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Having been a Scirocco/Rabbit/Rabbit pickup owner prior to getting my 740, I've noticed they have a lot of things in common which enable them to stay running - good aftermarket & enthusiast support, parts availability (both wrecking yard and new), well-designed running gear, and a clean design. Both seem to have been designed with the knowledge that sooner or later, someone's going to have to work on it (the 240 heater blower and the alternator on a Rabbit with A/C being the exceptions); in general, a similar overall design philosophy that insured repairability and longetivity. While many jobs on the Rabbit are best tackled by removing the engine & trans, they come out easily as a unit. An additional help is the availability of reasonably good shop manuals - Bently does much better on the VWs than on the 240, however.
Digression here... There is a definite need for someone to write an "How to Keep Your 240 (or 740) Alive; a manual of procedures for the Compleat Idiot"! I've done my own equivalent by printing out FAQ pages, etc., but miss the spirit of the Muir Publications books (IIRC, the discussion of safety procedures included a caution against wrenching while stoned...) Anyone who's worked on old VWs knows & reveres the original spiral-bound versions for the air- and water-cooled cars.
Parts are easy to find & cross across many years; my daughter's 4-door '80 Rabbit has an '85 GTI engine, ~'82 wide-ratio 5-speed, Boge Turbo Gas (another good thing in common), an Audi 5000S throttle body (ported intake manifold to match), instruments from an '83 Scirocco, etc. (Not to mention the Mercedes horn)... The 1.8 liter 8V engine long-block is a direct replacement for any of the earlier engines, and was used up to the late '90s; once VW fitted the K-Jet fuel injection and electronic ignition, they were rather trouble-free, with long-lived engines (my pickup at 166K miles and original 1.7 engine still shows 150 psi compresssion across the board. Like the Volvo, it's a solid engine design - and a non-interference design, as well (it may become interference with some cams, but I've not seen any OEM ones that were).
Both cars respond well to performance improvements (most of which are not particularly expensive), and can surprise the unwary...
I guess the major defining factor is that both cars have a certain character which attracts those who see no reason to scrap a perfectly good car just because it's not new enough - as long as parts are available and the rust is held at bay, they'll keep running.
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Tom Harper ('86 740GLE)
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