[HN Gopher] A short history of the VW Mark 1 Rabbit/Golf (2021)
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A short history of the VW Mark 1 Rabbit/Golf (2021)
Author : doener
Score : 46 points
Date : 2023-03-18 15:39 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (haynes.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (haynes.com)
| dieselgate wrote:
| I have a MK4 and it's great but still no circular headlights like
| the originals
| jameshart wrote:
| Tech Connections has, as so often the case, a great video about
| why old car headlights were the shapes they were - and why in
| later models they often changed:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=c2J91UG6Fn8
| Brystephor wrote:
| MK4 R owner checking in.
|
| Circular headlights are the best looking ones imo. Same for the
| mk2s.
| doubled112 wrote:
| I agree. I really liked the bug eyed Imprezas too, although I
| think they were short lived.
| [deleted]
| samayylmao wrote:
| My neighbor happens to have the rabbit convertible from the first
| production year (1980).
|
| it only has something like 30,000 miles on it and is still all
| original on both the Interior and exterior.
|
| So cool to see as a GTI owner.
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| I bought an early 80s one as a winter beater in the 1990s. The
| reliability wasn't great. You could fix quite a bit on that car
| with just a 10mm Allen wrench, which was just as well because you
| often had to. Only car I've ever had where once you turned the
| windshield wipers on, it was 50/50 that you could turn them off
| again (water leakage at the bottom left windshield corner dripped
| water directly onto the fuse box, which contained, among other
| things, the interval wiper module). I always carried a can of
| WD40 for its original purpose (look it up) to be sure to get the
| car started on damp days. The worn gearshift linkage had to be
| adjusted just so to be sure to be able to get into reverse and
| 5th. It drove great though, much peppier than a 70hp engine had
| any right to be. And my sisters had a first-gen GTI for a while
| and that thing was hot. Even the turbodiesel version was fun,
| sort of like the bottom half of the RPM range of the GTI. Lots of
| grunt, but halfway around the tach it was over.
|
| A later version of the Golf had its ECU mounted in... the rain
| gutter! What a logical place for that. Cars have come a long,
| long way since those days. Certainly my mom's somewhat recent
| Jetta seems as reliable as other modern cars.
| dsfyu404ed wrote:
| > Cars have come a long, long way since those days.
|
| Even in "those days" that kind of stuff you're describing is
| well below par.
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| No kidding. I used to drive Toyota Tercels of the same
| vintage. Like a lot of Japanese cars then (and even now) they
| were totally reliable except for one detail. Only car I've
| ever had to change the igniter (the electronic part of the
| ignition system) by the roadside! I had a spare along, just
| in case, and needed it.
|
| Even so, modern cars are really a different show. Current one
| is 11 years old, driven in a road salt environment, and has
| 207,000km on it and basically drives almost like new and has
| no noticeable rust. And has never even had the spark plugs
| out or the valves touched.
| ilamont wrote:
| Growing up, the next door neighbor had a diesel Rabbit, which was
| great on mileage but it wouldn't work on really cold days.
|
| U.S. manufacturers attempted to copy the success of the Rabbit
| with several models of hatchbacks. My father had a ~1981 Plymouth
| Horizon (aka Dodge Omni) which apparently was based on Chrysler
| engineers purchasing 100 Rabbits to reverse-engineer the concept
| in the mid 1970s. Because Chrysler at the time had no capacity to
| manufacture 4 cylinder engines, they purchased them from VW, a
| fact which my father liked to mention (American cars had a bad
| reputation for quality and gas efficiency around this time).
|
| Regarding the hatchback concept, my mother owned a car called the
| AMC Pacer which predated the Rabbit but the model seemed to have
| petered out by the mid 1970s. She also owned a Dodge Colt
| hatchback, an even smaller car than the Rabbit which was
| manufactured under contract by Mitsubishi.
| https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/classic-cars/a38884277/197...
| golemiprague wrote:
| [dead]
| curiousObject wrote:
| Informative article. But how the heck do they manage to publish
| all this without even clearly stating when this important vehicle
| was first launched into the world?
|
| I think it was probably 1974. The article never says that
| omgwtfbyobbq wrote:
| I think it's implied because mk1 golf is the rabbit in the US,
| but they could have made it clearer.
|
| >The Rabbit stayed on the US market from 1974 to 1983, when it
| was finally replaced by the MK2 Golf
| sokoloff wrote:
| Model year 1984 was still the A1 Rabbit in the US. MY1985 was
| the A2 Golf.
|
| Source: my second car was a model year 1984 Rabbit GTI.
| omgwtfbyobbq wrote:
| Yeah. It looks like they mixed up production from the mk1
| wiki article with model year sales.
| HankB99 wrote:
| That sounds about right. We bought a '75 which was the first
| year they came into the US. It was a fun and versatile car. We
| drove it until it was literally falling apart. The portions of
| the floor pan where the front suspension wishbones (under the
| driver's and passenger's feet) had rusted away. I tied the two
| sides together to keep it on the road a little longer but it
| suffered from _excessive_ toe in on acceleration. ;)
|
| IIRC it was about $2700 US for a four door mid level trim. No
| power windows. No A/C. No power steering or brakes. None needed
| in a car that light.
|
| And decent fuel mileage at a time when US cars all suffered
| from horrendous fuel mileage due to pollution controls. I had
| the feeling at the time that the big three US manufacturers
| were punishing us for demanding cleaner cars and VW came along
| to show us how it was done. And that was before they adopted
| fuel injection.
| pixxel wrote:
| Back in the day engines were simpler and accessible; Haynes
| manuals were fantastic! Are they still popular today?
| rconti wrote:
| For VWs and BMWs, at least, the (Robert) Bentley manuals are
| considered a lot better.
| sammalloy wrote:
| > Haynes manuals were fantastic! Are they still popular today?
|
| Yes, they are still popular in the hobbyist community for many
| cars made before a certain date. The manuals are highly
| accessible in the US because the public library system
| generally hosts the digital copies, so if you have a library
| card in most states, you can access the manuals online. Help
| support your public library!
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| Nowadays you can get the same factory service manual that your
| dealership/repair shop uses--it's all just a bunch of digital
| PDFs. In my experience factory service manuals, at least for GM
| cars, are orders of magnitude better than a Haynes manual.
| doubled112 wrote:
| It has always been my understanding that a Haynes manual is a
| third party disassembling the car to show you how to
| disassemble the car.
|
| It makes sense that the people who built the car would have
| more details.
|
| With that said, as somebody who occasionally does some work
| on his own cars, I've found them very useful for every car
| I've ever owned.
| dsfyu404ed wrote:
| The paper 3rd party manuals went down the shitter over the
| course of the 00s but realistically for any model that new or
| newer you can use Youtube for the procedures and the manual
| (haynes or otherwise) as a desk reference for torque specs and
| whatnot.
| windthrown wrote:
| I'm not sure about today's 2023 models but I keep a Haynes
| Manual in my 2011 Mazda and it is very useful.
| jeffreygoesto wrote:
| Do they still end in "Reassembly is the reverse procedure
| thereof."?
| jmclnx wrote:
| Someone I knew has a Rabbit Diesel. That was at the time diesel
| fuel was cheaper than Gas, plus he lived in a Cold Region of the
| US. He went every were with it, even a few cross country (US)
| trips. IIRC it lasted far longer then the Gas Fueled Autos of the
| period.
| lhoff wrote:
| My dad had a mk2 diesel. He used less than 5l/100km and drove
| for 200000 km until he sold it with 350000km. As far as i
| remember he never had a serious issue. It wasn't a comfortable
| ride but very reliable.
| BrentOzar wrote:
| Mom had one while I was growing up, and even then, I was
| horrified at the noise, vibration, and harshness compared to
| the gas equivalent model. The Rabbit Diesel is very loud, and
| in an unpleasant, clattering way.
|
| It's amazing how far diesels have come. I have a Range Rover
| diesel, and even most car fans don't realize it's a diesel
| until I mention it.
| dieselgate wrote:
| Yeah certainly agree with you as well in regards to the
| advances in tech. I get really excited seeing (hearing) new
| BMW (and other) diesels just because they're so rare, wasn't
| aware Range Rover used any diesels! Some of the big changes
| it seems happened relatively recently in the 80/90s when
| turbos and direct injection became common place?
| giobox wrote:
| There was a window in late 90s/early 2000s in Europe where
| certain countries company car tax rules made it often more
| economical to run the diesel model of a lot of German cars
| and as a result Diesel sales took off for a while. This is
| why you saw the innovations like Common Rail Injection etc
| and large increases in refinement that became prevalent in
| a lot of diesel cars of this era. There was so much
| improvements in diesel tech in this decade because of this.
| There are some legendary diesel engines like BMWs 3.0
| straight six M57 etc from this time - the great low down
| torque made this one of the best engines in BMW's range,
| period.
|
| With the more recent European emission rules, and the
| massive "dieselgate" scandal of course, there is simply far
| less appetite for further diesel innovation nowadays and in
| the future. Pump availability at the gas station of Diesel
| itself is also now pretty poor in North America vs Europe
| too. VW/Audi also had a great reputation for refined Common
| Rail diesel engines in this period as well, ironic given
| dieselgate.
|
| The common rail stuff got so refined Audi even offered
| convertible A4s with diesel for the first time, diesel
| cabrios were largely unthinkable before due to lack of
| engine refinement. Generally these engines were still
| noticeably diesel sounding at cold idle, but once up to
| temp after 5 minutes it got a lot harder to tell unless in
| the cabin looking at the low rev limit on the dials.
| cjrp wrote:
| Is that what gives diesels their trademark rattley sound,
| the injectors?
| Lio wrote:
| I have a modern Golf diesel (2014) and love it[1]. I think
| they pipe artificial or modified engine noise into the car
| when you give it the beans.
|
| Sounds awesome ...as long as you don't open the windows. If I
| do it still sounds OK but you can tell it's a diesel.
|
| I've had it from new and it's still so good on fuel I guess
| I'll keep it till it dies. My record is 82mpg (UK gallons) on
| a motorway run. Nothing's ever gone wrong on it and it's
| cheap to service. It has all the features I need like
| Adaptive Cruise.
|
| Not sure I'd replace it with an ID or whatever the new VW
| replacement is but there's something just right about the
| Golf design.
|
| 1. Luckily it's from just after the Diesel Gate affair.
| moremetadata wrote:
| [dead]
| switch007 wrote:
| > 82mpg (UK gallons)
|
| Damn impressive!
|
| That's 3.44 L/100 km for any confused Europeans :D
| Lio wrote:
| Thanks. Something I've noticed is that cars much improve
| after about 30,000 miles (48280km). I guess things like
| the cylinders get lapped by the pistons.
|
| I want to own a more environmentally friendly car. Right
| now I think I'm best served by keeping my existing Golf
| for as long as possible and just trying to keep the
| mileage down (I live in the country not a town/city).
| lostlogin wrote:
| I thought the dieselgate models were up to 2015?
|
| https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15339250/everything-
| you-n...
|
| While the behaviour was terrible, my understanding is that
| the vehicles were better to drive during that era.
|
| A well maintained diesel gets absolutely massive miles over
| its life, and it sounds like you're on that path.
|
| > My record is 82mph (UK gallons)
|
| Do you mean 'miles per gallon'? Either way, it's
| impressive.
| Lio wrote:
| > _I thought the dieselgate models were up to 2015?_
|
| Not sure when effected sales ended but I know my car
| didn't require a software upgrade as it was the next
| generation engine.
|
| > _Do you mean 'miles per gallon'? Either way, it's
| impressive._
|
| Nice! Yes I did, now fixed thanks. Yep I was pleased with
| that. I did have to follow a lorry for about 100 miles to
| get that figure but I wasn't in a hurry. Going a bit
| steadier and slower makes so much difference.
|
| My normal MPG in summer would be around 65MPGish.
|
| (UK gallons are bigger than US gallons so it's not quite
| as impressive as you might think. I must switch over to
| metric for everything.)
| broken8ball wrote:
| I own a US Jetta 2011 TDI post-fix. I believe in the
| United States that ALL 2.0L Common Rail VW diesels sold
| in the US were affected[0] and (depending on owner's
| discretion) either fixed at VWs expense, or bought-back
| and resold after the fix was applied. There are likely no
| pre-fix VW CR TDIs driving the roads in the United States
| today. The extended warranty was enough to incentivize
| even the most sovereign of citizens to take their vehicle
| in. Then in 2015 they stopped selling them altogether in
| the US. Jealous of the Euros...
|
| Mine gets about 42 US MPG if I keep a light foot, which
| can be hard given how fun it is to drive. Usually works
| out to around 450mi a tank give or take (14 US Gallons)
| depending on how I feel on fill-up day about fiddling my
| thumbs to wait for the foam in the tank to go down to top
| it up to get it to "all the way filled." I love it to
| death and will drive it until the DPF gets clogged, then
| delete and keep driving. Just bought a MK4 Jetta TDI as a
| beater to see if I can drive it to the moon once or
| twice. :) Cheers!
|
| [0]:https://www.epa.gov/vw/learn-about-volkswagen-
| violations
| jws wrote:
| I drove a Rabbit Diesel back in the early '80s. It was not a
| luxury driving experience, but 48MPG highway! I didn't have
| much money and squeezing in a 700 mile round trip would let me
| visit my girlfriend over a weekend. Lots of miles in that car
| (mostly in the dark hours of the night, middle of nowhere, with
| Tangerine Dream blasting).
|
| I doubt it would come close to passing modern safety standards,
| and I guess we saw how likely it would be for VW to make it
| clean enough for modern emissions... but it was an economical
| car to buy and operate. Here we are 40 engineering years later
| and _all_ of the "New Small Cars With the Best Gas Mileage for
| 2022" have worse highway mileage than that 1980 Rabbit.
| mgraupner wrote:
| I drive the current BMW 3 series with a 150 PS Diesel engine
| and in summer I manage to get between 47 and 51 mpg at about
| 130 km/h (about 80 mph) on the highway. And I'm not even
| trying too hard to save gas. VWs current Diesel engines have
| the same mileage.
| sbaiddn wrote:
| But you have 40+ engineering improvement on his VW. And the
| last 40 years have been revolutionary for engine
| performance.
|
| In the end cars got heavier and their cross sections
| bigger. Killed all the would be fuel improvements
| sbaiddn wrote:
| "The simple two box, hatchback body style, combined with front
| wheel drive, and a transverse mounted water cooled four cylinder
| would be copied by every other car maker all over the world."
|
| ... the FIAT 127, released three years earlier, would like to
| have a word about who copied who.
|
| It was:
|
| - Transverse mounted FF
|
| - hatchback
|
| - water cooled four cylinder
|
| - released in 1971
|
| - license built by: SEAT Yugo Polski VAZ
| fredoralive wrote:
| I could say that the Austin Maxi did those in 1969, although
| for some reason no one wanted to build it under licence. But
| the Autobianchi Primula also had hatchback variants and was
| before that, and unlike the Maxi had the gearbox in a sensible
| place.
|
| Everyone ultimately nicks the bits that work for everyone else
| of course. I guess the Golf gets a bit more focus because of
| the names longevity (and that the Mk I Golf was executed
| excellently), and perhaps because the article is US focussed so
| misses some of the cars being mostly sold in Europe only.
| jrgaston wrote:
| I owned one, a great car. Spacious and great visibility. Classic
| clean Ital design. Had Bosch fuel injection so it met air
| pollution rules and ran beautifully.
| Synaesthesia wrote:
| When this car launched in the 1970s all the global car
| manufacturers took note. It was by far the best car of its class.
| marban wrote:
| Grandpa had a white maxed-out GTI that he bought from his high-
| salary Fortran/early Fintech job. Great ride to pick up the
| ladies, too. Different times, same values.
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