You know what America couldn’t get enough of in the late 1970s? Switzerland! Man, we had Swissmania! Perforated cheeses, chocolate shaped like a big extruded series of triangles, watches and wooden ornate avian-themed clocks and clandestine bank accounts and chalets and all that swisshit. We were all Swiss-miscreants! Remember that? No? Because it wasn’t so much a thing? Is that why? Speak up, I can’t hear you over all this internet.
Okay, maybe Swiss-themed pop culture wasn’t a huge thing in the late ’70s, but that didn’t stop Volkswagen from making a Swiss-themed series of ads for the American market in 1979. Maybe “series” is a little generous, because it just seems to be one print ad and one television commercial.
Here’s the print ad:
…and here’s the television spot, which adds in the extra element of a really big dog:
I’ll admit, I’m always a little disappointed when I see a St.Bernard without one of those collars with the little barrel full of booze.
The basic story checks out here: the Volkswagen Rabbit (well, it would have been called the Golf there in Europe, more on that in a moment) was indeed the best-selling car in Switzerland in 1978, and actually was the best seller since 1975, the first full year of Golf sales, displacing the Opel Kadett.
So that part all checks out, if we accept that the Rabbit is just a re-named Golf, which it mostly is, but not exactly. Which is where this ad starts getting a little weird.
You see, the Rabbit shown in that ad there is not what would have been sold in Switzerland, which, again, would have been a Golf, and is in fact a Westmoreland, Pennsylvania-built Rabbit, which is already a little odd, but it gets even weirder.
So, for reference, these are what Westmoreland-built Rabbits looked like in 1979:
That front end, with the rectangular headlights and the large 5 mph self-restoring, energy-absorbing bumpers and those funny little vertical side marker lamps, were unique to Westmoreland-built Rabbits that were sold in North America. These never went to Europe. This is what European Golfs of this era looked like:
There are a few obvious differences, of course: the round headlights are the most obvious one, but there’s also the lack of side marker lamps and the smaller (and, let’s be honest, less capable), Euro-spec bumpers that US enthusiasts seem to love. Oh, and the Euro Golf didn’t have the chrome hubcaps of the US-spec ones, and, I’m told, they had some better interior materials.
But here’s the really weird part: look at the car VW used for these Swiss-themed ads again:
See what’s going on there? It seems to be a Westmoreland-built Rabbit, but for some reason has Euro-spec smaller bumpers? As far as I’ve ever been aware, this particular configuration was never offered for sale, anywhere, in any market. I think the only one might have been made for these ads?
But now I have to ask why. I suppose I understand why they used a US-spec Rabbit as a stand-in for the real Swiss Golf for these ads, because VW would have wanted the car to match what they were selling in the US. But if that’s the case, why change the bumpers to the Euro-spec style?
It makes no sense; VW would have had to deliberately swapped those bumpers out, which would have taken at least some time and resources, so why would they have chosen to do that? What did they stand to gain here? Did they want to make it look sorta European, but still recognizable as the same car that would be in US showrooms?
I’m really baffled. This just doesn’t actually make any sense. I’m open to theories!
Photo: VW
It’s a little out of the target year range but my parents got no fewer than three fondue sets as wedding gifts in 1972…
Another point is that by 1979-80 the style of Euro bumper here was obsolete in Europe, the latest models had entirely plastic-covered ones that look like early Mk2 ones.
Someone was Euro-spec modding their VW waaayyyy before it was cool!
I think it was more of a sloppy Frankensteining of the two models that was “good enough for Swiss government work.”
Another fun fact, the US didn’t need the sidemarkers — if anything, that was almost always more common in Europe. It’s that the US DOT requires an amber reflector that’s visible from the sides (normally mounted at — or near — the corner). Most modern cars do this with a single assembly that wraps around the corner to solve two goals with one piece.
Once you know this, you’ll start noticing how awkwardly some amber side reflectors are placed on US cars, especially the ones that exist elsewhere in the world. All kinds of weird afterthoughts.
Meanwhile, we can’t even agree on amber blinkers and the use of sidemarkers, both of which are objectively superior to all other blinkers. And you can GTFO with these mirror-mounted sidemarkers, all they do is add cost and don’t even do a great job.
Perforated cheeses, chocolate shaped like a big extruded series of triangles, watches and wooden ornate avian-themed clocks and clandestine bank accounts and chalets and all that swisshit
Did you forget odd-tasting cough drops?
Here, let me dig out my alphorn and remind you…
Imported the US one, but the bumpers got damaged in transport?
Yes, it’d be a shame if anything happened to those beautiful, elegant DOT bumpers… 😉
Closing argument from the print ad:
“The Swiss are – well – frugal. And so when they see a car that’s built like a vault, climbs like a goat, is far ahead of its time and still sells for a reasonable price, the Swiss do what sensible people everywhere do. They buy them in droves”
This likely was true at the time foe the VW Golf.
Which makes me wonder what car sold in Switzerland today would best fit that description?
So I asked Copilot Chat…
survey says…
Top 5 candidates:
1. Dacia Spring Electric
2. Renault Zoe
3. Fiat 500e
4. Hyundai i10 or i20
5. Toyota Aygo X
Sadly VW doesn’t even make the top 5
I imagine the photos were taken in Switzerland themselves, probably with the prototype Rabbits hand-built in Wolfsburg. The prototypes were probably built without bumpers, and then whatever was lying around (i.e. a production European bumper) was bolted on for the ad shoot.
I suspect VW was less intentional about this than we’d expect, and some intern was actually told to drive the car from Wolfsburg to the Auto Train and then from Zurich on to the shoot location.
Are we being served reheated breakfast hash here? I’m all for Jason getting whatever respite he requires, we need a fully restored Torch. Sure seems familiar, and I’ve been expecting Citroen content to be taking over.
Careful, these are the sort of things that can lead you down a Rabbit hole.
I’ll see myself out.
Yeah, you’d better hop to it
Can we talk about the tiny front plate?
I miss handsome, practical little cars like this which come in a variety of colors.
I don’t have the answers to the questions, but I did hear that the Swiss version of the Golf had to be Neutral to start it.
Had to be the aesthetics. That pic is very bumper-forward, and the U.S.-spec bumper is ugly as sin.
And just for some Jason-level lighting analysis, note that the blinkers are well inboard on the U.S. version but flush with the end caps on the Euro version. I wonder if there was some regulatory reason, because otherwise why bother to design the two variants?
If I had to guess, either the ends of the US bumper had energy-absorbing structures behind them, or the tests in the US were at the corners and the lights were moved away from the test areas.
“Did they want to make it look sorta European, but still recognizable as the same car that would be in US showrooms?” That sounds likely.
Weirdly, you could order the US bumpers here in Germany. My father did so, when he ordered a GTI for my mother in 1976 or 1977 (with enormous 185/70R13 tires, original were 175/70R13). He thought the original thin bumpers were a joke (which was correct).
My best guess is it is a prototype that was available to use for the ad.
Makes me wonder if this hybrid front end style was floated as a mid-cycle refresh for the European market.
Be careful, these are the sorts of questions that get you tied up in a burlap sack and thrown into the Rhine.
They throw you in the Aller in Wolfsburg, the Rhine is far far away
I was assuming that this was a Swiss-led syndicate manipulating Volkswagen. I think this one goes deep.
I guess the front wings, grill and marker lights are easy enough to bolt onto a european market Golf, but I would imagine (if they’re similar to the MGBs I know more about) that the impact absorbing bumper has a unique panel behind it which would need to be welded. I’d guess they thought nobody would notice, and for…46 years nobody did!