Named after the Spanish word for to run or to sprint rather than the Old German word for brave or bold ruler, the Corrado launched in 1988, the year Faith by George Michael and Need You Tonight by INXS dominated the airwaves. Built by Karmann in Osnabruck rather than Volkswagen, the 2+2 compact liftback coupe was eventually axed in 1995.
Replaced by the Golf-based Scirocco, which ran between 2008 and 2017, the Corrado wasn’t a commercial success by Volkswagen standards. A handful over 97,500 examples of the breed was produced in seven years, which means just under 14,000 on average per calendar year. Why did this fellow meet its demise with a whimper instead of a bang? It all begins with the previous-gen Scirocco, a Golf in a party frock by many accounts.
Volkswagen decided on better styling for the Scirocco-replacing Corrado, which included a cool active rear spoiler and flush glass. But as development progressed, the Wolfsburg-based automaker made the mistake of pricing the Corrado too high for a Golf-based coupe. Designed to fill the gap between the Scirocco and Audi Coupe, the Corrado was the most expensive series-production VW of that period in G60 specification.
G60 refers to the scroll-type supercharger fitted to this variant, a supercharger whose interior is pretty similar to the letter G. Later on, the German automaker launched the 12-valve VR6 that came in 2.8- and 2.9-liter flavors. Essentially a narrow-angle V6 that features a single cylinder head on top of the 15-degree cylinder banks, the VR6 is alive and kicking in 2022 in the likes of the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport for the U.S. of A.
Volkswagen also produces a turbocharged VR6 for the Chinese-market Teramont and Talagon. As mentioned earlier, it’s cheaper to make thanks to a single cylinder head rather than the two required by a conventional V6. But more importantly, the narrow angle between the cylinder banks reduces the engine’s width compared to the tried-and-tested V6 engine.
Somewhat frumpy, as in lacking the sharp design cues of the second-generation Scirocco, the Corrado also failed because it was advertised as a halo sports car despite being front-wheel drive. To understand how hard the Corrado flopped, Karmann’s daily production capacity was 80 vehicles per day, a figure the German company never reached with the Corrado.
The truth of the matter is, Volkswagen should have marketed it as the Scirocco it effectively replaced from the German automaker’s lineup. A few more trim levels and optional all-wheel drive would have opened the Corrado to a larger audience. Had it been successful, the Corrado would have been with us here today, most likely based on the perennial Golf.
Pixel artist Marouane Bembli, a.k.a. The Sketch Monkey, imagined the Corrado with contemporary design traits from Audi, a set of double-spoke wheels, a sharper front end, as well as trunk lid-integrated spoiler instead of the original’s active rear spoiler. It’s not a bad-looking redesign, but on the other hand, traditional coupes aren’t as popular as they used to be.
Coupe-styled crossovers, on the other, are flying off the lots despite their higher starting prices and worse trunk capacity in comparison to their more upright siblings. The X6 and X5, as well as X4 and X3, spring to mind.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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