PocketMatrix

Not to be biased or anything, because I work for Volkswagen, but of course I would recommend the Rabbit. Unfortunately VW of America only offers the 2.5L V5 engine, which has the power of a V6 and the fuel efficiency of a V4, yet is still a rather big engine for a hatchback, I would rather have the 2.0L turbo, or ideally the turbo diesel (only in the Jetta for the US at this time). But also note that VWs are heavy cars, we don't skimp on material. One of my jobs was testing spot welding in A-pillars. On a VW (I tested the Eos) there are 6 different layers + metallic foam. The layers are steel alloy, aluminum alloy, some secret alloy, honeycomb composite, some polymer, and another steel alloy. Extremely heavy but extremely strong. The A-pillars in Japanese cars will typically have 3 layers, and American will have 1 or 2 layers. When you buy a VW, you pay for quality and science.

Oh, but don't get a Rabbit, if you can, fork up the extra dough for a GTI, that's a REAL car. You can get the DSG transmission (Doppelkupplungsgetriebe), which I helped design the oil for , which is the fastest and smoothest shifting transmission ever sold commercially, by means of a double-clutch system.

All Rabbits and GTIs are now only made at the Wolfsburg plant, so rest assured that it'll be top quality compared to Golfs sold in the past that for the US were made in the US.

Got into a car accident with my Z last friday, car was totalled, no property damage though and I wasn't injugred... Bad weather and bad tires aren't good =[

So I bought a 2007 2 door ultra grey rabbit with triptronic. 18k for everything with fees and all.


Its a nice car =] Im picking it up today, ill put some pics up of it.

The cheapest GTI the dealership had was around 23k... after taxes and all i would have cost over 25k, a bit out of my price range. This car is going to be my daily driver for a long long time!

Going to be buying another Z later on once I get some extra cash now that I have a reliable Daily driver.

Let me know how you like the Rabbit. It should be a very solid car, but I've never actually been in a Rabbit. I don't like how VW only has the 2.5L V5 in the US for it, I don't like the sound of the engine and it's not even turbocharged. Car & Driver listed the new GTI as one of the top 10 cars of the year, which is surprising since Car & Driver is known for being very biased against VW.

Only in America will you find a 2.5l V5 in a tiny car. I'll stick with my 160HP 2l diesel.

Why the hell do they do that to us, anyway? I'd like a car with a smaller engine. Hell, I've even considered getting a fully electric car, too.

Why not?

The car is very nice, very competitive in its class, and fun as hell to drive =]

The engine will be available in a variety of cars, including at least the Golf/Rabbit and Eos.

VW only makes FWD and AWD cars, we will likely never make a solely RWD car, we haven't since the Beetle.

Most of my work at VW was testing the transmission oil for the Scirocco, but unfortunately I didn't have good enough security clearance, so I never actually got to see the Scirocco, I had the test oil delivered to me... But next year I probably will, we'll be occupied in setting up the Scirocco as a production car, meaning lots of testing for me. The Scirocco will be built in the brand new plant in Portugal that is currently also making the Eos.

The current TSI engine available is a 1.4L I4 gasoline with 200hp and gets 33mpg. Not that spectacular of gas mileage, but this is still in development, and look at the size of the engine versus the power, so the outlook is very promising. If you watched the movie in the link, they talk about how it's not juse the max hp that's important, but that this engine will have nearly max hp throughout the entire rpm range. "Es steht für Fahrspaß."

60mpg, 250hp on a sports car? Thats pretty sweet if you ask me.

We will see though with the new scirocco... If it ends up being a competitive autocross car then I might consider getting one. The old sciroccos are apparently still very competitive also.

Volkswagen GTI named Car of the Year 2007 by Automobile Magazine

Its official, gas mileage sucks on the 2.5 rabbit