Great little two-door. Spacious, practical, good looking. Fun to drive, with good on-demand power and a great 5-speed stick. It's no GTI, but it'll put a bigger smile on your face than anything else in the category, while still managing to be refined and comfortable.

Build quality, handling, and interior space beat the crap out of every other car in its class. Solid dashboard, cool interior lighting, decent gas mileage. And it's a blast to drive. One of my favorite things about it is that you don't see them very often.

The car is very well put together, and drives better than cars more than twice its price. It accelerates fairly quickly, especially for entrance ramps onto highways. The turning is precise, and its turn radius is small enough that I can turn around in some streets without doing a Y turn. Braking is good. The build quality and materials are second to none. Nothing feels cheap, unlike in its competition. For weeks after I got it, I kept finding little details. For example, there are slots for coins for tolls, a shelf for the owner's manual in the glove compartment, the seat belts are stitched in such a way that if you let go after unbuckling it doesn't thwack against the B pillar, it automatically locks at 8 mph (and while in park it only locks from the outside so if you press lock you can still get out from the inside), and many more. It's thoroughly engineered. Appearance is decent. I just have the basic 2-door with black trim and steel wheels. The design looks like it's a few years old, and, well, it is. However, if you add the body kit bumpers, tint the windows, upgrade the rims, and add Veleo LED tail lights, the Rabbit can look really awesome. It depends on what you're willing to spend. Gas mileage is decent. I get 27-31 mpg usually, and with gas at $1.40 now the fillups are under $20 and give me a range of around 380 miles. Maintenance is fairly simple, and I got a standard 4-year warranty (now 3-year for 2009 models) so maintenance at the dealer is free. Washing the car is very simple, and one thing that's great about the car is that the doors are sealed so that dirt doesn't spray onto the metal between the outside and the inside seal. The rims are kind of a hassle to clean since there are so many holes, but if you get different ones it's easier. The one reason that held me back from just buying the VW without cross-shopping was reliability. My one problem with the car is that the iPod adapter dock broke at 2500 miles, and the dealer's response was to order a new stereo system for the dash. It's not a big problem, but I drive through areas with no good radio reception so it's annoying to not have an iPod to play. What convinced me to buy it was an article that claimed the Rabbit/Golf is the 2nd most reliable car in Europe, and Consumer Reports' high rating. Everything else has been great; no squeaks or rattles. Complaints about the car include no range estimation, no dimming side mirrors, and a subpar stereo system (reliability and sound-quality wise). One more thing: In a couple years, Audi is going to be putting the same engine in its S3, only turbocharged. That means that there will be a plethora of upgrades for the Rabbit's 2.5 5-cylinder engine in the near future. It may be more expensive than the competition, but you get so many more amenities of more expensive cars. It's almost unfair to put this in the econobox comparison; it just has a small size (which is perfect; I've moved all my belongings to college in it, and it's really easy to park). All in all, I would HIGHLY recommend the car.

Best compact. Way better build quality the the Civic, Mazda3, etc. Good performance for its class (170h, 177lbs torque). 1st gear is a bit short but provides very quick accelerations and 5th could have been less rev-hungry. The 4 wheel disc brakes provide more than enough stopping power even though the pedal feels a little bit spongy. All around its a very fun car to drive. The interior has no frills all around, its efficient and not overdone like some cars. Ahem civic. The quality of the materials is amazing for a car and this price. After 13 000 km with it i have not witnessed any trim rattle. The fun and power of the car comes at a certain price, the 2.5L engine is very thirsty. with very good interest rates from VW Finance, i highly recommend this car for anyone in the market for a dependable compact car.

I have found that the 2008 Rabbit is absolutely incapable of leaving someone wanting after a long drive. The seats are incredibly supportive, and are among the few designed with tall people in mind. All of the control surfaces are well apointed and seem to be ergonomicly correct. While the four door varient is probably the more practical one, I don't really think the two door suffers too much from it's lack of doors. And the utility of a hatchback is absolutely amazing. Theres nothing that won't fit in the car. The color is perfect as well, a perfect shade of Citation Please Red. I've always been in love with the idea of a relatively compact hatchback, but nobody has been able to build one that is as uncompromising as this VW. It's spacious, very frugal on gas, german, well designed, and it looks fantastic.