Do you know what the typical Volkswagen Rabbit owner wishes he had? A long bed pickup. Because the little Rabbit isn’t great for hauling a bunch of construction debris or making a impromptu hot tub or other things pickups are good at. Volkswagen did make a Caddy truck, but it didn’t have back seats and […]
Few cars are slower than a vintage Rabbit Diesel, trust me, I sold the one I owned about a decade ago and seller still hasn’t gotten home. Anyway, the Diesel passenger version of the Rabbit was noticeably slower with a passenger or four, but I can’t imagine how slow this Caddy would be with a […]
Reeves Callaway was an aspiring race car driver who ended up working as an instructor at Bob Bondurant’s racing school in the 1970s. He fitted a turbo system on a BMW 320i and loaned the car to Car and Driver journalist Don Sherman who wrote a one page article on the beast. At the time, […]
Perhaps I was a bit quick to judge the scenic middle California coastal town of Atascadero in my previous rant about the Jeep Cherokee with the chopped up bits. Perhaps I should not judge a book by its cover, an inmate by his straightjacket. The last car we featured in that small town was…well…strange, but […]
Sometimes wheels ruin the look of a car…and sometimes they take it to the next level. The Ronal R10 Turbo wheels on this next car are a considerable improvement over the typical stock steelies you’ll find on a diesel Rabbit, and you might forget how stupifiyingly slow the car is when you look at those […]
If you causally mention you have a Volkswagen Caddy, a normal person would assume you had some sort of golf sponsorship…but a not-so-normal person will ohh and ahh for they know how special VW’s front-drive water-cooled leisure activity vehicle (LAV…not kidding…that’s an actual marketing term). Today’s example needs some work before you can cruise around […]
The Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel is the slowest car you will ever drive. It will get you something near 50 mpg in fuel economy, but the 52 horsepower 1.6 liter diesel is such a gutless pile of scrap iron that you will have a hard time beating a UPS truck to 60mph. However, you shouldn’t let that stop you from enjoying a driving experience that is as pure as they get — unassisted power steering and pizza cutter tires keep you completely informed of the road conditions. Find this 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel offered for $4,500 in Alameda, CA via craigslist.
Do you know what car on the road is slower than a vintage Rabbit diesel? Nothing. These things make the Benz 240D feel like a cruise missile…and I should know because I owned one a few years back. The non-assisted steering setup is surprisingly easy to turn — probably because the tires are borrowed from something with a banana seat — and feedback is communicative. Don’t worry about the fact that the car doesn’t have traction control, because even the most vigorous clutch dump in damp conditions results in smooth traction…trust me…I should know…because I owned one. To call the Rabbit diesel glacially slow is an insult to glaciers because they actually move — call it Washington Monument slow, because this Rabbit is probably in the exact same spot these pictures were taken despite the best intentions of a team of drivers…trust me…I should know. Despite all that…I still have fond memories of that pile of German metal..and get that narcotizing waft of nostalgia when I see this 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel offered for $5900 with 2 days to go, located in Lynwood, WA via eBay.
If you causally mention you have a Volkswagen Caddy, a normal person would assume you had some sort of golf sponsorship…but a not-so-normal person will ohh and ahh for they know how special VW’s front-drive water-cooled leisure activity vehicle (LAV…not kidding…that’s an actual marketing term). When I saw the pictures, I was surprised to see […]
Got some unknown image hosting issue with DT’s site right now — please accept our apologies if images are wonky. The original Volkswagen Rabbit is a fun little front drive econobox that checks all the right boxes if you don’t mind driving something that isn’t fast in a straight line. They are fun little machines in […]