Volkswagen Passat Estate: Review

   Something I've decided I'd like to do is to review a few cars that I ride in while I'm in England.  The hire car that my family has rented for our stay in England is, as shown below, the Volkswagen Passat Estate 1.6L Diesel.

   I would like to say that in England, there are two trends in automobiles that are incredibly different from America.  The first important difference I want to point out is about cars with manual transmissions versus automatic.  In America, we have a lot of automatic cars and still plenty of stick-shift manuals, but they aren't quite the clear majority.  In England, manual cars are considerably more common.  According to wikipedia, 80% of cars bought in Europe are manuals, while there are considerably less in the states.
   The second difference is very much akin to the first difference, but it has to do with fuel.  A lot more european cars use diesel fuel.  In America, for the most part, it's very large vehicles that use diesel fuel, but in Europe there are a LOT more diesel cars, and they are small diesels.
    Now, I don't even have my U.S. license, and you need to be 25 to drive a hire car, so clearly I'm not driving.  But I've been riding it: 2 hours from Heathrow to Clacton!  And let me tell you it's really a cool car.  It looks cool, it has a very nice interior, it's roomy in the back, and the drive is nice and smooth, at least when the operator doesn't have to stop suddenly for the slightly crazy British traffic.
   I know that, in the actual review, this is very brief, but I plan to do some more.  I hope to get my grandfather to give me a ride in his recently refurbished Porsche 924, and my Uncle on my mom's side has a Smart Roadster (Not just the typical Smart Car without a roof, it's a sport-y car.)  that I want to ride in, and I think that should be fun!