There were lost promotion opportunities for the cars like using the “Wild Hare” name to promote a sporty cosmetic package. This idea was not lost on the Japanese. They used the cosmetic add-ons (spoilers, stripe package and alloy wheels) marketing opportunity with great success. Meanwhile Japanese cars with more competitive pricing and equipment began to increase share of market. Rabbit is a cute name with a friendly image. Hopefully the old Rabbit may be forgotten and the new one will benefit from some creative merchandising, competitive pricing and successful sales

Bad memories of Rabbit:
Most cars in the 70′s were not anything great and the Rabbit was harldy the worst one. Remember the 75 Corolla and Civic? They were junk but people buy them today.

Rabbit is dumb or too feminine:
Who do u think is buying a new economny car like Corrolla or Civic or Golf or Elantra? A lot of women. OR plain old nobody. If you dont like Rabbit u prolly dont like Golf or VW anyway. U aren’t gonna buy it either way. No loss.

Younger people dont remember or have nostalgia for Rabbit:
I dont think the Golf is a super inexpensive car. High schoolers that are too young to remember it are buying it anyway but look at all the young folks who bought the Beetle. Do you think they ever rode in an original Beetle? No. The just liked the car and the hipe around the nostalgia.

I dont like the name Rabbit:
I dont like the names Yaris, Aveo, Lucerne, Avalanche, Ion, Echo, Aztech etc. but they still sold some. Rabbit seems pretty normal compared to some of those.

Sigh. I better start keeping a chart for all these name changes.

Jetta = sweet.

Golf = wth?

Rabbit? Reminds me of rampant rabbit… is it going to sit there and vibrate til it falls apart?

I think the Rabbit name has cuetsy implications but the car has moved upscale and there is nothing cutesy about the price. Plus as someone else mentioned the “european” factor helps support the image and price.

And the meaning of Eos (and Toureg) is lost on the general public (and me).

golf
touraeg
jetta
passat
phaeton

the only ones that are passable are Beetle and GTI. and then there’s that whole lack-of-manhood thing associated with the Beetle. it’s a shame, because the original bugs are the epitome of teenage mechanic 101 – but no one (and i mean NO ONE) in their right mind and armed with a package would be seen within 15 yards of a contemporary beetle.

“Golf” just isn’t a cool name. Yeah so maybe it’s the name of some wind no one’s heard about… it still lends itself to “it’s as sporty as actually playing golf” jokes. And the rabbit brings back fond memories to many. I’m 24 and a lot of my friends vaguely remember Rabbits from their early years (vague in a way that makes it a better memory than warranted). The logo’s cool too.

I like it!

moody

ACHTUNG! Svitch wor volksvagon Golf to mein Favoreight vfurry, vcuddvly forrest eich kreature, der Rabbit!!!

Ven you kein explain to your friends…

“Dieses Rabbit rauchte mich gerade an diesem Stoplight, Hund!!”

LOL! I hope Americans won’t be fooled by this marketing strategy. You see, VW has looming financial problems because of the current Golf, since it is expensive to build and the sales are slacking in it’s core market: good old Europe. Therefore, VW has plans to launch a brand new Golf in 2008, which is only 2 years away, instead of maintaining the current generation until 2010 (as originally planned).

What does this have to do with renaming the Golf in the US?

Because since already there is a new Golf coming up in 2008 for the [still] important European market, VW will continue selling the ‘old’ Golf in the US. However, since it will be forgotten as ‘the Golf’, American consumers will believe that the 2008 European Golf is just some other VW model that isn’t exported to the US, instead of acknowledging that there is an old generation sold in the US and a new generation sold in Europe.