Hey everyone,

I have made my decision to buy a Mini, so don't worry about me. I was wondering what you guys thought about the Rabbit. It is priced competitively and does share some things with the Mini. What is OT feelings on the Rabbit?

medic

 

I thik it a very attractive little VW. VERY low price. A good alternative to the GTI.

 

I had actually made the decision to buy a Rabbit and I was on my way to the VW dealer to order one when I decided to stop by the MINI dealer. The MINI was a little more than I wanted to spend, but I think it was worth the extra money. But, I did some very extensive research on the Rabbit (obsessively extensive) and it is a great car, especially for such a low price. I test drove a four door and it was very responsive and handled well and I even preferred driving it to the Scion TC. My research also included looking at European reviews which were especially helpful because the Rabbit (well actually Golf there) had already been out in Europe for a few years. In one safety test it got the best scores for ANY car they had ever tested and it received the car of the year award from a British car magazine a few years back. So yes, its a great car IMO. But... its not a MINI...

 

I like the Rabbit so much.. almost consider buying it as a second car.
However their engine makes me so disappointed, the EPA mpg is just 22mpg and 30mpg.. compared to the MK IV Golf 24mpg and 30mpg. (It could be worse if you compare to other brand.. i.e. Mazda3, Civic, Corolla... or even Focus)
As a economy car, esp. in these days gas milage is a very important factor. The new Rabbit win my heart in every category except fuel consumption.

 

I think GTI is a better deal.. great engine with decent fuel consumption, and a bigger price tag.

 

22/30mpg?! that's like my 2.5L AWD legacy wagon. that's very
depressing for such a small car. was expecting more like
35+

 

I think their ad campaign is great! Don't know anything about the car, though. There is something rather soulless about modern VWs, in general, to me. They just don't have much personality. I know people like them, but I guess I preferred the pre-1975 VWs...those were fun and funky vehicles that you could fall in love with.

 

I'm definitely seeing the Ad agency connection as the rabbit commercials are a lot like what I'd expect from MINI, and they were even good enough to get me to go look up the Rabbit on the VW webpage (no worries not looking for replacement but just wanted to educate myself) where unfortunately I was let down by info not being available yet.

 

i too think vw's TV advertisement is fun to watch. the car even looks
smaller... i thought it was like a Polo size (i think those were smaller, right?).

then looked it up and found that it's just a Golf... 5 cylinder? rather
have a 4 cylinder turbo.

 

My first car was a VW Rabbit (20 years ago) and I had three Rabbits all told over a period of about 10-12 years. The first two I owned were diesels, and the third was an '83 GTI. Hearing VW was reviving the "Rabbit" name, I looked forward to hearing about them with much anticipation, baut have been sorely disappointed with what I've seen of the new car.

Old Rabbit: 2100 lbs 155"L x 63"W x 55"H 0-60mph=9.7sec 25/37mpg

New Rabbit: 3100 lbs 165"L x 69"W x 58"H 0-60mph=9.1sec 22/30mpg

The specs for the old rabbit I listed were for a gas model, with the diesels I owned they were even lighter, and got as high as 45-50 mpg. Ahh, the price of progress. Heavier, larger in every dimension, worse gas mileage, and only marginally faster. One of the few things VW did right was decontent the new Rabbit compared to the previous Golf so it starts around $15k instead of closer to $20k.

VW should have brought the Polo over and renamed it the Rabbit. Give me a 4-door Polo diesel that weighs around 2500-2600 lbs, gets 50 mpg, and costs $15k, and I'd be looking at a return to VW for my next car. As is, I'll continue to happily motor along in my little old Mini.

-Keith

 

As so many have done....I think it is assembeled in Mexico but I am not sure...They killed the Beetle and Jetta down there too (VERY low customer satisfaction ratings now). WHY can't they leave the good stuff alone?

I had a Rabbit when they first came out...was a blast...lots for the $$!

Hope it works out for you!

 

i completely agree. bad move by veedub.

 

Im a HUGE VW fan...but i think VW has lost its sense of direction. Although i think they are slowly trying to bring VW back to its roots with the new VW GTI and rabbit.

I preferably like air-cooled VW's and mk1 rabbits/gti (check my VW gallery)

They need to bring the soul back into the rabbit/golf/gti and really make a true "hot hatch"

The new GTI is a turbo'ed 2.0L it also weighs 3,300lbs or somewhere very close to that. 3,300lbs!??! in a small hatchback? are the doors packed full of lead? almost 700lbs more then a MCS. Thats like having 4-5 adults packed into your mini all the time! (not including the driver) It weighs more then a S2000 and just as much if not more then a 350Z.

They need to keep HP output up and reduce the massive amount of plumpness the car has developed. This would raise the quickness and agility of the car greatly. If the car was 2700-2800lbs with 200hp/200trq then it really would be a "hot hatch'

If the MINI can be a very safe car and only weigh about 2500-2700lbs there is no reason why they cannot drop the weight of the car. The bloated weight of this car (GTI) is what caused me to not buy it, and i went with the mini instead.

just my .02

Edit: sorry i got waaay off topic and started to rant about the GTI, and this is about the rabbit. I think it is an emprovment over the last few years, as far as styling. weight issues are still there though. I would have liked to see VW bring over the polo. All in all, i think its a decent deal for the price.