1975 Volkswagen Rabbit review from North America

The Zenith 2B carburetor had to be replaced with a Weber after eight years (60K miles). It added three years of life to the car, but if I had started out with a Weber I would have been a lot happier.

Distributor had to be replaced after about 50K miles because of worn bushings. Probably because the engine vibrated too much.

Front seats wore out after about 50K miles. Got better ones out of a newer VW in a junk yard.

Water temperature gauge broke at about 50K miles. Replaced it myself. Not too difficult.

Engine burned oil constantly.

Wheels rusted out and had to be repainted by hand.

This car had beautiful pickup and handling. But the overall quality was poor. The simplicity of the design made it easy to work on the car. Which was a good thing for such an unreliable car. I learned all about how to do routine maintenance on cars, and to fix things that shouldn't have broken to begin with, when I owned this car.

The car survived a collision with a six point buck when it was six months old. I survived the collision, too, and I kept the car 11 years. The body shop repair work and the paint job that went with it started to rust out after about 7 or 8 years. Near the end it was faded and worn out.

I guess I kept the car longer than I should have because of the accident. I was somehow sentimentally attached to the car more than I should have been. I made a deal to buy a new car, but before I could drive the Rabbit to the dealer to trade it in it broke down one last time. I cried. If I hadn't been in that serious accident, hitting that big deer and all, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have cared so much for such a temperamental car.