VW Golf: Renamed and Released
TTAC’s MontanaVista sent us the heads-up: Volkswagen has released pricing and official information for its new Golf. The commentator whose name reminds me of the station wagons of my youth alerted us that VeeDub’s U.S. website has finally been updated, and the death of the Rabbit nomenclature is now officially official. Not that anyone will notice save marketing mavens, who may also wonder if the combination of “Germany’s most loved hatchback” and “It’s what the people want” is a tag-line too far—given that U.S. buyers are notoriously hatchback aversive. The rest of us will delight in the build and price widget. My ideal all-new (to us anyway) GTI includes a $2795 Autobahn seating package (goodness gracious me!), an $1100 DSG gearbox (holy frijoles!), and $224 worth of mats (OCD takes it toll). That’s $28,358. Which is a lot of money for Rabbit.
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"If I was in charge of VW I’d fire every one of those marketing clowns who thought calling it a Rabbit was a good idea." XD One of the strong factors in my choice to drive a 2007 Rabbit was the name. Yes, the name Rabbit.. with those cute little rabbit symbols. I mean Rabbit-ish creatures are cute, right? Like Tewi or Reisen or ... Anyway, should be a nice GOLF huh? (:
What is the point in pulling your company right out of the market? I suppose the Polo is due in 2011, so there will be an entry-level option that hopefully isn't held together by glue. These entry-level cars need to start being made to represent the product line, and therefore not cheaply made. Perhaps, oh I dunno, built to take a loss...scary idea. But, I'm sure someone will buy a CC(no idea why), and VW will recoup.
Pulling out the market? They pulled out of the entry level market in the USA when they released the Mk5 (Rabbit). In Canada they kept the Mk4 as their entry level vehicle; according to the dealers it was very successful at bringing in new owners.
I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that all the "Build Your Belchfire 3000" widgets on manufacturer Web sites are kinda stupid, because you really can't get a car configured the way you want it, rather than the configuration some production planning genius thinks will contain enough good options to compel you to pay for the ones you don't want.