Rosy Retrospection

Just the other day, I stumbled upon the VW Corrado Classifieds group on Facebook and sent the link to one of my best friends.  His first car was a Windsor blue on gray leather VR6 Corrado with the tastiest of modifications.  Back when cellphones cost a fortune to actually use, we’d take drives in separate cars while talking on Motorola Talk-About radios.  (A la Top Gear, of course)  I’d be in an e36 BMW 3-series of some sort and he would be in his Corrado.  They were great times!  But it wasn’t long before we both went to college and the Corrado was sold.  Now that we’re a bit older, we both miss those “good old days”.  Who doesn’t?  But we humans are imperfect beings.  Our minds in particular.  Rosy Retrospection and Nostalgia get the best of our memories and rarely do we notice.  

While I’m quick to judge a lot of cars that come out of Wolfsburg, most powered by the brilliant VR6 escape my wrath.  I think Herbert Schäfer’s masterful design, built by the fine folks at Karmann, puts the Corrado comfortably in VW’s S-Tier of cars.  I know I am not alone in this opinion.  However, my friend is so highly evolved that he is hesitant to buy another Corrado for fear it will ruin his memory of the Corrado.  Despite high praise from critics, a rabid fanbase, and the fact they seem to only be a click away on the internet, he knows how his views on cars has changed over time.  

My mother-in-law will tell you her air cooled VW Beetle was the best car she ever owned.  Hands down.  But I know if I tossed her the keys to one, she’d barely make it down the street before declaring it a pile of hot garbage.  Giving credit where it's due, I'd argue that she is correct in both instances.  The original VW Beetle is amongst the most influential, reliable, best selling, and coolest cars in history.  However, since the late 60’s she’s become used to power steering, automatic transmissions, power windows, FM radio, heating/air conditioning, and decent acceleration. When you subtract every standard feature from every car built since about 1980, the greatest car ever quickly becomes the worst car ever.

Fun fact: a 2023 Toyota Supra will comfortably outrun a 1968 Shelby GT500.  Go ask your grandfather which is faster and report back if they know the correct answer, I'll be waiting.  A C2 Corvette is arguably one of the most beautiful cars ever made, however I was shocked when I got to drive a 1965 convertible and was disappointed by just about everything.  The steering and shifting were vague, the acceleration was meh, and the brakes were a bit sketchy.  We look back at the past and our rose tinted glassed filter out stuff we hate.  That dead-end job you worked in High School seems a lot more fun 20 years later.  That long, boring roadtrip with your family in middle school is now a favorite memory.  That rusty pile of junk you owned in high school is the one you miss the most.  

A GT500 is a fast car, but is it modern fast?  Not really.

Unlike the Baby Boomer generation, I think we Millennials will fair better automotively than our predecessors.  The cars lusted after by the baby boomer generation don’t hold up like the “Redwood” Era cars millennials lust after.  Why?  Because 80’s and 90’s cars are more akin to modern cars than the 50’s, 60’s, and even 70’s cars.  It’s not uncommon to see vintage cars upgraded with power steering, air conditioning, and even fuel injection just to make them more palatable.  Bolt on kits for upgrades like these abound!  When it comes to 80’s and 90’s cars, the only real annoyance are dated infotainment systems.  And cars equipped with obsolete TRX wheels.  Both are remedied fairly easily.  In the future will we miss lane departure warnings, head up displays, or radar cruise control to the same extent we miss A/C now?  Hell no!  We demand new cars with obsolete manual transmissions, even when they're slower than modern dual clutch paddle shifts.

I am confident in saying my rose tinted glasses aren’t as dark as my parent's generation's.  The cars me and many of my millennial friends crave won’t feel as obsolete in 20 years as the cars from the 60’s and 70’s remembered so fondly do today.  Want proof?  The average age of cars on the road is steadily increasing, with no end in sight.  Cars that are over a decade old are still great cars and aren’t being tossed aside nearly as quickly as they once were. Cars are not only lasting longer, but they're also not becoming obsolete as quickly.  What a time to be a car enthusiast!

Now stop reading and go buy that Corrado.