Bullitt

This week I was going through Netflix and found a few movies from a list of " Awesome car chase movies". The grand daddy of all car chases to date remains the classic "Bullitt" with no one else but Steve McQueen. The movie itself is boring, no really it kind of drags, the plot has that 60's era we're-so-cool your going to be interested in our long monologues thing going on. But you can sense the movie has some connection to cars, even before the great chase, every street shot of San Francisco has some nice cars parked along the road, Mustangs, Vette's, Austin Healey, AM DBS, SS Chevelle, Bentley, McQueen's girl has a sweet ass Porsche 356 cabriolet and even the ambulance is a Cadillac Superior. I'm not sure if LeMans is imprinted on my brain but to me McQueen seems much more like a racing driver than a Cop, the entire time i'm thinking he's gonna put on a jumpsuit, strap on a fiberglass helmet and drive the Mustang to the track. (Go see Clint Eastwood for good Cop movies). By the time the chase starts I was already snoozing as far as the plot goes but in a nice 60's car nostalgia state ready for the action, the scene is awesome, some say overrated but there is just this realistic touch that you don't see in Fast and Futile type movies today. Sure they show the shot of the two cars going by the green FuscaBug about 20 times from a billion angles, and as another commentator said, McQueen upshifts the car so much he could be in 16th gear, but that seems standard in Hollywood, somehow cars can always find an extra gear. So my recommendation is see it, pay attention to the cars and enjoy the sound of pure american muscle cars getting some air on the hills of San Francisco.

Merry xmas!

Das Neue Jetta

For the past few weeks i've been hearing more and more about the new Jetta. I keep seeing adverts saying "great for the price of good" and I was really curious as to how in the world the Germans managed to make such a great car for such a low price. Today I read an article and got the full scoop on whats going on with our beloved Jetta.

Usually a car manufacture improves it's models year after year and the cars get more and more refined, just look at a Nissan Altima from the 90's and one today, but apparently the creative Germans are on a quest to beat the  plain ol reliable Corolla even if that means going against the natural laws of "Carwinism" and making the "new" less capable than the old. In one way i'm disgusted, and I feel people are going to be pissed off after they realize  their friend with the old basic model has 55 extra horsepower than they will have with a brand new one.

But on the other hand i'm proud to see Volkswagen tone things down back to the beetle years in which you got a great piece of german engineering for a great price. No one complained about a bug not having ac, or power steering but people around the world loved the reliability, rear wheel drive and mechanical simplicity that came with the bug. That's what made VW be the brand it is, not Phaetons and V10 Touaregs. And lets face it, who would chose a Corolla when you can get a VW? 

The Chevy Cruze might be a threat to Volkwagen's ambitious plans but I personally believe that as with the Camaro and the Volt Chevy is once again late with their product.