(first posted 7/11/2013) Despite everything we tell our kids, sometimes procrastinating and prevaricating actually pays off. Like this photograph, for instance. I’ve been wanting to do a Rabbit/Golf CC focusing on its role in succeeding the Beetle ever since I started this series, but the cars I kept finding weren’t genuine early (’75-’76) versions. So I just kept pushing it off. Then one day on our daily walk a superb red specimen appears, exactly like the first Golf I ever drove. I shot its profile first, than moved to shoot it from the front quarter (above), and just as I was about to push the trigger, I realized there was a red Beetle in the background.
Well, it doesn’t get better than this shot if you want to tell the story of how VW replaced the Beetle with the Golf, especially considering how much dithering and just plain luck played into its birth and existence. It also perfectly captures the day I stepped out of my ’64 Bug and drove a new ’75 Rabbit; I couldn’t have staged it better. Children: there are times when dithering and dumb luck trumps all the (business) plans in the world.
From a modern perspective of short model cycles, it’s difficult to fully grasp VW’s situation in the sixties and early seventies. They had been building essentially the same car for some thirty five years. The Beetle and its offshoots were a global phenomena and success story of remarkable scope and dimension. But VW knew it would some day have to replace its cash cow, but it was terrified of the prospect and possible failure. What could possibly replace the most widely built and iconic car in the world?
The Type III (1500/1600/Squareback/Notchback/Fastback) was a tentative step to reduce its dependence on one model. But it was really just a boxier body on the VW chassis with a slightly bigger engine. And despite some decent success, it still had most of the Beetle’s limitations. The traditional RWD competition from Opel, Ford and many others were getting consistently better, and a whole new generation of advanced space-efficient FWD cars inspired by the Mini were increasingly showing the way forward. VW’s rear engine format was looking more ass-backwards by the day.
VW’s development department cranked out numerous prototype projects all through this period; there’s a great photo I can’t find right now of a whole parking lot full of prototypes from this era. The most promising one that was almost put into production was the EA 266 (above) designed and built by Porsche, with its water-cooled engine flat under the rear seat. But VW was profoundly concerned about the profitability of complex new designs, given how cheaply they had learned to build the Beetle and its offspring.
The VW 411/412 of 1968 is the most extreme example of VW’s inability to break the over-ripe mold. Essentially a giant Super Beetle, it failed to gain traction in the mid-sized market that was dominated by RWD and FWD sedans that had better performance, economy, handling and trunk room. The 411/412 was the wake-up call, and VW entered its final performance-anxiety stage, knowing the long-procrastinated Beetle successor had to come, and come quick. In Europe, Beetle sales had started dropping off much sooner than in the US, where VW was still selling half a million per year and making enormous profits.
In the end, and just like in my serendipitous picture, the answer was right under their nose, and where it had been since 1964: Audi. VW bought Audi from Mercedes in that year (imagine if that hadn’t happened), and Audi’s predecessor DKW had been building FWD cars since the twenties. In the early seventies, Audi had just finished developing their superb Audi 80 (US Fox), including a very advanced and compact OHC four to power it, the EA827. And Audi was already at work on an even smaller, highly space-efficient transverse-engine FWD hatch, the Audi 50. Bingo! Everything VW needed was at hand, if they could just get their arrogant head out of their rear (engine stubbornness).
Out of desperation and the failure of the 411/412 as well as even the advanced but flawed NSU-sourced K70, VW finally sucked it up and got on with it.
The Audi 80 was co-opted, fast-backed and re-badged into the highly successfulPassat (US Dasher). And the development work on the Audi 50 was highly useful: by blowing it up one size. Bingo! The Golf was born.
That’s possibly understating things a wee bit, and perhaps the Audi 50 and Golf were in development more simultaneously. But lets just say that the Golf owes a huge amount of its existence, and its engines, transmissions, suspensions, basic form and all kinds of other technical and conceptual aspects to the very advanced and competent work being done at Audi while VW was busy gazing at its navel for fifteen years.
But in the end it was worth all the anxiety. Despite VW’s great concern that the Golf wouldn’t really catch on and truly replace the Beetle (that’s why they kept building it for years still), the Golf is in every way as iconic and influential as the Beetle. Just like the Beetle’s design had borrowed from Tatra and other sources, the Golf was hardly original. But that’s how it often is in the car world: the true engineering pioneers often don’t succeed technically, because of a lack of pragmatism. The Golf was highly pragmatic; an assemblage of the best that Audi, Simca, Autobianchi,Fiat, Austin, Renault and others had pioneered, and refined into a practical, palatable and handsome box, thanks to its styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro.
The Golf went on to define the whole class it dominates; well, outside of the US that is. In reality and with the benefit of hindsight, one can rightly say that VW’s anxieties were not all that misplaced. Because just like Toyota and Honda have in recent decades generated a lion’s share of their profits from the US, the same was true for VW in the sixties. And in truth, the Golf/Rabbit really never lived up to the Beetle’s huge success here. VW’s long decline from domination of the US import/small car market began in earnest just before the Rabbit appeared, and the Rabbit never properly stopped it, despite massive efforts such as building it in the US (we’ll cover that ugly chapter another time).
But to those who could appreciate the Golf then, and like those that still do, as this featured car’s obviously enthusiastic owner, the Rabbit was a revelation. Count me as one of them. The picture above is so particularly meaningful to me, because it perfectly captures my first Golf drive. I was driving a ’64 Beetle 1200 at the time, exactly like in the photo. And a friend had bought one of the first Rabbits in Baltimore in the fall of 1974.
He picked up one of the ultra-stripper models like this one, that was especially made for the US only, in order to be able to meet a sub $3k price ($2,999). It had textured hard-board for the partial door-panels (covered with some cloth on this car), and was utterly stripped of all excess and then some more. Ironically, VW wouldn’t have dared to sell this version in Europe! The closest thing to it was the Chevette Scooter some years later.
But who gave a damn when you were twenty-one and lived a spartan existence? I parked my 34 (net) hp Beetle and walked over to his Rabbit, and he handed me the keys. Its 70 hp 1.5 L OHC engine might have been a Golf R32 compared to my poky little slug-bug with less than half the horsepower. Weighing barely 2,000 lbs, the Mk I Golf was a driver’s nirvana. The engine pulled and revved; the un-assisted steering was light and direct, with just a hint of torque steer; and the handling was just superb: I zinged, zigged and zagged it on the winding back roads of Baltimore County, and it was as much fun as I’ve ever had driving a car.
Getting back into my Beetle was like taking off the latest Nike running gear and putting on a cave-man’s dirty old fur. That’s me in 1974 taking a smoke break to absorb and ponder my rite of initiation into the cult of the Golf.
The European Golfs came with either the little 50 hp (EA111) 1.1 liter from the Audi 50, or the 70 hp (827) 1.5. In the US, VW showed an bizarre restlessness about the Rabbit’s engines. In ’76, it went to a 1.6 with 71 hp. The best year for early Rabbits is 1977, when it got fuel injection and pumped out 78 horses. I so lusted after one that year, especially after my boss bought one, a properly trimmed LS version. It was a somewhat-poorer-man’s BMW 2002 at the time. Very German, nice quality interior, tight; just all-round perfect. But they were getting pricey. The dollar’s slide in the early seventies was a terrible problem for VW, and was the reason they built the first modern import brand factory in the US in 1979.
In 1978, VW did a strange thing and reduced the Rabbit’s engine size to 1.45 liters and down to 70 hp. And from then on, they dicked around with engine size and output on an almost yearly basis. What was in the beer they were drinking?
Needless to say, the Golf created the Golf class, and it continues to be be dominant in Europe and successful in many parts of the globe. In the US, it took slapping a trunk on it in the form of the Jetta, to really make it more palatable to Americans. But its impact even in the US was a very significant and lasting one. It was the car that saved Volkswagen, and propelled it to a global giant. Not bad for being the result of dithering and prevaricating.
Nice writeup and a great find, Paul! I remember when my friend’s mom got one in around 1977 to replace her Fiat 126(?)-the boxy rear engined two-cylinder one. This was back in Germany. That a golf was a nice car in metallic blue.
Your photo car looks great as well (outside anyway), and what luck to get a red bug in the background!
Right after my sister got married, her husband bought an orange 77 Rabbit. They left the car at my mother’s house for some reason, and my mother and I got the job of driving the Rabbit the 50 miles or so back to their house.
Mom drove her own car and I got the keys to the Rabbit. I still remember that drive as one of the most fun drives I have ever had. It was just as you said – the car revved, and zigged and zagged and just begged the driver to flog the crap out of it. It was so lightweight, so willing, so eager. I don’t think I have ever driven anything else quite like it.
That car did not stay with them long. It was actually a repaired wreck where someone welded the back half of a baby blue car onto the front half of the orange car, then did a cheap repaint on the back. Why they bought that particular one is a mystery, it must have been dirt cheap. They replaced it with an 80 Made-In-USA-diesel that was a much better car, but was nowhere near as fun to drive.
What was the comment, from the American army officer in Vietnam? “We had to destroy the village – in order to save it.” That’s kinda what happened with Volkswagenwerk AG: absorption of Auto Union and NSU, gave them alternate technology, an alternate corporate mindset and culture, and an alternate future. Which (along with falling sales) encouraged them to abandon their expertise and develop along FWD, water-cooled two-box models.
Not unlike how American Motors took over Chrysler – from the inside, using Chrysler’s resources.
All was well from that point; although, IMHO, not very well. The Dasher and Rabbit had teething pains; VW was not used to quick model changes. Nor were they used to such technologies; nor to lighter assemblies.
Along with the new technologies came the new mindsets. Volkswagen of old got its American chops, not with flashy style or the latest technology; but with a sales model that was the anthesis of American “planned obsolescence.” By treating the customer in a straightforward manner and allowing him to direct the sales process. And by supporting the product once it was sold.
All of this, over time, went by the wayside. We can argue whether the old model failed; but – to this day – the Volkswagen of today is neither a “people’s car” in terms of price; nor is it overly-rugged in terms of durability; nor is the sales network overly well-known for high ethics.
The VW circle might just as well have been taken down 38 years ago in favor of the Audi rings. The change turned out to be that drastic; whoever it was who instituted the takeover, it was the old Heinz Nordhoff company which was abolished.
Regarding our example: Interesting how the exterior is so well preserved, while the interior so utterly trashed.
The interior doesn’t look that bad to me, the radio and carpet is missing, is all.
Just like you, in 1975 my dear Aunt Suz stepped out of a long line of Beetles and into a new Bali Green Rabbit. I think it lasted about twice as long as the Beetles did, I recall seeing it in 1980 when it had been passed down to an Uncle, he said the carb was occasionally troublesome but other than that it was still a good car.
What strikes me about the first Rabbits is how clean and pure the design is, much like other iconic cars like the Beetle, the 911 or Mini. And like the others, you could see that pure character dripping away over time as the Golf/Jetta got fatter and more conventional.
My only Rabbit driving experience was in my buddy’s diesel Rabbit. Wonderful chassis, but oh em GEE was that car sloooooooo.o.o.o…o….ow. It was painful!
Agreed. I remember riding with my sister and BIL in their diesel one stormy night when there was a stiff headwind. The Rabbit struggled to maintain 50 mph. However, under normal conditions, it regularly got a legitimate 50+ mpg, something that their later Golf diesel was never able to duplicate.
Rode in one of the early Golf diesels during a trip to Germany back in the early 80s. I still remember the bone-shaking rattle of that diesel on a cold start. The entire dash assembly buzzed and vibrated violently until the engine was fully warmed up. Normal conversation was almost impossible during the warm up – more of a shouting match.
+1
I was tempted to buy a second-hand Rabbit diesel after finishing university in 1979. But the peculiarities and limitations of first-gen VW diesels put me off. Plus the then-hefty price tag of $5000.
A really nice example of a very important car that became a benchmark for almost everybody else in that segment.
I think one of the dilemmas VW faced with the Beetle is that by the late ’60s a lot of its popularity was in the U.S, where it was selling staggeringly well, but for somewhat peculiar reasons. It wasn’t that it was a particularly good car by the standards of the time (except perhaps in build quality, but that wasn’t really why most Americans were buying it). I think for Americans, the Beetle (and related Type 2) was popular as a repudiation of Detroit values; you bought it because you wanted to demonstrate you weren’t (or weren’t going to be) one of those nameless Impala-driving sheep who lusted after fat Thunderbirds or Mark IIIs. Given the Boomers’ keenness to reject everything their parents’ generation liked, there was a big market for that, but it’s awfully hard to figure out how to replace a product when its main sales appeal is that it’s sort of an un-car. (That’s also what made the U.S. automakers’ attempts to benchmark the Beetle for the development of cars like the Pinto so ludicrous.)
My impression was that European and particularly German buyers had less affection for the Beetle in that sense, seeing it more as a poverty-spec car and a reminder of the austerity and deprivation of the not terribly distant past. It’s a lot easier to embrace the “quirky” appeal of such a car when you’re a middle-class American white kid whose privilege is so ingrained that you barely recognize it.
Given all that, for VW to eventually come up with a modern car that not only succeeds, but sets a lot of the baseline standards for its class, is pretty remarkable, even if they took their time about it.
I somewhat disagree. The Beetle’s success in the US during the mid-late fifties was directly the result of its robustness, as well as an excellent dealer network. Most of the other imports faltered in 1960, due to the American compacts, but the Beetle’s growth wasn’t even dinged. The word of mouth, reinforced by ads that stressed its reliability, was the key ingredient.
Many Americans got burned badly by the import boom of the fifties, and either went back to American cars or bought VW, without regrets (for the most part). Yes, the Beetle benefited from its growing status in the mid-late sixties as being “different” and anti-Detroit, but if it hadn’t already proved its robustness, this would never have happened.
It was also why they stuck with it so long; until the Japanese were seen as a safe alternative, the Beetle still was seen as a very safe choice, due to its very high build quality and durability.
This is an important part of the Beetle story: its simplicity, economy and sturdiness made it the ideal vehicle for those that increasingly perceived American cars as decidedly less so.
Europeans appreciated the Beetle’s positive qualities, but they never put quite as much relative value in those as compared to modern design, room, performance, etc. For instance, the Fiat 124 was perhaps a key coffin nail for the Beetle in Europe; quite the opposite situation than in the US. Different priorities and expectations, as well as fewer miles driven per year and more willingness to pay for more maintenance and repairs.
Having lived through that era in Europe, and gone back to visit, I would not say that the Beetle reminded them of their austerity and deprivation. The VW for a huge number of Germans and such was their first car, and the fifties and sixties was an era of tremendous gains in living standards. They saw the Beetle as the gateway to bigger and better things, but had fond memories of their first opportunities to travel abroad in a car.
It was also their kids (boomers) that tended to reject the Beetle because it was their parents car, often the exact opposite of what happened in the US.
I don’t disagree about American buyers in the ’50s, but I think the half million or so people who bought Beetles in the late ’60s were mostly not the same as the ones who had done so in the late ’50s. (Just looking at the raw numbers suggests as much.) I don’t dispute that the Beetle’s reputation for reliability and build quality helped, and was why people looking for an anti-Detroit car bought Beetles rather than, say, a Renault 8, Fiat 600, or the like, but I think by the ’60s it was a matter of VW happening to be a more defensible choice as a statement.
I’ll defer to your observations on the German market, as I’m not old enough to have experienced any of that first hand.
The shot of the two Volkswagens and the dude on the porch havin’ a smoke is just priceless. And I am amazed that you found a Rabbit that old in such good shape. People drove the living snot out of those cars, and treated them like a pair of cheap shoes.
I bought a 1978 Rabbit in the spring of ’78; I put some 115k miles on the car, finally trading it off in 1985. You were right when you said they became pricey; the sticker on the one I bought was something like $5500 and it was not heavily optioned. IIRC the only options were A/C and an AM/FM/Cassette deck. In many ways the Rabbit was the best car I’ve ever owned, it never failed to start despite not spending one night in a garage. The only thing I replaced other than consumables was the brake master cylinder, about three months before I finally got rid of the car. By that time the paint was pretty well oxidized and the interior was pretty badly faded from the sun. I wouldn’t want another one now but the Rabbit was a very fun car to drive, due to the light weight. I averaged about 31-32 MPG, regardless if I were driving in town or on the highway.
The first car I ever bought new was a ’75 Rabbit, same red as the featured car, one model up from the one displayed so a bit fancier inside, white vinyl interior. Caused a bit of controversy in a steel town where one was considered unpatriotic if one didn’t drive an American car. Having previously owned a succession of domestic heavy metal (well, there was a Pinto wagon in there as well) the handling, and the livelinesss from a mere 70 HP was a revelation. It remains the most fun-to-drive car I’ve ever owned.
Too bad about the lack of reliability, By the time three years had passed, I’d been stranded on a rural back road once when the accelerator cable broke, the clutch had begun doing strange and unpredictable things, and water had begun collecting in the ventilation ducts, only to splatter the driver and passengers when taking a sharp corner. The 1.5 also had a habit of consuming oil, beginning fairly early on in its life. I managed to trade the thing in before it became too much of a money sink, but the ’78 Malibu wagon that followed was admittedly a major letdown in the fun scale.
I still occasionally have dreams where my red Rabbit has mysteriously reappeared in my driveway. Seriously.
This car was a hit in Europe, and a big ‘ho-hum’ in the US.
By the time this car came out, American buyers had passed the brand by. The love of the Beetle was the result of a number of unrepeatable conditions within the US market. When shoppers saw nothing new from VW after spending a decade in a Beetle, these faddish buyers moved onto the next fad at that time – Japanese cars. We see Boomers needing a bigger car by this time and Detroit offering personal luxury cars perfect for the disco age that swept the 1970s. Beetles were everywhere, rusting, old and puttering along slowly across the US. VW just didn’t seem relevant to the US market anymore.
Boomers, who had been raised around Beetles, Corvairs, Mustangs, Valiants and Falcons were ready for something bigger than a Golf when they began their families. They wanted something like an Oldsmobile Cutlass or a Ford Gran Torino. You park either of those ueber-popular cars next to a Golf and the Golf looks like a huge joke. Sure, everyone knew the Golf was cutting edge in many ways, but in a market that changes it’s cars every three years or so, it was alot more attractive to see yourself cruising in a Monte Carlo or a Cordoba for the same monthly car payment. A Golf was attractive to someone who appreciated what it was globally. The US market was more impressed with a long hood, air conditioned bordello interiors and opera windows. We didn’t zip around European roads, we sat in traffic on the Dan Ryan or the Garden State.
VW was known for producing the same damn car for too damn long by the time the Golf arrived. The Beetle looked like a one-hit wonder, not Motown. America didn’t get all weak in the knees over it because we weren’t all that interested in a company we grew bored with. Golf. Nice car. But did you see the new Thunderbird? It’s $2000 cheaper than last year’s model!
It was a good small car when we got around to being interested in something small, German and boxy. That took a good long while as we fell in love with Toyotas, Datsuns, Hondas, and the latest from Detroit. VW would have been out of business had it not been for the lack of Japanese cars in Europe at that time. That is why it succeeded where it did. The Europeans didn’t know something we didn’t. We knew something, they didn’t – Japanese cars were replacing Beetles as the new imported fun fad on wheels.
Some good points. As part of the younger baby boom demographic, most of the VW owners I knew in the second half of the 60s were adults who wanted a well built, inexpensive, economical second car. As you note, most of those buyers were gravitating to Toyotas, Datsuns by the early 70s and Hondas after that. The water cooled VWs never developed the kind of quality rep that the air cooled ones had (or that Japanese cars did). A lot of the people who did move to the Rabbit between 75-78 did not go back for another. That seldom happened when folks bought Japanese.
BINGO!!
My mother, tired of the Fast-Fail, Rapid-Rust American cars…started fishing around. I think it was a midlife crisis – first she bought a Chevette; liked the size (so different from her Gran Torino) but not the quality.
My younger brother, in college at the time, had her ear. Like many young armchair enthusiasts, he was sold on the Rabbit. So she bought a 1981…which was a disaster, unlike the Chevette which was just cheap and lo-quality.
From the Rabbit…as soon as she could afford to…she opted for something else, listening to my OTHER brother, who had turned Japanese. She bought a larger car, one of the original Camrys…mileage as good and quality exponentially improved. AND…the Toyota people STOOD BY their product! SO unlike the VW District Reps…I’m tempted to make unflattering Germanic political jokes here; but the truth of it is, the personnel handling customer complaints were generally ex-GM people. Fired for poor attitudes, is my guess.
Both German and Japanese models excelled in design, for their times. But the Japanese recognized a sale as the beginning of a partnership; whereas the VW was sold and serviced by people with the ethics of a grave robber.
I kind of did the opposite…maybe because my Father had an import since I was young….I went from having a Nissan (Datsun) to owning a VW…30 years ago….I’ve owned 3 of them since that (my only car)…maybe I didn’t get the memo, more likely since my first Japanese car was unremarkable (Datsun 710, which was more like a smaller American car) …whereas my first VW (a Scirocco) impressed me enough that I kept coming back for more
(or maybe I’m a glutton for punishment?…the truth is probably somewhere in between those two extremes.
I would bet that quite few Beetle drivers ended up in a Cordoba. More likely a Chevy Malibu, or Dodge Dart/Aspen, or such, if not a Japanese car.
After my mother’s ’67 Beetle had its electrical fire, she upgraded to a used ’69 Satellite, so that fits your scenario.
BTW I remember getting Road Runner stickers from the dealer, which at that time for me was more about Chuck Jones than ¼-mile times & Hemis.
I’m not sure of that, Paul. Part of it is the changes in life…you’re young, you’re contemptuous of the consumer culture…you want a car. You choose the Beetle; it’s what Detroit considered an anticar.
You age. Your career takes off. You value comfort and convenience more than thumbing your nose at the Establishment.
You now have “IMAGE” to think of. Something that “makes a statement.” You can afford it; and to KEEP on affording it, you need to PROJECT.
That means, stylish clothes…and a car that telegraphs the personality you wish to project.
Conversely, if your career goes in other directions, or doesn’t launch…but the wife and kids come…you need a family hauler.
There are many, many ways someone can go from a Beetle. It was “entry-level” – for those just starting out, or those who’ve wrapped it up and no longer care what others think but only of the savings.
That reminds me of a cartoon in Mad magazine in the 70 showing the life cycle. Starts with a young couple driving what is clearly a Beetle, snuggled up close to each other with big smiles on their faces. Next panel has them in a little larger car with a little space between them and average smiles on their faces. With each panel the car gets larger as does the space between them. It progresses to what is obviously supposed to be a Cadillac and true to the advertising illustrations of the 60’s it looks like there could be 4 or 5 people sitting between them and the smiles are long gone. Then in the final panel they are each in their own Beetle and their smiles have returned. Each panel got wider and wider but the last, the twin VW’s represent the same width as the Caddy.
That is so, so true. It’s fascinating, in a pedestrian kind of way, to see how couples age…they start by hanging all over each other; and in the end it’s separate bedrooms, separate foods, and barely speaking.
How it applies here is, even when a person is pleased as punch over a car…his needs are going to change over time. Different points in life; different needs, different types of vehicles.
I certainly I wish I had bought Japanese for my first new car instead of a 77 Rabbit! But my brother worked for VWoA, somehow I got talked into one. Drove it 1.5 years and gave up.
Nice shell and interior, carried all kinds of stuff and it was comfortable. Alas, the mechanical part? Engine sputtering that neither dealer nor independent shops could fix in the upper half of the rev range.
Add in the massive understeering on three wheels; the handling never improved after Konis, wider tires on Wolfsburg Edition wheels, and GTI swaybars (my VWoA-working brother came across a set of microfiche for Euro-only parts, ordered in a few sets of the swaybars for friends and myself, and burned the fiche). My first car intended for autocorssing and darm near my last.
Ditched an almost new car, bought a six year old Datsun 510 instead, never looked back. Until the ’86 and ’89 GTI’s I got for my wife and experienced similar problems, what was I thinking?
What a find in that condition. My only experience with an old Rabbit/Golf was with a Mark II GTI that a friend had. I drove it a few times, and I was always surprised how precise it felt and that the driving experience felt like I was in class of car far higher.
But I learned to drive a stick on my brother’s gf’s (really her Dad’s) 1975 or 76 Scirocco, which I believe was almost mechanically identical to the Rabbit. It was about 6 years old, full of dog hair, but I begged to borrow that car whenever I could.
Same here-road in a colleague’s and had to have one, lucked into the ’77 model and boy did it zing. Loved my blue Fiver (five doors, Watership Down era), have yet to find a replacement car, even a small hatch, that is as fun, but finally came to my senses when my fiance pointed out that the monthly repair costs would easily cover monthly payments on something that didn’t break. I’ll leave the others to list all the repairs; my heart still beats harder when I see that particular shade of blue.
That black Passat/Dasher has Ronal Bears! I’ve never seen those wheels on a car, only in 1990’s magazine wheel ads.
I’ve seen them in person on a couple of cars, mostly Civics driven of course by young girls. But yes I saw a lot more of them in Tire Rack ads than on the street.
I’ve only seen them on an mid-90’s Mazda 121 sedan (the “pert-posterior” one, to refer to their design inspiration)
My Dad bought a used 76 in 79 to replace one of his Impala’s. As you say the car was fun to drive and relatively quick. Much more so than the Datsun and Toyota he crossed shopped. Of course the Rabbit’s dependability was another issue. We used to say the Rabbit was rabid. Dad’s only foray with an import.
I wonder if someone at Porsche, circa 1995, didn’t stumble across some drawings of that EA-266 and think about cutting off the top and making a Boxster.
The very first Porsche ever built was mid-engined. And although the production 356 was switched to rear engine, Porsche built an endless succession of mid engined sports-racers and racers. They didn’t need inspiration from the EA-266 for that. Also, the EA-266’s engine location was not in the same configuration as the Boxster; it had a transverse, lay-down in-line four. Very different, and quite unusual.
My first two cars were both 1984 Rabbit diesels. The first one was a 2-door with the 4-speed stick. It was a hand-me-down from my dad’s cousin in about 1997. The second was a 4-door with the 5-speed. Loved the first one, hated the second one, except for the extra gear and functional no-draft windows.
They were great student cars: very reliable (the first one was at least), easy to maintain and repair, great fuel economy and almost no power. I theorized that a Rabbit wouldn’t exceed 80 MPH even in freefall if you flew it up in a cargo plane and kicked it out.
I’m not a small person, but I never suffered for lack of room, though anyone sitting in the back seat behind me did. One thing I didn’t like about the 4-door model however, was that the B-pillar position precluded me from hanging my left arm on the windowsill. The Rabbit had what a friend of mine called, “inner bigness”. Newer VW’s seem to have lost this. A friend of mine had an ’85 Golf and now has a 10 year old Jetta and laments about the same thing.
I _almost_ wish I still had my first Rabbit now for the commute to work. At least we still have one vehicle with a manual transmission (my wife’s CR-V) so I can get my fix for rowing my own gears occasionally.
I’ll also add that, when my dad’s cousin owned the Rabbit before me, his son had a 1st or 2nd gen Honda Civic. The body didn’t last long once subjected to winter road salt. Meanwhile, the body on my Rabbit was in very good condition when I got it, and it was already 13 years old then. I had to weld a small patch in the floorpan but the only bodywork I had to do was due to a dent, not rust. The hatch was particularly prone to rusting out though, and I did eventually replace it.
The diesel Rabbit may not have been capable of exceeding 80 MPH but the gas engine one I had would just about reach an indicated 100. Not that I would ever drive that fast on a public road 🙂 I’m a pretty good sized guy as well and I never felt cramped either, I expect if anyone had ever had to ride in the back they might have complained. I guess it must have been the luck of the draw but my Rabbit was both reliable and well built.
Volkswagens were traditionally built for German-sized people…which are roughly American-sized. Even the Beetle had plenty of room in the front…it was one of the few cars I had to pull the seat forward on (another being a Yugo).
As for a Rabbit being reliable…I think it all depends on when and where it was built. The first ones had teething troubles. Just as the German plants got their act together, VWoA hired former GM execs to run the Westmoreland plant…where the UAW did its usual thing; and left customers disgusted and looking to trade for other brands.
A good choice would probably be a 1978 or 1979 diesel; or any cabriolet. Those were the German-sourced cars.
About the “inner bigness”: I think VWs still definitely have this, at least compared to the competition. Sit in a Jetta/Golf and then in a Focus (among others): the VW’s driving position feels a lot less confining, despite being roughly the same size externally.
Toyota, Honda, and Subaru (and even MINI) are also good about the “inner bigness”; Ford and Hyundai/Kia, not so much. Nissan, GM, and Mazda fall somewhere in between.
(I’m generalizing: YMMV.)
I agree. I’ve always felt well accomodated in Golfs, and the Mk6 would be high on my list of new cars for that exact reason. The interior design and quality goes along with that.
I think a lot of the “inner bigness” has fallen by the wayside as gadgets and safety gear have been added to cars over the year. Only really basic, spartan cars have that feeling of inner spaciousness with apparent minimal size as viewed from outside (I am driving a rented, stripper Nissan Versa right now while my Subaru is undergoing some repairs, which has this feeling–but also feels somewhat empty. It’s noisy and cheap-feeling, and I can’t wait to get back to my smooth 6-cylinder Outback–but I can see why this would be a good choice for the frugal and/or college students.)
Fantastic cover photo, Paul; you couldn’t have picked a better shot.
The Versa is an interesting example because it has one of the roomiest cabins in its class. B-segment cars tend to suffer somewhat from having to make a packaging choice between cargo and people space, sometimes compromising by offering some kind of clever seating arrangement (e.g., Honda Fit/Jazz). With the Versa, Nissan pretty clearly went for people space, and while the car looks like a snake that swallowed a phone booth, I was surprised to find a while back that it has more rear headroom than almost any sedan on the U.S. market, even ones that are much bigger overall. Somebody I knew bought a previous-generation car used because they needed something that would have enough backseat room for their kids, who show every sign of being in the redwood family.
It’s stablemate the cube has even more.
I must have owned 8-10 vw’s in my life (it’s a frustrating subject to inventory). I did not find them particularly reliable unless purchased new and maintained by self. Just the opposite with the Nissans I have owned. Except for the fragile head gasket on the Z24s they have been very tough and dependable. For me that has been since 1981.
I have recently rented the versa, at least three times and agree with you. We are on our second cube. This one with the rubber band transmission. Holding my breath about the reliability of that transmission. Recently found it will hold four people and a wheelchair.
I can’t imagine what vw could do to get my money again. Possibly sell me a used nissan or toyota. BTW, 70 years old and retired but you guys are right. I am frugal.
Schoolmate, Dave Lambert’s, dad stepped out of a beetle and into a Toyota Corolla. After being rear-ended in that Corolla he bought another (if I recall the story correctly after these 35 years.)
I have no facts to prove this, but I think VW’s dithering opened a new door to Toyota and its Japanese brethren such that it joined the door opened by Detroit 5 years earlier. VW’s introduction of the Rabbit failed to close their door.
In this there were two streams of customers headed for the Japanese products (and a good thing that the Japanese had made major strides in product quality in the previous 5-10 years), those newly rejecting Detroit in the early to mid 70’s and those who had done that a decade earlier; they were wedded to an ethos (rather than a brand or model or powertrain layout) that started with the beetle but was picked-up and modernized by Toyota.
Hard to believe that VW went from the leading import to the USA with 2% market share to near irrelevance within a little more than a decade (such that there were ferocious debates within VW about leaving the US – this happened about the time if the Audi unintended ed acceleration debacle.). ((Even harder to believe the big 3 went from like 90% share to the 45% they hold today.))
I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that the teddy-bear wheel covers on the black Dasher were Not factory equipment.
What makes you think that? Don’t you remember the Passat Teddy Bear Special Edition? 😉
Wasn’t that the Wolfsbear Edition?
The first time I drove one of these cars I was amazed at what a truly excellent package it was. Even now, I can’t think of a car with a better driving position. Even though the car was small, the seat was high and the relationship between all the controls was brilliant.
The first one I had was a 1977 gas model with K-Jetronic. It was a revelation compared to the American and Japanese stuff I had driven. Peppy, excellent torque and still the best steering I had ever experienced.
These cars were hugely popular in Canuckistan, even with the large price tags that were attached to them. Single women flocked to them. School teachers bought diesels in droves.
They certainly were not as reliable as a Toyota but they made up for it in fun to drive. They weren’t very hard to wrench on once you got used to the things that went wrong. All parts were cheap and very easy to replace. The heater fan, for example, was on the cowl and took two 10 mm bolts to remove.
The diesels were much maligned by people who didn’t know how to drive them. These were the first high speed diesels. You could actually make them go pretty well, you just had to stomp on it. Americans were used to big, lazy V-8 and didn’t rev the diesel high enough to get any go out of it. The thing was practically unkillable; I flogged diesel Rabbits and never had one fail one me. Besides, they were dirt cheap and easy to rebuild.
There are very few of these left now as especially the early ones rusted like crazy.
I guess Paul’s right, although it was Renault that made the first successfull hatch, the five door R4,launched in ’62, Simca and Autobianchi made a real good more upmarket effort for the hatch, ‘t was the Golf that turned it into a new class of its own.
The Renault 4 was stricktly basic and more a 2CV competitor.
But in the end Alfa made the most fun one and sexiest in the AlfaSud Sprint, a 1.5 litre Boxer engine, low point of gravity, FWD and Alfa pedigree.
Autobianchi were a brand to test future FIat technology like FWD cars.
Simca were owned by Chrysler, what were they doing not making the 1100 series a success in the states?
In Europe you had next to basic 1100’s a faster 1100 Special and a hot 1100 Ti, at the time before the Golf GTI, the 1100 Ti Simca was hot. Red hot !
Looking at the 1st generation Golf/Rabbit and Sirocco 40 years later, one have to admire how nicely they were proportioned, how clean the lines were. I would love to own a 1st gen GTi. Anyone selling?
You guys who say sales were ho-hum or saw more in ads than on the street must not have lived in California. The Rabbit sold like crazy out here. Sales would have been even better except for the very high price due the rapidly appreciating German currency (after all that’s why they built the Westmoreland plant).
People bought it of course for the fuel economy. The Rabbit, more than any other small car, was one you did not have to sacrifice a roomy interior to get great mileage. You also did not have to sacrifice performance. The VW name, at that time, still signified durability and reliability and lots of folks bought.
But man they were expensive. My friend’s parents paid $7K for a green Deluxe, crazy money back then. There were markups galore. Like the ’73 Audi Fox the early cars were dreadfully unreliable especially around the fuel system. Many people tried a VW for the first time with the Rabbit and never went back.
Our family bought a used ’78 Scirocco followed by a used ’78 Rabbit as by then VW had gone FI and worked out most of the bugs. The cars were fantastic. My sisters Rabbit Luxury had the passive restraint system which included a very nice full-length padded knee bar. When the car got older and the motor mounts failed there was so much vibration at start-up that something lying on the knee bar would fall off. Both cars had valve guide issues which wasn’t a big deal, we just learned to add oil regularly.
The feature car is a ’76, I can tell because the VOLKSWAGEN emblem is on the left side of the hatch and in non-italics (you can tell the ’77s by the fuel injection under the Rabbit name on the right). The feature car has a Scirocco steering wheel. From the single hole IP it appears to be a rare base grade.
The ’77 is perhaps the most sought after MK1 with its 1.6L FI engine. But we really liked the short stroke 1.5L engine in ’78. Perfect drivability and man did it like to rev.
My aunt traded in a ’74 Super Beetle for one of the first Westmoreland Rabbits and what a mess that was compared to my sister’s ’78. At a very young age I learned to appreciate the difference in supplier parts, US versus Germany. The VW spec for “leatherette”, for example, apparently translated to “rubber” in America. In all fairness to VW they were in a huge hurry to localize the car.
Even the suspension turning was different perhaps because of a misguided notion that Americans didn’t care as much about handling as ride (remember this was before BMW sales went nuts). That was almost as crazy as the Germans thinking we wanted everything color-keyed including the shift boot and window regulators!
VW and its competitors learned an important lesson here and the mistakes were never repeated. The Mk1 Rabbit was a hugely influential car in its successes, and failures.
“Both cars had valve guide issues which wasn’t a big deal, we just learned to add oil regularly.”
They all had valve guide issues IIRC. The one I had (1978) was recalled for this because it was considered an emissions issue (it was out of warranty by then). A quick trip to the dealer and it never smoked on startup again.
The valve guides on a Rabbit were really easy to change and cost like $10 for the parts. The OEM was cheaped out on every one.
My first car was a brand new 1974 Corolla in a bright yellow. I believe I paid around $2250 for that car. So, looking back, $2999 seems somewhat expensive compared to a Corolla or Datsun B210, or even the Beetle for that matter.
The thing that really sets the Mk1 Rabbit/Golf apart from the rest of the field can be summed up in two words: Giorgetto Giugiaro, the famed Italian auto designer who penned the simple, yet attractive, crisp lines of the car. Yes, it was packaged well, and driving dynamics were superb for such an entry-level car. But Giugiaro’s styling, alone, is what really sets it apart and makes it the classic that it is today.
The Corolla might have been a ten-fold better buy in the long run (especially for nearly 30% less money), but the VW was the looker of the class.
The VW was the leader of the pack for sure. The sold Canada as Rabbit Base, Rabbit C and Rabbit L. The base was horrid, the C not much better but the L was the model to have. Included was very nice velour seats, padded door panels and very nice carpeting. The cars were very well finished and the doors had that VW “thump.” I loved the rear wiper on the L, too.
In 1978, my girlfriend’s dad bought her older sister a Rabbit Diesel L. The sticker was $8200. That would buy a very nice Impala with a/c and power stuff.
There is one early Golf left around here VW may have learned how to make a modern car but they hadnt learnt durability yet Golfs rusted away fairly quickly but they were good drivable cars while they lasted a vast improvement on the awful beetle.
While it’s not the subject of the story, the VW Passat/Dasher wasn’t a hatchback. Just a fastback. Mostly done, I presume, to make it look different from its Audi brother.
Actually it was both. VW turned the B1 Dasher into a hatchback later, when they added the new bumpers. Enlarge pic and note the cutline at top of rear glass for the hatch.
This particular one is a hatchback, but you’re right, they weren’t at first.
The VW Golf Mk1/Rabbit got a longer lifespan in South Africa, they was build there until 2009 with a reskinned front and called Citi. http://www.worldcarfans.com/109111223019/vw-ends-golf-i-production-in-south-africa-with-citi-golf-mk1-limited-edition
My first time seeing this Rabbit was when we got some new neighbors in the mid-1970s. There was a boy my age and his newly divorced mother (in her early/mid 30s), who had moved into her mother’s house. The first thing she did in starting her “new” life was to get a new Rabbit. It was Silver: clean, crisp and functional. I did get to ride in it, and it was reasonably comfortable for a small car. Though I couldn’t fully express/understand it as a kid, there was something so nice and simple about the design that the adult me can now fully appreciate. Have no idea how it drove, but I know she liked it a lot at the time. She was soon dating again, got remarried and winded up moving to Houston. I lost track both of my friend and the Rabbit, as his grandma (with her Marquis) wound up moving to Texas too (wanting to be near them I guess) so they no longer came back to NOLA.
My other early exposure to an early European FWD car was the Fiat 128 belonging to one of my parent’s friends. It was a 1973, painted a light green. Also cleanly styled in the Italian way, but a bit odd, as it was a 3-door–more of a wagon than a hatch. The Golf was much better looking in my opinion. The Fiat’s owner was an artist, who spent part of his time in New Orleans and the rest in the Massachusetts Berkshires. It therefore got exposed to salt, and had already started rusting badly after a few years. I remember being shocked seeing all the rust bubbles around the entire lower perimeter of the car. In South Louisiana I was used to cars that rusted more from the top down (vinyl roofs trapping water and rusting underneath was oh so common) and the process was not accelerated by road salt. The rusty Fiat ultimately didn’t last that long and was replaced by another quirky European. This time from Sweden. A Saab, natch.
You deserve some sort of Pulitzer prize for the lead photo. Great picture.
I think that I’d have to give the nod to the MINI for influencing the industry shift toward front-drive, transverse-engine compacts. The Golf would later set the benchmark for the class (except in the US and Canada, of course) and ultimately would do better with it, but the Brits deserve the credit for doing it earlier. (It goes to show that being first doesn’t lead to being more successful.)
I did mention Austin, both for the Mini and the 1100, which was perhaps really more influential due to being closer to a size that was family-friendly.
But don’t forget that DKW, predecessor to Audi, was making transverse FWD cars in the twenties, and quite popular ones. And in there were others to, in Germany during the fifties, like the Gorgward, Lloyd, Gutcrod, etc. The Borgward Arabella (1959) had a water cooled boxer driving the front wheels just like the modern Subaru.
I give the Mini credit where it’s due, but many tend to give it even more than it deserves. It’s held up like this icon of modern car design, as if Issigonis was Moses and the Mini was his tablet. There were a lot of fwd cars being built allover Europe in the forties and fifties.
Although I never owned a regular rabbit, between my two brothers and I, we’ve owned a total of 5 Mk I rabbit gtis. For me, it’s set the standard for fun and practicality. Cruising in 5th gear at about 4,000 rpm is something that I just remembered. Wasn’t the best highway cruiser.
Had a co-worker who owned a ’78 Rabbit. He had a real love/hate relationship with that car. I drove a ’74 Fiat X1/9, (later bought a new ’78 Buick Turbo Regal… worst car I ever owned, last GM car I ever bought) before moving on to an ’81 Honda Accord. I always had an enthusiast’s appreciation for both the Rabbit and the Scirocco, but also had memories of my ’69 Beetle and they were not fond memories.
I have an 81 Scirocco…the last year of the MK 1, and has all the goodness of the Rabbit in an even sportier body and a lot more standard equipment. Great car and still a head turner
Never did own a Rabbit , but had a chance to drive one as a loaner when my dad’s Squareback was being worked on. I liked the quicker acceleration, and handling of the car. I commented to my mom that we should get one of these, and she agreed. But my dad, being the cheap skate, wanted to stay with the Squareback. Consumer Reports rated the early Rabbits as the best subcompact until the reliablility issues . I wanted one to replace my old 62 bug, but they were too expensive for me at the time.
My diesel daily driver. Still a lot of fun.
My 1977 FI K-jetronic lemon yellow, 4 speed, sunroof Rabbit was the ultimate lemon turd of my automotive life. A cult car? I had to have been in a cult, the VW cult to have put up with this crap car until I finally rid myself of it in less than a star crossed year’s experience.
Name me another car representing itself as the anti-car, the anti-reliable car. The black eye of German shame.
My first car was an unbelievably reliable used 1961 VW bug that ran and ran to 175K miles with self proven German reliability. My next car was a 1970 Opel GT that I bought new with a great Datsun 240Z induced discount. The GT also ran and ran reliably but evaporated into rust dust here in the salt/rust belt.
Being properly seduced by German engineering and reliability, I then bought my soon to be evil Rabbit. It spent more time in the the VW dealership being repaired than be driven. Two fuel injection system fires, scorched hoods, recurrent electrical problems and with alternator failures had their toll on my enthusiasm for the Yellow Turd as it came to be called.
The last alternator failed late on a Sunday night on the New York Thruway returning from a Vermont Ski trip. When, eventually with dimming lights and with a failing battery, without power for the fuel pump or for the ignition, the engine died,. The Turd made me coast to a stop and then made me hitchhike to a service plaza on a cold, snowy,wintery night to arrange for its eventual care and repair. A definite EVIL CULT CAR with a history of multiple roadside emergency stops.
After a near year of complete unreliable frustration, after repairs were done again, I drove the Yellow Turd to a Honda dealer, put my name on the list for the first available Accord, then found religion, praying daily that the Turd wouldn’t do it again, and miraculously when my name eventually came to the top of the Honda waiting list, I took delivery of the first of my many Hondas.
I have never looked back at VW. The lack of reliability and the concurrent incompetency of the VW dealerships was to me one of VW’s deadly sins leading to its decline in the US market.
Geelonvic, you shouldn’t be dissing V dubs like that. They’re great cars. The Rabbit you had was probably just a fluke. Even the most reliable cars made there’re ones that can be troublesome. Most people who’ve owned Rabbits were very satisfied with them. I mean they were in production for 17 years counting the cabrios so obviously they were awesome cars. The Mark 2 Golf and Jetta that came to the states in 1985 were actually VW’s best efforts in my opinion. They had matured into perfect driver’s cars. While the current Golf and Jetta are awesome, they’re al bit too big and heavy for my taste. And no Honda or Toyota can come close to the driving dynamics, comfort and performance of a V dubber!
I’ve been looking for an opportunity to post this picture which I snapped curbside a few months ago, so thanks for re-posting this. Strictly speaking, since this is an American first-gen, and thus a Rabbit not a Golf, it nevertheless shows the owner’s sense of humor.
Weird, my comment above didn’t post, twice (rejected by Akismet?) and then when it shows up its minus the picture. Here goes (knock on wood).
If it comforts you, dman, I not only get rejected by Akismet, but for being too slow, for typing too fast, for logging out when I haven’t, and for other reasons that have no explanation but that eat my words (and being my over-elaborate words, I hope it gives the system indigestion). It’s not personal, even if the system is a malicious bastard.
I like your photo.
I never see these early models, only the later ones with square headlights.
Exactly. When you really sit down and think about it one can see far more Beetles still roaming the streets than a Golf of any year. I see a Beetle every day but haven’t seen a Golf in easily 20 years.
I went to the Lists of Craig and the earliest Golf I could find, even with the expanded search CL offers below local results, was a ’93 model, but there were plenty of aircooled Bugs and even a Bus on tap. There was one Jetta and that was a recent TDI model. No Fastbacks or Squarebacks either. That’s the ultimate determiner of reliability isn’t it, are they still even around at all to sell or have they been converted into Chinese made appliances and sent back here?
I saw a running Bug last weekend coming home from a party.
There’s plenty of both still here on the roads. Actually, more Golf Mk1s than air cooled Beetles. I keep shooting them and posting them here. Apparently all the diesel Rabbits from CA moved to Oregon, along with their owners. 🙂
I’ve only ever driven a diesel. Coming directly from an early Pug 404 with 61hp, the 48hp in the lighter Golf felt fine to me, and for handling and steering, it was a hoot. No brakes to speak of – RHD models used an atrocious torsion bar method to operate LHD setup – but not really needed in a wee diesel if you want to get there on time, I guess.
These were greatly loved by their owners here, but weren’t reliable, and were beyond useless on dirt roads. After 5 or 6 miles on a rough road, the owner had to call VW and say “Can you please come and collect my car, it’s spread between mile post 4 and 6 – I’m in the front half at mile post 6.5.”
Am I the only person who was never greatly taken by the “crisp” and “purposeful” Guigiaro styling? To me, something like the original Renault R5 (not a direct competitor, I know, but small and boxy) had vastly more style than this essentially boring box. It wasn’t until the classy Mk 4 model that the features of Guigiaros effort were fully drawn out.
I also can’t help wishing VW had stuck with the EA266 and somehow made the numbers work. It’s a far more interesting machine, and theoretically, being mid-engined & practically as roomy as a Golf whilst having two trunks, it’s also a better one.
The Rabbit was a very influential car, in that the ’80 model my folks bought brand new, along with the horrid dealer service attitude, influenced my VW loyal family into never buying a VW again.
What I remember about the Rabbit, and VW itself In the 70s was a friend worked for a company called Volkswagen Insurance. Seems it was created almost as an in house insurance company for VW owners, but did carry policies for other cars. When I bought my Audi Fox in 74. the dealer offered it, but I stayed with my current carrier. Only time I drove a Rabbit was when the Fox was In for service and it was a loaner. Actually a good car, handled nearly as well as the Fox Even if saddled with an automatic trans. In truth the doors seemed too light and the closing of same seemed rather hollow, Even the Fox had a more substantial “clunk” when the doors were closed. I generally thought of VW and Audi the way I thought of Chevy and Pontiac. Related, but the latter was a step up.
Had it not been for the Rabbit (Golf) the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon may had never seen production in the US!.
The Golf clearly wouldn’t have been, and continue to be, as successful if its styling hadn’t been so precisely focussed and meticulously evolved over the years.
Paul points out Giugiaro’s ‘practical, palatable, and handsome box’. It’s hard to disentangle image from more objective qualities, but to me the design of the Golf has been pretty much a work of genius in communicating both a seriousness of engineering content and a sophisticated and personable (in a technological, German sense 🙂 ) style, whose identity is unmistakeable generation after generation. It’s rare when automotive design reaches this level of personality/identity, and even more rare when it endures and is developed almost flawlessly over 7 or 8 generations and 40 years. That approach is also clearly something that VW wanted to carry over from its experience with the Beetle.
Arguably the Golf’s design formula may be breaking down slightly. To my eyes the current version has grown a little large for its traditional identity – it looks strangely stretched and inflated, a little reminiscent of the Super Beetle. These days the Polo looks more like a Golf than the Golf does.
What about the Toyota Corolla? It is also a compact car that outsells the Golf by a large margin. I get that many people view the Corolla with the same enthusiasm as watching paint dry, but the nameplate’s longevity and best selling status has to count for something.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2016/03/29/toyotas-corolla-the-worlds-most-popular-automobile-marks-its-golden-anniversary/
My first new car was a 1979 VW Rabbit 2-door. I was always amazed at what I could stuff into the back after folding the seats – it could transport all sorts of stuff! It was one of the last of the ’79s – I wanted it specifically since it could use leaded gas, which was a bit cheaper at that time than the unleaded. I owned the car for over 130,000 miles, and finally wore it out in 1988 or 1989. I drove it from Texas to Toronto and back, and then also when I moved from Texas to New England, along with many other trips.
The dealer-installed AC failed fairly early, but on the whole it was reliable until close to the end. I remember one failure to start due to a fuel pump relay failure, and sometime in 1988 the clutch just disintegrated on the way home from work. I fixed that, but not too much later it became obvious that the engine was worn out.
Volkswagen Does It Again!