We Lubs V-Dubs.

Love.   What is love, anyway?  That magical magnetism that draws us towards things on an emotional level, that makes us miss people, places, or things in their absence.   The thing that makes us tolerate everyday frustrations creates by these things we love.  Love, baby. 

According to a recent study conducted by Strategic Vision and published by Autoweek, love for our automobiles is defined by some combination of perceived quality and specific qualities that attract the owner to the car and endear the car to the owner.

Which car company produces the most love between car and driver?

Volkswagen!  Let's face it, any car company that is closely associated with Hitler in it's early years, but less than two decades later can sell Hitler's vision of the "People's Car" to hippies, must be selling something very, very special.  And they are.   As a Volkswagen owner, I can honesty say I love my car, and will undoubtedly buy another Volkswagen for my next car, hopefully 20 years from now.

I get in my car every morning, and in that moment between the door closing, the ignition coming on, and the satellite radio getting signal, Neil Young's "Long May You Run" by Neil Young resonates:


Long may you run.
Long may you run.
Although these changes
have come
With your chrome heart shining
in the sun
Long may you run.

What does Volkswagen do that no other company does as well?  What gives their cars that extra charisma, that soul, that heart?  As an owner, I definitely notice some things that really endear the car to me, tiny details that the average person may not even notice, but make the car that much better.

Because not all VWs have the 200 hp turbo engine mine has, and they do not all have the lightning quick dual-clutch automated manual transmission, I'll leave those gems off the list.  Good overall performance is a hallmark of all VW vehicles, and this is an important part of love.


Lets's start with the materials.   In my VW, if it looks like a soft material, it is.  The entire dash is soft to the touch.  The leather is soft.  The carpet is plush and soft.  

That metal trim in the door and that door handle:  actual aluminum, not silver-painted plastic.  Such is the entire cabin.  If it looks like metal, it is.   This honesty and quality of materials exudes a much higher level of luxury and sophistication than the price of the car indicates.

Next up: Features.

The headlights on the GTI are bi-xenon, self-leveling HID headlights.  When you turn the car on, they rotate up and down through their range, giving the impression that the car is greeting you.  I know, it sounds corny, but it reallly does help endear the car to you.   It seems friendly, somehow.  Plus, with these headlights, you'll see quite a bit farther and quite a bit more clearly than you will with halogens.  Which builds confidence and adds safety.

Above is my Climatronic.   Most cars have AC and heat, but my VW has automatic AC and heat (just set the desired temp and the car does the rest), dual zone settings (passenger and driver can select different temps, good for when your wife is always fiddling with the temp and fan speeds on road trips.  It also has vents for rear seat passengers, which many larger cars do not have.  Also, by hitting the "econ" button and the "upper vent" button simultaneously and dialing in different codes with the volume and tuning knobs, I can set those little digital displays to display speed (mph or kph), coolant temperatures, exterior temps, and any number of error codes.  Pretty neat.

Another major contributor to how much I love my VW is the engineering of the thing.  There are so many details that stand out, from beefy door hinges, struts to hold the hood up instead of a hood prop, thick insulation throughout, felt-lined wheel arches (rather than the usual plastic), etc.

See how the windshield is recessed from the A-Pillar to the first knuckle on my finger?  The hood lines up with the a-pillar, and the windshield wipers hide under the hood, as do the (heated) windshield washer nozzles.  This recessed area and hidden windshield cleaning hardware creates a low-pressure area along the windshield,  which helps reduce wind noise at speed.

Next up, the door edge:

 Look how nicely finished that thing is.  That black plastic cap enclosing the edge, the thick seals, the recessed latch, the thick door card.  Solid, baby.

Why doesn't everyone include these features? VW is able to offer these advanced features and technology because they own Bugatti, Bentley, Audi, Lamborghini, and Porsche, amongst others.   By developing and engineering these features for their more expensive lines and absorbing the development costs in the high-end market, they are able to offer the same kind of features on the everyman VW models at a similar (though slightly higher) price than a Honda or Toyota competitor.   And that's a beautiful thing, the type of thing that makes you fall in love with a VW.