The year was 1975, and Jungle Boogie was on the charts. Atari’s Gran Trak 10, a racing video, was all the rage among “gamers,” and VW, maker of the lovable Bug, debuted the Volkswagen Rabbit to America, known as the Golf everywhere else in the world.
We’re not sure why VW thought that “Rabbit” was a better name than “Golf” for a car that really didn’t go fast. But it didn’t seem to matter. Over the years, Americans and Europeans made the Golf the second best-selling car in the world, driving off with more than 24 million copies. Either you owned one or knew someone who did. And they probably had an eight-track tape of the Rolling Stones.
Thirty-plus years later, things haven’t really changed so much. True, music delivery is vastly different, but the tunes are the same (see: Rolling Stones), and a good car is still a good car. However, after using the Golf name in America for twenty years, VW has reverted back to Rabbit. Whether this will make the 2007 Volkswagen Rabbit a big seller when it finally comes to the U.S. this June is anyone's guess.
