1977 Volkswagen Rabbit from North America - Comments

Burned valves

Head gasket

CV joints (several)

Ignition problems.

Fun to drive and convenient features (rear seat popped out in 5 seconds with no tools, making it a mini-minivan), this little car was the biggest piece of junk I've ever owned. Car wouldn't run right long enough to get fuel mileage figures. I've had Corvairs that were more reliable. It quit running on the interstate in the rain one time when my father was driving it and he was hit by an 18-wheeler. He survived, fortunately, but the car was scrap.

My father owned a 78 Rabbit with AC and fuel injection. It had the typical corroded brake lines, and needed a respray and body work by 86.

Like all VW owners with how many people you can fit into your stories, we once took it to the beach with seven people and three dogs (two Chihuahua's), back in the days when you could stuff two kids in the hatch and not have safety Nazi's come after you.

Despite having front wheel drive and fuel injection, it wasn't a good winter car, the shifter was hard to shift into first and reverse, and it ran rough until it warmed up, there wasn't enough ground clearance or weight to get through even the slightest of two lane highway snow drifts. My dad was used to driving a full size rear wheel drive car, and the first winter with the VW he found out you can't just speed up and plow through, because the Rabbit just got high centered and would come to a complete stop like you slammed the brakes on. And those little 13" tires would get frozen under ice if you parked near the curb and left the car over night (we would get a ticket for parking up on the curb or too far out, so we had to use a couple of 2X4's or bricks to drive up on). It would run rough on cold starts, caused by the cold start injector pissing out gas instead of spraying a fine mist. We did a complete tune up thinking that's all it needed to stop running on three cylinders, but the plugs were getting fouled by raw gas.

We never replaced the injector because my dad also had a run in with a 18 wheeler. The truck pulled into the passing lane while my dad was driving in it. He was closer to the front and tried to accelerate out of danger but the Rabbit's 70 horses weren't enough. He was cut off into the center median, the car hooked on the grass and shot back across three lanes on to the far right shoulder and rolled over three or four times. Thankfully he was wearing a seatbelt and the unitbody construction on the two door cars had enough strength in the door posts to keep the roof from crushing in.

I wouldn't recommend buying a Mk1 VW Rabbit for highway use as they are too light and under powered, and other drivers don't show you any respect when you drive a small car. If you have never driven one before and you're thinking of buying one, make sure your test drive includes some highway driving.