After the teacher asked if anyone had a sacred place and the students fidgeted and shrank in their chairs, the most serious of them all said it was his car, being in it alone, his tape deck playing things he'd chose, and. . . the bright altar of the dashboard and how far away a car could take him from the need to speak, or to answer, the key in having a key and putting it in and going.
-- Stephen Dunn from "The Sacred"
You have to admire the folks at Volkswagen. First they come up with the idea of selling their Jetta and a mountain bike as a package deal. "Great idea," said buyers.
Then they mount a little vase on the dash of their New Beetle, put a daisy in it, and actually get it past the board of directors and the bean counters.
"How cute," said the women. "How lame," said the men.
Then they slip a book of poetry into the glove box of their Passat: "Songs for the Open Road: Poems of Travel & Adventure," of which I picked one to quote above.
How innovative, say I. How romantic. How. . . Volkswagen!
I mean who else but the people who brought us Herbie the Love Bug and the flower-power Microbus, those auto icons of the 1960s, would come up with something so off-the-wall yet so delightful as to make poetry "standard equipment" in their cars?
VW linked up with the American Poetry & Literacy Project to place 40,000 copies of "Songs for the Open Road" into its cars delivered to retailers last month, April being National Poetry Month.
I suspect that some people have bought the New Beetle on the power of that bud vase and I suspect more than a few Passats (and Jettas, Golfs and New Beetles) will roll off the showroom floor thanks to that book of poetry.
No, you couldn't sell a Yugo that way, but when the cars are up to snuff, such small things often make the difference between buying and "just looking."
I've been "just driving" a 1999 VW Passat GLS this past week and I can tell you that it is definitely up to snuff. For a base price of $23,190, you can own a German sedan that does an astonishingly good impersonation of its supposed "betters" from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.
I suspect that if you were to blindfold me, place me behind the wheel of the Passat, and have me drive away (admittedly, not a good idea) with only aural and tactile senses to guide me as to the make of the car, I might guess that it was an Audi A6 or BMW three- series.
My cues would be the Passat's firm and supportive driver's seat, its silky smooth polished wood shifter, its quiet but sporting V6 engine note, its precise handling and ride quality that is neither harsh nor billowy.
If I drove it hard and were able to detect a touch of torque steer, I would know it wasn't a BMW or Mercedes and I'd begin to zero in on the Audi.
I might even mistake it for a Lexus ES 300 but for the five-speed manual transmission. A self-shifter in a car this obviously upscale would reduce the possibilities to a very small number.
If you were to read me (I'm still blindfolded, remember) its long list of standard features, I'd be even more convinced I was driving a high-ticket luxury car: traction control, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS, front and side air bags, power everything, tilt and telescope steering wheel, 8-speaker sound system, multi-function trip computer, genuine wood trim and shift knob, and heated front seats .
I doubt it would occur to me that this car could be a Volkswagen. Like everyone else, I still tend to think of VWs as cheap econocars like my old Beetles of the '60s and Rabbit of the '80s.
Well, I'd be wrong. VW is no longer just about bugs and beetles and rabbits. It's a full-line carmaker going head-to-head with the other major imports, and anyone thinking about a new car should give them a look.
The totally redone Passat came out in 1997 as a '98 model. It tended to get lost among all the hoopla surrounding the debut of the New Beetle, the reincarnation of the old VW Beetle, but the two cars have nothing in common.
When I first reviewed the new Passat I declared it "nothing less than the best car Volkswagen has ever made." I can say the same thing about the '99 model, only more so. The 190 horsepower 2.8 liter 30-valve V6 in the GLS is a better powerplant for this car than the turbocharged four-cylinder I tested in 1997, and the problems I found with the driver's seat are long gone.
Also, while most people will choose the Tiptronic automatic transmission, the five-speed manual makes the GLS a real driver's car, a la BMW, rather than a "mere" luxury car.
It should be clear by now that I consider the base Passat to be fully equipped and a real bargain at $23,190, but there are a few options available, such as the Tiptronic. My tester had a $325 "all weather package" that included heatable front seats and windshield washer nozzles and a glass sunroof for $1,000, which I could omit with nary a tear.
Finally, I should note that the "Elegant Green Clear Coat Metallic" paint job on my tester is my new favorite car color. It's a light blue-green that is, to my eye, drop-dead gorgeous.
With the manual shifter, the V6 Passat has a fuel economy rating of 20 mpg in city driving and 29 on the highway.