New "Corrado" in AutoCar

[JonRB]

In todays Autocar: new rear-drive coupe, reviving the Corrado name.
Available in next three years in coupe and convertible format.
Mid-mounted 200BHP Turbo / 370BHP 3.6L V6 mentioned, matching Boxter S performance.

All very nice, but a mid-engined RWD Corrado is hardly the spiritual successor to the current front-engined FWD Corrado, is it?

And I can't say the styling says "Corrado" to me either. Says de-Bangled Z4, which is no bad thing in its own right, but is hardly a Corrado.

[JonRB]

Hmmm. Guess no-one is interested.

[manek]

Doesn't sound much like a Corrado....though I wouldn't mind one in my driveway (assuming I had a driveway and it doesn't look hideous).

[JonRB]

Photo here:

[manek]

Hmm, the back end looks more like a Nissan Figaro to me...

[Stig]

I was very interested having owned 16v and a VR6 Corrados.

Now I've seen it, I'm not

[JonRB]

Whatever it looks like, it doesn't look like a Corrado.

I thought that when car manufacturers revived a model name they generally tried to establish links with the previous car?

How can a RWD mid-engined two-seater with no styling links to the previous front-engined FWD 2+2 car be a Corrado?

[Munter]

I like what it sounds like. Pics not working for me. But any 200+bhp RWD car will do thanks

[JonRB]

Munter said:

I like what it sounds like. Pics not working for me. But any 200+bhp RWD car will do thanks

Sure, a 200+bhp RWD car does sound nice. But I would be upset if they gave it the name "Corrado", that's all.

I mean, the "New Beetle" may have been a cynical marketing ploy to rebody a Golf, but at least they tried to make it look like the old Beetle.

Likewise the defunct Camper Van concept.

But this? What has this thing got to do with a Corrado?

>> Edited by JonRB on Thursday 6th May 16:25

[manek]

Agree -- it's not even remotely the same shape...

[JonRB]

manek said:

Agree -- it's not even remotely the same shape...

You don't necessarily have to keep the shape. Look at the Nissan Z cars. The new Z is very different to the old ones, but has kept the concept of front-engined RWD, so can claim continuity there.
Also look at the MR2. The current Mk3 looks nothing like the Mk2 which likewise has very little in common with the original Mk1. Yet all are mid-engined RWD.
Also the Celica. How many cars have worn that name over the years? But there is a clear link between them, even through they have been RWD, 4WD and FWD over the years, the number of seats and the engine location has stayed the same.
And the Mini / MINI. BMW attempts to cash in on 60's icon. Succeeds. The End. (It's a Mini adventure)

If VW were proposing a 2+2 V6 hatchback coupe with either FWD or 4WD then they could conceivably call it a Corrado. Personally I think the Audi TT is probably the spiritual successor to the Corrado in many respects and it would not surprise me in the least if the idea had been kicked round the boardroom at VAG when the TT was at the planning stages and they were deciding whether it should be a VW or an Audi. If it had been a VW then I'm sure the Corrado name might have been used.

Anyway, I've digressed a little. My point was that changing the shape does not necessarily matter for model continuity, but there is a limit to how much you can change before it is a completely different model that has no right to wear the same name as the previous. I feel that VW has reached / passed that limit.

[mervynp]

JonRB said:

Personally I think the Audi TT is probably the spiritual successor to the Corrado in many respects

ooooh thats fighting talk , comparing the TTs sloppy dynamics and lack of involvment to the Corrados is pretty much sacrelidge, but I suppose it is a Golf in a coupe shaped dress, so perhaps you have a point

JonRB said:

and it would not surprise me in the least if the idea had been kicked round the boardroom at VAG when the TT was at the planning stages and they were deciding whether it should be a VW or an Audi. If it had been a VW then I'm sure the Corrado name might have been used.

quite possible, but bear in mind that the Corrado was a financial disaster for VAG, so at the time perhaps they would have been less keen, now the car has a little cachet perhaps things are different. Also Audi have traditionally had a coupe in the line up from the mid seventies onwards.

Interestingly, having read the article, although it throws the name around liberally it stops short of saying definitively that it will be called Corrado, rather 'insiders describe it as a modern-day Corrado', so personally I will wait and see

[JonRB]

mervynp said:

JonRB said: Personally I think the Audi TT is probably the spiritual successor to the Corrado in many respects ooooh thats fighting talk , comparing the TTs sloppy dynamics and lack of involvment to the Corrados is pretty much sacrelidge, but I suppose it is a Golf in a coupe shaped dress, so perhaps you have a point

Hmmm. A fair point. I haven't actually driven a TT so I was talking more from concept, ie. fast stylish 2+2 hatchback based on a Golf platform (or Golf in a dress, as you put it).

[CarZee]

TT in a nutshell:

plenty of power
all grip, no handling
dead stering
shite gearbox

Oh and apart from about 200 of the first 180s, they were all four wheel drive.

I found that on a road like the A339, I had to be doing over a ton before things got stimulating. Utterly soporific.

Sounds like this is lining up against the Datsun 350Z. In which case, it will be what the TT should have been.

VW, though, are entirely incapable of turning out a car that could compete with a Boxster S.

[robbo64]

Corrado? I don't think so! Not that it must look exactly like the old one,(come to think of it, it looks nowt like the old one), but the general look of it isn't that sharp, 80s Corrado look that we're used to. The idea seemed good enough, but the end product is well off the mark.

[LuS1fer]

Off point - I thought Scirocco was a better name than Corrado.

Haven't seen this car but sounds like VW want a cheap Boxster as well as a cheap Cayenne (BTW, there are loads of those Touregs on Lanzarote but they refuse to all park on top of the volcano).

[edc]

Modern day Corrado? You better look to Seat to provide that