Originally Posted by AllEuro
Again, if you're running a stock suspension, then yeah, you are probably correct. If you are going to do it right, you'll have and LSD, a big sway in the back, properly sprung/damped coilovers, and corner balancing. I find the car MUCH more tail happy when I want it, compared to before when I was only able to make the rear come around during very deliberate weight transfer. Compared with stock and with the H&R sport springs I used to run, the current setup is vastly more precise and able to hold a line. I wish the car came from the factory like this!
I totally agree with you here. I think the one thing that makes VWs so popular is that there is a really huge aftermarket for them, a big tuning community, etc. All the weaknesses that I'm talking about are definitely for the stock car that I experienced, I'm sure that everything could be tuned out.
Come to think of it, almost every VW enthusiast I know is an aftermarket junkie
Of course, I want to be clear, it is a very COOL car. At the time it was probably considered one of the sportiest of the FWD sports cars when it was released. There was nothing that looked like it at all, come it think of it, it was an awkward time for almost every other automobile out there.
I just have my personal biases after having owned both a 1981 VW Rabbit and an A3 Jetta VR6 GLX III from 1995 to 2006. I used to like VW's a lot, but my personal experiences with their reliability and fundamental cost-cutting limitations (ancient rear suspensions for example) soured my opinion of the brand, probably for good. It's only in the last 8 years that the Japanese manufacturers have started putting out some incredible cars (S2000, GT-R, STI, Evo 8+), the Americans too (C6 Corvette Z06). Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche have been putting out world-beaters since the 90's. Unfortunately, VAG for the last 15 years have been cost-cutting to the bone, and so they have been stuck with trying to shoe-horn bigger and bigger engines into what are essentially economy car platforms.
The Audi R8 is a big leap forward, in my opinion. If VAG could trickle some of that passion down into the VW line, I think there's a hope in making the "Corrado of tomorrow" into a serious machine.