Would you swap for Audi S3 ??

[emu 0]

Would you swap your Corrado VR6 for Audi S3 mk1 ??

 

Give me your for and against, my one are:

 

For

 

- powerfull 1.8t engine - faster than vr6 and better on fuel

- quattro system - better driveability

- more comfortable

- very easy to tune up

 

Against

 

- doesn't sound so good as VR6

- its not a one of car, not a classic car

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Ha ha, someone can gladly come and take mine away in exchange for an S3 :lol:

 

For:

Turbo engine + 4WD

 

Against:

Dull to look at, dull to drive

[coullstar 0]

MPG wont be any better. I liked the one I had, they do need the handling sorting out for though. Very competent A-B car, not sure Id change for one though. Remap, Arb's, revised geometry and thats it really.

[Tempest 0]

Nope, it's still an A3, which itself is just a better Goof. Although a better looking one than the Goof, too many chavs now own (have stolen :lol:) one. Car's got the wrong reputation, doesn't look as nice as a Rado, get modded to death by chavvie owners (airride and all, just been to UD, and have seen what the "future" of A3 ownership looks like).

 

Tempest

[KADVR6 0]

no, boring to look at and drive, and sorry just dont like that 1.8t engine.

[Portent 0]

Great cars. But the don't have the character of the Corrado. So no.

[Jim Bowen 1]

isn't the mk1 S3 only just over 200bhp and not that much faster if at all than a corrado vr?

 

i have only looked on paper tbh

[Kevin Bacon 5]

210hp

 

Probably no quicker in a straight line due to the S3 weighing the wrong side of 1500kg, but through the twisties on a wet day, the S3 would trounce the Corrado.

[emu 0]

Did own one for only 2 months and it was great car but had a lot of mods including gt28rs.

 

Just checked insurance on them and not really fancy paying 6 times more than for a corrado.

[coullstar 0]

Shouldnt be that much diff with insurance. James, who I bought my VRT from, bought one after the Corrado. Simple remap and you have 260bhp, 4wd. They are solid as well so still feel well built. Only real downside is they do rust. Id own another quite happily.

[emu 0]

Shouldnt be that much diff with insurance.

 

Corrado is on classic insurance policy 220 quid a year, for early S3 I got quotes around 850 marks for late ones after 2002 circa 1300 pounds.

 

Corrado is safe so far :)

[KADVR6 0]

isn't the mk1 S3 only just over 200bhp and not that much faster if at all than a corrado vr?

 

i have only looked on paper tbh

 

 

well my BAM engined mk1 tt with 225bhp felt much slower than a standard corrado vr6, after a re-map though at D&G it was much better.

[DriverVR6 11]

A3 for reliability, 4 wheel drive, parts availability. Against, boring to look at and you don't really notice them, and they don't have the VR6 engine note.

[joby 0]

Remap to 260/280 with a Revo map, suspension easily transformed with defcon bushes and R32 arb`s will leave any unmodded VR6 for dead and on the twisties also a wakbox conversion which costs nowt gives a nice noise from the engine granted not as nive as the VR but the woosh from the turbo makes it more fun, they are very able cars with afew mods and with a nice set of BBS lm`s are look spot on! My remaped TT is very quick and with a few suspension mods like H&R springs make it handle much better and even in standard 225 trim felt quicker than a VR6

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Does any of that /\ put any feel back into the steering? The MK4 / A3 platform runs a lot of + caster, which takes a lot of feel out. I wouldn't mind giving a MK4 platform 02M based car a look for the 4WD, but the standard cars have deathly dull steering as standard, which I couldn't live with for long.

[Abdul 0]

I'd have one but not over my rado. A bit too boring and really crap for big stereo installs lol.

 

I'd take a mk4 r32 though as long as its not that horrid bright blue!

[jamiehamy 0]

Boring. As wait until you need to do the bushes or the sensors or the Haldex start playing up. Will make maintaining a Corrado seem like pocket-money costs.

[joby 0]

Does any of that /\ put any feel back into the steering? The MK4 / A3 platform runs a lot of + caster, which takes a lot of feel out. I wouldn't mind giving a MK4 platform 02M based car a look for the 4WD, but the standard cars have deathly dull steering as standard, which I couldn't live with for long.

 

The defcon kit is designed to put the feel back into the steering, apparently when the TT originaly left the factory it was very dynamic to drive until some idiot drivers drove it like idiots and flipped them so audi changed the roll bars for thinner ones to dial some understeer and put a ballast weight behind the rear bumper and a rear spoiler and esp, it gets slagged of but with a few mods to the suspension brings the feel back

 

---------- Post added at 3:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 3:50 PM ----------

 

Boring. As wait until you need to do the bushes or the sensors or the Haldex start playing up. Will make maintaining a Corrado seem like pocket-money costs.

 

Bushes are a piece of cake to do 2 sensors gone on mine in 14 months of ownership, crank sensor and lamda, not bad for a 10 year old i suppose and haldex issues very rare if oil and filter done every 40k and simple to do for the home mech

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The defcon kit is designed to put the feel back into the steering, apparently when the TT originaly left the factory it was very dynamic to drive until some idiot drivers drove it like idiots and flipped them so audi changed the roll bars for thinner ones to dial some understeer and put a ballast weight behind the rear bumper and a rear spoiler and esp, it gets slagged of but with a few mods to the suspension brings the feel back

 

Excellent, that's good news! Hmmm, I reckon an S3 could potentially make a good project car then. I'm with KADVR6 on the engine though. I'm not a big lover of the 1.8T, but is reliable and makes the numbers, so long as you don't push your luck. I think there's a few S3s with R32 turbo engines in them! Might spoil the dynamics a little though.

[KADVR6 0]

reliable???? i had my tt for about 4 months and went through at least 8 oe coil packs, i ended up with some spare ones in the boot and the appropiate tools to swap them over.

[joby 0]

reliable???? i had my tt for about 4 months and went through at least 8 oe coil packs, i ended up with some spare ones in the boot and the appropiate tools to swap them over.

 

Audi have sorted that now! Recall or product enhancement as they call it, and they replace them free with the newer type other than that mafs go but they do on all cars

[Portent 0]

I loved my TT 225 Coupe back in the day. It's the only car I've ever bought new and it was a lovely midnight blue (Moro blue) with black leather. I nearly bought another instead of a Corrado. They really are quite cheap now. However the electrics were not the most reliable and it wasn't unusual to come back to the car and find the window open.

 

The 1.8T Golfs, TT's (and I assume the S3's) of that era tended to suffer from coilpack failure and recent issues coming to light are haldex problems and dashboard display failure. But both of those last two can be fixed by specialists and no longer require quite so expensive repairs.

 

The issue I'd have with an S3 is that it's a hot hatch rather than a true coupe.

[DriverVR6 11]

Yeah, guess you are right. And probably not fair to compare a nearly two decade old Corrado's to much fresher A3's. I would say that most of the reliability issues with Corrados are simply due to the ageing and brittleness of the plastic components.

[joby 0]

I loved my TT 225 Coupe back in the day. It's the only car I've ever bought new and it was a lovely midnight blue (Moro blue) with black leather. I nearly bought another instead of a Corrado. They really are quite cheap now. However the electrics were not the most reliable and it wasn't unusual to come back to the car and find the window open.

 

The 1.8T Golfs, TT's (and I assume the S3's) of that era tended to suffer from coilpack failure and recent issues coming to light are haldex problems and dashboard display failure. But both of those last two can be fixed by specialists and no longer require quite so expensive repairs.

 

The issue I'd have with an S3 is that it's a hot hatch rather than a true coupe.

 

Your right portent there are electrical gremlins but the dashpods can still be replaced free by audi if pushed but can be done cheap enough independently now and the window problem is a microswith in the door locking mechanism which can be fixed for a couple of quid if you dont mind stripping the lock which i have done, the haldex controller can fail but lots change them anyway for the blue controller which changes the 4wd split for more rear wheel action! There becoming quite cheap to repair if you can do it yourself otherwise expensive

[Yandards 0]

Had a run-out A3 mk 1 (although 130bhp diesel s line) as a daily driver for a few months now, it feels quite Corrado esque in terms of seating and driving (but only in a VW/Audi family kind of way) and its fairly good on the old A-B but its not as much fun as a 'rado to drive hard.