[oldE]

I just did 745 km (about 460 miles) in the Jetta yesterday to see family and was pleased with the car. It has the comfort of the C280 and moves like the Golf. The 17 inch wheels seemed to help through the corners, but I think the rear shocks were overwhelmed on some of the frost heaved sections of our Nova Scotia secondary roads. Drove it like I was in a hurry and it used 6.5 liters/ 100 km (somewhere over 30 mpg). It threw a code when I dropped 3 gears to overtake another car on one stretch, so I'll have to find out what that was about. Other than that I am happy. I left home at 7:30 in the morning and got back at 7:40 the same day and felt like the car had looked after me.
I had driven the base Jetta with the 1.4 l turbo a few years ago and was saddened by how the model had been de-contented. Putting the Golf bits back into the car makes a world of difference.
One oddity: the odometer is accurate given I have driven this route hundreds of times in the past 48 years, but the speedometer is reading high by about 8%, measured against two of those "Your speed is..." units. Both the needle and the digital reading. WTF?

Old man's car is a good label, as I'll be 69 next month.
Best
Les