Behind the Wheel: Volkswagen Rabbit: Less of a Tortoise, More of a Hare September 3, 2006
Over the years, the cuddly Rabbit has become a little porky. Therefore, today?s base bunny comes with 150 horesepower and 170 foot-pounds of torque.
VOLKSWAGEN gives the impression it was a last-minute thing, something of an afterthought, to revive the Rabbit name ? almost as arbitrarily as the company killed its lovable bunny in 1984.
Actually, executives at Volkswagen of America were suggesting as far back as four years ago that they might make the rabbit reappear. At the introduction of the New Beetle convertible, the company?s vice president at the time, Frank Maguire, was asked what the company?s next retro revival might be.
Reporters were angling for a commitment that VW would start producing the acclaimed Microbus design study; instead, Mr. Maguire gave an unexpected answer. ?Actually,? he said, ?we?ve been giving some thought to the Rabbit.?
At the time, the idea that VW would revive a popular model name that it had euthanized so suddenly, inexplicably and largely without justification nearly 20 years earlier seemed to make little sense. Yet, as the company?s fortunes faded in recent years with disappointing sales, a dwindling lineup, spotty reliability and unfavorable euro-dollar exchange rates, the original Rabbit?s 1975-84 heyday started looking better by comparison.
The fifth-generation Golf went on sale in Europe in the winter of 2004, but VW is just now getting around to selling it in the United States. VW?s American operation sorely needed a new angle for this somewhat dated car. Hence, the company pulled a rabbit, quite literally, out of its hat.
Architecturally, the 2006 Rabbit is a Jetta with its trunk sheared off; the cars share underpinnings, drivetrains and major mechanical components.
As always, the Rabbit is a hatchback. The base two-door starts at $15,620; adding two more doors costs you $1,000 apiece. The workhorse engine is a 2.5-liter in-line 5-cylinder. For a mere $7,000 more, you can have the sporty GTI with a 2-liter turbo 4.
After 2006, VW will no longer offer a turbodiesel in the United States.
The original 1974 Rabbit was promoted as a performance machine, which makes sense only if you recall that the car replaced the legendary, and legendarily sluggish, Beetle. The first Rabbit?s 71-horsepower 1.5-liter engine seems laughably underpowered these days, though they must have seemed quicker than they were.
Today?s base Rabbit comes with more than twice the horsepower ? 150, to be exact ? and a comparatively lavish 170 foot-pounds of torque. The 20-valve engine delivers its thrust in satisfying measures, while still conforming to California?s stringent partial zero emissions vehicle regulations. Along with PZEV-rated cars from other companies, the Rabbit is one of the cleanest vehicles on the road.
The engine seems particularly well-matched to the five-speed manual transmission in my four-door test car. While I did not drive a Rabbit with the optional six-speed automatic, that gearbox has been a smooth operator in other VW?s. The floor-mounted shifter, which waved around like a broken butter churn in Rabbits from the disco era, feels particularly crisp and precise. It seemed to find gears intuitively, both up or down the shift pattern. The only sour note was the hair-trigger (hare trigger?) clutch. If you stall the car, you must turn off the ignition, which locks the steering wheel, before attempting a restart (your foot must also be on the brake). This is not a pleasant experience in the middle of a busy intersection.
At a time like this, when a fast getaway is needed, the Rabbit will oblige with zero to 60 miles an hour in nearly 9 seconds flat with the manual and 9.4 for the automatic, according to Car and Driver magazine.
This represents a significant gain in performance over the outgoing base engine, a 115-horsepower 4-cylinder tortoise, which will not be missed. But fuel economy takes a slight hit with the new in-line 5, which is rated at 22 miles per gallon in the city, 30 on the highway.
A more robust power plant was essential because, over the years, the cuddly Rabbit has become a little porky. The aforementioned 1974 model tipped the scale at less than 2,000 pounds; today?s hare-ball spins that dial to 3,000.
- Posted in : Uncategorized, VW
- Author : arnold
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