It was only fitting that we had a turkey over the holidays. That`s notturkey as in the bird, it`s turkey as in the Volkswagen Corrado, the Germanautomaker`s replacement for the Scirocco sports car.
The subcompact Corrado was roughly the size of the GEO Storm with a 97.3- inch wheelbase and 159.4-inch length.
Despite the Corrado`s supercharged engine and so-called Germanengineering mystique, the $11,000 Storm was far more fun to drive than the$19,750 Corrado.
Corrado has power but dismal comfort from tortuously stiff seats withoverly confining side bolsters that don`t allow you to enjoy the 1.8-liter,158 h.p. supercharged 4-cylinder engine.
The 5-speed manual transmission was arthritic and far too notchy; thesuspension was overly stiff and magnified every tar mark in the road.
Corrado features a moveable rear deck spoiler that rises at speeds faster than 45 miles an hour to reduce rear-end lift, though we don`t know how muchrear-end lift you should expect at 45 m.p.h. on the Kennedy Expressway.There`s a button under the dash you so can raise or lower the spoiler at anytime. We didn`t notice any difference with the spoiler up or down.
There are some noteworthy items in the Corrado: standard antilock brakesthat worked like a charm in a few test panic stops; driver`s side air bag inthe steering wheel, which had the tilt feature; power windows that can bemoved up or down with the ignition off; windows that can be closed fromoutside the car with the door key; and despite, the supercharged engine, fuel economy of 21 m.p.g. city/28 m.p.g. highway.
