 I bought my automatic Gold TDI in tornado red in 2011. It was my first new car. It was difficult to find as I was living in Louisiana and had to get it in Texas. This car is so much fun to drive -- and this coming from someone who doesn't particularly enjoy driving! The car has peppy pickup but it's the diesel torque (256 feet pounds of it!) that will blow you -- and other car drivers! -- away. The cabin design is fairly upscale for a moderately priced sub-compact car . . . and once "Red" (yes that's her name) turned over 40k miles, her mileage got even better (averaging 47 mpg). The driving dynamics are solid -- she hugs the road and has no list on cornering. The seats are bolstered, include a lumbar support on the driver's side, and are very comfortable.I wish leather seats and seat memory were offered. The diesels do have one quirky thing: they warm up slowly so they feel quite "hurky jerky" for about five minutes after startup. I understand this is by design and a fuel efficiency thing.If you are looking for a smart car that can hold her own on the highway, has great driving dynamics and will same you money at the pump, it doesn't get any better than this in this class. If you're willing to spend more, the BMW Series 3 Diesel is a plusher ride but it has a much heftier price tag.I am writing this at a time when the diesel scandal at VW has broken. I still love my car and emissions aside, I think it's a better environmental choice than gas guzzlers. Red truly is a smoking car...and my husband loves it even more than I do.UPDATE -- Because my car was affected by the recalls for the emissions, I came to the hard decision to sell it back to VW last year. VW made the process fairly easy and actually paid us 70% of the new car cost for our vehicle which had nearly 100k miles on it. Mind you, the car was in cream-puff shape. We ended up getting a 2015 Mercedes GLK - Bluetech (their version of the diesel) to replace it. I love the Mercedes GLK and as a compact SUV it gives me enough height to scan the road that is now filled with large SUVs and trucks. But...it broke my heart to give up the VW. I actually wept when we had to turn it in and my husband was the one to clean it out. The main reason we let it go was because we were concerned that eventually, the state would force us to have the emission "updated" by VW and I had no idea what that would do to the performance of the car. Also, it was a sweet deal financially to sell a car back 5 years later (regardless of its shape) for 70% of what I paid. I know a lot of people are turned off from VW...but I would buy another VW in a heartbeat. They make great cars that are actually fun to drive!