For at least the past five years, the arrival of late spring in my neighborhood has brought with it an abundance of wild rabbits. I’ve lived in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago’s north side for over a decade, but it’s possible I simply have never noticed them before now. Somehow, though, I doubt it. There seems to have been some sort of population boom over the past several years. On the other hand, early VW Rabbits, in any configuration, continue to get scarcer. I recall spotting just two in Chicago (out of five total) in the past four years – both of them pickups, or “Caddys” as known in other markets.
I spotted the fine, earlier model above in my neighborhood just a couple of years ago. I wish I could find a vintage t-shirt in the same colors as this one – yellow with orange and brown graphics, as I would wear it all the time. Many actual rabbits in this neighborhood seem to possess a certain fearlessness one would not expect from such creatures. Also, and like many birds around this area, it’s almost as if the rabbits have become just comfortable enough with human life to let you get within a few feet of them before they dart off.
Similarly, in the silence of this street, this Rabbit pickup seemed to possess a frozen calm, street-parked in front of this old, two-story house. It just wasn’t going to dart off. Actually, none of these Rabbit pickups were exactly capable of “darting” anywhere. With just 78 hp on tap from a 1.6L, gas-powered, four-cylinder engine (which was the more powerful mill, with the diesel putting out just 48 hp), one of these little couriers would seem better suited for carrying bulky, lightweight items than doing even moderate lifting. I’m thinking this would be the ideal hauler for that occasional run to IKEA or Costco.
I spotted this later-model, red example not far from Wrigley Field. I’m no stranger to the general consensus at CC that the readership prefers their vehicles bone-stock (as do I, speaking in very general terms), but let’s give this example some of the love it deserves. I don’t know why, but something about the general contrast between the red paint and the aqua rims shod with low-profile tires reminds me of a soccer shoe. Even moreso than the yellow model, the red one exudes a colorful, cheery, fun, sporty vibe that seems to suit the basic character of these mini-trucks. These two examples seem to complement each other like ketchup and mustard.
As to which one I prefer, I tend to love all things vintage and original, so I’d have to give the nod to the yellow one, which seems pretty darned close to the perfect, quirky 1980-mobile. I would not, however, kick the festive-looking red one out of my hypothetical, paid and covered parking space. As far as rabbits in the wild go, I’ve never had a pet rabbit, I don’t have a garden, nor have I ever eaten hasenpfeffer, but the ones in my neighborhood are awfully cute. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see a few VW Rabbits around shortly after this piece runs, given that the CC Effect seems to have been pretty strong so far in 2017…
Actual rabbit seen in Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, June 17, 2017. Yellow rabbit pickup spotted in Edgewater on Saturday, March 5, 2016. Red rabbit spotted in Wrigleyville on Sunday, May 25, 2014.
Related reading from Dave Skinner: Curbside Classic: 1980 Volkswagen Pickup- Beating the tariff, but taking a beating.
Wow, I’ve never pulled to strongly towards or against these rabbit trucklets, and I for sure prefer most older vehicles completely stock, but I love that red one! To me it looks great being lowered just a bit and with the wheels, it looks great. I would probably paint the wheels a different color, but I like the style of wheel for this truck, and I do think that the aqua color works well with this truck, I just would probably go with something different.
‘Gray’, my pet rabbit loved the first picture of the story. I loved the Rabbit pick ups. But you are right. Lagomorphs by VW are getting rare.
Whenever Joe Dennis goes “Full Rabbit”, good things happen. 🙂
Wow, two of these little pickups, and in Chicago, no less. I cannot remember the last one I saw, although it is possible that an inoperative one may rest in the driveway of Mrs. JPC’s cousins.
As for the furry kind, those are really plentiful in my neighborhood as well this year.
Minor detail: these weren’t actually Rabbits; they were a separate model called the “VW Pickup”. But obviously in the popular awareness they often were called that, due to their similarities by using the same front end. The whole back of the pickup is quite totally different, in its design and construction. Of course the Jetta used even much more of the Rabbit’s body. It was a family of Golf-based vehicles.
Thanks, Paul. I’ll fix the title! (I can’t even blame Wikipedia for that.)
I actually see more Rabbit pickups (I can’t get out of the habit of calling them such) than regular Rabbits (the car, not the mammal). I assume that they have a small but loyal following of enthusiasts.
I took this picture recently of three VW pickups parked at one house (the 3rd is in the driveway, behind the tree). Another house near me recently sold, and the new owners have a customized VW pickup similar to the red one you shot. But no matter how many of these I see, I always do a double-take — they’re just so odd.
As for the furry kind, they’ve having an abundant year in my suburban neighborhood too. I was amused though, recently I visited family in a rural area and the rabbits there were noticeably quicker to run away than the slow suburban ones near home. It’s amazing how behavior changes when natural predators lurk in the woods!
The rural ones are likely better fed, thus moving slower!
Eric, That’s quite a find – three in one frame!
As far as actual rabbits, I wonder about the food chain in urban areas and what animal / snake / whatever actually preys on the neighborhood rabbits! We also have rats in Edgewater, some of which are only slightly smaller than the rabbits. I can’t imagine one of the rats feasting on a rabbit.
I always feel there’s a need to have small and low cost pick-up in US market these days. Two entries from Toyota and GM are not small and niether cheap. Ford Transit connect service van, the older model is the right size. Maybe the Chinese and Indian auto makers can fill this void. Or Japanese again bring in its small pick up from thier South East Asia factories. But all of them face the Chicken Tax, so muchthe free trade and globalization.
My first car in 2001 was a 1984 Jetta with the 78 hp 1.6 liter gasoline engine. Doesn’t sound like much, but at under 2,000 lbs, it was sufficient… unless filled with five people.
Like other comments have noted, I see the VW pickups more often then their Rabbit counterparts (MK1 Jetta being even more rare).
If Craigslist is any indicator, VW pickup owners seem to think their cars are something special; nice ones are usually advertised for $5k and up. But I guess that trend is becoming true of all older small pickups.
If you think the prices of these are crazy, you should take a look at what old Westfalia camper conversions go for. Yes, they’re a good design, but not -that- good.
There is something to be said for cult vehicles and their corresponding prices. I can imagine these, being more of a specialty vehicle, being better-preserved than same-year rabbits, much like I might be seeing more last-generation El Caminos than same-year Malibu 2-doors at the Back To The Bricks car show today. ?
Tygerleo:
I was doing a sort of random Google Images search yesterday and ran across a vehicle I didn’t know existed: a Toyota bB. It was a trucklet sort of vehicle, loosely based on the Toyota/Scion xb, with 1 door on the driver’s side and 2 doors (clamshell-style) on the other side. Of course, there was also a tiny open bin (pickup-type bed) behind the passenger “compartment”.
I think the idea of a compact, bare-bones truck is a “no sale” in the U.S. But I agree, I’d also like to be able to buy a smallish truck sold in a few “low maintenance” colors with upholstery that wouldn’t show heavy/ground in food or drink stains.
Actually you can have someone to convert any sedan you like into a pick-up form.
Absolutely, just fire up the hot wrench and have at it:-)
Our backyard slopes down to a ravine that leads to Pigeon Creek which in turn drains into the Ohio River. Over the past 17 years we have been blessed by various and assorted wildlife including deer, coyotes, raccoons and opossums. Rabbits are probably the most numerous of the “critters” who wander through. It is fairly common to see a rabbit grazing in the back yard; there is a lot of brush in the ravine which is where I assume that the rabbits nest.
Rabbit dig underground warrens to live in .
I liked these trucklets but never quite got ’round to buying one .
Mostly I see very clean if _filthy_ from decades of sitting ones in the So. Cal. Self – Service Junkyards these days, not much gets removed before they’re crushed, I look and think ” I’d give $500 for that and put it back on the road” but once in the rows they refuse to sell anything .
Several nice photos here, thanx and keep ’em coming .
-Nate
This was the beginning of a bright idea maybe not enough for the size of big mentalities. But this Rabbit ute still survives with great selling numbers in the whole South Amerique under the name VW Saveiro, a sleek yet hard working vehicle made by domestic Volkswagen do Brasil and assembled by Volkswagen de Argentina AG . General Motors imitated the idea with its small ute , 1OO% Brazilian tooling, , known as GM Montana .
Two wonderful catches of a rapidly diminished vehicle. Only one has crossed my corneas the last few years, and it was clearly a diesel given the black soot all over the tailgate.
There is a custom early 2000’s Jetta pickup I’ve seen here. I so want to get pictures of it.
Eating rabbit is nothing spectacular. The first rabbit I ate had been barbecued after he had a 22 caliber injection upon entering my great-uncles garden. It was okay. The second had been turned into hasenpfeffer and was not memorable at all. It probably tasted like chicken.
I’ve always wanted to try hasenpfeffer after watching that Bugs Bunny episode! I’ve eaten lots of unusual foods, including monkey and alligator, and it’s a little true what they say… it all tastes a little like chicken. 🙂
There’s a putty-colored one in the town near me I pass through on the way to work. Rarely see it on the road, but I’d does get driven every so often…
There were a couple of these pickup’s parked for years on the street near my rental, but they have been gone for about a year now. We have a little grey rabbit hopping around the neighborhood, he does indeed allow me to get quite close before bouncing away.
I had the use of an ’84 Diesel VW pickup to drive to a wedding in Big Bear, I lived in Santa Maria at the time. Legroom was tight for my 6 foot frame, I moved the seat forward and reclined the backrest to get a little more room, when I pushed back the seat all was well until at speed I noticed a wind noise, turns out the headrest popped out the left side of the back glass. I was able to pop with window back in with soapy water and my fist. Got close to 50 MPG on that trip, did manage to hit 95 MPH down a steep hill with a strong tail wind.
The wedding itself was a biker affair, I’ll never forget when I started it one cold morning, pulled out the advance, waited for the glow plug lamp to go out, it started in a huge clatter and big black smoke cloud. I didn’t see the big biker walking by the tailpipe as it fired off, and totally smoked him out. He was OK about it after I explained I was a friend of the bride and didn’t see him.
Duck season!!
??? Poor Daffy Duck could never get a break!
Nice scores! Given the salty nature of your area, I’m surprised you found any of these at all. They were very niche vehicles that only lasted a couple model years…very much like the Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp.
Whats odd about both of these is that despite being relatively unsuccessful sales-wise AND having a utilitarian nature youd think these things would have been all chewed up and disappeared decades ago. Yet at least here in the PNW, there are a handful of nice examples around. The List of Craig seems to always have a couple Caddys and the Mopar trucklets up for sale at any time and theyre usually in fair shape or better, not total crap piles. I guess people who own them really like them and are aware that there isn’t a direct replacement/successor so they tend to keep them up.
I completely agree with your theory. I think owners of these tend to keep them up to try to preserve them. I zoomed in on the picture of the red one, and it appears to have some minor rust by the wheel well. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one painted another color after some body work.
And here’s one from Cape Town, sold as the Caddy until 2007, still very popular here, note the facelifted nose. Love the article Joseph!
Another couple of great finds Joseph. Especially like your last pic. I always thought the VW Pickup looked a bit ‘nerdy’ for a pickup. It helped make the Rampage/Scamp look like a sports car.
When I was a student, I used to walk across a freeway overpass everyday to get to class.
And I’d often walk home from school after dark. It was then that I realized that for some reason, rabbits will heavily inhabit the decorative (and dense) foliage that is planted near freeway cloverleafs. I used to see multitudes of rabbits emerge from the dense cover after dark, and sit right along the overpass sidewalk without much fear of those walking by. Though they had no relief from the chronic traffic noise, they probably appreciated their stark isolation otherwise.
I see this one around here frequently, driven by an older man.
Oddly a large number of these up here near Bellingham and out in the county. Wish I had a camera, I’d send pics of some of them. I see them more than I see old Rabbits. Seriously.
Put me down as at least noticing more of the Pickups still out and about than similar era Rabbits. Of course that just could be because they stick out while the Rabit has that familiar 4dr hatchback form factor that is more likely to blend in. Ones with Canopies seem to be surprisingly common and of those that I am in a position to tell, most seem to be diesels.
Even rarer these days are the Chrysler Plymouth copies. They had the Omni which was their Rabbit copy, the TC3 their Scirocco copy, and the Rampage I think it was called, their little pickup. I only see the Omni / Horizons these days. I do see a few Rabbit & Rabbit Pickups here in Eastern PA.
I was going to mention that last night! I’ve been seeing refurbished Rampages in ’70’s Mopar paint schemes lately. Maybe only 3 or 4…so far. Something seems to be catching on with these micro-trucks.
Were these actually called Caddys overseas? I bet legal action (or the threat thereof) by GM put a stop to that in the US. On an off-topic, it speaks volumes to the rise of trucks in our market that many pick-ups sold here did not have ‘real’ names until the mid 1990’s when the SUV boom took off.
Of course no one would get the joke of the Caddy being the load carrying version of the Golf in the States.
“and in Chicago, no less”
We are a Metro Region of about 9 mil, not a ‘small Mid-Western city’ that coastal NY and LA/Silicon Valley folks seem to think. So, lots of cars.
Sure, lots of salt and rust, but many heated garages!
This is all true.