By the mid-1970s, Volkswagen was one of the best-selling automotive brands in the United States. While the Passat and the Golf had proven to be extremely successful, Volkswagen of America wanted to experiment with the Golf, to see if they could produce different versions to add to the line-up.
Due to the popularity of pickup trucks in the US, VW America decided to design and manufacture a compact pickup truck based on the Golf. They would do this by merging the front half of a Golf with a 1.83-metre-long bed. This pickup truck would be introduced to the public in 1978 as the Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup.
The Rabbit would be offered with a 1.6-litre diesel or 1.7-litre petrol engine. While the engines were not very powerful, the truck itself was not too heavy, with a curb weight of only around 1000kg. An interesting thing to note is that unlike most Volkswagen models at the time, the diesel Rabbit was offered with a 5-speed gearbox, with the fifth gear being essentially an ‘economy’ mode to save fuel.
The Rabbit was moderately successful in the US. Despite not being designed from the ground up as a pickup truck, it managed to sell in good numbers despite competing with more purpose-built pickup trucks from brands like Dodge, Ford, Subaru, and Toyota.
To increase sales of the Rabbit, Volkswagen decided to expand the vehicle to European markets, where compact pickup trucks were a lot more popular than in the US, due to smaller roads and more expensive fuel prices. The pickup truck would be renamed the Caddy for European markets and Volkswagen also expanded sales to the South African market.
The Rabbit and the Caddy were in production until 1995, when the second-generation Caddy was introduced, and the Rabbit nameplate was discontinued. The Caddy is currently in its fourth generation, with the 4th generation Caddy being one of the first electric vans on the market.
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