2020 Volkwagen Jetta

Imagine my delight when my oldest told me she wanted to learn how to drive a manual transmission! Growing up in the backseat of the Evo, maybe she picked up on some of the satisfying activities and skills exercised driving that car.

Plus, I needed it Leaf back for my youngest to learn to drive.

Away from home for the first time, she needed something with more flexible fueling requirements and range — the Leaf's battery is not big and apartment living is ill-suited to charging a BEV. So she needed something conventional. The idea was to get something small enough and be nimble and fun, but not fast enough to easily get into serious trouble. It needed to be reliable and inexpensive to maintain as well as inexpensive to purchase from the beginning. Thus, used was a must, but too old and not to abused. A 2020 model year is the newest car in our fleet as of this writing, so safety is up to spec. Graduating from the Leaf, this was going to be the first car she could truly call her own. My idea was to purchase it outright myself and help her get a loan to purchase from me at a price she could afford while establishing a strong line of credit of her own.

As for the car itself, it's in decent shape. There's no glitter in the oil pan, the clutch doesn't slip, the pedal is light, all the gears engage well, everything works and there are no rattles. The clutch engages quite a bit higher up the pedal travel than I like (I hope this isn't training her left leg badly). It has a few cosmetic flaws from neglect and possibly some overzealous chemical application on parts of the interior. And, yeah, it's yet another boring dark gray paint. When you're in the used car market, you're at the mercy of others' boring aesthetic taste.