Thanksgiving is upon us and right on cue, so is winter. My wife (Esther) and I were travelling to visit my parents when the rain changed to sleet and finally into snow, but only after a “nice” layer of ice had formed on the interstate.

What is normally a two hour trip quickly stretched into four hours of nearly bumper-to-bumper traffic with vehicles of all shapes and sizes sliding off the road. Several cars had crashed into trees while others were crushed against the concrete barrier.

Frozen, two-inch diameter branches have been breaking off of the trees in my parents’ back yard. Some smaller branches had also broken off of their tree and fallen into the street. Luckily, we were able to avoid any incidents on the way.

Today was the first opportunity I have had to learn how my ’05 VW Jetta TDI handles winter weather. Overall it handled well until I reached an area with about four inches of loose snow. It was then that I started missing the Quattro that was present on my old TT.