2000 Volkswagen Passat

My 2000 Volkswagen Passat has gone the way of all worn out vehicles.  I traded it in.  The car was a joy to drive.  The 1.8 Liter Turbo four cylinder had an amazing amount of power for a little engine; it went over the Sierra Nevadas without fuss, and even on very steep grades at high altitude, I was able to keep the transmission in 5^th gear and shoot right on up.  For high speed cruising in the desert, the car averaged well above thirty miles per gallon, and was quiet and stable, even in high wind conditions.   I think it would be wrong to say this car was Ferrari-like in the esses, but coming down through the Kern River Canyon (California 178), the car felt nimble and responsive.   I enjoyed driving Highway 178 between Bakersfield and Ridgecrest because the road covers just about everything: there are long straight stretches out near Ridgecrest, but the drive through Walker Pass, east from Ridgecrest, climbs up over the dry desert eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas, and then drops back down through forests of low junipers before coming out into the upper Kern River Valley—a moderately broad expanse that is sparsely populated, but has a marvelous road that undulates along the valley floor, and that invites cruise speeds beyond what the average farm truck does.  From Lake Isabella down almost to Bakersfield, the road goes through the Kern Canyon, which is v-e-r-y deep and narrow.  More great road, but as there are so many curves it is pretty hard to see far ahead much of the way, and the temptation to blast through curves is mitigated by the notion that an eighteen-wheeler might be blasting through from the other side.  Over all, California 178 is one of driving's joys in the central part of our state, and the 2000 Passat sedan was a perfect car to enjoy it with.  (The photo was taken just off the Trona-Johannesburg road in the Mojave Desert)