Vw corrado or 90q?

[Iain Mannix]

I had a Corrado G60 for about one year.

It was not a _bad_ car, but there were a couple of things that
scared me from it - it had the "rod knock" noise, which the
Corrado bunch call normal(!), and the superchargers just
seem destined to fail.

It was a good example; 80k miles(or 60, relatively low), had
Bilsteins in it, poly bushings everywhere, stock beyond
that.  It had been well taken care of.  Everything pretty
much worked.

The G60s in particular have some curious issues, but they're
pretty reliable, short of superchargers popping.  Never happened
to me, but that's pretty much why I got rid of it - it is an
expensive failure, and for a street car, I just did not seee
it as a worthwhile tradeoff.  I can put up with little
annoyances here and there that don't park the car; on my
5kcsq, I can't think of anything that is _likely_ to fail
that A) parks the car RIGHT HERE and B) costs at least
$1000.  At least.  There are some spendy failures on
the 5k, but they normally come along gradually, letting
me decide where to park the car:).

VR6 cars are similar, but no supercharger issues.  The early
ones seem to blow headgaskets.  Some things are _expensive_.

The CG60 was quick, but not stunningly fast(my 86 5k sedan
with an adjustable wastegate will blow the doors off a
G60).  The VR6 cars are pretty quick.

They're kinda different cars, though, the Corrado and Audi
90.  I'm not sure I'd call the 90 more reliable than the
Corrado - IMHO, they're about the same, although the 90 is
not likely to blow headgaskets, more little Audi stuff.
A Corrado - G60 or VR6 - is going to be a bunch faster than
a 90.  90q will obviously be a TON better in snow.  Putting
snowtires on a C makes a big difference, but quattros are
unreal.  Not sure how much snow performance matters.  Corrados
are pretty small inside, even with the rear seat folded down.

Dunno; in some ways, I miss driving the Corrado.  No, I do
miss driving it - it was fun, solid, quick(not superfast,
but quick), but it was like driving a time bomb.  Between
a knocky bottom end (normal?!  shrug - at 2800ish rpm,
there was a knocky resonance that could be heard if you drove
next to a curb with the P-side window down - apparantley,
rod bearings fix it, but they supposedly "all" do it -
scared me, though), and the supercharger, well, it was a
stressful car:).  Neat supercharger noise, though, and
it was a fun highway car.



Iain

On Fri, 25 Oct 2002, Shawn Head wrote:

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> Just trying to decide which I should save up for.  I like the look of
> the corrado but want the dependability of the 90.
>
> Anyone have experience with the corrado?  Pros/ Cons of both?
>
> Thx,
> Shawn Head
> 86' CGT
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