nd's girlfriend's couch in the great city of Philadelphia, amid of a slew of Eagles fans thinking "coulda, shoulda, woulda" well, lets just say I enjoyed my Super Bowl Sunday. I especially enjoyed watching Green Bay win, not because I thought they were the better team (which they obviously were) but because I don't like anything of Pittsburgh. It's a personal thing.Like most Americans who don't know squat about the sport of football, many watch it for the commercials... They admit it like people who read Playboy "for the articles," (which I will attest- before mainstream media getting all racy, snappy and jazzy, were actually quite good, if not better than you'd read elsewhere- and lets not forget about the nude women too.)
A few days back, a Facebook friend had leaked the VW Passat "The Force" commercial of the little kid dressed as Darth Vader, trying to play Jedi mind tricks on everything from his mother's elliptical machine to the family dog. And the question I posed to him was "It's not how many Passats they'll sell, but rather- how much did they have to pay George Lucas for that commercial."
"Gee, Randy. I never thought of that..." Well, no shit.
Because really, the Passat, no matter how good it can be or how good it's been will always be a second-tier choice by real middle-of-the-range car people who want a basic mid-sized sedan that... that works.
The Passat I'm afraid, is still very much rooted in its quirky European ways of the 1990's and while that's a flavor many can aspire to- it's just not what buyers in that segment can appreciate. Intertwined with problems and quality issues galore (or victim of just a bad reputation in general) the Passat will always be the hard choice against cars like the Camry, Accord, Legacy, etc, etc. They'll need "the force" to compete the Passat at any price.
However, the smaller Jetta is an outstanding choice and compromise in its class, and I feel it gives a much better value with the charming European feel you want- at any price. The Jetta is the Jedi Knight of the bunch, if you will.
(Notice how with a Passat it's a quirky European feel; but with a Jetta it's charming...)
Another commercial worth noting was the Chevy Cruze spot- with the young man checking a girl's Facebook status after a first date...
Only thing they left out was- the wall posting/status update was a day old; and actually, the whore was talking about the guy she went out with the night before... And he drove a Honda Civic.
Again, while I commend GM and America in general for how far they've come- the Cruze is a hard choice against the very, very popular in its class Honda Civic. But the Cruze car appears certainly better than the "C-is-for-Crappy" Cobalt and Cavalier it succeeds. It just has to buck that trend.
And finally- Chrysler's spot for the 200 featuring Detroit and their first son Marshall Mathers (Eminem) was absolutely the best Super Bowl commercial of this year...
While I thought the intent was spot-on (don't ever put this country or what it can do in a corner- we are the original Comeback Kids, it's WHAT WE DO) the car in reality is nothing more than a warmed-over Chrysler Sebring- made to look like a Jaguar XF (quite frankly another warmed-over outright piece of shit).
Now I sold Chryslers and know them very well. They've always been cars that try, maybe a little too hard, to be something they're clearly not. But I kinda like the 200 for what it is.
It's the same greasy look for a full third the price. Same execution- two-thirds-off!
Like finding an Ermenegildo Zegna suite at Marshalls. Now that's class. That's America. Looks good to me... (famous last words.)
But here's the interesting twist. Both the Jaguar XF and the Chrysler 200 are based largely on daring prototypes unveiled a few years ago- ironically both with the letter "C"- the 2007 Jaguar C-XF and the 2009 Chrysler 200C. C is for concept. Or crap?
While both cars are really watered-down realities of these initially snazzy concepts- both cars are actually based on older platforms of cars not known for their engineering goodness at all- the Jaguar S-Type and the Chrysler Sebring respectively- some real monumental pieces of crap.
Both cars being the victim of bad economies, bad upper management and lets face it- bankruptcy. If it weren't for the Indians and the Italians respectively- we wouldn't be talking about them...
(Another irony- first two "Cs" now two "Is;" the things that make you go Hmmm... And the designer of the Jaguar? Ian Callum...)
But I will say this- the Chrysler 200 strikes a chord with me. You're going to see this car, the people driving it and say- that's America.
Where the girls are pretty, the reading is good, and Goddammit that's a sharp car. Go US.
And with that winged-Chrysler logo re-styled to resemble that of an Aston Martin- well, "gee, is that an Ass-ton Maw-tin or a JagUwar?"
These are the questions WE as a people long to answer.
And we know a warmed-over piece of crap when we see one... and that's okay.
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