Discussion
Great cars, buy on condition and not just mileage.
History is a good start...look for bills and reciepts.
Expect:
Great, revy engine.
Soft/supple susspension
Low 20's MPG
A great sound
A smile on your face.
There are a couple of expensive repairs....so check what has been changed and replaced:
Head gasket
Ac
Other bits are not too expensive.....
Lots of parts and accessories are availble but don't expect the tunning potential to be high ! If you want more power the only route is charger or turbo !
I love em ! keep it standard and drop the ride height with a good susspension set un and service run like a dream !
IceBoy
History is a good start...look for bills and reciepts.
Expect:
Great, revy engine.
Soft/supple susspension
Low 20's MPG
A great sound
A smile on your face.
There are a couple of expensive repairs....so check what has been changed and replaced:
Head gasket
Ac
Other bits are not too expensive.....
Lots of parts and accessories are availble but don't expect the tunning potential to be high ! If you want more power the only route is charger or turbo !
I love em ! keep it standard and drop the ride height with a good susspension set un and service run like a dream !
IceBoy
Here's also something I've done for a previous thread about the same subject..
>>>I've had my '96 VR6 for 3 years and highly recommend it.
Just the good points ( & bad ) that I've had so far with the VR6.
I only do 6000 average a year, but it's very reliable, and is excellent on motorway and A-roads.
I've driven it on Euro road trips and it feels stable well into 'three figure cruising ' even loaded with luggage & passengers. Most MPG i've had is 32 with town average of 24-25. At worst can be 17 in 'dead slow crawling' jams.
Some find the standard handling a bit soft, but a set of Koni's or simlilar would sort that no problem.
It still feels solid, but as it's a low milage ( currently only on 67K , barely run in!)I hope to run it for a good few more years yet.
All VR6's have the cool standard extra of 'full clousure alarm'i.e , when you lock the doors, any open windows & sunroof all close automatically, very useful !
And got it's 3rd Le Mans trip coming up too!
Here's a pretty even road test review link for info..
http://cars.yahoo.co.uk/uk/cars/cr_12
>>>I've had my '96 VR6 for 3 years and highly recommend it.
Just the good points ( & bad ) that I've had so far with the VR6.
I only do 6000 average a year, but it's very reliable, and is excellent on motorway and A-roads.
I've driven it on Euro road trips and it feels stable well into 'three figure cruising ' even loaded with luggage & passengers. Most MPG i've had is 32 with town average of 24-25. At worst can be 17 in 'dead slow crawling' jams.
Some find the standard handling a bit soft, but a set of Koni's or simlilar would sort that no problem.
It still feels solid, but as it's a low milage ( currently only on 67K , barely run in!)I hope to run it for a good few more years yet.
All VR6's have the cool standard extra of 'full clousure alarm'i.e , when you lock the doors, any open windows & sunroof all close automatically, very useful !
And got it's 3rd Le Mans trip coming up too!
Here's a pretty even road test review link for info..
http://cars.yahoo.co.uk/uk/cars/cr_12
Edited by A10ARF on Tuesday 9th January 13:55
Timing chains can get noisy over 100k miles or so, particularly on earlier VR6s with the OBD1 engine diagnostics. If they haven't been changed and are on their way out they make quite a racket... Also, a lot of VR6s suffer from piston-slap to varying degrees when cold, this should disappear in short order after cold engine start. HG failure is fairly common on 100k mile plus cars. There is an electric water pump that should circulate coolant after engine shutdown. Make sure that this is working, otherwise it can induce HG failure in the future.
I average 27 mpg on mine, usually a mixture of town and fairly rapid dual-carriageway driving.
Handling and steering feedback should be reasonably good. As mentioned, they are pretty underdamped and tend to bounce around on back roads if still on original suspension. Uprated ARBs, dampers and springs can improve this no-end, but it'll never be a Corrado!
I average 27 mpg on mine, usually a mixture of town and fairly rapid dual-carriageway driving.
Handling and steering feedback should be reasonably good. As mentioned, they are pretty underdamped and tend to bounce around on back roads if still on original suspension. Uprated ARBs, dampers and springs can improve this no-end, but it'll never be a Corrado!
A10ARF said:
All VR6's have the cool standard extra of 'full clousure alarm'i.e , when you lock the doors, any open windows & sunroof all close automatically, very useful !
Edited by A10ARF on Tuesday 9th January 13:55
sorry not true, vr6 had no std alarm ,depends what the owner has fitted
As speedtwelve posted timing chains are definately the thing to look out for. If the car has circa 100k make sure they have been done, if they have then dont worry about high miles - some of the VR's in the US have 250k on. Other than that rust can be an issue, and make sure engaging to 2nd is smooth as it can get a bit hard to select on some
smb said:
A10ARF said:
All VR6's have the cool standard extra of 'full clousure alarm'i.e , when you lock the doors, any open windows & sunroof all close automatically, very useful !
Edited by A10ARF on Tuesday 9th January 13:55
sorry not true, vr6 had no std alarm ,depends what the owner has fitted
Well I think so, this is a sample from a VW Site that has the full spec and history on the VR6..
>>The VR6 Golf had a high specification, which included ABS brakes, electronic
traction control, electric windows, central locking, trip computer, ‘total
closure’ of windows and sunroof from the drivers door lock, an electric
Tilt-and-slide sunroof, twin airbags, leather bound steering wheel, split-fold
rear seats and rear headrests.
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
We've had seven VR6, all had factory fit alarms with window closing (and the weird side effect of opening all the windows if you unset the alarm too quickly after setting!)
Why have you had seven of them?!?!?!
Weird thing with the MK IV is that total closure only works if you lock the car using the key in the door. It doesn't work with from the remote.
fourmotion said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
We've had seven VR6, all had factory fit alarms with window closing (and the weird side effect of opening all the windows if you unset the alarm too quickly after setting!)
Why have you had seven of them?!?!?!
Weird thing with the MK IV is that total closure only works if you lock the car using the key in the door. It doesn't work with from the remote.
and a Corrado & two V64motion (and shortly an R32 
)
Also VR6 has useful pub chat kudos of being the ' embryo ' to the Bentley W12 engine....!
>>www.autozine.org/technical_school/engine/tech_engine_packaging.htm
>>www.autozine.org/technical_school/engine/tech_engine_packaging.htm
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