Decoding VW name game

Let's get VW nomenclature straightened out.

In the beginning, back in the mid-1970s, Volkswagen effectively created the modern front-wheel-drive compact car family.

The sedan was called Jetta and the hatchback was called Golf – everywhere except in North America, where the hatchback was called the Rabbit.

Although the Golf was a massive worldwide success, there were some quality issues on the early Rabbits, which were built in Westmoreland, Pa.

So when the second-generation cars came out a few years later, North America decided to sweep those problems under the rug by joining the Rest of World in using the Golf and Jetta nameplates.

These remained through the third and fourth generations.

In 2007, the fifth generation of this family debuted. Some high-priced and therefore must-be-listened-to ad agency came up with the lame-brained idea of renaming the hatchback the Rabbit.

I mean, Lady Leadfoot and our 24-year-old daughter pretty much define the upper and lower ends of the target demographic for the fifth-generation cars. Both of them think Rabbit is a stupid name.

So do I. But there it is.

Also last year, VW Canada decided to import a Canada-exclusive pair of cars, essentially the fourth-generation Golf and Jetta, and call them City Golf and City Jetta.

So now we have the Rabbit (fifth-generation hatchback, which is the Golf everywhere else in the world,), Jetta (fifth-generation sedan, and you don't want to know what VW calls it everywhere else), City Golf (fourth-generation hatchback) and City Jetta (fourth-generation sedan).

Got that?

–Jim Kenzie

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