2010 VW JETTA TDI 15000 MILE REPORT

I don't normally write mid and long-term reports about cars any more these days, but this story is so good I just had to share it. Actually, the car in question is my girlfriend's 2010 Jetta TDI, fully loaded model. I recommended this car to her because she is a therapist who works with autistic children and families and needs to drive lots of miles to see her patients. She put 60,000 miles on her Infiniti G37 in only two years, and was so upset with the fuel prices and the high mileage that she wanted something different. Thus, I recommended the Jetta TDI as probably the best option for her, and we loaded it with navigation, sunroof, and every conceivable option available on the car.

In terms of the raison d'etre for this car, the gas mileage, it has been phenomenal. She has been getting well over 400 miles to every tank of gas, sometimes close to 500, and it is truly spectacular to see the mileage build up. In addition, this is one of the first application to a low-price product of a dual-clutch transmission, and after driving the car myself, I must say that Volkswagen's dual-clutch transmission technology is fantastic and it really brings shifting to a new level. I will be reporting more about DCT transmissions in another blog.

As far as the reliability of the car, it is unfortunately another story. I am going to be brief, but here's what has happened. In the first 10,000 miles of the car's life it needed to have the navigation system replaced because there was something faulty with the overall system, and that was a significant repair. The master brake cylinder failed and needed to be replaced, as well, and also during the first 10,000 miles it needed to have a left rear body panel reattached because the body panel had actually come loose. Very uncharacteristic for Volkswagen; very shocking and not very reinforcing about build quality for Volkswagen products. Yet, because the car was working so well for her, we have stuck by it until the recent developments which were much more catastrophic.

At about 15,000 miles, about a month ago, my girlfriend lost her second key to her Jetta TDI and we ordered another one from the dealer. Here begins a saga that can only be described as truly unbelievable. Over the period of the next three weeks, Volkswagen delivered and was unable to program four separate keys for the car. Every time they ordered a key, they were not able to program the key to work with the anti-theft and existing key in the vehicle. Two of the keys that they ordered were actually the wrong keys (they were for Passats), and the other two would simply not coordinate. I could not understand why this continued to happen, but after four attempts to unsuccessfully be able to provide a spare key for the vehicle, Volkswagen was obviously out of compliance with the law and we requested that the dealership make every effort to solve the problem. Volkswagen then requested that we bring the car in again and they would attempt to resolve the problem.

I need to say at this point that when the other keys were acquired for the vehicle by Volkswagen, he car was dropped off every time, necessitating a service and a loaner car while they attempted to code the new key for the car, always unsuccessfully. Finally, as I indicated, after four unsuccessful attempts, Volkswagen brought the car in and the service manager from the Volkswagen dealership called me to report a truly amazing piece of information. He stated that this car was built on the second from the last day of the 2009 production run, and therefore it had parts from the 2009 and 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. He said that the anti-theft systems were 2009, and the rest of the car and its parts were 2010, and thus the parts were having trouble communicating electronically, and in fact it was unlikely that the key could ever be replaced simply by ordering a new key and re-coding all of the keys to the car. Truly an amazing statement to hear from a dealership. In any event, he stated that the only option would be for Volkswagen to get all new anti-theft and locking componentry for the car, all of which would be new 2010 spec componentry, and in this way all of the vehicle's electronic systems could be integrated and speak to each other.

After dropping my sandwich on the floor and throwing my potato chips across the room, I truly had to stop and think about what Volkswagen had just said and what it meant and what they had done. In addition to violating the law, they have provided the most coarse example of how car manufacturing dealerships really work relative to these kinds of developments. As of this writing, the car is still at Volkswagen, and they have not completed installing the new parts.

As a post-script, I would like to add that I still believe in general that the Jetta TDI is a great car, and was a wonderful choice for my girlfriend, but the experience we have had is certainly going to change our thinking about VW products.

Three New Kings

Well, it looks like there are three new kings in town, and they all showed up at basically the same time. The supercar field, if not crowded enough, has three pretty spectacular new entrants as of the Frankfurt show just opening September 14. These, of course, are the new McLaren sports car, the Mercedes Benz AMG SLS and the Ferrari 458 Italia. So, here we have three spectacular new machines from two of the world's best high-end sports car producers, and one who is returning to the field after production of the legendary McLaren F1 designed by Gordon Murray ceased many years ago. Looking at the three cars together as a package of not only supercar etiology, but as a statement of where the supercar is at this time, we see some interesting trends. It is the McLaren that looks the least exciting initially, and that is because visually it is a pretty bad pastiche of what was obviously a much earlier designed theme. This car would have looked extraordinarily new and hot, and also very good, had it come out in 2003 or 2004, but in 2010 the car looks decidedly old-fashioned in its styling, and this is certainly going to count against it. I am sure that it will be a spectacular driving machine, however, given the legacy of Gordon Murray's original F1, and we probably need to withhold judgment until we drive the car. The 458 Italia is the opposite end of the spectrum. It is by far the most visually attractive Ferrari produced in a long time, and it really is a significant styling jump from the last generation of V8 mid-engine Ferraris, the 355, the 360 and 430 derivatives. This car looks entirely different, it is visually exciting, it is pretty, and yet somewhat brutal at the same time. It introduces a lot of new both mechanical and aesthetic technicalities which are innovative for Ferrari, as well as car design and manufacture, as well, and looks to be a shattering road car. The Mercedes SLS is also a rudely spectacular piece of design. While not as visually stunning by any means as the Ferrari, the SLS has a brutal homogeneity about it which is entirely striking and very appropriate for its purpose, which is to be the spiritual, if not technical, successor to the 300 SL gullwing of the 50's. The car is brutal looking. It is not by any means pretty, and certainly nothing compared to the Ferrari, but it is mind-blowingly effective and, this is the important thing, it is not merely a group of design themes but a coherent whole. That is what is most critical. The fact that the car is so effective in its styling renders the question of whether it is really pretty in the classical sense irrelevant. The technical specs of this car are also mind boggling, and early test drives by European writers suggest that it is going to be the best AMG product ever, the most balanced, the most feelsome, spectacularly effective, and really adept at covering ground from point A to point B. Additionally, as we usually find with the AMG products sold in America, they have more accessibility than other exotics, especially Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc., and the reason for this is that they just have a day-to-day usability built in that allows them to be used over a broader spectrum than other exotica. This appears to be the case with the SLS, except it also seems to be pretty incredible and pretty exotic right out of the chute. OK. THREE NEW KINGS on the block. Can't wait to drive them all. JLS:M&M

New Cars

McLaren MP4-12C: So, McLaren has finally launched a new sports car years after the illustrious and all-conquering F1, which was essentially Gordon Murray's project. The new car is quite a different beast and it features a 3.8 liter V6 which has a flat-plane crankshaft (a la all mid-engine Ferrari V8s), and a mid engine placement with around 600 horsepower with some 400 pound-feet of torque. The McLaren is available with all the latest technology, including a 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox, adjustable suspension, and a variety of other exciting technical features. These include pro-active chassis control, which McLaren claims improves ride comfort and handling, adjustable roll control, which replaces traditional anti-roll bars and brake steer, which adds brake force to the inside wheel. These, as well as a minimalist cockpit and interior that will nonetheless be beautifully detailed, and a price somewhere north of $200,000, suggest that this will be a fabulous and fantastic sports car. Frank Stevenson, the former Mini-Ferrari-Maserati designer, now works for McLaren and has worked the car over designwise to reach its final stage. The MP4-12C goes on sales in 2011, and I imagine that the first versions will get to the States around that time. This is going to be one exciting ride. Place your order early. Mercedes Benz SLS AMG: The Mercedes Benz SLS AMG is the first real complete sports car from Mercedes in-house tuning arm, AMG. Certainly, AMG provides not only hand-built engines, but performance and interior modifications for most of the line of Mercedes Benz cars, and has been doing so very successfully. The regular AMG-tweaked Mercedes Benz cars are among the finest on the planet, witness the CLS 63, the E 63, and the SL 63. But now, AMG has come up with an entirely new version of their own car, and, in a nod to the iconic 300 SL GullWing, they have called the car the SLS and brought it in with gullwing doors. This car features a version of the 6.3 liter AMG hand-built V8 that comes with other Mercedes models, but the engine has been rebuilt to be more bespoke and to produce more horsepower, approximately 570, and approximately 480 pound-feet of torque. Moreover, this is the first AMG car of any iteration to feature a DSG 7-speed gearbox, and a unique independent suspension, as well. The car looks to be an absolute smash. Initial reports from Europe suggest that this car handles with a lightness and alacrity not previously seen in AMG products before, and still produces the massive grunt and tarmac-wrenching performance that AMG cars are known for, while at the same time providing all the creature comforts, stability, and wonderful mod cons of any normal Mercedes Benz. It sounds like quite a combination, and I can't wait to drive it. This car will be coming to the United States in the spring of next year. It is important that you contact Dream Drives at this time if you intend to place an order for any SLS to be delivered in the first twelve months. Ferrari 458 Italia: The Ferrari 458 Italia is the latest mid-engine V8 two-seat Ferrari that essentially goes back to the 308 GTB of 1975. This line of cars has always been Ferrari's bread and butter car, their biggest seller, and, in addition, their most popular model. Certainly, the 458 Italia looks to be a smashing success. For one thing, it looks spectacular. I was never a fan of the modifications to the 360 Modena that produced the F430. I thought the modifications were aggressive and spoiled what was essentially a very beautiful and harmonious shape that was the F360. Thus, it was with great joy and relief that I looked at the 458, seeing it as a modern, yet beautiful and evocative shape, everything that a current Ferrari should look like, and yet filled with high-tech, spectacular innovations which should make the car an absolute drug addiction to drive. This car, features a mid-engine 4.5 liter V8 (hence, the name), with 570 horsepower, but the key stat is 9000 RPM. This engine revs to 9000 RPM and should be spectacular at the upper end, especially because it comes with Ferrari's new dual-clutch transmission, which was first seen in the California. So, the 458, with an aluminum body, enclosed in the most beautiful Pinninfarina body work, double wishbone suspension, and adjustable dampers, suggests that it will be the sine qua non of performance machinery for the year 2010. The price for the 458 should sticker at about $225,000 to $250,000, but be forewarned, the demand for this car will be extremely high. Please contact Dream Drives immediately to have us arrange a car for you to be delivered, in all likelihood, early next summer. JLS:M&M:

The New BMW 5 Series Sedan

Well, the new BMW 5 Series sedan was unveiled today, in Europe, and the results were certainly surprising. It is clear from the 5 Series unveiling that the BMW design team still doesn't have their "mojo" back, the mojo that they lost so badly under previous design chief Chris Bangle. Not only did Bangle destroy the clean, modern, highly sporting ethic that was characteristic of BMW design (and received tremendous criticism for it), but it appears that BMW is still, even now, only slowly moving on the path back to great design that characterized the mark for so many years. The 7 Series, that was released last year, seemed to be a step in the right direction. Certainly, the overall design ethic was cleaner, simpler, smoother, but there was still something somewhat ungainly about it. I think what was clearly happening with the 7 Series was that the design team attempted to remove the Bangle aesthetic from the 7 Series, cleaning it up and smoothing it out, and yet we are left with a kind of bland and bulbous car, especially around the nose and grille area, an area which previously BMWs had absolutely owned with elegant, simple, remarkably sporting design. The 7 Series isn't a bad shape. It just seems to be a transition point or halfway house for BMW along the way back to a more elegant design aesthetic. Therefore, one had great hopes for the 5 Series sedan, feeling that this would be the car that finally brought BMW right back into the heart of the game designwise. Moreover, BMW was handed a great opportunity in terms of the 5 Series design by Mercedes, who recently redesigned the E Class. The E Class turned out to be so ugly, in an attempt to merge a variety of different design cues, that it basically handed the game to BMW, and all BMW needed to do was to hit it out of the park to win this battle hands down, and yet, incredibly, failed to do so. The new 5 Series sedan isn't a bad-looking car. In fact, it is the best new BMW designwise since Bangle, but it still has some way to go before BMW redefines a new, perhaps more swoopy, graphic elegance for their models. The 5 Series essentially looks like an enlarged 3 series, with basically the same graphics, except the nose is clearly better done. In the nose area, BMW shows design movement, even from the more recent 7 Series, and they are clearly getting their act together. Also, the tail light configuration, general glass house area remains a strong point. Yet, the overall shape continues to be bland, with something missing that clearly calls for a new BMW design feel that is both postmodern and post-Bangle. Looking at the inside of the 5 Series, the interior is clearly its most successful feature. It takes all of the revisions made to the more recent BMWs, starting with the 7 Series, and takes them to a higher level. It is the epitome of clean, modern, shapely architecture. It is not sexy, like the new Jaguar XJ is inside, but it is a beautiful piece of modern sculpture which clearly reflects all the progress BMW has made recently in that area. So, there you have it. One can only hope that the design team at BMW will continue to search for a redefinition of sporting elegance, one that they owned so commandingly from the 60's to the 90's. JLS:M&M

What’s wrong with Auto Journalism/What are they thinking

Today's blog is going to focus on a subject that is very dear to my heart: What were they thinking? What's going on with these guys who write auto journalism? Do they not get it at all, because really the stuff they are cranking out is so bad it just makes you want to puke.

Okay, let's get into it and let's get this settled once and for all. Part of the problem with auto journalism is that there is the perception on the part of the writer that everybody reading the piece is primarily and only interested in lurid tail slides, power oversteer and drifting to the max. You know, this is really not what car reviewing should be all about, and that is a big underlying dynamic with car journalism, that in every significant piece of automotive journalism that you find -- comparison tests, road tests, and these even include magazines of the highest caliber, such as Car Magazine from England, etc. -- "The Pop Shot" is the segment that focuses on power oversteer sliding and drifting. This is really not something that occupies what most people do on public roads. It is certainly great for track driving, and certainly any discussion of a car on the track would take that into account, but it is just not relevant for what goes on the regular highway. But it goes so far beyond that.

What about the multimedia aspect of cars? It is amazing how little time is spent on multimedia, when, in fact, multimedia systems are one of the most important elements in a car overall, and secondly are becoming vastly more important to buyers than many, many other factors that used to be important. So, why are journalists missing the multimedia beat? Well, it's pretty simple. They don't spend the time, or aren't smart enough to figure out the multimedia. In fact, they often say in the review, "Well we couldn't really figure out how to work the Nav system," or "The Nav system seemed inscrutable to me." But, of course, that is because they didn't take the time to really figure out on their two-day or three-day loan of the car what was going on with the multimedia or it wasn't important.

Another element that car journalists often miss is the question of color and aesthetics. They completely don't get it. They don't understand how the aesthetics of color, choice of interior trim pieces such as wood and exterior color could really affect the way the car looks, how it pops on the street. This ultimately has had a doubly negative effect on manufacturers because manufacturers reading these pieces assume that buyers also don't care about color and aesthetics, and therefore are producing more and more horribly monochromatic and uninviting and unexciting color schemes for their cars. Occasionally you will see a journalist say, "Our photo car was in a great shade of black and really made that car pop." Well, of course that is one of the few times that a journalist will actually look at the question of color and aesthetics and how it affects the car. What are these guys and gals thinking? What's going on? They just don't understand that these are some of the basics of analyzing a car. And, while we are talking about auto journalists, we must talk about auto photojournalists.

I ultimately feel in my heart that it is probably not their fault they’re being told by their editors to get down on the floor of the car and take a great shot of the accelerator pedal and then overexpose it 82 times, and that is going to be great for readers. What's the matter with these idiots who write and run these car magazines. Don't they understand that what people want to see is the beauty, or, the ugliness of the interior of a car in all of its anatomical glory. People want to be able to get the feel-good factor (if there is one) in a car by seeing a picture of what is actually going on. They don't want a distorted, bizarre image of one-quarter of the steering wheel and one magnesium shift paddle. That is not a photograph that is going to help anyone become involved with understanding what the car feels like and what it is like to actually be in and live in this car. What is wrong with these people? They just don't get it.

So we have a situation where we've got to correct these flaws in auto journalism. We've got to start making reviews of cars exciting, relevant, and exploratory about the main themes that are going on inside. In my blogs, and all the stuff that goes on in the Dream Drives site, we will certainly try to take that attitude.

JLS:M&M