No gas pedal, no problem: Jeff Mann shares his experience of getting his project car home

Almost everyone has a dream car that they would one day like to own, whether it be a new supercar or a classic fixer-upper. Jeff Mann’s, in particular, was an old Volkswagen Scirocco. He has wanted that car ever since he was 16. Fast forward 33 years, he has a family and a stable job and can finally purchase his dream car. In February 2020, Jeff was looking on the Facebook marketplace and finds a 1993 Volkswagen Corrado that was located pretty close to where he lives. It was in the dark green color he wanted and had the VR6 engine.  While the Scirocco was his dream car, the Corrado was the “newer” model of the Scirocco and replaced it.

This offer was a sign to Jeff from the universe. Corrado’s are pretty rare to find and when he found one close by in the exact model he wanted he quickly sent the link to his son Ethan and asked him what he thought. Jokingly Ethan said that he should go and buy it. Jeff

didn’t take that as a joke and messaged the seller right away. They planned to meet the seller at his house to take a look at the car. Once they arrived at the seller’s house, which was about 45 minutes away, it was already starting to get dark. They chatted with the seller for a bit and finally decided to test drive the car. The seller trusts Jeff and Ethan and lets them take it for a drive by themselves. Jeff gets in the car and has to prepare himself to back out of the very steep declining driveway. The car was low and had a lower lip on the front bumper that was almost scraping the ground. He tries to back out at an angle to try and avoid ripping the lower lip off but he was just a bit unsuccessful. Luckily, he didn’t tear it off completely and just cracked it. This was the first of many things that started to go wrong. 

Once out of the driveway, they drove to Wawa and decided to get the car some gas since it has probably been sitting for a few years given that it hasn’t been inspected since 2015. They also wanted to look at the car in better lighting since it was dark out. Jeff then asked Ethan if he wanted to drive it and he agreed. Ethan sat down in the diver’s seat and proceeded to ask “where’s the gas pedal” to which Jeff responded confused with “on the right?” The gas pedal was matted to the floor due to the throttle cable becoming disconnected. Jeff had to flip upside down and reconnect the cable under the steering wheel. After about 15 minutes of fiddling with the cable, he finally got it reconnected and they were on their way. 

After about a half-mile of driving, the gas pedal disappeared again. They had to pull over on the side of route 263. They were pulled off onto a small shoulder and the car was still halfway in the right lane. Ethan stated in an interview, “ I was freaking out a bit when we had to pull over. The car was half in the one lane and we turned the four ways on but they weren’t very bright. The car was also not insured or inspected since 2015 and was very illegal.” After getting the cable back in for a final time, they make their way back to the seller’s house. As they were on the road to the house the cable gets disconnected again and they finally decide to call the seller and tell him their situation. He felt so bad and ran down the road to help them get the car back to his house. He felt so bad that he ended up taking a hundred dollars off the selling price and gave them a whole set of wheels. Even after all the issues, Jeff still bought it for $4,500. 

When Jeff went back to get the car the next day, it was dark again but also raining very hard. Jeff took an old Pennsylvania license plate from his collection and decided that if he was going to drive an illegal car for 45 minutes, he might as well make it look somewhat legal. Jeff went with his wife, Dottie, and they ventured back to the seller’s house. They picked up the car and started their journey home. Since the lights on the Corrado didn’t work well, Dottie followed him in her Jeep to hopefully light the way from behind. The windshield wipers on the Corrado were useless and Jeff was barely able to see with the rush hour lights, the darkness, and the reflection of the rain combined. Of course, the gas pedal vanishes again and Jeff has to pull over to fix it. They pull over into a parking lot and try to fix the wire but Jeff made the mistake of leaving all the lights on in the car. Suddenly the lights shut off. The car battery was now dead. Not only was Jeff soaking wet from the rain, but he also had an illegal car that wouldn’t start and a throttle cable that was still disconnected. After weighing all their options, they decide to call the seller and tell him that they need to get Corrado’s battery jumped. While waiting for the seller to come and rescue them, Dottie had to pee so bad that she ended up peeing behind a dumpster.

The seller finally arrived and started to jump the car, Jeff said “I felt like I had the word sucker written over my forehead”. Jeff and Dottie were on their way home once again when Jeff decides to call it quits and park the car in a random mechanic shop. The rain and the gas pedal was too much to drive with so he decides to leave the car until morning. All he had was a napkin and he wrote a note to the shop saying that they would call a truck to tow the car in the morning. The Corrado didn’t lock either so he let fate decide what would happen to the car. 

Thankfully the car was fine through the night and was towed to his home the next morning. Jeff has fixed so much since then including the throttle cable issue, the automatic spoiler, the horn, and even added new suspension. “The most difficult thing about this car was not getting it home as you would think, but actually untangling the bird’s nest of wires,” said Jeff. There is still so much more that Jeff wants to do to the Corrado and hopes to further his knowledge of cars. Even with all the struggles he had with actually obtaining this car, he doesn’t regret buying it for a second and would definitely recommend anyone interested in cars to think about investing in a project like his Corrado.