1. How did you come to the decision of buying this car?
I don't subscribe to the "buy a used car in cash and drive it into the ground" dictum. Instead I try and lease the cheapest econobox for the length of the warranty and then give it back - so far, the numbers have worked out that it costs me less than buying said used car, doing maintenance and the time savings involved with going to a mechanic or doing the work myself. I have a 2003 Miata with 28,000 original miles, and I'd rather spend my time and money working on that. I want my daily driver to be trouble-free.
My last lease was a 2017 Mazda3. I was all set to get the newest generation, but then I saw a deal on the 2019 Jetta Comfortline 6-speed manual. This is equivalent to an S trim in America. I pay about $130/month with nothing down, 0% interest for 4 years. It was the absolute cheapest new car lease I could find. That's about $6,240 over 4 years - I couldn't find a decent used car for that much, let alone a late model TDI Jetta.
I test drove it for 5 minutes and liked it enough to buy it on the spot. Usually I am much more thorough, but I wanted to lock in the deal while I could.
2. What has your ownership experience been like?
Uneventful and painless, which is exactly what I wanted. I wish it had a little more power - you really have to be in the right gear to get any sort of torque for passing other cars, but the trade-off is outstanding fuel economy. I get over 40 mpg on the freeway, doing about 75 mph, with the A/C on and filling up with our 10% ethanol gasoline. It's a little noisy at those speeds, but the car itself feels a lot more solid than other cars in its class. The back seat and trunk are huge, and while the handling isn't the sharpest, the big sidewalls and generous ride height soak up the bumps and pot holes on our atrocious roads.
My one complaint is that the Apple CarPlay integration isn't great. It disconnects fairly frequently, and I have to do a factory reset of the car's settings every so often. But it appears that no OEM has really nailed that integration down.
3. What is your fondest memory with this car?
I wish I could say I had one, but I've only been driving it for a year, to and from work. It's a very utilitarian car, but not one that inspires memories.
4. Why do you love cars?
It's so cliche by now, but I have always loved cars. It's the one constant that has defined me throughout my life. My father worked for OEMs, local trade associations and other automotive entities for the first two decades of my life (as in-house and outside legal counsel). I've never not been interested in cars, or worked in the industry in some capacity.
Over the last decade, my love of "cars" has waned a bit. I don't know every single specification and statistic for every car in the world. What has grown is 1) my fascination and interest in the industry itself (I have been fortunate to cover the industry as a journalist, work as a product planner for a major OEM, in operations at a large dealer group and most recently, in risk management for another major OEM) and 2) driving both for fun and in competition. I did a few stints of karting and ice racing, which I put on pause, again due to time and budgetary constraints. I had planned to start karting again this year, but the current situation means those plans are on hold. I'll have to get my fix through late night drives in the Miata, which isn't exactly a hardship.
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If you would like to participate, just answer the above four questions and submit one to three photos of your daily driver to milhousevanh at geemail. Thanks and have fun!
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