RARE! Volkswagen Pickup
When Jim McLernon took over Volkswagen of America and oversaw the Westmoreland plant, he not only turned the Rabbit into a Malibu, he also turned it into an El Camino. The former Chevrolet engineer saw the potential for Volkswagen to expand into the truck market and created a pickup on the Golf/Rabbit platform. The Volkswagen Pickup was the first VW created in the United States.
This 1981 Pickup features unit body construction to lessen the weight, not body-on-frame construction like conventional pickup trucks. The rear suspension uses a simple tubular axle held in place by leaf springs Maximum payload is between 1131 and 1250 pounds.
The pickup idea was a good one – and as the Caddy, the little truck would be popular in other markets - but American pickup fans wanted something bigger and not so cute. As a result, the VW Pickup was not successful and lasted only three seasons. So this one is a rare find. The car-based pickups that inspired the VW were themselves disappearing from the American highway by then – Ford stopped making its Ranchero in 1979 and Jim McLernon’s old employer Chevrolet discontinued the El Camino in 1983. Such trucks were considered suitable only as flower cars for funerals, and a black VW pickup would certainly have been appropriate at Maxwell Snaberly's funeral. ;-)
Ironically, Chrysler – which had copied the Golf/Rabbit with its L platform cars, the Dodge Omni and the Plymouth Horizon – sought to capitalize on the potential of VW’s minitruck by producing a compact pickup of its own, the Dodge Rampage, off the L platform. It came to market just as VW was giving up on its own truck and didn’t last very long itself.
Such trucks are still popular in Australia, where they’re called “utes.”
RARE! Volkswagen Pickup
When Jim McLernon took over Volkswagen of America and oversaw the Westmoreland plant, he not only turned the Rabbit into a Malibu, he also turned it into an El Camino. The former Chevrolet engineer saw the potential for Volkswagen to expand into the truck market and created a pickup on the Golf/Rabbit platform. The Volkswagen Pickup was the first VW created in the United States.
This 1981 Pickup features unit body construction to lessen the weight, not body-on-frame construction like conventional pickup trucks. The rear suspension uses a simple tubular axle held in place by leaf springs Maximum payload is between 1131 and 1250 pounds.
The pickup idea was a good one – and as the Caddy, the little truck would be popular in other markets - but American pickup fans wanted something bigger and not so cute. As a result, the VW Pickup was not successful and lasted only three seasons. So this one is a rare find. The car-based pickups that inspired the VW were themselves disappearing from the American highway by then – Ford stopped making its Ranchero in 1979 and Jim McLernon’s old employer Chevrolet discontinued the El Camino in 1983. Such trucks were considered suitable only as flower cars for funerals, and a black VW pickup would certainly have been appropriate at Maxwell Snaberly's funeral. ;-)
Ironically, Chrysler – which had copied the Golf/Rabbit with its L platform cars, the Dodge Omni and the Plymouth Horizon – sought to capitalize on the potential of VW’s minitruck by producing a compact pickup of its own, the Dodge Rampage, off the L platform. It came to market just as VW was giving up on its own truck and didn’t last very long itself.
Such trucks are still popular in Australia, where they’re called “utes.”