The Rabbit is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

[Herbie3Rivers]

What more awesome news could a VW Lover want?

VW Brings Back Rabbit Badge for U.S., Canada

There won't be a fifth-generation Golf for buyers in the States - Volkswagen has decided to can the Golf badge and will instead return to the Rabbit nameplate that its entry-level hatchback wore when it first went on sale in America. The new Rabbit, coming in the summer, benefits from some new clear thinking at Volkswagen under marketing exec Kerri Martin: "Volkswagen customers want a relationship with their cars. Names like The Thing, Beetle, Fox, and Rabbit support this," Martin said in a release. Left off the good list are obvious clunker names like Touareg and Phaeton. The new Rabbit will get a base price of $14,990 when it goes on sale in the summer, including anti-lock brake, side airbags, A/C, and a theft alarm along with a 2.5-liter, 150-hp five-cylinder engine.

[kcfoxie]

I want a rabbit, but a diesel. and from 1983!

[2k2tdi]

Originally Posted by kcfoxie

I want a rabbit, but a diesel. and from 1983!

So, you want to drive around really slowly with a huge black cloud behind you?

[ASurroca]

I was thinking about the renaming issue, and of course I'm seeing a lot of cynical comments like "VW should make reliable cars instead of changing their names". While everybody focused on the name change, the real news is the base price: $14,990 for a 2-dr manual. Recall that for years now Volkswagen has hard a hard time competing in the economy car market.

That said, for example, the Honda Civic 2-dr base model goes for $14,560, and the other day I was at a Honda dealer and witnessed the fact that despite the space-aged interior design the Civic still suffers from cheap, hard plastics and mouse fur cloth (the one I saw was a $20k EX model, btw).

The Volkswagen Golf (er, Rabbit) starting at $430 more than the base Honda Civic? That is what the dealers and customers are going to care about, not the name change.

[kcfoxie]

Originally Posted by ASurroca

I was thinking about the renaming issue, and of course I'm seeing a lot of cynical comments like "VW should make reliable cars instead of changing their names". While everybody focused on the name change, the real news is the base price: $14,990 for a 2-dr manual. Recall that for years now Volkswagen has hard a hard time competing in the economy car market.

That said, for example, the Honda Civic 2-dr base model goes for $14,560, and the other day I was at a Honda dealer and witnessed the fact that despite the space-aged interior design the Civic still suffers from cheap, hard plastics and mouse fur cloth (the one I saw was a $20k EX model, btw).

The Volkswagen Golf (er, Rabbit) starting at $430 more than the base Honda Civic? That is what the dealers and customers are going to care about, not the name change.

It's all preception. Honda dealers kiss more butt than VW dealers do. I wanted a base model car that would run.. I got it. I could have gotten it from Honda, but it would have FELT like a $14k car, mine at least FEELS like a $22k car.

[Nickel]

This link made me laugh so hard at work, I had to cover with a coughing fit.

Make a rabbit and then breed it to another color.
Then breed one of your offspring with the choice on the bottom right.

[hoonbug]

We've only ever had "Golf"s here. I think "Rabbit" is a silly name for a good car. Obviously, there is more support for "Rabbit" over in the USA as you've had it before with the Golf I / II.

It was unfortunate that they canned "Bora" as well... even we got "Jetta" here. I suppose Bora sounded like "bore" (which sedans are

Cars named after winds was interesting. My favorite name was Scirocco. They don't do names like that any more (and yes, I know they've revived the name).

Andrew