1984 Volkswagen Rabbit Convertible from North America - Comments

13th Feb 2004, 07:15

"Built for Ontario winters!"

What things have gone wrong with the car?

Exhaust system 249,600.

Oil pump, pan, and gasket 249,500.

Ignition coil 249,000.

Cap, wires, and rotor 241,000.

Parking brake cable 235,000.

Front wheel bearings 231,000.

Front strut cartridges 230, 000.

Front rotors and ball joints 218,000.

Heater core 210,000.

Back-up switch 205,000.

Fuel filter has been replaced 4 times due to rust in gas tank from rusted out gas tank fill pipe. Pipe was replaced at 218,000.

Clutch cable has been replaced 3 times due to broken bracket on engine firewall.

General comments?

This car, from Vancouver, BC, drives very well in all seasons. A joy to drive in the summer.

Starts right up at -29C! Excellent handling in 20 cm of snow when equipped with 4 snow tires.

Repair this car yourself if you can. It's a relatively cheap car to operate this way. My cost has been about .08 per km (excluding gas and insurance)

Not a safe car, but better than most soft tops.

My wife is learning to drive so we will have to sell this car on account of the manual transmission and manual steering. It will be hard to let it go.


5th Mar 2004, 13:15

Hey Steven, how much do you want for the Rabbit?

I'm in Toronto...

Vote:

12th Apr 2004, 18:50

The car's in Kingston. Decided to hold on to it for at least the summer.

Mileage is now 256,000 km. Recently replaced the water pump and one fuel injector.

Does anyone know where to find front fenders?

Vote:

12th Aug 2004, 10:06

I live in Belleville and am looking for a car like yours for September.

You can email me at familyfamilyfamily@mac.com.

Vote:

15th Sep 2004, 19:11

The car was sold to a neighbor in July 2004. Final mileage was 261,000 km. I suspect that it will run for another 40K before needing a complete engine rebuild, which is not bad for a 20 year-old compact car. We're now driving a 1996 Subaru Legacy wagon (AWD).

Vote:

5th May 2005, 03:16

I live in Switzerland and we purchased a rabbit convertible, black, in year 1985. We still hold the car (of course is a second car now) but I want only to confirm that it is very reliable and good car. It' s a joy to drive it in summer time in the mountains. The only prob, I think, are the brakes. In Switzerland disk brakes et the time were an options that I didn't buy, was very expensive, so my has drum brake on the back and two small disks in the front. It's a reliable car, but has to be driven with great care, it does not stop so fast as you can mind. Ciao from Lugano, Switzerland.

Vote:

8th Mar 2006, 07:49

I am the original author of this review. We recently sold our 1996 Subaru Legacy and purchased a 2000 Honda Accord. Dearly miss the Rabbit. Nothing I drive now handles as good as that car did.

Vote:

Add another comment

Note: A Comments RSS Feed RSS Feed is available. New comments appear in the Members Area before the main site

All Volkswagen Rabbit reviews