just a few things though that concerned me (though this could just be because the car is cold, -1c outside!):

 

The bad:

Under full lock it makes a clunk sound upon reaching full lock. Driving at full lock is ok though.

The clutch pedal feels, slow. The return is sluggish basically

Accelerator, once again slow to depress almost like its too firm, hard to describe. Not sure if this is normal?

ABS Light, here's the kicker, I didn't see any evidence of it coming on AT ALL!

Very slight pull to the right under breaking though this could have been road camber, I didn't really pay much attention to that as I was listening for engine noises.

Idle feels a little bit lumpy.

There is also some rust where the paint has been chipped on the drivers side door sil, the paint plain isnt there, looks like I can clean it up and repair with a fresh coat of paint though.

 

The good

The spoiler works, the heater works (its the older slider type), central locking works, the sun roof works and the car pulls nice at about 3k. Gear changes are clean and feel nice and smooth. Interior isn't bad, few markings and little bits like the door pin on the drivers side being broken though I'm sure this can be easily replaced with something suitable.

 

Could also do with a good detailing to bring the paintwork up nice as some parts are a little bit dull.

 

A possible advantage here is that this is at a local VW specialist type dealer and they will MOT the car before sale, which would imply that as ABS light not working IS an MOT failure they should be able to fix this before I buy it?

 

The asking is £1700.

 

My heart says yes but my head says "how much will this cost to sort out and are these things really issues?"

 

Thoughts?

[Sonicriot13 0]

I reckon you could find a better valver than that for £1700. Just keep looking mate. Or price up the cost of fixing those things and try to negotiate with the seller.

[Bio 0]

For repairs I'm willing to throw a fair chunk at it, that doesn't fuss me so much as I understand that any older car will need work done and to get one that's near 100% perfect I will have to spend nearly double, its just the bits that I'm not sure if they are normal or not or even easily repairable as my mechanical knowledge is limited I can't really tell.

 

I know I will be able to get the trader to MOT and tax it too. I may even be able to knock on the price a little.

[LisaK 0]

The ABS light has probably been unplugged, maybe to hide the fact it has an ABS fault or it could just be something more innocent :shrug: The slow returning clutch pedal doesn't sound right... could be something as simple as air in the system or a common fault of the slave or master cylinder beginning to give up. I'm assuming you drove the car til it had warmed up to temperature? If the problems were still apparent when it was warm then you can't really blame the cold for poor running issues/lumpy idle.

 

If I was looking at a 2ltr 16v for that kind of money, I would expect it to be in better mechanical nick than it sounds. If you're willing to tackle the problems, I'd haggle the price down quite a bit!!

 

Good luck with the Corrado hunt :)

[rodenal 0]

Unless the car has very low miles thats far too high a price to pay for it imo - closer to a grand or £1100 would be more accurate.

 

I'd suggest that for £1700 you should be able to find a very tidy valver around a '93 k / l plate.

 

Have a look at a few more to decide for yourself tho.

[Sonicriot13 0]

Re the feel of the pedals you should defo go find another example to drive to compare them too. Obviously as it's at a dealer you will pay a little more than you would for a private sale but then you should get everything you can out of them. Warranty, full tank of fuel, the works. And it's amazing how saying "sort that problem out and we'll have a deal" is like waving a magic wand to make niggles mysteriously vanish! :D