The Rabbit will be known as the Golf when the Mk6 edition hits American shores in October this year. The US-market Volkswagen Golf will also feature the 2.0 litre inline-4 turbodiesel that Volkswagen has started selling in the Jetta in that market.
The move to the Golf name for that market is part of a new directive to use the same name in every market for a vehicle, however Volkswagen says it won’t make it any easier or save much cost in advertising and brand building because according to spokesperson Tom Wegehaupt, Volkswagen generally uses market-specific rather than global campaigns (see some nice examples linked below).
Americans love large engines so the baseline model will once again get a 170 horsepower 2.5 litre normally aspirated inline-5 engine.
And then there is of course the GTI.
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After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history. An avid electronic gadget aficionado as well as big-time coffee lover, he's also the executive producer of the Driven motoring TV programme.
i like Volkswagen's design~
Makes no sense for VW to rename the Golf for the US market into the Rabbit. The old Rabbit was a worthless piece of junk! They've should have used the Golf name a long time ago!
good decision, rabbit not exactly the most convincing name.
not that golf is any better but sure as heck sounds better.
imagine telling a chick you're picking up at a club that you drive a rabbit. LOL.
Wow, what a car. I like the name rabbit though, just look at the picture above. Cute yet aggressive!
Finally!! Still remember my first ever car I bought while studying there .. VW Rabbit LS ..
personally i hate any car with animals name.. i mean hate the name only but not the car, if the car is good i'll still like it… to me better give cars name using numbers than any animal name..
haiya…. ok what rabbit for USA. they also like some kind wierd things. lets all of us accept Golf is Golf but american Golf is Rabbit. they live in they own fantasy (American Deram).
sorry American Dream. wrong spelling
The Golf has always been the Golf in North America. Am I missing something here?
Its only a slight mid model changeover that they decided to rename the OLD model the Rabbit to differenciate it from the new Golf. Wasn't that the case?
The same boo boo was also for the Jetta/GolF TDI that somehow managed to get dropped for a year or so for not meeting North American emmisions standards.
sorry got it the other way around. The old retained the Golf name (ie. City Golf) and the new MK5 was named the Rabbit to differenciate it. I think VW never meant to hold on to the Rabbit nameplate for the Golf.
vw wanna makes life easier ..
If I remember correctly, VW has never been officially calling the Golf as Golf .. my ex-Rabbit didn't have any indication that it was a Golf ..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_Golf
Oh well, mine was year 1980 when I bought ages ago
Rabbit or not, it's the car that matters.
oh my god … what a name "The Rabbit". damn.