Volkswagen to Retire Rabbit NamePlate in U.S.

Volkswagen Golf Mk6

By Zack Newmark
March 25, 2009 9:56 PM
Filed Under: German, Volkswagen

Volkswagen of America has decided to ditch the "Rabbit" name for models sold in the U.S. and Canada. Beginning in 2006, the company sold the VW Golf MkV as a VW Rabbit in that market.

The name was meant to be a throwback to the 1970s, when the first-gen Golf was sold as a Rabbit north of the Mexican border. When the Mk2 was shipped across the pond, then-VW President Carl Hahn decided to make vehicle model names more standard worldwide.

Many car fans hated the U.S.-spec version of the vehicle, which was built in Pennsylvania. The Rabbit had a poor quality interior, diminished responsiveness, and softer shocks and suspension.

The idea to rebrand the Golf as a Rabbit for the 2006 model year came from Kerri Martin. Martin is widely credited with BMW's MINI brand creation, which led to a successful launch, and a higher-than-anticipated level of popularity for the Cooper in the U.S. Martin jumped the MINI ship in early 2004 and headed to VW, taking MINI's advertising firm, Crispin Porter and Bogusky, with her.

It was Martin's belief that consumers wanted to build personal relationships with their cars, and calling model units by names (i.e. Cooper, and Rabbit) would reinforce this idea. She was apparently undeterred by the previous Rabbit's dismal history.

Unfortunately for Martin and VW, her plan did not work. Amidst declining sales, the company dropped her in 2007. The VW Rabbit will likely be the shortest lived Golf model for the company, having only existed for half of the Mk5 life cycle.

The Volkswagen Golf goes back on sale in the U.S. beginning in September 2009.

Source: caranddriver

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Tags: Volkswagen Golf, VW Golf, Volkswagen Rabbit, VW Rabbit

Volkswagen Golf Mk6 in Depth (14 comments

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Comments

Renegade

March 25, 2009 10:12 PM

Yeah it will be called bunny and will come in pink for ladies who want to keep their glam.

Edited by user on March 25, 2009 at 10:13 PM

Joe_Limon

March 25, 2009 10:34 PM

I was wondering why they sold the golf branded as the rabbit, and the city golf.

machida

March 25, 2009 11:31 PM

Someone at VWoA who was not around in the 1970s evidently thought there was nostalgia for the Rabbit name. Back then, first-gen water-cooled VWs were a huge fall in dependability from the bulletproof Beetle, and that WAS their reputation.

Moving Rabbit production to Pennsylvania in 1979 eroded the image further, especially when they modified the car to so-called "American tastes." The only bright spot was that the US got the GTI for the first time.

jamesanthony

March 25, 2009 11:36 PM

Put the Rabbit name on the upcoming Polo.

Max_Speed

March 25, 2009 11:53 PM

Finally, i mean what kind of man would like to drive a car named rabbit?

dcars62

March 26, 2009 2:54 AM

Golf, rabbit? What ever they call it, still means that its always broken and expensive to repair.

adz612

March 26, 2009 7:06 AM

C'mon dcars62 Golfs ain't that unreliable. Fords are a hell of a lot worse in terms of reliability

MutantSushi

March 26, 2009 7:46 AM

The "tone" of the Rabbit name would match a smaller/cheaper model like Polo much better. The Polo is more equivalent to the 1st Gen. Golf/Rabbit than the larger/more powerful modern Golf is anyways. Anybody dissing VW's quality needs to look at objective reliability statistics in, say, the past 5-8 years. Japanese was a synonym for junk before the late 70's/early 80's, after all. Repairs DO tend to cost more for VW's (in the US, I don't know about Europe/elsewhere), but the only remedy for that is increasing their marketshare + manufacturing more in North America, even if only by licencing their platforms ala Fiat/Chrysler. Fiat takes care of the small end for Chrysler, I could see them licencing VW platforms to cover mid and large-size sedans like a 3rd party SEAT/Skoda, increasing VW's scale efficiency for North-American sourced components.

911fnatic

March 26, 2009 1:34 PM

Yeah, what a stupid name, particularly for the macho American market. How can you say VW's are unreliable? Same can be said for any manufacturer bar the Japs.

Bristol411S3

March 26, 2009 3:57 PM

Amusing to see this woman getting credit for establishing the Mini brand. I think those at BMC in the 50s would have something to say about that. All the hard work had been done by the time BMW bought Rover and got access to the brand and a bunch of designs for the next generation.

I am suprised to see anyone saying contemporary VWs are unreliable. I was not aware this was the case. Expensive, yes, but then VW likes to position itself as more solid and higher quality than its mainstream competitors.

scratchy996

March 27, 2009 1:02 AM

Americans get cheap Mexican Golfs, they can't be compared to what we have in Europe.

alessandro

March 26, 2009 5:59 PM

When new Golf goes to US put the name new too. My proposition is a "RACOON".

dcars62

March 26, 2009 7:42 PM

I've owned VW's and they were unreliable. It's not just the initial purchase that's overpriced it's getting them fixed after they have broken. To fix them will cost three times what you would normally expect to pay. The most recent bug is noted for it's unreliability. The Corolla/Sentra/Civic/Focus are better choices.

coopergt

March 26, 2009 8:07 PM

Around here in San Diego there are lots of rabbits, is it just in this part of the country? I think change to golf will be great and hopefully they bring some of the great options, like leather etc here

GeorgeCaldwell

October 22, 2009 10:11 AM

I remember The 80's Rabbits. I thought they were a very pretty car,I loved the Interior, And I remember I loved the diesel smell. I was a kid then it was 1984 My parents had bought her off some kid who bought it new and got into a bit of trouble and joined the army, Anyway Later on the block cracked after the car was not even 5 years old,this was due to the electric fan going out which I heard later on from older mechanics who use to work on them was a common problem and due to no temp gauge on the diesel c and the diesel smell It was usually to late before you knew she got hot. This caused a number of costly problems which my parents, So they decided to swap the diesel with a regular 1.5 gas motor even after that they still had problems with the car, it only seemed to run good for maybey a day or 2 before something else happened,this causing my parents to sale her in 1986 ,the last time it broke down was in 1985 they had it fixed yet again but this time after it was fixed they just parked it until they finally sold it. Although The car suxxed I still think it was the prettiest car I have ever seen even today. It was red 2 door with black Interior 5 speed w/Blaupunkt 4 speaker Audio. Not a scratch on it and the inside was perfect until I spilled my pop on the floor in the back Which caused me a good a bustin.

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