A year after its European debut, Volkswagen’s chunky new Corrado coupe came to the U.S., powered by a 1.8-liter four with VW’s unusual G-Lader supercharger. Car and Driver tested the 1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 in November 1989 and came away with mixed feelings about this left-field choice in the then-crowded “supercoupe” field.
Remember the now-vanished era when nearly every automaker offered one or more sporty compact coupes? It wasn’t really that long ago, but it feels like a lifetime. Small coupes had proliferated in the ’70s, but not a few of them were crap even by the standards of their time. By the late ’80s, however, competition and greatly improved technology had separated most of the chaff from the wheat, and even the mediocre entries were usually decent-enough cars in their own right. And such variety! By 1990, you could have your pick of old-school RWD pony cars, FWD coupes with turbo fours and a growing number of V-6s, and some ferocious AWD models like the Diamond Star coupes (Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser) and Toyota Celica All-Trac Turbo. An embarrassment of riches, if you liked this sort of thing, and, sadly, we probably won’t see its like again.
Volkswagen had had a solid enough entry in the sporty coupe class in the ’70s with the Mk1 Scirocco, but the Mk2 version, introduced for 1982, hadn’t really caught on with American buyers. It remained available in the States through 1988, but VW had seemed content to let it grow old, and by the end, it had dropped almost completely off the radar. Volkswagen wasn’t doing very well in the U.S. back then, and I assume replacing the aging Scirocco was a low priority.
1987 Volkswagen Scirocco 16V / Bring a Trailer
Just how low a priority it was is evidenced by the fact that it took a full year for Volkswagen to get around to introducing its new Corrado coupe in the U.S. The Corrado had actually launched in Europe in the fall of 1988 as a 1989 model, but it didn’t cross the Atlantic until the 1990 model year. In the first page of the Car and Driver road test above, Patrick Bedard says it arrived six months later than Volkswagen had planned, although he doesn’t offer any explanation for the delay.
1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 / Bring a Trailer
“Why?” is really the operative question about the Corrado, and I’ve yet to see a convincing explanation for why Volkswagen built this car at all. From an American perspective, it was a belated successor to the Scirocco, but in Europe, the second-generation Scirocco actually remained on sale alongside the Corrado through 1992, and VW insisted that they were distinct and separate entities, with the Corrado aiming at the gap left by the recent demise of the Porsche 924. That seemed foolhardy even at the time, insofar as the Corrado arrived as the European market for coupes was rapidly fading, eaten alive by more practical hot hatches like VW’s own Golf GTI. The Corrado was assembled by the coachbuilder Karmann (although it was an in-house VW design) — did Volkswagen have some contractual obligation to Karmann that they were otherwise having trouble meeting? I still don’t know.
Bedard called the Corrado “an intricate, feature-packed machine with a full complement of fit-yourself adjustments in the cockpit and an imaginative powerplant under the hood.” This seems like a polite way of tiptoeing around the fact that the Corrado was in many respects a Mk2 Golf GTI with a coupe body, sharing the familiar 1,781 cc EA827 engine, five-speed gearbox (an automatic wasn’t added in the U.S. until 1991), MacPherson struts, torsion beam on trailing arms, and vented front/solid disc brakes. Unlike the Scirocco, which was still based on the original Mk1 Golf platform, the Corrado was based on the contemporary Mk2 Golf, but that mostly just made it bigger and over 300 lb heavier than the Scirocco.
The Corrado’s decklid spoiler would automatically rise at speed / Bring a Trailer
So, what the Corrado mostly offered for its substantial price premium over the Golf was, er, style. Before the world’s eight remaining Corrado devotees swear a vendetta against me, I think the Corrado looks fine in isolation: The shape suggests some kind of shoe, but that’s not entirely inappropriate for a sporty coupe, and the detailing is well-considered if not very exciting. I like it better than either of the two previous Scirocco designs (admittedly not high praise, since the aesthetic appeal of the original Giugiaro design has always eluded me, and the Mk2 is so bland it would have been perfect for insurance commercials), and it’s aged surprisingly well. Comparing the Corrado to the sleek and swoopy shapes of its contemporary rivals, though, left me wondering if VW designers understood the assignment. This was a sporty VW coupe, but the accent was definitely on the “VW.”
The Corrado’s other big claim to fame was the silly motorized spoiler, which erected itself automatically at speed — 120 km/h (75 mph) in Europe, 45 mph in the U.S. — to reduce aerodynamic lift while further compromising the coupe’s already unspectacular 0.32 drag coefficient and mediocre rear visibility. Maybe it was just the thing for the Autobahn, but on this side of the pond, the spoiler was strictly a gimmick, and not a very desirable one.
1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 / Bring a Trailer
Bedard spent most of the second page extolling the Corrado’s lengthy standard equipment list, which offered “about as many levers and gadgets to play with as any Asian brand.” However, the real redeeming virtue of this car was its chassis. While there was nothing technologically noteworthy about the Corrado suspension, it was tuned to a fare-thee-well, and some European testers regarded it as the best FWD chassis of its era. Bedard remarked:
The over-the-road moves of this car are correct, very assured, very connected to the pavement. And it’s one of a very few powerful front-drivers that don’t try to snatch the steering out of your hands at full throttle in the lower gears, far better than the Probe GT/Mazda MX-6 GT and the Chrysler-Mitsubishi siblings. The Corrado’s ride motions are crisp, with that sharp edge that comes from ultra-low-profile 50-series tires. This is one of those cars that feel as if they could drive around a grasshopper in the road and not worry about the possibility of a last-second hop, because they can drive around that too. The Corrado is quick and athletic, and its ride sharpness won’t let you forget it—rather like a GTI, only more so.
It’s important to note for context that the Probe/MX-6 GT coupes he was comparing were the first-generation turbocharged models, which were very powerful, but had a disconcerting degree of torque steer under power. Not all contemporary reviewers felt the Corrado had completely avoided this problem — CAR complained in May 1992 that the G60 suffered “torque-steer fidget that can generate disconcerting weave under hard acceleration, even wrench the wheel” — but it was at least less twitchy than many turbocharged FWD rivals.
This 1990 car’s BBS wheels were not a factory option in 1990, but BBS wheels replaced the original factory alloys for 1991 / Bring a Trailer
Given more recent tire trends, thinking of 50-series tires as “ultra-low-profile” is a bit jarring — a lot of contemporary sports coupes still used 55- or 60-series rubber, which didn’t provide such sharp response or quite as much ultimate grip, but made for a less brittle ride. In retrospect, I see the higher-profile rubber as a better trade-off for normal driving, but VW was ahead of the curve here, for better or worse.
The C/D editors were very taken with the Corrado interior, which they ranked high on perceived quality and thought was quite roomy for a coupe this size. Having previously owned a Honda Prelude of this era, with a very low cowl and expansive visibility, I find the Corrado comparatively claustrophobic, with the high beltline and thick pillars giving the impression of sitting in a bunker. The VW did have much more supportive seats, however, and they were adjustable enough for most people to find a comfortable angle.
1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 / Bring a Trailer
Seat comfort notwithstanding, I find the striped velour upholstery rather tacky. Early European Corrados tended to be all-black inside (or all-gray, which wasn’t much better), so any splash of color was something of a relief, but, like the awful Tartan patterns with which VW has periodically burdened the Golf, it didn’t look particularly good. It also seemed somewhat incongruous given the sober Teutonic boxiness of the dashboard. Another interior shortcoming: Volkswagen had opted to meet U.S. passive restraint requirements with motorized front shoulder belts rather than airbags. The Corrado was far from alone in this in 1990, but VW continued using the infuriating mouse belts well after many rivals had found less obnoxious solutions.
1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 / Bring a Trailer
In the text on this page, Bedard acknowledged the Corrado’s kinship with the Golf, but asserted:
Philosophically, though, there’s a difference. VW engineers think of the Corrado as a unique car: they see it as a roadgoing envelope for the supercharged and intercooled G60 engine. Other VW engines would fit, but the Corrado is not an envelope for other engines; it’s available with the G60 engine only. And VW’s patented G-Charger blower is necessarily limited in production because the plant that machines the complex internal G-shaped scrolls can produce only 150 units a day, so that’s how many Corrados there’ll be.
I don’t want to take Bedard to task here because I’m sure VW representatives probably said something like this at the Corrado’s U.S. press introduction, but nearly all of this is nonsense: First of all, the European Corrado was also offered with the 134-hp normally aspirated 1.8-liter engine from the European Golf GTI 16V. The likely reason Volkswagen chose not to offer this combination here was to limit overlap between the Corrado and the slow-selling U.S. GTI, which was about to adopt the similarly powerful 2.0-liter 16-valve engine. (Strikes at the VW plant in Puebla, Mexico, delayed the U.S. introduction of the 2.0-liter GTI 16V until 1991, but it had already been announced, and Volkswagen had expected it to go on sale at the same time as the U.S. Corrado.) Also, the supercharged G60 engine was only a Corrado exclusive in the U.S. — the G60 had also become available on the European Golf for 1989.
The supercharged, intercooled G60 engine in a 1990 Volkswagen Corrado / Bring a Trailer
The “G” in “G60” stood for “G-Lader” (“G-Charger” in English), while “60” was the supercharger chamber depth in millimeters. As the name implied, the belt-driven supercharger had an unusual G-shaped scroll:
The G-Lader supercharger in section; this is the smaller G40, but the G60 is very similar, differing mostly in chamber depth / Volkswagen AG via Volkswagen Classic
The basic spiral concept was derived from a 1905 rotary engine design by French engineer Léon Creux (U.S. Patent 801,182), but sealing technology of the time wasn’t adequate to make it practical as an engine. As a positive-displacement supercharger, however, Volkswagen felt that it had some useful advantages over the more common Roots-type (rotary piston) and Zoller-type (vane) superchargers, summarized in this table from a 1986 technical paper:
Comparison of Roots-type, Zoller-type, and G-Lader superchargers / Volkswagen AG
Volkswagen had applied the smaller G40 version of this supercharger to the Mk2 Polo in 1986, producing 113 hp from 1,272 cc and making the lightweight Polo a 120-mph car. Applied to the 8-valve 1,781 cc EA827 engine, the G60 supercharger produced a respectable 158 hp and 166 lb-ft of torque. (For comparison, the normally aspirated 8-valve engine then had 105 hp and 110 lb-ft in U.S. cars, while the U.S.-spec 16-valve 1.8-liter had 123 hp and 120 lb-ft.)
The Volkswagen Polo G40 Type 2 was the first production application of the G-Lader supercharger / Guide des Sportives
Unfortunately, as Bedard noted, the complex shape of the G-Lader made it difficult and expensive to produce. It also wasn’t very reliable in service, and Volkswagen left it to owners and technicians to figure out the lifespan of its internal seals the hard way. According to VW Heritage:
The G-Lader will need regular servicing, and while VW never specified an actual rebuild/overhaul interval, the bearings and seals within the charger have a finite lifespan, depending on the engine’s state of general tune. On a standard setup, a rebuild every 45,000 miles is generally recommended. This might involve stripping the charger, cleaning the casing and inspecting the various components for wear before reassembling with new oil seals, apex strips, bearings and drive belt – usually using higher specification parts than when the supercharger left the factory.
Since the boost pressure generated by the belt-driven G-Lader wasn’t dependent on exhaust velocity, the G60 engine wasn’t subject to turbo lag. However, its performance still wasn’t outstanding: Volkswagen claimed 0 to 60 mph in 7.5 seconds, but I’ve yet to find an independent test that came within a half-second of that figure. Car and Driver recorded 0 to 60 mph in 8.2 seconds and the standing quarter mile in 16.1 seconds at 86 mph, which was quicker than a Prelude Si or normally aspirated Celica — no great feat, since they had only 135 hp — but no match for a Probe GT or the turbocharged Diamond Star cars. The Corrado was also still a bit sluggish off the line, as the G60 engine’s modest off-idle torque struggled against the fairly hefty curb weight.
A familiar sight to anyone who’s driven an ’80s or ’90s Volkswagen / Bring a Trailer
Some of the performance shortfall was due not to the engine, but to the clunky five-speed gearbox, whose notchy, balky linkage drew many complaints. The gearing also required two shifts before 60 mph; VW revised the ratios of U.S. cars for 1991 to address this. (European cars retained the original ratio spread.)
Bedard also complained:
The engine is short on exhilaration, too. It’s not zingy in the fashion of the typical four-valver. The redline is 6200 rpm, and the engine sort of groans its way up there. Something under the hood makes a moany sound; we blame the G-Charger, even though VW engineers claim it’s a quiet source of power. The four-cylinder vibrations excite certain buzzes in the bodywork, too. The net result is that the Corrado feels more machinelike in a somewhat agricultural way than the Prelude or the balance-shaft-equipped Chrysler-Mitsubishis.
This wasn’t a minority opinion in the C/D offices: In the “Counterpoint” section on the above page, editor John Phillips III complained of “the coarseness of the engine,” while Rich Ceppos lamented “the droning coming from underhood.”
Still, the excellent chassis counted for something, and the Corrado’s upright shape made it closer to a proper four-seater than many coupe rivals. As Bedard put it:
Crawling into the back is a Houdini trick, and when you get there the ceiling is low and the front-seat headrests dominate the view. But adults five-foot-ten or less, once they’re in place, can actually ride in back in passable comfort.
Decent space for a coupe, but claustrophobic and hard to access / Bring a Trailer
C/D technical director Csaba Csere (in the “Counterpoint” section above) was unimpressed with the Corrado, calling the engine “a big disappointment” and noting that leading rivals handled just as well without such a stiff-legged ride. He conceded that it didn’t look like any of its rivals, but concluded, “unless you place a high value on distinctiveness, the Corrado has limited appeal.”
Bedard (in the main text) took a more positive stance, concluding:
What we have here is a supercoupe that doesn’t care what anybody says. It’s a VW and, by gawd, it’ll do things its own way.
That amounts to choice, guys. In a market featuring three or four kinds of turbocharged pickle-shaped coupes, a G-Charged chunk of chutzpah is a welcome addition.
Bedard’s point is well-taken, especially with the benefit of hindsight, but appreciating the Corrado’s chutzpah was an expensive proposition. The yellow car in this post’s color photos had a list price of $18,220 when it was originally sold in 1990, and the Washington dealer had the temerity to tack on an additional $400 surcharge for “Adjusted Market Value.” (Given the weak demand for the Corrado in the U.S., I would call that “a helluva lot of nerve.”)
The C/D test car, which had the optional antilock brakes and power sunroof, listed for $19,750 including shipping. Since you could buy one of the turbocharged AWD Diamond Star coupes for around $17,000 in 1990 (although they didn’t offer ABS until 1991), this wasn’t what you’d call a bargain. Had this Corrado G60 been available in time for the C/D “Supercoupe” comparison test earlier in the year, it would have been the most expensive car in the test, and it offered only mid-pack performance.
1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 / Bring a Trailer
If you liked the chassis — surely the Corrado’s best feature — and the late ’80s VW corporate look, you could get both for about $5,000 less in the GTI 16V, which was eminently more practical and nearly as quick. Judging by the incomplete sales figures I could find, few American buyers were interested in either: U.S. GTI sales in this era were very weak, and the Corrado was actually outsold by the elderly Cabriolet, another holdover of the old Mk1 Golf/Rabbit platform. Autoblog estimates total U.S. Corrado G60 sales for 1990 to 1992 at around 17,000, but when the six-cylinder Corrado SLC arrived midway through the 1992 model year, Volkswagen of America still had about 1,500 unsold supercharged cars to clear out. (The G60 engine remained available in Europe through the end of the 1993 model year, the G40 through July 1994.)
The Corrado SLC, which replaced the G60 supercharged engine with the new normally aspirated 2,792 cc VR6, offered more power (178 hp) with less fuss. It made the Corrado even heavier, but the VR6 actually provided better weight distribution, and VW retuned the suspension for a bit more compliance with no sacrifice in grip or agility. The SLC still had the aggravating mouse belts, however, and it cost about $1,000 more than the G60, so it still didn’t sell. Volkswagen withdrew the Corrado from the U.S. market at the end of the 1994 model year, although it stuck around for another year in Europe. Global production totaled 97,535 units between August 1988 and July 1994.
By then, the bottom had fallen out of the sporty-coupe market in the U.S. Unfavorable exchange rates were pricing the more desirable imports out of reach of the buyers who would have wanted them: A 1994 Honda Prelude VTEC listed for $24,500, and the final Corrado SLC started at around $25,000. Child seat regulations meant that coupes were no longer practical only-cars for buyers with even very young children (you might be able to wedge an NHTSA-approved child seat into the back of a Corrado, but would you want to make a habit of it?), and limiting the audience for coupes to the childless and child-free made the price escalation increasingly untenable. Within a decade, most of the cars in this class were gone, and the few stragglers weren’t long for the world.
1990 Volkswagen Corrado G60 / Bring a Trailer
I didn’t like the Corrado G60 when it was new, put off by its wooden-clog proportions and groan-and-moan engine, but time and the virtual extinction of this entire category of compact sporty coupe have softened my criticisms of it. I still wouldn’t want one (the mouse belts cross it off even the most speculative “What if?” lists, and I’ve had quite enough of VW quality and reliability to last me a lifetime, thanks much), and if I did, the SLC would be the one to have, but as a shape and a concept, it looks better all the time.
Related Reading
Curbside Classic: VW Scirocco Mk1 – Irreplicable, Although VW Keeps Trying (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1982 VW Scirocco Mk II – We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Italian Designers (by Paul N)
CC Capsule: 1991 Volkswagen Corrado G60 – Flawed Follow-up (by Tatra87)
Vintage Comparison Test: 1989 Super Coupes – Car And Driver Compares Affordable Sporty Coupes At The End Of The Eighties (by GN)
Curbside Classic: 1993 Volkswagen Corrado VR6 – The Enigmatic Also-Ran (by The Professor)
Great to see your excellent analyses of vintage car reviews, covering a wide swath of generations, from the ’60’s to the 2000’s. Love the variety.
Is it possible, that the first generation styling of a car is so seminal, that followup generations could never attract the same attention, and dedication? I say, ‘No question!’ The Volkswagen Scirocco/Corrado, is an excellent example. The Corrado wasn’t unattractive. It did look modern and muscular, in a crowded market. Unfortunately, it did appear somewhat generic. It was the blandly-styled second gen Scirocco for 1982, that significantly turned me away from the VW brand. When considering the most desirable supercoupes of that era. I appreciate a manufacturer wanting a certain consistent look among their models. To a degree. For me, early to late ’80s VW, was flirting too much with unimaginative (near sterile) styling. I recall my disappointment as a teenager, seeing the second gen Scirocco, for the first time. Appearance-wise, it wasn’t that far removed from the current Subaru DL Hatchback. I did feel the Sube was more attractive, in some ways. Both somewhat appearing, like typical econoboxes for the times. A significant step backwards for VW, IMO.
Sleeker, yes. But not enough distinction between a sports coupe, meant to evoke status, and an econobox.
Both the later-generation Scirocco and the Corrado suffered the A-body Plymouth Barracuda problem: Volkswagen was never willing to spend enough money on them to un-cuff them from the overly recognizable hardpoints of their mass-market siblings, which offered most of their tangible virtues for less money. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the 1989–1991 Corrado was Volkswagen’s answer to the 1967 Barracuda Formula S: surprisingly good handling from a low-tech chassis, at the expense of a rather choppy ride; unfashionable styling; and two disappointing engine choices. As with the Barracuda, by the time a satisfactory engine became available, potential buyers had already dismissed it.
I say this with no affection whatever for the Mk1 Scirocco, which I have never liked on any level. I’ve always been underwhelmed by Giugiaro, and the Scirocco is no exception. The Mk2 is dull, dull, dull, and its idiom became dated very early in its life, but I can at least see where it was coming from.
“I’ve always been underwhelmed by Giugiaro” – Thank you! I have always felt the same way, and it is good to have some company.
I’ve always been underwhelmed by Giugiaro,
Oh my. He only created a good number of the very best designs of the ’60s: Alfa coupe, Mangusta, Ghibli,…….
Not that all of them were perfect or even great by far. But his track record is very good indeed. But the VW Golf Mk1 certainly hit the nail on the head for its time and its mission. And I am a fan of the Scirocco Mk1. The Mk2 was an in-house design and it really showed; very weak sauce.
As to the Corrado, I think it’s a pretty good follow-up to the Scirocco Mk1, and that’s what it should have been. Instead it over-reached. I was skeptical about the G-Lader from day one; that was typical German “we know better” engineering that often backfired.
I can only attach one photo, and this is not necessarily his best.
I do love the Giulia 105, but I’ve never much cared for the bulk of Giugiaro’s Italdesign work. I really don’t like the Mk1 Golf or Scirocco — obviously, they were very influential, but as designs, they leave me very much unmoved.
The Mk2 Scirocco seems like VW looked at Giugiaro’s Asso di Fiori concept (which became the Isuzu Piazza/Impulse) and said, “We can do this ourselves without having to pay additional fees to Italdesign!” I thought the Piazza was bland enough, and scraping the serial numbers off didn’t make it any more exciting.
Aaron, my understanding has been that Giugiaro was working up a proposal to offer for a Mk2 Scirocco when he found out VW already had their own design in the works.
So he pivoted his early work-in-progress on that to a contract with Isuzu to design a successor for their 117 Coupe (which he’d also designed), ultimately coming to fruition as the Asso di Fiori concept which was effectively just a sneak preview of the production first-gen Isuzu Piazza (rebadged as the Impulse for the American market).
Response to the concept’s unveiling was strong enough that Isuzu green-lit production of it as-is with only minor detail revisions, but it’s clear the final design was meant for the GM T-body platform all along, whatever intent may have motivated his early speculative renderings that wound up leading to it.
I confess I’m not clear on the development timeline of the Mk2 Scirocco, but that would certainly be in character for all concerned. I guess the Piazza is a little more attractive than the Mk2 Scirocco, but in the same way that piece of foamy white bread that’s toasted with a dash of garlic butter is more palatable than a plain and untoasted slice of the same loaf.
The Corrado’s peers were the jelly-bean Diamond Star Coupes, Toyota Celica, Nissan 240SX, and Ford Probe. Only the Prelude stood out from the others to any degree, with the exception of the Corrado itself. The Corrado had some good old German surface tension to its design, and the resulting blockiness made it anything but generic in 1990. That being said, it was 35% heavier than the lovely MK1 Scirocco while adding no utility. 15 years of advancement in engine technology made it quicker, but at a price in efficiency and durability.
The Scirocco interested me at the time, but I didn’t end up caring for the driving position and then Autoweek did an extended test of a VR6 model that they said was coming apart at the seams after a year.
Put the styling in context with some contemporary stuff and it looks great. Alfa SZ I’m talking to you.
I was still paying attention VW in those days, and vividly remember when this car came out. My first and only reaction: “My gawd, but that’s expensive for a VW!”
I had liked the original Scirocco and even kind of liked the 2nd gen, but didn’t like it enough to pay a stiff premium over the Golf GTI I bought in 1985. The Corrado came along and really juiced the price to a level far higher than was warranted for what you were getting.
By the late 80s VW seemed to forget what had gotten it success in the late 70s and early 80s – a great chassis, a torquey, responsive drivetrain and a reasonable price. I am sure that exchange rates (and the high-value competition from the Japanese companies) hurt VW here, but they were clearly trying to play up a division, with predictable lack of success.
It didn’t help that Volkswagen had spent the late ’70s and much of the ’80s souring their U.S. reputation with poor reliability and expensive repair and service costs. I had way too much experience being stranded by ’80s Volkswagen products for a $20,000 Corrado to ever seem like a remotely good idea even if I had been impressed by the styling.
That was a wise choice. My father owned a Corrado… briefly. He bought a 1992 VR6 used from a relative. It was a great car to drive (much better than the G60), and it was comfortable and very Teutonic, but my goodness it was a disaster to own. Between build-quality defects and electrical problems, Dad got tired of dealing with it and sold it after two years.
An excellent feature on a car I don’t think has been featured here in depth, it at all. I think I remember reading this original article in high school. “Teutonic boxiness” seems to sum up not only the dashboard, but also the exterior styling, which seemed to be loaded with styling cues of the upcoming MKIII Jetta (front fascia, taillamps, etc.) It looked the opposite of sporty when new, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t sort of like it. It was like some sort of wicked Golf.
The back-to-back pictures of the Gen-2 Scirocco against the yellow Corrado as photographed from the same perspective illustrates just how unswoopy the new car was.
I always liked something about the look of the Corrado, but it was expensive for its time. You mentioned that the 1994 Honda Prelude VTEC cost $24,500. That’s seems high to me. I bought a 1993 Honda Prelude VTEC (sales managers demo) for $18,000 so that price variance seems a bit high.
Japanese imports were getting hammered in this era due to the weakness of the dollar relative to the yen. The list price of a 1993 Prelude VTEC was $23,000 including destination charge, so you got a step discount.
As a brief owner of a well-used 1st gen Scirocco (before the Corrado came out) I liked these cars but always wondered why they changed the name; I didn’t know that the two models continued in parallel. A acquaintance had one, a G60 I think, maybe yellow. He now drives a Fiat 500 Abarth … in some ways not that different. Thanks Aaron, for once again providing a write-up with a great balance of specs and history, and your own personal perspective.
Me as well, my first (and sentimental favorite) watercooled VW of three (my 2000 Golf is my only car) was a ’78 Scirocco. I say “sentimental” not because it wasn’t a good car, but it suited me at the time as I was pretty young, and could scramble in and out of it with no problem. My surviving younger sister still has a ’97 Nissan 240SX (between her and my deceased youngest sister, they had qty-4 200 or 240 SXs) and it feels way too low for me to get in and out of nowdays.
I loved the styling of the Mk1 Scirocco, to me it is still one of the best styled vehicles I ever saw, but that of course plays into my preferences for angular lines. I was glad to get to own one, I replaced it with an ’86 GTi which I had up till I bought my current ’00 Golf. As I’d bought the GTi a few years prior to the Corrado coming out, I wasn’t in the market, so though I was of course aware of the Corrado I never test drove one, so I’m not aware of how different it would be from the Scirocco. When I moved from the north to the sunbelt, they shipped my Scirocco in the moving van; all my earthly possessions at the time including the Scircco were about 4000 lbs (and some of that were textbooks which I had at that time). The Scirocco didn’t have much engine (think it was about the same as a Golf) but it didn’t weigh much either.
My Nephew owns a Mercedes C230 Kompressor, which other than being RWD and a Mercedes would seem pretty similar in concept to this original Corrado.
He’s had a fair amount of issues with it, though not (as yet) with the supercharger, I haven’t driven it myself, but I still prefer the Scirocco (since I never set foot in one, can’t say about the Corrado). But I did own both A1 and A2 VWs (and now an A4) so at least I have a family sampling.
Doesn’t seem like anybody sells cars like these anymore…guess it’s not just I that’s aged but there are still some (my nephews come to mind) that would be in that range (including of course the one that owns the C230).
Today I wouldn’t consider any of these, but going back 40 years, as if I could forget how age has changed my viewpoint, I could still see myself in one of these, but sentimentally, not as a daily driver (anymore).
I was born when these came out, so my view is purely looking back, but I like them. Unlike you, I love the Scirocco 1 and 2, and have had lots of experience with both. I have a 1 now as a project. The Corrado though is like a chunkier, heavier looking Scirocco 1, so it’s not really on my want list. These days everyone swaps out the belts for normal style ones, and any manner of more modern VW engine swap is available, but the original Scirocco still has more character, and that’s what counts for me
First time I’ve read about the supercharger needing a rebuild every 45k. That would have made it an immediate and hard “no” even if I liked the rest of the car, which I don’t.
I’ve only driven one, which was TDI-swapped. Those engines are quite known for longevity. I just dislike german cars so I wouldn’t own one.
Superb overview.
My first impression with seeing these back in the day was “looks a little weird, way too expensive”.
I too never heard of the 45K rebuild for the supercharger – I can understand why VW kept that under wraps – we Americans have a hard time changing the oil at the required intervals – spending big bucks at around three years to re-do the SC? I doubt if it would happen, which likely meant it would implode soon after.
This was one of VW’s misses for me.
First, I own a Corrado 1990 G60 swapped to a VR6 so I am definitely coming at it from a different place then you,: personal experience. I am not blinkered to the cars faults but for a start you grossly underestimate the amount of love there is for the Corrado. I am bombarded by attention every time I drive the car and it’s only a runner. There is an active enthusiast community as well so there are far more than eight enthusiats. As for the drag coefficient, it was respectable for the era. More than that, between the design and the spoiler, the car plants to the road and noise cuts out around 90 mph. It’s amazing to drive. The SLC actually received the MK3 steering an suspension. The why was to show Volkswagen could build a car that drove so well. You article presents an interesting,if extremely poorly informed perspective. 🙂
You do understand the concept of hyperbole, yes?
That’s not a marketing strategy, though. The Corrado drove fine, but so did a Golf GTI or a Mk2 Scirocco, and the Corrado looked and drove far too much like them to justify its premium price. Add to that the mediocre supercharged engine, sub-par reliability, and generally miserable VW ownership experience, and it was a misfire. If you like the styling, more power to you, but there were reasons these cars didn’t sell well.