1982 Volkswagen Rabbit

It took 30 years for Volkswagen the rethink its basic car. Up to the mid 70s, it was all Beetles and variations on the Beetle. The Golf ("Gulf" in German), called the Rabbit in the US, was one of the first small front-wheel drive cars you could buy.
* In the 80s these were made in Pennsylvania.
* I understand that in the 70s, if you wanted a Rabbit you had to order it at the dealership and take whatever color of car showed up.
* General Motors responded to the front-wheel drive small car challenge by cynically warming-over one of its German models, creating the rear-drive Chevy Chevette; a car with mechanics mostly out of the dark ages. In the 80s GM didn't even try and sold imports to small-car buyers.

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1981 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible - with ski rack!

Ski rack on a convertible. Gotta love the west coast.

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1981 Volkswagen Rabbit pickup truck

The Rabbit pickup is a vehicle I see from time to time in Seattle, though I haven't seen one in many years in other parts of the country. Most of those that remain appear to be the diesel-powered model (biodiesel is popular out here on the west coast), although this appears to be a gas-engine copy.

Built in the U.S., the economy-minded Rabbit pickup sold an impressive 37,392 copies in 1981, a year in which gasoline prices rose to an all-time high of $1.35/gallon, $3.51 in 2016 dollars. The Rabbit pickup's payload was a respectable 1,103 pounds. Unfortunately, VW's American plant closed in 1984. This resulted in all the tool and die equipment used to build American Rabbits being shipped to South Africa, where VW produced the original Mark I Golf-Rabbit as a pickup until 2007 and as a car until 2009.

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