I was filling out some form the other day, and they asked what my “hometown” was. I had to pause a moment to recall that hometown does not necessarily mean where you were born, but rather where you grew up. In my case, that would probably mean the city where I lived from ages two to eighteen, which was Greensboro, North Carolina, sometimes nicknamed the Gate City for reasons I think I generally found too boring to remember. Anyway, I just found out that back in 1980, Greensboro got a bit of attention because the Greensboro Police Department was using at least one Volkswagen Rabbit.
This would have been a big deal, and while I think I have some vague memories of this from when I was a little kid, that could just be my mind playing tricks on me, as it likes to do, because it thinks that kind of thing is pretty funny. At that time, I think the Greensboro Police Department was fielding mostly Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Caprices, like many police departments across the nation. A little Rabbit was very unusual, unusual enough that Volkswagen thought it’d be a good idea to use the Greensboro Police Rabbit in some advertising.
They made commercials! Like this one:
Now, as tickled as I am to see this commercial, the dusty and atrophied parts of my brain that are associated with feeling some manner of pride or defensiveness on behalf of Greensboro are kicking in. Now, don’t get me wrong: when I was growing up in Greensboro, I usually found it pretty boring, and we called it Greensboring, even. Hell, the Governor’s mansion was hilariously named “Blandwood.”
But Greensboro isn’t really all that boring, and it’s certainly a lot more than what is portrayed in that ad, which is a sort of caricature of the American Southeast, with that jangly music and those verdant, lush trees and probably some kudzu, along with that overdone Southern accent on that cop, an accent that does not even sound like a Greensboro or North Carolina accent at all, and the whole character of that cop seems like a recursively-xeroxed character from The Dukes of Hazard.
They used the car in print advertisements, too, and kept the same “watch your step, son” hokey cop bullshit, though they never specifically said this was from Greensboro. But it was. This crude stereotype was representing a city that was home to the first sit-in of the Civil Rights Movement, the home of the writer O.Henry and newsman Edward R. Murrow, Curly Neal (of the Globetrotters, and who I once saw as a kid at a Winn-Dixie), and also home to a thriving arts scene and a hell of a lot more than that country-fried inanity shown in those ads conveys.
You can get die-cast models of the Greensboro police Rabbit, too, which I was also surprised to discover.
That Rabbit is one of the Westmoreland, Pennsylvania-built Rabbits, which you can tell by its rectangular sealed-beam headlamps and those particular vertical side marker lamps.
View this post on Instagram
This Instagram post from GMP Performance suggests that the Rabbit was modified with a turbocharger, and was a diesel, as they say in their post:
Throwing it back to 1980 when we turbocharged this MK1 Volkswagen Rabbit for the @greensboropolicedepartment!
We took its factory diesel engine to the next level and added GMP Performance springs and sway bars to support the extra power and sharpen its handling. Averaging nearly 40 MPG and plenty of torque, they weren’t stopping until they caught you!
This is all quite cool, though I feel like any excitement I have is a good bit tempered because my family’s relationship with the Greensboro Police Department wasn’t great, mostly because my parents were once wrongfully arrested for attempted murder by them! I had to bail them out! It’s a whole thing, and I wrote it up at the Old Site, or you can read the exciting and lurid legal brief, if you want. It’s pretty racy! And I’m still a little bitter!
But, that said, I’m still excited to see these old Police VW Rabbit ads, and I’m more excited that it hails from my old hometown. I wonder what happened to the old Police Rabbit?
That’s an old-time Georgia accent. The cop sounds just like Jerry Reed, classic country music star and actor best known for playing Burt Reynolds’ partner Snowman in the Smokey and The Bandit movies.
I’m getting really sick of the current ad format, these full page things that randomly reload and push content around as you are trying to read it. Something needs to be done.
Do they still show if you are a paid up member?
yep
I remember cop cars in the ‘80’s being mostly Dodge Diplomats. That’s the headlight cluster you don’t want in your rear view, being a broke teenager in beater ‘64 Dart with a racecar number 64 on the front doors. I did have an actual insurance card though.
“Curly Neal (of the Globetrotters, and who I once saw as a kid at a Winn-Dixie)”
I don’t know which feeling is hitting me harder: being jealous that you share a hometown with a Harlem Globetrotter, or being surprised and happy to be reminded that you are a native southerner who knows what a Winn-Dixie is.
Love this!!!
It combines my lifelong love of motorized vehicles (especially old VW’s), the 21 years of my VW/Porsche/Audi career, and my current occupation in law enforcement. 🙂
Jason, Watauga Dr. here, GPD had 2 VW Rabbits. One silver and one brown. The brown on nailed me on Pisgah Church and Battleground. It took him to Martinsville Rd. before het got me. Of course I was sitting in the bank parking lot (probably wasn’t there when you lived in Gboro!) waiting on him. He got out laughing because I was waiting for him in my 530i.
The place I lived the longest and I think of as my home town has a very well funded police department. I had an uncle that was a cop there for over 40 years. While their standard was typically a Ford crown Vic then Taurus then explorer and motor cycle cops on the police ultra glides they would dabble in other things. They had marked trucks forever in one of the smaller towns they had Volvos. They had a fleet of mustangs a feel of Cameros. At one point they had a small fleet of Passats. They weren’t allowed to have chargers because they said they looked to aggressive but they got their hands ram trucks. They also somehow got a fleet of klr650s. They also had the normal confiscated one offs like Corvettes and McLarens and Mercedes. At one point my uncle had a take home first gen ram 1500. I remember him being mad at the Taurus and wanted the caprice when they tested them but the fleet guys all wanted the Ford.
Very first article I ever read of Jason’s was the one about his parents being arrested and him driving around to withdraw avail money from ATMs
It is one of the funniest things I’ve read, and I’ve been a huge fan ever since.
Thank you, Jason. Keep up the good work.
To be clear, the story was tragic, but the way Jason told the story was very funny
I just read the Jalopnik article about you bailing out your parents and I think it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read!!! I really was laughing out loud!