From $16,000 Rabbits to $70,000 Touareg V-10 TDI twin turbo models, all 2009 Volkswagens will have its Electronic Stabilization Program as standard equipment. This comes four model years before the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 2012 model year deadline for all vehicles to have some electronic stability system.
The NHTSA estimates that 10,000 lives could be saved each year if electronic stability systems were standard on every automaker's lineup in the U.S. Volkswagen's implementation of ESP on all its cars is laudable, but we wonder how much of an impact the decision to make a $450 option standard will make on a lineup that already suffers from a less than ideal exchange rate.