diff --git a/lib/compress.js b/lib/compress.js
index 03c253a6..b107367d 100644
--- a/lib/compress.js
+++ b/lib/compress.js
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ function Compressor(options, false_by_default) {
         if_return     : !false_by_default,
         join_vars     : !false_by_default,
         collapse_vars : !false_by_default,
-        reduce_vars   : !false_by_default,
+        reduce_vars   : false,
         cascade       : !false_by_default,
         side_effects  : !false_by_default,
         pure_getters  : false,
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index beec960c..8bd00fa3 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   "homepage": "http://lisperator.net/uglifyjs",
   "author": "Mihai Bazon <mihai.bazon@gmail.com> (http://lisperator.net/)",
   "license": "BSD-2-Clause",
-  "version": "2.8.0",
+  "version": "2.8.1",
   "engines": {
     "node": ">=0.8.0"
   },