1992 Volkswagen Corrado SLC from North America - Comments

Please recall that I am a sportscar enthusiast, and a Volkswagen fanatic as well. I still own my GTI, and do not use my Corrado as daily transportation. I hope that my admission of that fact will show my desire to be objective upon this review.

These cars run at very high coolant temperatures (mine constantly hovers around 230F in slow traffic). I have replaced the thermostat housing, the secondary coolant pump, and the upper radiator elbow.

Even with so much work, I find that the car is still consuming coolant. I suspect that the head gasket is failing. I have learned that the replacement gasket for the VR6 is much better than the original one. I can only suggest that if you are looking to buy an `early' Volkswagen VR6, it may not be a "bad thing" if the head has been off the car.

The passenger side window closes, but will not seal. It stops about 5mm short of the window seal. Investigation (taking the interior skin off) reveals that one of the cable mounts has broken. Per my local independant VW shop, the mount is a `dealer part'. Per my local VW dealer, the part is not available seperately (they wish to have you spend 500 U.S. Dollars upon replacing the entire window unit.

Battery drain! The US market Corrado was not offered without power windows/sunroof/trip computer, etc.

If you do not drive the car often, you will find yourself not being able to drive at all, due to all of the "luxury" garbage. The trip computer (and the previously mentioned auxiliary waterpump, etc.) drain the battery, even when the car has been shut off.

I bought mine as a `collectors' item'. Since I only drive it two or three days a week, I have often found the electrical system dead.

I must admit.. so many "jump starts" have not yet burned out my car's Central Processing Unit.

In my opinion, the VR6 Corrado is the best car Volkswagen has ever produced. In my humble opinion, every modern GTI or Jetta or Passat with a VR6 under the hood owes its existance to VW's little experiment (ten years ago!) shoving such a wonderful motor into an A2 frame.

Fantastic power, great cornering, wonderful brakes! I can only dream about what the car could do without suffering the burden of all that `luxury' garbage (power locks, windows, sunroof, etc.).

That being said, please consider that even though this particular model is still a Volkswagen-it really requires much more `regular maintenence' than most other Dubs do.

I would reccommend that if you consider an auto as a simple appliance to get you to work, you should ignore the Corrado. I say so because I'm selfish. I wish to see these cars return to the hands of people who would care about them.

I whole heartily agree with your last comment. there are two few corrado's for people to by them because they look 'nice'. These need to be owned by real enthusiast that will lavish every last pound on it to keep it looking gorgeous before they become collectors items! also don't underestimate a tuned G60, it can hold it's own against a vr6 though probably not as reliable.

I own a 93 vw corrado with a vr6 turbo and I drive the car daily the car is a masterpiece of vw engineering. now with the over heating problem you can get a 160 thermostate and fan switch to cool the car better. but I have not had one problem with the car yet. beside normall abuse hahaha. what can I say 360 hp in a corrado hahahahaha see ya.

I just purchased a 92 corrado vr6 with a broken radiator. What is the best coolant product when flushing the system or just changing out the radiator. Can I use simple green coolant? What mixer do people use in there corrado vr6's? Does anyone use distilled water instead of tap water? Any info regarding coolant name brands would be appreciated.

I just sold my 92 SLC in July of this year. I was the 4th or 5th owner I believe. The original owner was a woman in Florida, then the car made its way to NJ, and finally NY. The last person to own the car before me (or person before him) truly was clueless to the term "maintenance". Only reason I bought the car from him was that it was ALL intact, no hacked wiring, no missing parts, VERY CLEAN black leather, sunroof worked, and seatbelts worked. The wing and cruise control was not working and I discovered that it was the instrument cluster causing this, not the separate control modules for them. The car had a "leaky" gasket on the passenger side, crappy suspension with worn bushing, faded paint, brakes that could barely slow the car down (with FULL pads!!), and crap tires. Oh…..and don't forget the ever SO popular 2nd gear grind.

Being my second Corrado (first one was a 1990 G60), I knew what I was getting into. Also, I've rebuilt VR6's before, so I know what to expect with that as well. I took the car and drove it for 6 months under the current conditions. I pushed it just hard enough to ensure this was solid enough a car to rebuild. It held up fine, so into the shop it went. Basically everything under the hood was replaced with new or rebuilt. Engine was rebuilt, head was new, new radiator (If some moron mixed coolant, you'll need to do the same. Early OBD1 cars ran the "blue" g11 coolant. Later OBD2 cars use the "pink" g12 coolant; Never mix these or run the green stuff.), coolant bottle, coolant hoses, coil over suspension, strut bearings, tie rods, rotors, brake lines, fuel lines (found a leak on one of the rubber ends that are press-fit into the line which had dried up due to age), new GTI tranny (better gearing ratio for highway cruising), and many many other new parts.

To help with the cooling issue (these cars run hot), I installed a new fan control module, used a new G60 radiator (slightly bigger and more flow), low temp fan switch and low temp thermostat. Temps stay at 190 no matter how hot it gets outside.

I've given you guys the "Cliff Notes" version of my rebuild here. Basically, if you plan to get one of these cars, don't expect them to be daily drivers unless you fix the long list of things I have above. Everything that breaks with these cars causes a chain reaction, so be prepared to spend a lot of cash.

These cars are A LOT of fun and great to drive, but they are also very delicate and not called "the poor man's Porsche" for nothing.

Buy with caution, but be aware of the issues to look out for.

Hey I just bought a 92 Corrado SLC... I noticed lately the fan has been kicking on at pretty low temp, like a quarter way up on the gage; is this a bad thing?... Now when I bought the car, it had no heat... which I had no problem with... thermostat maybe? Any advice, let me know, thanks guy.