Advice on my first Corrado buy

[bm55 10]

Looking to buy my first Corrado and need a little advice. Mods feel free to move thread if its in the wrong section..

 

Its a 1990 1.8 with 165,000 miles! 5 owners. Aprox. 9 months MOT remaining

The car comes with a service history including a recent cambelt and MOT. The advisories on its last MOT were the suspension brushes - are these expensive to fix?

Ideally I would like to run the car for a year or so and sell on for the same kind of price.

The seller will not take under £750 which seems a little too high considering the mileage.

 

Cheers

[floppyman 0]

Why you want to buy a corrado to sell it in one year time??? I think this is not the right car to just use it for one year.... It will need repairs and not cheap.

[bm55 10]

Thanks. The reason is I'd maybe move onto a more powerful model next year. So overpriced you recon?

[Critical_Mass 10]

Depends on overall condition of the car - body and mechanically. Mileage is merely a number and its how its been looked after during its life.

 

As Floppyman said (sorry i have to laugh every time), it will prob need some sort of repair within a year, so you prob wont make the money back on it anyway.

 

Why not just get the "more powerful model" now?

[bm55 10]

I need a car with decent MPG at the moment, a VR6 would cost a lot more to run on fuel I thought.

[Critical_Mass 10]

Valvers dont have that much better MPG. I think they're more or less the same.

[lauraJ 0]

Valvers dont have that much better MPG. I think they're more or less the same.

 

Agreed! My vr6 does better in fuel than my 16v did!

If fuel is the only reason to go for 1.8 than really think about going for a VR. Although not sure you'd find one for £750 that you could run for a year without needing some sort of repair.

[Critical_Mass 10]

Though i think his plan was to get an VR after a year. So if he got the VR in the first place he'd be keeping it long term.

 

IMO i wouldnt get a Corrado just for a year as you'll spend more cash on it sorting problems out, just to sell it. You're best off playing the long game and getting a Corrado you're willing to throw a little cash at to sort the inevitable problems out.

[bm55 10]

Thanks for all the comments. My budget would be 1k, next year I'll have most disposable income for a VR6 so a higher budget. I would have also thought parts, maintaining, insurance etc to be lower for the 1.8.

What price should I pay for this 1.8, 165k, 'G' reg example as described originally?

[Critical_Mass 10]

Id say £750 was a little high too, maybe more around the £500 mark.

 

Seriously, save your money and go for the VR you eventually want as buying and keeping the valver for a year will be a waste of money.

[bm55 10]

Id say £750 was a little high too, maybe more around the £500 mark.

 

Seriously, save your money and go for the VR you eventually want as buying and keeping the valver for a year will be a waste of money.

 

Ok, cheers

[Critical_Mass 10]

No problem. At the end of the day its your choice, but thats my opinion on the matter.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

money is obviously an issue and if your not willing to spend more then 1k on buying one, then my advice to you is dont bother with one at all, because 1k aint going to get you a corrado that you can just jump in and have fault free motoring,{unless you get real lucky :) } also judgeing by your questions about suspension bushes you dont have much experiance with overall mechanics of a vehicle,so the slightest problem you would probably end up throwing it into a garage everytime something happens, which is fair enough but with a car thats like 18 years old, you get the idea £££££?. now if you were to buy it as a project/hobby now thats a different kettle of fish!

[joby 0]

Can`t believe anybody thinks they can spend a grand on an 18 yr old car and have trouble frre motoring for 12 months, Sorry aint gonna happen personally i dont think you can buy anything other than a shed for 1k

[VR6 0]

Generally speaking if you have a grand to spend on one .... you better have another grand somewhere up your sleeve! Or not be all that bothered about food for a while.

 

They are not good cars to buy on a tight budget. And remember, buy cheap, buy twice ;)

[guildmage 11]

I was in a similar boat as you are now.. however I planned to spend a bit more than a grand for my new car. Well my budget was £2500. Exactly a month ago I bought my 2l 16v, overall nice condition, full service, MOT's, paperwork, 2nd owner yadi yada... all good really. Still spent over £300 pounds on some repairs so far.. yeah Corrado ain't cheap - it is an old car now. People who owned the car for long time already know this all to well, newbies like me - learning it hard way :)

 

I suppose the idea is that, the longer you have the car... you spend money on it all the time but also more things are fixed once and for all. So longer you have it less repairs in the end you end up with = less money it costs you to run.

Don't get me wrong I'm very new to all this, so my advice might not be of any use, but £700 Corrado, is probably like another £1000+ in repairs in first year.. unless you can repair it in your own garage by yourself - still parts cost money and also downtime.

 

Wish you all best, it is really a fantastic car and worth money and hassle to invest too (however doubt it will ever pay back). I do not know what's in it to make it so special, it just is.. it makes my morning journey to work so enjoyable, it's just worth it :)

[VR6 0]

There you go, good post.

 

After saying all this, don't let it put you off. People do spend lots of money sorting things out but this is probably just in the nature of ownership as most people buy for the long term. So they fix niggles rather than show-stopping problems. If you're talking about spending money on fixes that are absolutely necessary, the 1.8 valver is probably the best route you could go. There's a lot less to go wrong for sure.

 

I think as soon as someone starts talking about tight budgets, people naturally feel inclined to warn you about the potential downside to buying cheaply.

 

With tax, insurance, initial purchase price and fixing a few unforeseen issues, I still think you're looking at £2k in year one and that's before you think about petrol.

[VW_OwneR_85 1]

deffinatly dont let it put you off buying a corrado! there sick cars!!! and every time i drive it i lurve it!!! but if i brought mine thinking i wasnt gona have to do anything to it i would be very very disapointed! and very p155ed off! and as mentioned above "buy cheap buy twice!" this is so true!!! in everything in life not just corrados! so please bare that in mind as you will only kick yourself when you realise all the hassel of buying a money pit could of been avoided if you had only spent that little extra in the first place.

[bm55 10]

Thanks for all the input! I think what I'll do is keep on saving & buy a decent example VR6 or similar next year. Cheers

[Critical_Mass 10]

Probably a wise decision mate. No point in ploughing (and it could well be ploughing) money into a car youre going to sell a year later. Best save the cash for one youre going to keep. :D

[Portent 0]

I agree with what has been said. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the valvers at all. But if you want a VR6 then I agree you would be better off saving the money and putting it towards one.

 

Use the next year to look into them and learn about what to expect in a good or bad car. Even most good ones will need some work on them. Also, take a look at the events forums and maybe come along to one to see some owners cars and get a feel for what a loved one can be like (most events are obvously over but I think there are a few last ones coming up depending on where you live). Also I'm sure anyone local to you would be more than happy to show you over theirs. The point I'm trying to get to is use the time to fully understand the pitfalls of the car and also the great things about them. I took around a year to buy mine and did pass up some good ones which, had I known more about the cars at the time, I probably would have bought (still over the moon with mine though and love it to bits).