Driving Culture

I have a 2000 Volkswagen Jetta TDI and I must profess my deep love and appreciation for the thing. Tonight, I took a long drive in the car. It seems every time I drive the car, I find some new aspect of the car to appreciate and think about. Tonight I paid particular attention to the dashboard, instruments and steering wheel. The amount of design, engineering, materials and human ingenuity that went into just these three things is staggering. There is more technology in the fuel gauge, than there is in an entire 1951 Volkswagen Beetle. My TDI is without a doubt one of coolest and most understated cars on the road.

I had a chance to really try some new American cars lately. Not just test drives, but thousands of miles spanning weeks and months. The Dodge Charger, Chevy Malibu, Ford Fusion, Toyota Sienna and Ford Escape amongst many others. They all seemed to be good transportation, but I always found myself comparing them to my TDI. It should be noted that these cars have a 9 year head start on my TDI. The Charger definitely looked better, the Malibu had a much cheaper MSRP, the Sienna had gobs of horsepower and the Escape was very utilitarian. What do they all lack? Soul. With the exception of some expensive exotics, I have found no new age car that can match the soul and overall quality of my lowly old TDI. I find it disconcerting that American people as a whole so quickly dismiss something so important as soul. In order to save a trivial amount of money, they will put themselves through 100,000+ miles of boring, spiritless and stale driving experience. Most might contest that "they don't care" and just want a cheap car. But... driving is a wonderful and joyous experience!!! I can't comprehend why anybody wouldn't want a little piece of that.

40 years ago... the Americans got it. Automobiles were inexpensive, fast and dangerously fun. As the years went by, the cars got softer and cheaper. Now today they are just uninspired pieces of rubbish. The Viper is gone now, the plastic Corvette with zip ties and duct tape and the Ford GT is $100,000. It's no wonder the auto industry is going bankrupt! Europe is laughing at us, Japan is plotting the next way to clean out our bank accounts and China is serving up auto parts made from old recycled cars to the food we eat to the plates we eat them on. What in the hell happened to that America of 40 years ago?

It's important that we realize how important automobiles are to our culture and we need to try hard to preserve that. That's just something to think about next time you purchase an automobile. Sometimes it's not about the money. I for one will gladly spend a few grand more when I buy a car if that means I can enjoy a lifetime of superb and enjoyable miles on the road.