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This car feels somewhat like a BMW.” The sentence was uttered by me and it was followed by the kind of pause such sentences, laden with gravity, deserve. “Yeah, like a 5 Series more than a 3,” said a good friend and fellow motoring scribe. Now there was less tension in the car as two motoring scribes agreed on something — a rare occurrence that needed to be celebrated with a magnum.
Now let’s get into analysis mode. What do I mean by “feels like a BMW”? Mind you, it can be positive as well as negative. It can mean superior build quality, excellent sporty feel and nice feedback from the suspension. It can also mean stiff ride quality, peaky engines and cramped surroundings for the rear passengers. That is why “like a 5 Series” meant a lot. In short — the new Volkswagen Jetta feels well built, has reasonably powerful engines, handles well, offers too much feedback for comfort, has better ride quality than a 3er (still stiff) and has more space (especially at the rear) to challenge its rivals... So far so good. Ah, I forgot to mention — when seen side on, the all-new Jetta looks like a BMW too, complete with taut lines and the C-pillar kink.
You see, it is natural for anyone to feel a bit grumpy and on the edge after spending close to twenty hours in planes, sixteen and half hours of them in a single aircraft. If the car involved had 10 or 12 cylinders and behaved like a hooligan, I would have been equally excited... but the new Jetta? What can I wax eloquent about? Strangely, the answer was given to me by the city where the launch drive was organised. San Francisco is a city that cannot boast the charms, size or population of New York, it ain’t the financial capital either but it has its share of American lore in the form of grand erections (the Golden Gate Bridge), Alcatraz and a nice waterfront. And despite being the underdog, it seems to have its share of fan following all the time.
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