I didn’t always own semi-cool cheap cars. Even when I did, they would break often enough that I couldn’t really use them. My parents, bless them, still let me use their cars when I come to them hat-in-hand defeated by my projects to this day. I love them dearly and I couldn’t ask for better. That isn’t why I took this nice photo of my mom’s filthy 237,000-mile 2015 Jetta TDI, but it is the reason why it happened.
- Car: 2015 Volkswagen Jetta TDI S
- Location: Santa Clarita, California
- Photog: Chris Rosales (Instagram + Twitter: @chrishascamera)
- Camera: Canon 5D Mark III w/ 50mm f/1.8 II
I took this around the time I owned my 2007 BMW 335i six-speed coupe, the most unreliable pile of flaming garbage I ever owned. It also might be my second favorite car behind my 2010 GTI because it ticked many boxes for me: spaceship levels of power, refined and smooth on the highway, nice heavy steering and competent chassis, and the ability to do wild donuts on closed courses.
I sold it because I was a broke college student. I couldn’t afford to give the car what it needed, not even for the $7,000 I bought it for. Now that I look back at that as those cars creep up to $12,000, I regret selling it more than any other car. If I spent literally $3,000 more I’d have a 500whp super-coupe, with every other issue fixed by gratuitous use of a credit card. Food for thought.
Anyways, this was one of those times I needed to get out of the house, and my only way to do it was via sheepish borrowing of my mom’s Jetta. I love this car because it honestly drives extremely well and I’ve experienced much of my life thanks to its Honda-like dependability. In fact, this is the car I took when Six Iron, my GTI, broke on the way to Radwood. All of the Car Autance staff rode in it, so that makes it legendary.
I hope that my mom sells it to me one day so I can have a great no-shits-given daily for the rest of time.
As big as we could get it:
