Gen1 Rabbits (Golf Mk1) were a CC mainstay here for years, given the biodiesel boom that made them an alternative to the Mercedes w123 diesels. But they’re getting a bit scarce now, and this classic-70s green one is one of the holdouts. But I found it hiding in this parking lot the other day.
There it is, a bit closer. And of course, Lumina minivans aren’t exactly getting more common either.
Lol I remember the lumina minivans being so cool for the first year. And then suddenly they got so dated and ugly to me. Those VW’s weather 4door or gti were great handling cars. Nothing before them came close.
Well, the Pontiac was the best, partly because the hated cladding added a swoop to the rocker panel shape. And you know what, every time I see mine I think it’s still the coolest looking minivan ever. At this point they are almost as rare as the first gen Rabbit/Golf. I haven’t seen one in years. And even in that special never seen again green color!
For your no doubt great enjoyment, and even the Euro version (side marker light, multicolor tail lights). Boring to everyone but me CC detail: on the Euro version the backup lights are part of the tail light cluster because the wider license plate takes up the space where they are on the US version. I’m guessing they had this all figured out in the first place. More obscure fact: original American Ford Focus hatchbacks and sedan rear license plates don’t really fit the space because it’s the Euro shape.
Wow nice model. My uncle (who worked for gm) had a black transport. There are two rabbits sitting in a neighbors driveway down the street.
The misplaced bowtie on the APV is oddly funny to me, for some reason.
Yes it is reminiscent of botched plastic surgery: “When bowtie lifts go wrong.”
Gives it an air of Picasso!
Nice green on that bunny.
You know Paul as an owner of many MK1 GTi and MK GLi I find it fascinating to see how time marches on….. The GTi was so primitive!!!
But wonderful.
Wow, a pre-facelift Lumina! Those are hard to find in Oregon outside a junkyard and I wonder if the misplaced bowtie is a factory error?
Even rarer…that’s a first-year Lumina. 1990 was the only year for those mirrors, they enlarged them in ’91.
What I never understood was why they even called that DustBuster a “Lumina” at all. Wasn’t the Lumina an earlier W-Body, basically a 4 door Monte Carlo?
This vehicle (at least in appearance) would seem to have nothing to do with the Lumina sedan.
I suppose Black & Decker has a trademark on this APV’s derisive nickname.
The Fiat 500L is like that. Why call it a Fiat 500 at all? The 500 (and its way cooler sibling the Abarth) is a much smaller car. Why didn’t they go with Fiat 600 or something? Maybe the “L” stands for Large.
What’s even odder (except, GM) is that these minivans are built exactly like a Saturn – steel space frame with all plastic outer panels. So which GM division didn’t get their own version other then Cadillac? Saturn.
If any of these still exist today (like mine) there is one good reason: like the guy said to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate: plastics.
Living in the NE, after new tires being on the aluminum wheels for about three years so all the wheels were obviously off then, the wheels had to be removed with a sledge hammer (to the tires). Road salt.
Yeah, weird name choice by Chevrolet. The Lumina was an intermediate sized sedan competing with Taurus. There were two generations. The minivans have the same FWD architecture and front and rear suspension as GM sedans like probably the Lumina. Well, a mechanic once said the Trans Sport rear suspension was the same as a Bonneville (wait, were those bigger?)
It’s not a Dustbuster. It’s a Space Shuttle.
Or a shuttlecraft
No no, it’s a Lumina APV. Big difference, don’tcha know.
FWIW, the first-gen Lumina was both a sedan and a coupe. The coupe was renamed Monte Carlo in 1995. In an alternate universe, maybe the Lumina and all subsequent W-body Chevys would’ve been called Monte Carlo from the get-go to correspond with the W-body Grand Prix, Cutlass Supreme, and Regal sedans and coupes. And then the Impala nameplate would’ve been saved for something a little bigger, maybe a big G-body sedan like the Bonneville/Aurora/LeSabre. But that’s a discussion for another universe…
Calling it the 500L makes sense, at least to me. It plays on the positive associations with the 500 name (what positive associations there are), while also saying that this vehicle is Longer than the standard model.
You are correct sir.
That Rabbit is looking really anachronistic, from both its size and color. It looks so small sitting near even the compact cars of today.
The color is kind of like the first sprig of green in the spring! I also notice there is some blue sky showing, unlike in your post yesterday. The season is truly turning!
I’m surprised the rabbit has bumpers on it.
I had 2 Mark I Rabbits at different times back in the day. Fun cars when they ran, but so many problems!
They’re nowhere to be found in central VA now; for that matter, the Dustbusters are largely gone as well.
I love the styling of the original Rabbits. They were so clean and purposeful, as if VW had brought the spirit of the Mini into the 20th century. If only they had been engineered and built better…
Imagine the performance and mileage of a car the size of the Rabbit with today’s tech!
I always liked that particular green on that particular car. Seems to me I’ve seen at least one movie in which a green VW Wabbit/Golf is used as a “keep your eye on this car” tactic useful in heavy-traffic scenes.
I bought a new ’76 Rabbit L painted Hershey Brown with cognac(my descriptive name) interior, with no problems from the car, and I would have been very pleased with it, but for 1977 they came with EFI and I discovered this green color was new. Had I known, I would have waited one model year to get green and EFI. Still today, I love the shape of the original German-built Rabbit/Golf of 1975-1977 that was sold in the US.