It’s very difficult to be retired. For my father, retirement means endless hours of worrying and fretting. It’s his favorite pastime. It’s his building wooden toys for underprivileged children. To compound this, he is left alone for hours with unrestricted access to CNN and MSNBC (he prefers watching his news in HD, the higher line resolution some how makes the commentary more true). As he watched the economy deflate in all its HD glory he started to batten down the hatches and lower the lifeboats.

So, with the clammy, shaking hands of poverty closing in on my parent’s financial throat, the untimely event of my mother’s lease termination loomed in the hazy future. The glazed-over look in my father’s eyes as he typed in his bank account password was all that was need to know that the next car would NOT be another Audi.

So herein rose my dilemma. Baby boomers look upon Japanese cars as if they were made out of some sort of magic reliability secret potion. 20 years ago that was almost the reality compared to what Detroit was creaking out, but in this day and age reliability and quality disparages are a thing of the past. They’re called robots you silly boomers. Everyone uses the some ones. Still it had been hard enough to drag them onto the Audi lot originally and while the Audi had been the most reliable and meticulously crafted car they had ever owned I was still worried that the downsize would result in a reversion to their old views on what they thought were sensible vehicles.

Now, it’s universally understood by the automotive world that Audis have the best interiors on the market today. They’re the stuff designer’s dreams are made of. From the little LED lights inside the door handles to jewel-like instrument gauges, Audi interiors are what Lexus’ want to be when they grow up. I feared losing this special feeling. Going from the Audi to a Civic or Corolla must be akin to what Marie Antoinette felt when moving from Versailles to the Conciergerie Prison. Well maybe that’s exaggerated but I vaguely remember a semi-subconscious nose upturn when stepping into the Corolla/Civic/Sentra from the Audi. Put simply, and as snobby as it may sound, it’s hard to step from a German car into a Japanese one. They’re built with different philosophies. Germans build small cars, the Japanese build economy cars.

Yes, you silly American, there is a difference. You see, in Europe a small car doesn’t mean you’re making sacrifices, it means you’re smart. Thusly European small cars are designed with the comfort and features of a large car, just in a smaller package. This is often referred to as 1 sausage (wurst?), 3 different lengths (small, medium, large). It's the same basic car just in 3 different sizes.

Then we chanced upon the VW Rabbit. It was different, and you could tell the first time you move your hand over the dashboard. It’s a pint-sized luxury car in a sea of econo-boxes. It has those little things that make the difference and get us design freaks all hot and bothered. Things that many may not even appreciate but make all the difference to someone with more than mild case of OCD. Case in point…

1. The handle to open the rear hatch is actually the VW symbol itself. It pivots in and becomes a handle. Simple, brilliant and undeniably Apple-like.
2. The tiny silver cap on the inside of the headlight cluster is in fact a VW symbol.
3. The ridiculously richly finished rear hatch loading area. The groceries in the Rabbit enjoy higher quality carpeting than the front seat occupants of lesser small cars.
4. The red LED lights embedded in the ceiling that bathe the cabin in a subtle red glow so that you can see where your hands are in relation to the button you are trying to press at night.
5. The large dot matrix computer display in between the speedo and tach that give you information like which door is open, what track is playing from your iPod, how many miles you can go till empty, which tire has low pressure and even if you need more wiper fluid.

And oh my the standard features. Tire pressure monitors, auto up/down power windows for everyone, heated seats, automatic climate control, side mirror turn signals, full size spare tire, trip computer, 8 airbags, 6-disc CD changer, drive-by-wire steering, 170 horsepower 5-cylinder engine. All in a cabin built with the materials and quality of a Mercedes or Audi (and yes I know Audi and Bentley are made by VW). All for $19,000? Forget Acura, VW takes bargain luxury to a whole new level.

So a 2008, United Gray, 5-speed, 5-door VW Rabbit is officially the newest car in my parent’s automotive stable, er hutch. Now if only we could have gotten our hands on one of those special edition ‘harlequin’ Rabbits…

One thing’s for sure, Nancy’s new VW Rabbit has more features and a faster 0-60 time than my 2006 Mercedes and that’s no laughing matter. Next time instead of driving your old Corolla straight to the Toyota dealership to trade it in for a new one do yourself a favor and see what VW has to offer. VW’s newest little frankfurter burner is one heck of a frisky little thing. The dub's legendary craftsmanship and attention to detail is still alive and hopping.