Chill out, that’s just Jason’s style. It was an overall positive review, and the only other option for a car like this (competent but not special) would be a dry, stick to the facts, slog that would get less clicks and full-reads.

Volkswagen will sell plenty of these, and I bet most buyers will be pleased with what they got. If that’s you, fantastic, wonderful, I hope you use it with delight for years.

our public transportation is “crap” because of housing issues in this country (as has been discussed here many times). good luck getting people to pay higher taxes to finance public transport from every goddam suburb in the country.

Make a Taos GTI, cowards. 

If this is what they have to do to keep selling hot hatches in the US, then this thing rules.

“This is because cars are getting more expensive”

I’m waiting for the inevitable “VW doesn’t understand the US market at all!” comment, because there’s always at least one whenever VW’s current lineup is mentioned.

If you expected a small crossover in 2021 to be as quirky as a vehicle designed for military use in the late 60s, you shouldn’t be writing new car reviews.

Thanks for including the handy size reference in the cargo area pictures. Going by the other reviews I’ve read, I have no way of knowing how many skulls of my enemies I can haul in the new Santa Cruz for example.

like Biden will actually do something about student loan debt

so, its the same as every VW ever since their name is literally the people’s car. they made another car for the people, and might make a slightly warmer trim line as they are known to do.

Agreed. If it’s really “the car” it’s worth it.

2nd and 3rd gears: I tried telling my dad to sell his pickup right now. It’s a 2011 crew cab F150 lariat with only 60k miles and it will never be worth more than it is right now. He has other cars, but uses the pickup a couple of times per month to haul something...

I used to have this smug sense of self satisfaction…

This is why I’d like to see a comparison between average loan length and average ownership length. If people are taking out longer loans but keep the cars longer, its fine, but if they dont keep them longer its definitely not good. Unless its an APR under 3-4% and then its basically free since inflation is typically…

1st. Gear: The Kia Telluride frenzy has gotten completely out of hand. It’s like people are excited about them solely because people are excited about them.

I could afford one of my dream cars with a 7 or 8 year loan, but the thought of paying for it that long is way too scary. Plus, who wants to pay for a car for 7 years? You’ll have another 3-4 years on the loan by the time you get bored of it. I’ll stretch to 5 years, but 3 or 4 is what I shoot for when I’m budgeting…

What could possibly go wrong with this plan?

And every one of them tell all their friends about how "I could take this to the track tomorrow and rip it up" but when they are asked "so when are you gonna take it?" It's always - "ahhh well I'd like to get down there eventually, we'll see what happens lololol" 

TBH, if you’re serious about taking a car to the track, you wouldn’t even bother with factory auxillary coolers that are probably marked up to crazy amounts.

This is going to be an open door for every car company that puts a “track mode” in their suspension and throttle settings.