05.25.07

Down The Rabbit Hole

Posted in Rants at 1:09 pm

Whilst taking care of the other myriad things that accompany a car accident, I had occasion this morning to actually take a VW Rabbit for a test spin (primarily because the dealership was literally hundreds of yards away from where I had to turn in my plates). I spent just about ten minutes behind the wheel; what follows are more or less my unvarnished thoughts.

I want.

All right, now for the detailed (and serious) report. Bear in mind I’m not much of a car person; I only picked up Car and Driver for the first time on Wednesday and only because there was an article on the new Shelby GT500 on the cover, so if this doesn’t get technical enough, please forgive me.

The first thing I noted about the Rabbit was that it was slightly lower to the ground than the majority of the vehicles I’ve driven (the Neon (aka Blacklight) being one of the sole exceptions, with the Metro (aka Gustaff) being just barely even in estimation but a little higher). The cockpit is sleek and well-laid-out; at first it can be a little odd noting that the transmission/shifter readout is on the dash, but I quickly got used to it (more on that in a few moments). The bunny has cruise standard, but I don’t think I’ll be much using it.

The ride is very smooth and comfortable, partly because of the low height but also because of the suspension. There’s more of a feel of a connection to the road in the bunny than in the Aveo, which is something I like quite a bit. I ran it through its paces with the salesman, and every inch of the way I felt like I had a lot more control. One of the key elements that really struck me about it was that while the car is slightly bigger than the Metro was, there’s just as much room inside it. The Aveo feels a little big and overly-spacious to me; it feels like the car is about two sizes bigger than it needs to be.

While the small size of the Rabbit’s interior might give you the impression that it’s underpowered, that’s far from the case. Like the Gustaff, this is one car that can’t be judged by its mark alone. The bunny has a 5-cylinder 2.5 liter engine inside, which boils down to the one thing I really took away from it– it goes. It goes fast and it doesn’t take forever to get to fast. This is one quick lapin. I’m used to having an engine that’s got some kick to it and the Rabbit doesn’t disappoint. According to the salesman, the engine has been in the Jetta since ‘05, so there’s a bit of a track record for it.

That brings me to what I thought was the real clincher of the deal, the transmission. I had previously been thinking about attempting to learn how to use a manual transmission, mostly to save the extra grand or so on the base price of the vehicle. Fortunately for my extended-outlook repair bills, the odds of finding a manual-transmission Rabbit are “whatever comes right before zero”. Most bunnies off the factory line are automatics with what VW calls the “Tiptronic” system. What this means is that the Rabbit has more or less a ‘hybrid’ transmission. By default the system can run in the standard, 6-speed automatic mode. However, with a flip of the lever, the bunny can run in a sort of ‘assisted’ manual mode. You lose the sixth gear but you gain the control to be able to override the shifter– within reason. See, if the computer thinks you’re going to make a shift that is really, really stupid (aka most of what I would be doing) it will deny the shift. Likewise, if you drop velocity or accelerate too fast, it will automatically downshift or upshift you to the appropriate gear. The salesman had me gun it in first, and I felt the car redline and jump to second. I was really impressed with this, even if (like the cruise) I won’t use it too much. It’s basically “easy-mode manual”.

Now, of course, the downside. I made it abundantly clear that the purchase, if there was one, was going to be in the future (and not exactly the “foreseeable” future). He advised me that by the time I was ready to buy, the ‘08 line would be out. This meant the price would probably go up (not sure if I believe this) but also that maybe there might be a couple of other features added to the line. (Oh, incidentally, ‘07 is the last model year for the basic New Beetles; according to the salesman, only the convertible Beetles will be returning for ‘08.) Also of interest is the gas mileage; at a 22/30/26 city/highway/combined miles per gallon, it’s not spectacular by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at (the tank size is decent enough for my purposes). The standard warranty is 4 years/50K; given my driving habits that will likely clock out in under two years.

I’ll probably be giving the Rabbit another run closer to go time, and I’m also going to be taking good hard looks at other ‘compact’ cars. But as of right now, the container that’s holding my savings records for the car is called “The Bunny Bin” for a reason.

Permalink