Corrado retro review

[Cupra]

Found this while I was surfing the web this morning ( I mean working hard )

http://www.motivemag.com/pub/feature..._Corrado.shtml

Phil

[VR6 STORM]

Thats an article I havent seen before!
Funny thing is the faults he mentioned arent just the ones that I and most Corrado owners know about.
Luckily my rear spoiler still comes up at 100kph but the sunroof is a classic Corrado fault, it goes a bit sideways then jams!! Can be very expensive to put right. Again Its not happened to mine but I rarely open it as mine has the rare A/C option.
Other Corrado faults that annoy are the door handle mechanism that fails internally. Its a little **** metal casting piece that fractures inside and cant be replaced with factory parts! If youre very unlucky they both bust within weeks and you end up having to get in via the tailgate.... not a good advert for their prestgious sports coupe?
There is a guy in Germany that makes and sells a steel replacement part, so I made sure I got a pair before we emigrated as the replacement handles were about $180 in the uk in 2002 when I had to buy one.
Water pump failure on a VR6 is not unheard of and involves alomost lifting the engine out to replace it... arrgh! Also cam chains on the VR6 can fail with catastrophic results. Head gaskets were a favourite VR6 failure in the early days. I think this came down to the 'fit for life' G11 coolant that turned out to cause internal corrosion in the block and head.
I think the spoiler and to some degree the door handle faults might be due to the car being left out on a wet then frosty night, ha ha, not a problem anymore for me . The ice jams the spoiler mechanism and the door handles. Excessive force on a frozen door handle will bust the internal casting and when water freezes in the rams for the spoiler it will stress the motor and linkage... just a thought?
I am not sure why the Corrado suffered so many annoying problems, I think some of it is down to the limited production run and the cost of engineering out faults. Saying that then, why did they spend a small fortune when they re stlyed the car in 1991? This included an all new dash, revised front and rear bumper mouldings, redesigned bonnet and front lighting, re designed but still flawed door handles etc etc.
Funny thing is that the majority of parts that arent Corrado specific are shared with the other models of that year so why should they be more unreliable?
The article is a North American one and he didnt mention that everyone in Eurpoe got the 2.9 VR6 with 190BHP (140kW).
Anyway thats just my experience of owning my Storm and my thoughts on it, but I still wouldnt swap her for anything