You environmental killer!
Sure, I am also disappointed in how VW handled the scandal, but that wouldn't stop me from buying another one.
Ha! Did you notice how we took it off-road in a National monument!!
To my mind, VW occupied a unique spot in the US auto market. Fun to drive semi-luxury. My 2003 Passat wagon was built like a tank and could turn on a dime. The newer ones seem to have moved down market and are definitely poorer in build quality. The handling of the emissions scandal was to me an added insult as a customer.Aah! That explains it. My last TDI was a 2007 VW Jetta, which was unaffected by the emissions scandal. But, judging by the lack of criticsm by other motor car manufacturers, I find myself wondering how many other manufacturers were also involved, but just weren't found out.
Sounds like you like the e-Golf. That's good to know. I think that it makes a lot of sense for us as well, but my wife is currently a little skeptical of VW. We will be taking some test drives over the next week and that is the first car on the list.
I had a manual Mitsubishi Eclipse that was my favorite car by far (technically my third car, but the first one I had the money to shop for instead of buying whatever was cheapest and most expedient). Mind you, it wasn't new, it was nine years old when I bought it, but it brought me much joy. It was my first manual, and I bought it in southern California, 900 miles from where I live, and had to learn to drive stick in a day and a half before driving the car back up to Oregon. That trip was a learning experience!
I learned to drive on a manual, and up until July 1, 2017, I always had one. I have all automatics now. I love the auto in my F150, but a couple of the others are rather outdated. The older I get, the harder it is to move my knees at times. I'm probably safer with the auto.
Automatics are definitely not all the same. Specifically a lot of modern ones are a big pain to drive. They have too many gears, and are always shifting. Add to that they're designed for optimum fuel economy, not optimum power or driving comfort. The Chrysler 200 rental I drove a little while back annoyed me. On the other hand, our '09 Civic has a five-speed (forward) automatic that has plenty of pep, is very predictable and easy to work with and doesn't shift every few seconds whether it needs to or not. Honda kept that car's fuel economy excellent by keeping the car light, and as a result I still enjoy driving it.
I learnt to drive on a manual as well and until I got my BMW 3-series wagon in 2015, I had never owned an automatic. My wife drives stick as well, so we were an all manual family for a long time. In fact, back in 2003, I got a special order stick shift Passat wagon and the salesguy told me that I would never be able to resell it. Sadly, it was totaled in an accident which is when we replaced it with the Passat above. VW no longer sells sticks in their higher trim levels (and BMW doesn't sell sticks in the wagon), so we are all automatic now. While I enjoy the fact that I don't always have to keep shifting in the bay area traffic, I miss the involvement I had when I drove a manual. While we will probably not go all manual again, having one around and teaching the kids how to drive it seems like a good goal.
