All good points, but the Civic does exist, and not only is it a good value, but not a totally boring appliance to drive around in(for the record, I don't won a Civic) but as long as a yard stick exists, others will be held to it. If one company can provide a certain level of fun, reliability and value, others should be able to do the same. We are not talking about owning an exotic here, where you can live with some of the quirks for the overall driving fun. The Jetta is an affordable compact mainstream car, a nice one, with a lot going for it, but that's what it is, and should be judged against others in it's category.