Going from New to old

[petemcr 10]

Hey guys,

 

Wouldn't mind seeing what peoples opinions are on this, hopefully someone may have had to do similar and give some advice

 

So, I had a Corrado VR6 for about 3 years, utterly loved it to bits but had to take it off the road as the headgasket went, I went out and replaced it with a MK5 Golf GTI, with aspirations of going back to the Corrado, and when I first got the Golf I was disappointed due to the fact that it felt slower than the Corrado, now my Rado is very close to being back on the road and I'm debating if to keep the Golf and spend some money on it, or going back to the old girl

 

Anyone had to do this, go from a modern car with some nice features back to an older car?

[kdub 10]

I usually run both cars.

 

Now modern cars are perfect, more comfortable, reliable, quiet and faster but you don't get the same buzz unless you spend lots of cash.

 

I have an American v8 pickup with tons of power, dsg 3.2 audi and the vr6 corrado.

 

Vr6 wins every time for fun factor, audi for day to day faultless driving and the pickup for a second car.

[corrado wannabe 12]

I am in the same position as kdub,

 

I flirt between a new car and the Corrado. It just feels a bit more of an event driving the C, if anything it shows that we can live without the add ons that a modern car carries.

 

That said, I dont know if I would out of choice bin a new car for the Corrado. I know it would be more than capable of carrying out the duties, but the comfort levels and general build quality, just make it feel better put together and safer than the C. (I have a young daughter as well, so it does become a consideration)

 

I guess it would depend upon what your general driving needs are (long journeys etc)

 

Dougie

[Ray1965 10]

last week i got a new edition a VW Scirocco TSI 20L petrol dripping with all the tricks and bells, dsg, etc etc all the comforts. I drove it for a week to work as i was on night shifts.

When i had to use the C got in it and i remember saying to myself well the rocco is good but you know the raddo still gives that fizzy feeling. :thumbleft:

[Jim 2]

I did it about 18 months ago, after dumping my Octavia VRS and switching back to my VR as my only car. It was good to come back to using it as a daily, and has been mostly reliable and apart from a little tantrum since (alternator not charging) and some subsequent gremlins (replacement alternator was crap) to sort, and of course the damn heater matrix going it's been pretty solid. But had about enough of running around in a car with nearly 200,000 miles on the clock and virtually no creature comforts and am looking forward to getting myself back in something new or nearly new pretty soon! VR is just starting to feel like too much of a compromise every day, and want some comforts and reliability again for a while.

 

Plus there's some rust and stuff appearing in bad places (sills) that at least if I take it off the road, I can think about how to tackle in my own time.

[Jamie 1]

I drive a Seat Alhambra as my daily and as much as it's a grim, soulless and miserable excuse of a car it does near on 60 to the gallon, has all the tricks including a heated screen which is awesome and I can chuck loads of crap that needs moving about in it. The biggest plus though is when I get to drive the Corrado it feels ridiculously fast and is like a treat everytime I get to use it. Sadly though I think if my Corrado was my daily I'd probably go off it pretty quick. If I had a nice daily like a MKV GTi or RS4 or something I doubt the Corrado would ever get driven

Edited December 17, 2014 by Jamie

[coullstar 0]

Sadly though I think if my Corrado was my daily I'd probably go off it pretty quick. If I had a nice daily like a MKV GTi or RS4 or something I doubt the Corrado would ever get driven

 

That's the thing with any car. Mine just sits as its my slowest car and least practical etc. I have no need for it at all but just cant sell it for some reason.

I like having different cars as it does make you become less content, I would keep the Golf as well unless you really need the cash. They key is to have cars that are fun-ish to drive in their own way, I had a Mk5 Tdi and it bored me senseless.

 

What I would say is if you are happy with the Golf as it is don't throw a lot of money at it. They are a great daily as they are IMO.

Edited December 17, 2014 by coullstar

[petemcr 10]

Well, it's funny because I have been toying with the idea now of keeping the Golf, in an ideal world I would have both, but I was dropping off my girlfriend and I happen to come across a Corrado, and I'd been telling myself how good the Golf looks but seeing a C sat there look lowered, I instantly wanted to drive mine.

 

Plus, I'd been using the Golf for a bout 4 months and was storing the Corrado, then I decided to move it and I thought here we go, it will feel terrible now... but once I started it and heard that exhaust tone... just didn't feel like it would bother me all that much reverting back. God help me if I do and my girlfriend finds out you can only use one window at a time, that's going to bring up a discussion :D

 

I don't think the Golf has that much more than the C as well, bar a few little things that I doubt I'd miss, auto wipers (rarely work right and find myself manually turning them on), auto dimming mirror and a few other bits and bats

 

Guess I'll have to drive the C again and see how it feels, maybe I'll sell the Golf and get a practical car like Jamie to make the C feel even more fun

[fla 9]

i find it quite appealing that we can add some more modern fitments to the Corrado - Sean Jaymo's awesome car with climate control, double din and a whole host of other bits and bobs. Then the subtler things like usb sockets (Kip r32), lighting, different seats etc, so the corrado is not that far behind in terms of modernity. No doubt you cant compare it to something that fresh from the factory but just try tinkering with one of these sensor-overloaded cars. Change one thing and 200 error messages crop up!

[Portent 0]

My daily car is a mk6 GTI. I wouldn't like to only have the Corrado.. But I like the contrast between something modern and easy to drive and then being able to get into an older car with the better and more raw feel.

[seanl82 23]

118d M Sport Bimmer. In all honesty, probably less practical than the Corrado! Certainly less boot space, and not much more room in the back. Apart from the Climate control, MPG, and tax (£15 per year!), its not a patch on the Corrado. Maybe a touch more comfortable on a long journey, but I'm quite happy driving the C for a few hours at a time and don't feel drained at the end. I've said it before, unless you can appreciate the Corrado for what it is, then you'll end up disappointed when you get back into it if you go for a modern quick car. It'll never match the refinement and build quality, or the speed of a modern hot hatch, but you look cool a F**K and get lots of thumbs up driving a Corrado, as opposed to one of the other fingers driving some other performance orientated car nowadays.

[Sean_Jaymo 0]

I find modern cars make me drowsy at the end of a long day. I do t know what it is, but the Corrado keeps me interested for the full journey. Maybe it's the rattles?

 

Cheers Hasan, very kind of you. It's not a spot on kips car though. That thing is next level!

[fla 9]

i agree regarding the quality of Kips car, but i would need a whole thread to extole its virtues! I feel that we have some great aspirational cars on the forum (Goldie/OSV, James, KipVR, Kip, Jay Renshaws old car,Rams old car) ones that immediately spring to mind) that serve that purpose well, keep us enthused when the interest wanes and always show another angle to improvement. Some of these would really put a more modern car to shame.

[mic_VR 3]

It's a tough thing to quantify really. I find the corrado has a certain something that you can't get with most reasonably priced modern cars. The drive is involving if not the quickest thing on the road these days, it makes all the right noises, looks good and handles. The added bonus is it's probably about as modern as you can go and still be able to tinker/fix most things in your own garage.

 

I'd love a modern run around though, or I could be seriously be tempted by something to replace the rado but it'd mean spending a fair amount of cash on a car from my wish list. And to be honest I'd struggle to justify that cost given I do around 3000 miles a year.

 

So for the money, and foregoing a decent wage increase, the rado will stay for the time being. I may take it off the road at some point to sort a few things.... Maybe spend some serious cash on it at some point. Must be a reason so many people end up coming back to the fold.

[BrettS 10]

I have a leon fr+ 170 cr with dsg and all the toys and options. And as the family hack it's ideal. Nice for journeys, safe for my family. Quick car and cheap to run. The only pit fall being my Mrs uses it daily and she knocks it about rotten and is a bloody pig sty. I would need the modern motor still, and couldn't use the corrado as daily. It would grow tiresome being lowered, the rattles ect. But as my second motor and the rare occasion I take it work, it's enjoyable and good fun. And if it breaks I can fix it with out any pressure or urgency to get it running again to get to work ect. The hope is to find a workspace to take the car off the road and build and restore the corrado, but couldn't even contemplate that with out the knowledge of having a good modern motor to fall back on

[petemcr 10]

So by the responses there are a few who use their C's as daily's, but for most they have some kind of practical daily and just have the C as a weekend fun car. I have to admit it has been nice being able to get over speed bumps without having to slow to a grinding stop and up setting other drives behind me, but the thought of selling my Corrado just doesn't seem possible, I've done too much to it now, moon roof, climate control... fixed the damn spoiler so it works correctly, would be a massive shame to sell it.

 

but you look cool a F**K and get lots of thumbs up driving a Corrado, as opposed to one of the other fingers driving some other performance orientated car nowadays.

 

Never been such a true statement, I miss getting thumbs up off people who appreciate the car, a lot of people in my work want to see it once it's back on road as well

[MZpog 10]

I use my 2.0 16v as a daily drive and have done for the last year (9000 miles almost). Only last week I had to use a hire car whilst the Corrado got some paint courtesy of the dumb ass BMW driver who clipped my bumper. The hire car was a 64 plate diesel Megan "knight edition" and although probably faster, definitely more refined and twice as economical, it was dull as. The woman at the garage couldn't believe I was glad to see the back of it and get my almost 23 year old car back.

 

I do have use of another more reliable modern vehicle, but that's for sunny days, it being 180bhp of 2 wheeled loveliness.

 

My next daily drive car will be a well sorted VR but for the moment I'm loving the valver.

[fonzooorooo 10]

as it stands, our corrado IS our newest car... and it's hibernating away from the salt. The mk2 replaced an '03 polo for Mrs Fonzooorooo (she'd had the polo from new and the mk2's an '89) over 2 years ago now and she loves it.

 

The newest car I've ever had was an N reg passat - I got rid of that this year and replaced it with a K reg.

 

My mate's mrs has just go rid of a '04 volvo and replaced it with a mk3 cabrio.

 

The newer they are, the less character they have, the dearer the parts are and the more of a faff they are to work on.

 

In 10 years, I've had 1 headgasket fail while I was out, (on an overworked and underpaid 1L mk3 polo) 1 weber carb fail (only a year from new too! on a mk2 'rocco) and 1 thermostat fail(recently on the mk2)... They're the only occasions I've needed to get a tow home, otherwise I've been able to schedule jobs to do at my convenience.

 

The flip-side of that is that I DO have jobs to do.... The jack and spanners are close at hand, I'm on 1st name terms with most of the staff at my local motor factors etc etc.