Weekly News Roundup
Automotive news for the week of April 17, 2006: Return of the Rabbit; Sedona and Impreza crash the best  by Christian Wardlaw
Rabbit Returns
 

Just in time for Easter celebrations, Volkswagen announced last week that it is reviving the Rabbit nameplate in North America when the redesigned Golf goes on sale this summer. Kerri Martin, Volkswagen’s director of brand innovation, said about the name change: “Volkswagen customers want a relationship with their cars. Names like The Thing, Beetle, Fox, and Rabbit support this.” She also called the last minute name change “a nod to the passionate North American enthusiasts who have an emotional connection with the Rabbit name.” Right. The Rabbit was last sold in 1984, so that means that VW has pegged people in their mid-40s and older as the prime demographic for this new $15,000 hatchback. People who apparently have difficulty letting go of the past.

Well, one thing’s for sure: Volkswagen has a better shot at capturing Christian consumers than Ford does at this point. Millions of Americans celebrated the rise of Jesus Christ from the dead on Sunday, but supporters of the American Family Association definitely were not laying plans to buy a Ford product due to the automaker’s continued “commitment to (a) homosexual agenda,” according to the AFA’s “Boycott Ford” website. But this issue extends beyond Ford’s advertising in gay-themed publications, which was the original source of the AFA’s ire. Now, the Christian fundamentalist group is citing Ford’s support of “diversity,” which it claims is a code word for “homosexuality,” as another of many reasons for the boycott, which is supported by 18 other so-called pro-family groups.

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Click to enlarge. 2007 Volkswagen Rabbit badge


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