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Er…..What's up, Doc? Vee-dub’s American unit is renaming its European branded Golf - the Rabbit, the name under which VW initially baptised the little hatchback under the watchful eyes of the United States way back in the 1970s.
Kerri Martin is VW's Brand Innovation Director, and is therefore pretty well-placed to offer her take on proceedings. She thinks names such as Beetle, Fox, Rabbit, and most bizarrely – the Thing – help the customer identify more with their vehicle, to bond with it as such. "Volkswagen customers want a relationship with their cars," she said. Quite how this manifests itself she didn’t attempt to elaborate on.
It was the decade from 1974 through to 1984 that the ever-popular hatchback we on this side of the Atlantic know and love as the Golf, made its debutant automotive impact in both the United States and Canada . Then, in ’84 due to the phenomenal European successes, decided to re-christen it the Golf for the North American market; in the one move consigning the rabbit moniker to motoring history. Or at least what loyal, repeat customers feared.
Alas, as time went by the American buyers weren’t forthcoming, saying that they never felt a kinship to the new name in the same way their European counterparts did, where it went on to become a best-seller year in, year out, and through a series of make-overs. On the other hand, the new generation Beetle, which incidentally wasn’t the hit in Europe that Vee-Dub thought, and hoped, it would be – went down a storm stateside.
American auto industry insiders suggest make and model names are embraced a lot more in the US, and cited the low cuddle-factor of the name Golf may be partly to blame, compared to the word rabbit, which conjures up a whole different mental imagery to prospective buyers. Whether or not you agree with this lesson in theory, it may go some way to explaining paltry sales of the Golf over there, where VW only managed to shift 15,690 last year, down some 36% from 2004.
Volkswagen dealers stubbornly refuse the marketing men’s position, and to accept it could be down to the name, and suggest trouble was brewing a couple of years before that, as, although the latest Golf incarnation was readily available throughout mainland Europe, its wasn’t made available to US purchasers until 2 years after its original European launch.
Kerri Martin is adamant though, that by playing the nostalgia card, sales will pick up saying; “While the rest of the world had the Golf, we had the iconic Rabbit."
The Rabbit goes on sale this summer in America , starting at $14,990. The high-performance GTi version of the Golf will be simply known as a VW GTi.
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