I'm looking at possibly a vr6 corrado or a nissan 200sx, and would appreciate comment - good and bad - it's hard earned cash that's at stake. What the "best buy" bearing in mind cost to run?
thanks in advance
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VR6 can be thirsty as it does encourage thrashing due to the fantastic engine note. VR6 motas seem to be relatively bulletproof. Service costs are not that much higher than for a 4-cylinder due to the very compact nature of the engine (only a 15degree V) - replacement parts such as ignition leads and coils (seperate coil for each cylinder) and spark plugs are pricey but rarely fail.
The Corrado has the 2.9 VR6 whereas the Golf only had the 2.8 (I say only!) - good for 190bhp if you get a good one but I've known a few to have fuelling problems that lead them to greatly underperform.
The Corrado is the usual Karmann build excellence and the driving position is very much in the same line as the Scirocco it replaced. Very low and flat. I, personally, like this position and prefer it to the more upright position in the Golf.
Minus points are complete lack of rear legroom for anyone over 5ft and the odd cable change gearbox that makes fast changes a nightmare.
As for the Nissan - it is rear wheel drive and turbo-charged which for an inexperienced driver = lamposts. I, personally, would go for a decent Corrado but I'm very biased!
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Guy, has the source of the fuelling problem been identified and is it easily fixable?
Phil
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Corrado VR6 has now virtually stopped depreciating and is destined for classic-dom. I doubt the same could be said of a 200sx. Go for a late run-out Storm model with leather and all the toys - it might take some searching though!
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. . . but only buy a Storm if you like colour-coded purple or green paintwork. Me, I'd prefer an ordinary VR6 with optional leather and CD
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Having owned a mk1 200sx, I can say that they are fun to drive and pretty reliable (Just remember to change the oil OFTEN and flush so that the damn turbo doesn't go on you). I think the mk2 are much better, 2litre engines with turbos produce 198bhp and the beauty of these cars is that they have all the toys on.
Most of the ones I've seen have leather and air. Pretty affordable as well.
Turbo kicks in at around 3500, so you can drive it frugally if you keep the revs below that.
Jonathan
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www.nissan200sx.co.uk will tell you all you need to know and more about the 200, both the Mk1 and Mk2 models (known as S13 and S14 respectively). Just don't expect an unbiased opinion if you ask the same question on their bulletin board!
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Corrado VR6 has head gasket as well as electronic fuelling problems. Any water loss needs to be treated as a serious problem because they tend to leak into the combustion chambers, leaning off the mixture and causing enough overheating to melt the piston crowns. But they're brilliant to drive. Powerful, flexible with fantastic handling.
HJ
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I've knwon guys with 20 years VAG experience, race experience with the Vento VR6 and all the latest official VAG diagnostic kit spend 18 hours, change everything they can think of including the ECU, then give up on them.
HJ
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Phil - can I pass on both counts!?
A friend of mine had a Corrado VR6 which suffered from this problem which was only discovered on a Club GTI Rolling Road Shoot-Out against my brother's VR6 engineed MkII Golf.
It was suggested, by the company kind enough to let us use their rolling road for free, that he bought a chip-kit to give a re-map of fuelling and that would sort it. He never did so we'll never know!
Strangely I don't think this ever affected the 2.8 unit.
If ur serious about buying a Corrado I suggest you try some web-sites incl. www.awesomegti.com and they may be able to help. I'm not aware of any dedicated Corrado sites but I'll have a look.
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I've had a dig about on the web but have not turned up much. The only mention of a fuelling problem I could find was on www.vw-corrado-club.co.uk/main.htm which says:
Management Sensor
VR6 engines occasionally stall at idle, sometimes from poor-quality petrol or when an engine management sensor gets sooted up. Clean it with a hard fast run, or a change of fuel (REDEX).
The site is well worth a look though!
Phil
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Another site worth a mention.
www.corrado-club.com
Lots of info, though i couldn't find anything on the fuelling fault. If the fault can be cured by remapping then great, but I suspect that HJ's industry contacts would have known about it.
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Firstly,DO chip it.
The standard chip is designed to unrealistically minimise emissions and give the best farcical Govt mpg figures possible.
Never heard of a chip yet that didnt improve performance AND consumption,within reasonable driving I mean!
I had a new G60,and a colleague had a new 200 at he same time.
The 200 was more fun but less civilised,what I call a hundred mile car.
These are the cars that the children who write road tests take round the block a few times and write glowing reports therefrom.
If they had to drive them all day a very different story indeed would emerge,only to be vetoed by advertising department!
I still think the Corrado is the best ,but only at a small premium.
I dont think it is better built,Karmann quality was nothing wonderful in Sciroccos and only a bit better in Corrados.
Mine had 22 unecessary or avoidable design or build faults.
Many were engine related,those that were not included:
Soft paintwork
No remote locking
A sunroof that did not close on the key when the windows closed.
Sunroof buffet that made it unusable
No aircon available
Appalling rear seat removal mechanism
Almost criminally low level of theft prevention
Dangerous dipped beam intensity
About 42 different shades of blue used in the interior trim
A gearchange worse than a MK 1 Maxi
Noisy ABS on starting engine......"Theyre all like that......."
Horrible alloy wheels that were impossible to clean and too small.
Inadequate fresh air ventilation
No headlamp washers
A very ugly front end,as if the designer was quite exhausted by the very creditable job he'd made of the rest of it!
On the credit side it seems to have taken the industry 10 years to produce a basic chassis anywhere near as good as the merely acceptable,if state of the art at the time ,Mk2- golf- with -bigger- brakes -Corrado.
And it was pretty rigid,but since it weighed 50% more than a similar sized Scirocco,solid would have been better.
Its the depleted Uranium that VAG are so fond of ,you know.
But it stopped and handled better than anything else you could buy and at least looked commendably restrained with it.
Except in yellow.
I suspect that the fuelling fault is caused by the lunatic passion for trying to make internal combustion engines run purely on air.A little squirt of sinful petrol here and there solves a multitude of problems.
And if youre green and worrying about the future ,just ask yourself this
"What has the future ever done for me?"
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I basically agreed with Jonathan & Ian. I like the 200SX as I am driving it almost every day for about 17 months now (I used it as my everyday transport). It is very reliable so far (it is a H reg. S13 with 12.6K when I brought it. It has 14.4k now) and the engine is still very good. I find it more practical than I originally expected - I put a large but dismantled table in the boot & the folden backseat in one occassion - and returned about 28 miles/gallon in normal driving on street roads/country lanes, etc. You have to take some time to get used with the turbo-lag and pay attention while driving in the wet though, ..., esp. when you drive it for the first time (just different driving technique for me. In fact, I find the steering much sharper than other cars that I have driven before.). Other than that, regular oil change is the key!
For about £2000-3000, you can find a very good early 90s S13. For about £5000, you can find a clean mid-90s S14. This is a real bargain - cheapter than the VW. But you must look for a good example with FSH, etc.
Good luck.
GY
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