A bridge with a future

As the former owner of a heritage automobile, I was disappointed when Í first inspected the re-opened Blackfriars Bridge. When I expressed my disappointment and explained why the poor paint and lingering corrosion bothered me, my friends patiently explained it's an old bridge not an old car. It's been rehabilitated, not restored.

I thought for a moment. I recalled how my old Morgan was built in the days before seat belts. When I sold the roadster, the first thing the new owner did was install seat belts. This was an act of rehabilitation and something I should have done years ago. I had allowed myself to be seduced by the restoration mythology: if it wasn't there originally, it shouldn't be there. Period. And bunkum. Old or new, equipment must meet today's safety requirements. Anything else is stupid. I had been stupid.

I wonder about all the unpainted stuff that I found all over the Blackfriars Bridge. The corrosion would not have been acceptable on an old car, rehabilitated, restored, re-anythinged. Still, it is an old bridge and not an old car.

Those running the City of London should be proud. The continuing presence of the Blackfriars Bridge over the North Branch of the Thames River is remarkable. The fact it is also still carrying traffic is a rare achievement.

 If you had assumed a 143-year-old structure would not have been designed to meet today's demands, you'd have been right. (Heck, my Morgan was only 45 year old and it fell short.)

It is for some very good reasons that the Blackfriars Bridge of today is not, for the most part, the original structure. Instead, it is a ghost, an elegant reminder that the past is past, that times change and that stuff must change too or be left behind. The Blackfriars Bridge has changed. It has not been left behind.

This is not a restored structure but a rehabilitated one, and a somewhat repurposed one. It no longer carries horses pulling farm wagons but cars, albeit in only one direction, plus numerous pedestrians and cyclists.

Top detail of derelict Wrought Iron Bridge Co. bridge arch.

It was almost 70 years ago that the bridge load was restricted to five tons. A few years later it was necessary to do "significant work" to strengthen truss members and reduce vibration. By 1986, the load limit had to be reduced again. This time to only three tonnes.

Since that first "significant work", the bridge has undergone a lot of significant remedial work. I'd argue the bridge standing over the river today is a new bridge which incorporates the visual elements of the original bowstring-arch truss bridge.

I'm old enough to recall when hundreds, if not thousands, of wrought-iron bridges were still in use throughout both Canada and the United States. Almost all are now gone. Worn out, demolished, replaced.

Restoration: really?

I was disappointed by the new bridge because too many folk, often journalists, refer to the work as "the restoration of an historic gem." It isn't. It's better.

The myth of restoration is a killer. Structures have been demolished when found impossible to restore. Restoration can be an impossibly high bar to clear. Why? Because of what true restoration entails.

Restoration modifies an heritage structure to accurately reflect its appearance at a specific point in its past. This may involve the addition or the removal of structural material.

The engineers who rebuilt the London bridge to meet today's demands proclaimed quite openly that they were rehabilitating the structure. Rehabilitating is not restoring.

There is very little of the original bridge in this latest incarnation. This is as it should be if the goal is to keep the bridge in use. Once we get our heads around the truth that restoration is not the only way to honour the past, opportunities appear all around us. Think of Old Quebec. As I wrote in a previous post:

I am old enough to recall when many of the present "heritage" structures (in old Quebec) were not there. Many of these buildings were not restored but recreated. Much of the area's 18th century ambiance so loved by tourists is faux.

Once we accept that our new bridge is a glorious salute to the past, a glowing, functioning memory, we find it possible to openly ask, what is the best approach to preserving the illusion of heritage? To answer this, we must bring artists and historians into the rebuilding effort and not just engineers. Artists like Ted Goodden, who featured the bridge in his art, can bring a lot to the rehabilitation table.

Those who take the time to look will discover that the new Blackfriars Bridge is magic--a practical answer wrapped in romance and sentimentality. Gérard Morisset, the art historian behind the reclaiming of Old Quebec's heritage texture, argued it is completely acceptable to restore a structure "to a state of completeness that may never have existed."

A construction update picture posted by The City of London.

Make no mistake about it, the reopened Blackfriars is new bridge, a stronger bridge, a bridge with a future not just a past. This is not just a facade like the old roomless hotel pasted into the northeast corner the Budweiser Gardens. This is a working bowstring-arch truss bridge. Appreciate it.

Independent cheese producers are a dying breed

My wife and I have been buying locally produced Bright Brand cheese.

Recently, a local journalist surprised me by tweeting: "Really wish @LoblawsON would stop displacing quality Canadian products like Armstrong Cheese from its shelves with yet more PC brands."

I was surprised for three reasons: One, I've never been all that fond of Armstrong Cheese. Two, I'd assumed  Armstrong Cheese was what I call an industrial cheese made by either Saputo or Parmalat. And three I would not be surprised to learn that both the PC cheese and the Armstrong cheese are from the same cheese producer. (I'm not saying they are. I'm only saying that it would not surprise me.)

As a boy, my parents used to vacation in eastern Ontario. My father was raised there and after he married my mom they had a farm so near Alexandria that the town railway station could be seen from my parent's farmhouse. One of my uncles stayed in the area and my parents still had lots of friends living there and so we visited regularly.

One of my parent's friend was a cheesemaker. I loved going to his cheese factory and sampling the still warm cheese curds floating in the remaining whey. I was a kid who understood well what Miss Muffet was enjoying when surprised by the spider. She was eating squeaky cheese.

Today, that cheese factory is gone. It was bought and closed by Kraft Foods, I was told. My dad's friend made out O.K. Kraft paid him a fair price but the factory and the local jobs it provided disappeared. It was a loss for the community and for the area.

The story of Kraft Foods is a whole other story. Follow the link. It's an interesting tale. Kraft is credited with inventing processed cheese. I had a friend who worked for Kraft in Montreal and he was amazed at the magic the company could perform with cheese. It was good cheese in and Velveeta out. An amazing, if somewhat backward, process.

Today the three big names in the cheese industry are Saputo, Agropur and Parmalat. When I think of Saputo it may not be fair but I think of cheese plant closures and loss of solid, long-time, community jobs. Saputo bought the Armstrong cheese company some years ago, moved production to Abbottsford, BC, and closed the century-plus operation in Armstrong, BC. 73 local jobs were lost.

The closure in Armstrong was not the only Western Canada closure announced at the time. A total of 254 workers were affected, the CBC reported. Recently, Saputo has been busy closing dairy operations in Eastern Canada. In March the Cape Breton Post reported the closure of the Scotsburn Dairy in Sydney. "It was such a sudden announcement that people are mostly in shock . . . . " 100 workers were affected.

Along with the Sydney closure, other closures were announced in Princeton, Quebec, and Ottawa. In all, 230 workers will be laid off. According to the company, it will realize a savings of approximately $23 million annually after all the closure expenses are covered.

So do you buy Saputo products? Think: Alexis de Portneuf, Armstrong, Baxter, Dairyland, Danscorella, De Lucia, Dragone, DuVillage 1860, Frigo, Kingsey, La Paulina, Neilson Dairy, Nutrilait, Ricrem, Saputo, Stella, Treasure Cave, HOP&GO!, Rondeau and Vachon. Is that the whole list? Not at all. For instance, late last year, Saputo acquired Woolwich Dairy, famous for its goat's milk cheese and Saputo may by the cheesemaker behind many private label products.

If you, like me, thought Black Diamond had the earmarks of an industrial cheese, you may have been surprised to see Black Diamond missing from the above list. Don't be. Black Diamond appears on the Parmalat list of holdings: Astro, Balderson, Beatrice, Black Diamond, Lactantia are all Parmlat-controlled brands.

From the long list of cheese brands all being produced by only two giant cheesemakers, it is clear that quality cheese can be made by the big outfits. So, it is not the quality that is the issue for me. It's the jobs. It's the way of life that is being loss.

So, what does one do? Me, I try and buy from a smaller, independent producer. I like Bright. This is cheese  made by a co-op located in the Bright, Ontario, area near Woodstock. The Bright plant has been in the same location since 1874.

I've even introduced my granddaughters to the fine flavour of a grilled cheese sandwich made with Bright extra old cheddar. I don't make a big fuss about the flavour, I don't draw attention to the fact that this cheese is different, and the two little girls respond by loudly proclaiming their cheese sandwiches are "delish." Of course, it also helps that the Bright cheese I use is a reassuring orange.

No surprise here: Toddlers have amazing language skills

Is my youngest granddaughter advanced, as some in my family like to think? When I heard this claim made yet again the other day, I decided to do some research. My own gut-feeling was that the kid cruises along at the high end of the curve but it would be wise to refrain from informing the university of our budding genius.

I came by my gut-feelings thanks to watching two other children go from being babies, to toddlers to little girls. These children are the littlest one's sister and cousin. I was convinced the two girls were advanced. They weren't. They were bright. But that's it. Bright, by the way, is very comforting. It puts a lot of worries to rest.

So, what can the average 18-month-old do? A lot more than one might expect. I gleaned the following from PBS Parents and confirmed the numbers with further research.

• At 18 months, kids understand 200 or more words and use 68 words. (Keep in mind that a well-trained dog may understand something in the order of 200 words.)
• Between 16 and 23 months, children typically enjoy a spurt during which they acquire one or two words per day. By 23 months the average child can say about 200 words.
• At about 18 months, the average kid begins combining words to form phrases and even sentences.

Children understand a lot more than most of us realize. Choose your words carefully around little ones. They are listening and understanding. At least, this is true when it comes to their native language. Sometime after 6 months of age the ability to discriminate individual sounds in other languages takes a downward turn. The loss of this sensitivity is gradual but steady and with the passing of time a lot of this language ability is lost.

A senior I know says he has no ability to learn a new language. None. He worked in government for years, took French courses as a Canadian government employee and yet can't order dinner in a Quebec diner.

Both the old geezer and the young toddler are actually just average. The old fellow may be at the lower end of the curve while my granddaughter may be nearer the top but neither is remarkable.

When I watch folk pushing children like my granddaughter, filling these children's heads with stories of their great abilities, I am reminded of the last two lines of the W.H. Auden poem The Average.

"He saw the shadow of an Average Man
Attempting the exceptional, and ran."

For me, there is no shame in being average. For one thing, I believe most of us are exceptional at certain things. Being exceptional, but only in limited areas, is also average. One must learn to appreciate and celebrate one's talents.

I like the way the Leadership Freak put it: "Believing exceptional is about everything and not one thing places exceptional out of reach. The impossibility of being exceptional at everything paralyzes legitimate passion for one thing." I believe it was this that foiled Auden's Mr. Average.

My senior friend should accept the reality that learning a new language is difficult for old geezers. His problems should come as no surprise. If he accepted this truth, maybe, just maybe, he could learn to speak French on the level of a two year old, order poutine in a Quebec restaurant and have French language comprehension skills on par with the family dog.

ReThinking Heritage Districts

The City Hotel as it appeared in about 1895.

Considering how much of  historic London, Ontario, has been torn down and relegated to the history books, The London Plan devotes a lot of space to historic London

I've only lived here since the mid 1970s and yet I've watched a lot of historic London disappear. And I've been amazed at what passes for saving our architectural heritage. Think of the City Hotel, the Capitol Theatre and the Bowles Lunch building.

Today the City Hotel, later the Talbot Inn, is a facade with opaqued windows.

The City Hotel goes back to 1865. In 1886 it was extensively remodeled and enlarged. When I moved to London the name had been changed to the Talbot Inn. If memory serves me right, one could get a good Mexican dinner there along with a cold draft. At night one could catch some of the best blues musicians on the bar circuit playing next door. The inn barely escaped demolition when the other buildings making up the Talbot Block fell to the wrecker's ball. The streetscape disappeared to make way for a new downtown mall and hotel complex. (In the end, the mall/hotel complex failed to materialize despite the hasty demolition.)

The Talbot Block was a wonderfully intact row of historic buildings. It was possibly the most historically important block in the city. At one point, more than a thousand Londoners held hands to circle the block and loudly protest the proposed destruction. It was all to no avail. Everything was taken down. Only a poor imitation of the old hotel's facade remains as the exterior wall of the north-east corner of Budweiser Gardens, a sports and entertainment centre.

The London Plan proposes to protect our built heritage and revitalize London's downtown. The distinctive historical elements on our oldest buildings will be conserved according to The Plan. I say it is a little late to take the save-our-built-history approach. If there was ever a topic in need of rethinking, it's what to do with London's core and the remaining historic buildings.

Large chunks of the downtown have been demolished and rebuilt.

I propose a three pronged approach to creating an historic looking downtown core.

1. Restore remaining historic buildings.
2. Rebuild some of the easily duplicated missing historic brick structures.
3. ReThink the core by finding historic buildings facing demolition in other communities, buying the facades, or at least the most important and difficult to duplicate elements, and bringing them to London for reuse.

I know the last two suggestions sound absurd but they really aren't. In fact, both have being done successfully in many places around the world. Think Williamsburg in the States or Old Quebec in Canada.

 Ada Louise Huxtable points out in her book The Unreal America: Architecture and Illusion that "approximately 730 buildings were removed at Williamsburg; 81 were renovated and 413 were rebuilt . . . The next step replaces the "wrong" buildings with the "right" buildings, moved, in turn, from somewhere else." Huxtable calls the result a stage set.

Old Quebec City, despite its fame, has a lot of faux heritage buildings. According to the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America, Gérard Morisset, the art historian behind the reclaiming of the old city's past, believed "restoring a building does not mean maintaining it, repairing it, or rebuilding it; it means restoring it to a state of completeness that may never have existed." I personally saw some of the last Old Quebec heritage buildings under construction in the mid 1970s. The reclamation had been going on for about twenty years at that point.

The Capitol Theatre facade above left. The faux Bowles Building on its right.

London already has one handsome, faux heritage building: The Bowles Building. Originally one of the Bowles Lunch chain of diners, the building had a rich architectural heritage. It's clean, white terra cotta facade sported two large, ornate capital Bs on both sides of the second floor window. The terra cotta is gone, replaced by stone. The fancy Bs, difficult to replicate in stone, are also missing.

Deconstruction and skimming could repair London's core.

Detroit has a lot of once fine structures that are suitable for architectural salvage, both deconstruction and skimming. Deconstruction is the disassembly of buildings to their foundation to preserve up to 85% of the materials. Skimming, a less intensive method, salvages the easy-to-remove materials. The Architectural Salvage Warehouse in Detroit specializes in both deconstruction and skimming.

Cities are for people. At one time London's core was for people. The sidewalks were crowded day and night. If our city planners want to create a downtown heritage district, they are going to have to get busy creating. Otherwise, many of the remaining heritage buildings will disappear and the feeling The London Plan envisions will never materialize.

Heritage streetscapes are popular around the world.

Since writing this, the downtown core has lost another bit of heritage. Kingsmill's department store is closing and being bought and converted to use by Fanshawe College. One more reason to visit the downtown will have vanished. (My wife and I bought a lot at Kingsmill's.)

Threads

For some of us there is nothing like a little heart problem to add spice to life. Note, it is important that the problem be little. If it is too big, it is all consuming. That's not good. The goal is NOT to be worried about dying but to feel driven to live, to savour the linked moments we call life.

If you have followed my blog, you will know that my granddaughter, an anglaise, is enrolled in a French public school. This is not a French immersion school, a school for English children whose parents want them to speak French. This is a French school for French children.

My granddaughter seems to be getting by. The school has had no complaints about her work. I believe the school is being very supportive of her efforts. Still, I worry. I feel driven to learn a little French, to chat with my granddaughter in the language she uses at school. I want the French fabric that is her school life to be frayed a little and for threads of French to find their way into her homelife, too.

To this end I have been watching French television (mostly TV5) and reading French news stories. A new world has enveloped me. The fabric of French culture is a rich weave with lots of threads loose along its edges.

Which bring me to Joe le Taxi — a song that is among the top one hundred best-selling singles of all time in France. It is also claimed to have been number one in Canada. Are you surprised? I am. Clearly, it was a big hit in Quebec. And clearly I have not been aware of the French threads that reach into Canada but get cleanly cut at the Quebec border.

Joe le Taxi is about a black taxi driver in Paris who knows the City of Lights very well. If it's a great little bar you seek, Joe's your man. A rum drinking, saxaphone playing dude, Joe is cool on the outside with a hot passion for Latin music on the inside.

How did I find the thread that led to the discovery of this song? TV5 and a story about Vanessa Paradis. This French singer-model-actress had a fourteen year relationship with American actor Johnny Depp. This connection makes her fodder for a news machine pumping out stories for an anglais audience.

Paradis was only fourteen when she recorded Joe. Today, in her forties, she has a fourteen year old daughter of her own, Lily-Rose, who is now evolving into an artist. Her daughter already shares a writing credit with mom and another woman, a close family friend. Lily-Rose co-wrote Love Songs with them after coming up with the melody eight years earlier when she was only six.

Paradis is attempting to foster creativity in her children, she also has young son. Paradis is surrounding the two with creative people who will lead by inspired example. Paradis is filling her children's lives with threads — creative threads.

Life is made up of threads, billions of threads. We all follow threads. It is the way life works. These threads, an uncountable number, are interwoven into the fabric we call culture. I'm hoping this learning of French will encourage my granddaughter to follow threads which lead deep into the cultural tangle that is Canada than I have ever gone. I hope taking French will be inspirational for my developing granddaughter.

Too many Americans and Canadians wear large, thick cultural blinders. Many Yanks cannot get past the "greatest country in the world" hollow boast. Talk of anything outside the United States makes their eyes glaze over. I do not want my granddaughter to be trapped in a cultural straight jacket.

If a young Vanessa Paradis, barely a teen, singing a charming, little piece of pop music seems a fragile thread on which to anchor an interest in French culture, you'd be right. It is very fine thread. And yet, if you follow it, if you allow it to gently pique your interest, you will find your self travelling deeper and deeper into French pop culture.

You may find yourself immersed in French techno pop music experiencing songs like Vive la fete, Bananasplit, or Laurent Garnier, Flashback. I have followed those threads in the past thanks to a woman who was not a small thread but a large swath of wonderfully patterned cloth in my life: My mother.

In her eighties, cruising from channel to channel one evening, searching for something of interest on television, my mother chanced upon an open-air concert by Jean Michel Jarre recorded in Paris. She loved the concert, the music and the light show accompanying it. We followed the JMJ thread and found it led us to Charlotte Rampling, an English actress and his second wife. This new thread connected us with The Night Porter, a difficult movie from the '70s with Dirk Bogarde. Bogarde was one of my mother's favourite actors. The movie was not.

Threads: Life is composed of threads. The threads we follow lead us deep into the fabric we call life. Threads hold never ending interest. We pass threads from the old to the young, from the young to the old, and from the dying to the newborn. Look about, find a thread, follow it. Live!

Heritage districts: Often illusions

This Wednesday evening the London public has been invited to a meeting at the Convention Centre: Our Move Forward - Downtown Master Plan Community Consultation. I have mixed feelings about the approach being taken. With ReThink London still on the go, may I be so bold as to suggest that it is time for Londoners to rethink our historical districts and the preservation that such districts demand.

For an interesting take on the North American longing for lost heritage, read Ada Louise Huxtable's The Unreal America: Architecture and Illusion. When I read the posted piece, the first chapter of Huxtable's book, the talk of Colonial Williamsburg brought to mind Lower Town in Old Quebec City. I am old enough to recall when many of the present "heritage" structures were not there. Many of these buildings were not restored but recreated. Much of the area's 18th century ambiance so loved by tourists is faux.

At this point I had planned on blogging about the importance of thinking about cities in their entirety, of the advantage gained by respecting all city neighbourhoods and not just those designated heritage districts. I will get to that blog in time. But I have been sidetracked by a growing interest in the late Ada Louise Huxtable. The woman was amazing and her writing well worth our time.

If you love cities and architecture, click the link: Rereading Ada Louise Huxtable: 5 Essential Pieces.
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Another heritage building was lost in downtown London. The usual folk are mourning the loss. I wish the city planners and the heritage lovers would get with the game -- and the game is not simply saving all the remaining old buildings

The following is a scene from Old Quebec. The top view is a photo from early in the last century. Note the tall hotel on the left. It was relatively new at the time. Older images do not show the large hotel but they do show some of the structure, the bottom two floors, before they were incorporated into the expanded structure.

The lower photo is from Google StreetViews. Note how the upper floors of the old hotel were removed and the streetscape "returned", I use the word loosely, to its proper heritage appearance.

Manufacturing in London, ON: Lots of reasons for decline

This post has been attracting a lot of attention, but not from Londoners, from people surfing the net searching for information on why Southwest Ontario cities, and others, are fighting stubborn unemployment numbers. Here are the threats to employment noted in the following blog post:

• outsourcing
• obsolete technologies
• business mergers
• automation
• reshoring

For more details, read the rambling post.
Cheers,
Ken
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There was an interesting article in The London Free Press on the 9.6 percent unemployment rate in my Southwest Ontario city. To understand this distressing number, the article instructs us, "Look at your shoes." I did. Well actually, I looked at my granddaughter's — at her Crocs.

My granddaughter's Crocs cost $36.35. Why can't these be made in Canada?

The collapse of the shoe making industry, both locally and across the region, was being used by the writer to illustrate the implosion of local industry under the continuing pressure of outsourcing, the moving of jobs offshore. "Globalization happens," we're told.

The writer justifies the outsourcing, telling us, "Check out the rows of stitching . . . " Making shoes is labour-intensive piecework requiring workers to cut, stitch and glue materials.

Made in China. Why?

I looked again at my granddaughter's Crocs. I found them to be mainly one piece of molded, soft, pink plastic carrying a Disney fairy tale motif on the toes and a simple, white strap at the heel. Could this shoe not be made in Canada, I wondered.

I found the answer in The Free Press article itself, and the answer is yes. The writer tells us injection-molded footwear is a Canadian success story. Think of Kamik brand boots by Genfoot or the Kodiak brand boots under the control of Williamson-Dickie, Fort Worth, Texas. Some lines of both the Kamik and the Kodiak boot brands are made in Canada.

Made in China, full price of $39.99 only drops to $36.35 online. Incredible!

Did you notice an American company owns the Kodiak brand today? Buy a Canadian made Kodiak boot and support a company in Texas. Makes you think.

I started this post to investigate outsourcing. Globalization may happen but should it? We're told companies outsource to stay competitive. The resulting globalization keeps prices low, making products cheaper to buy by those consumers who still have jobs.

I think of my granddaughter's Crocs again: $40. And I think the argument that outsourcing is done to help the consumer may also be a crock.

There are, of course, more examples of stuff made offshore but still selling at a premium price. I am sure you, the reader, can think of some. We're all familiar with stuff like shirts, pants and sweaters now made in China or Bangladesh or Mauritius which seem to cost just about what they did when they were made in Canada.

I googled the idea that globalization is not all it is cracked up to be. I discovered Yunchuan "Frank" Liu, a professor of business administration at the University of Illinois. Liu says consumers are paying artificially higher prices for many goods thanks to outsourcing. Liu was quoted by the university News Bureau:

"Outsourcing is a topic that affects just about everyone, and the general consensus is that it's bad because American workers will lose jobs because of it," he said. "Most people only focus on the job-displacement angle, but very few people have questioned how it affects consumers and competition in the marketplace."

Liu discovered some firms "are unwilling to pass along the savings they've reaped from outsourcing production and labor . . . " If you want to know more, click the link: Study.

While outsourcing may not always provide the promised benefits, it always delivers the promised pain. And outsourcing does not always mean moving jobs offshore. Sometimes it can mean moving jobs from say London to another place in the province.

For instance, there was a time when a subscriber calling The London Free Press to report a missed paper reached a circulation employee working out of the York St. building. I believe London lost more than a dozen jobs when the paper outsourced that work to a group in Ottawa.

The newspaper graphics department didn't go as far when it was outsourced. The in-house department was closed, the work moved to Woodstock and the staff offered their old jobs back but at a reduced wage with reduced benefits.

Sometimes outsourcing can be done simply by firing staff and finding others willing to perform the same work for less. At one time The London Free Press owned a fleet of trucks for delivering the paper. The drivers were all Free Press staff, the trucks were maintained on site by company mechanics working in The Free Press garage. Today, the trucks and their drivers are outsourced, the company garage is closed and all the mechanics are gone. Again, high paid jobs have been eliminated and the jobs that remain are poorly paid in comparison with the past.

But outsourcing, be it local or global, is not the only thing killing jobs in London. To outsourcing, we can add the following:

• obsolete technologies
• business mergers
• automation
• reshoring

The Free Press can be used to illustrate the next two job killers.

When I started in the newspaper business a huge back shop brimming with staff was required to put out a daily paper. For instance, there were Linotype operators tapping out stories in molten lead. The computer made the Linotype machines obsolete and then, almost overnight, made almost every other job in the back shop obsolete. Today you can count on your fingers the people left working in The Free Press back shop. Dozens of jobs have been lost and they won't be coming back; They're obsolete — gone like the buggy whip.

The next job killer is the company take-over. This merging of businesses, often competitors, is always claimed to offer the benefit of synergies. The Free Press was taken over by Sun Media. The Free Press suffered a layoff. Sun Media was absorbed by Quebecor. The Free Press and Sun Media suffered layoffs. Sometimes I think synergy is just a fancy name for job cutbacks, layoffs.

Then there is automation. More and more robots are showing up on the factory floor. They paint, they weld, they lift, move and mix. These jobs are also gone for good. Some were dangerous, many were tedious, all are done better by machine. A robot now wields the spray-gun in electro-static spray booths and even some old-time painters are glad to see that job taken over by a machine.

Reshoring is the last cause of job loss and it is especially prevalent in London. Electro-Motive Diesel is a prime example of reshoring. EMD moved a lot of jobs from La Grange, Illinois, to London in the about two decades back. To the thousands and thousands of La Grange workers left unemployed by the move, London represented an outsourcing destination. With the U.S. in the midst of a "Buy American" movement, and with the Canadian dollar trading at par with the greenback, the time was right for the reshoring of EMD.

London wants to attract new businesses to the community. To this end, depending upon whose numbers you believe, up to $19 million in taxpayer money has been used to entice Dr. Oetker into setting up shop in London.

Funny, isn't it? Dr. Oetker, with reported revenue of €7.7 billion and with 23,000 employees worldwide, needed $19 million to be coaxed into locating in London. I recall a time when London businesses located in London because the business owners lived here. They didn't have to be paid to build their plant in their hometown; they just did it. It as logical. And they didn't demand to be paid to locate here but they gave, and gave generously, in support of their hometown.

The closed McCormick biscuit and candy factory in London.

Think of Thomas McCormick, founder of McCormick's Biscuits and Cookies. The word philanthropist comes to mind as one recalls the McCormick Home also founded by Thomas McCormick.

Now, think of Marc Leder, the fellow many claim closed the McCormick plant leaving the remaining staff unpaid, their pensions unhonoured. The word philanthropist, at least here in London, does not come to mind.

Many Londoners don't realize McCormicks brand candy is now made in Brazil.

The McCormick plant is closed, damaged by fire a few months ago it may well be demolished. But the McCormick brand of candies is still going; The candies are made in Brazil and imported into Canada by a company in Laval, Quebec. Some bags show a picture of the old London plant and others carry a write-up detailing the McCormick history.

London's biscuit and candy factory died from changes in ownership and the resulting supposed synergies. It died from outsourcing. And there are those who would argue one more cause must be added to the list: greed.

ReThink London must address urban myths

In early September my wife and I spent the better part of a week in Montreal, Quebec. Wonderful city. It is one of my favourites. I spent a lot of  time walking about the Côte des Neiges neighbourhood where my wife and I were staying with friends.

I have been following the oh-so-long London Free Press series examining London and I have been involved with ReThink London, a year-long review of the city's official master plan. The goal of ReThink is a new urban plan good for the next 20 years.

London is not Montreal. That said, there is a lot that London can learn from La Métropole. Let's begin.

Myth: Cars or people. One must make a choice.

Côte des Neiges is filled with people and cars. The area is alive.

All too often one reads stuff on how to make better people places. Add trees and flower beds while subtracting car traffic — is a good start, or so we often are told. Bunkum!

I've seen this done in Paris, France, too.

I was raised in a walkable neighbourhood. No car was needed but that did not mean there were no cars. It was the early '50s and every passing year brought more and more traffic. I lived near King's highway 39, a truck route through Windsor, Ontario, but even a busy highway did not hinder walking.

The Côte des Neiges neighbourhood continues that tradition. It is very walkable but filled with cars: cars on the roads, cars parked on both sides of surrounding side streets, and cars beside homes and even under them.

But, unlike the neighbourhood of my youth, Côte des Neiges has retained its rich mix of businesses. One reason might be the high residential density — approximately 20,000 residents per sq. km. There are lots of customers within walking distance and there is adequate parking for those who choose to drive.

What can London learn?

We must increase the density of our city. London has a published density of about 871 per sq. km. This number is probably low because a great amount of London is still undeveloped. Compared to Côte des Neiges we are very thinly populated.

Myth: London cares about increasing urban density

What's missing? Answer: Apartments above these box stores on Wonderland Rd.

London talks the talk but fails to deliver. When it comes to use of land, London is a pig. We come no where near maximizing our use of land. Increasing residential density is very important. It enables public transportation to become competitive and it makes the development of walkable commercial areas possible.

Not London: Note apartments above stores.

The planning committee rejected staff recommendations when they extended the "community enterprise corridor" on Wonderland Rd. The committee also loosened the grid patterns for residential development.

The Free Press reports that city planner John Fleming warned members the innovative nature of the original plan could be killed.
“You either have a plan or you don’t have a plan,” Fleming said.

What can London learn?

London has to spend some time looking at what other communities are doing to bring residents into commercial areas. The people making the decisions have to look to both older communities like Montreal and newer developments. Moving too fast may well saddle London with poor, low density developments that will be a blight to the community for years.

Myth: London has too many railroad level crossings

London does have a lot of streets intersected by railroad tracks. This is true. Still, everywhere there is a level crossing there is at least a crossing. The Montreal folk I talked to said they had too many cul-de-sacs, the result of street closures where a railroad cut through the neighbourhood.

Not the best example, an underpass is nearby, but the cul-de-sac results from tracks.

Depending on where you live in Montreal and how far you must walk or drive to get across a set of railroad tracks, you may think Londoners are lucky to have so many level crossings.

I worked for more thirty years as a news photographer for the local paper. I was inconvenienced by slow moving freight trains now and then but generally level crossings were not a huge problem. In fact, I saw them as a benefit.

Which is better: A street blocked by a passing train occasionally or a street blocked 24 hours a day by a fence-lined railroad track?

What can London learn?

There are some level crossings that should be eliminated. Let's focus on the problem spots, while taking pride in the fact that London has fewer cul-de-sacs thanks to our abundant use of level crossings. All level crossings should be controlled by gates with flashing warning lights.

Myth: Industrial areas in residential areas should be eliminated

Residential, commercial, industrial and religious uses mix on this Montreal St.

If the industry is loud, dirty, or smelly, it doesn't belong in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. But we should not be too quick to prevent industry and commercial areas from bordering on, or even mixing with, residential areas.

It was done with success in the past and is being done again in some large urban centres in the United States. London has an old, mixed use area in east London. Think of the abandoned McCormick's plant. McCormick Boulevard, behind the plant, has a number of manufacturing operations.

If the city has its way, the beautiful, historic terra cotta biscuit factory will be demolished and the land behind it redeveloped for housing. What a shame.

Why not allow the small industrial area to remain? If someone wants to walk to work, they can. Isn't that one of the goals of new urbanism?

The Montreal street shown is but a short walk from Côte des Neiges. It has residential units, commercial businesses and some industry.

It even has a rich mix of buildings devoted to religious activities. A resident assured me there is no move being made at this time to "clean up the area."

What can London learn?

Mixed use works in other communities. Maybe we can do it better in London. When I was a boy there numerous manufacturing plants in my neighbourhood. These businesses made an effort to blend in with the neighbourhood. I recall one plant that had a flower garden out front filled with colourful snap dragons. I used to see workers walking to work, a lunch bucket swinging at their side.

Myth: A simple grid pattern yields the greatest resident density

This just isn't true. It is easy to get from A to B when streets are arranged in a simple grid, but CMHC has devised a better approach when high density is the goal: The fused grid.

To learn more about the fused grid approach please read my blog: ReThink London: The answer is "fused grid".

What can London learn?

Having spoken with the city planning staff, I know that some planning officials in London are well aware of the fused grid. Yet, I went to a ReThink London meeting where city planning staff left mention of the fused grid out of an answer given a woman interested in knowing what urban street pattern was best at maximizing density.

London planners have to boldly step up and share their rich, urban planning knowledge with interested Londoners. ReThink London must be willing not only to be challenged but to do the challenging at times. London planners must not be timid when it comes to leading.
 

Myth: Cookie cutter homes unique to suburbia, especially '50s suburbs

 

A row of homes in North London.

Cookie cutter homes have been around literally forever. They are not unique to suburbia. The Côte des Neiges neighbourhood has a lot of houses of a similar design — mostly duplexes. But it is still an interesting area for a stroll.

Why is it interesting? The homes have nice touches. One home has a gorgeous wooden door in a beautiful stone enclosure. Another home has an interesting decorative treatment above a featured window.

Truth is that many of the duplexes in this Montreal neighbourhood seem to be little more than tract housing for the masses. Yet the years have been kind to the neighbourhood. Upkeep is important and many of these homes have been maintained with money, and more importantly, with respect.

What can London learn?

Insulting descriptions of neighbourhoods can often be the sign of a weak argument. When you hear the argument that a suburban neighbourhood is merely a collection of cookie cutter homes, feel free to ask: "And your point is?"

Add your own myths to my list.

There is a ReThink London meeting tonight and I want to get this posted. I encourage you to think about what you believe about cities, what you have been told, and to ask yourself, "Is this true?"

Think about the stories you may have read in The London Free Press about heritage buildings being demolished because they were impossible to save. The paper is often quite willing to simply report the words of those destroying the old structures; The paper rarely gives the other side of the argument.

Let me give an example from Montreal.

I understand this old home Victorian home was threatened with demolition. It was saved after the local community protested its planned destruction.

The home sits behind a Petro-Canada station. It appears to sit sideways on its lot — the front yard has been taken, or sold or something. Still the home has presence. It may be hidden but it cannot be missed. It may be white but it adds colour to the neighbourhood.

What can London learn?

Older neighbourhoods should be respected. And heritage buildings should be retained. If you want to create a people place, respect the history of the area.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the ReThink London meeting tonight.

Review: 2011 VW Jetta TDI

The new VW Jetta sports a classic look overlaid with gentle curves.

It has been two years eight months and almost 63,000 km since my wife and I last went car shopping. I had a short list of cars I liked and my wife had a short list of cars she didn't. Although the VW Jetta TDI didn't appear on either list, in the end that was the car that caught our eye. (Link to U.S.A. VW Jetta site.)

The TDI in the name signifies the car is powered by Volkswagen's Turbo Direct Injection diesel engine, an engine that has been given some serious updating with the arrival of the 2015 model. Having now driven thousands of kilometres in a TDI, I am prepared to answer a number of the most common questions concerning diesel car ownership.

First, how much more expensive is it to buy diesel fuel rather than gasoline? Many car reviewers argue that the savings gained by driving a fuel thrifty diesel is consumed by the extra cost of the diesel fuel in comparison to regular grade gasoline. Is this true? Not in my experience. I drive in London, Ontario, in Canada.

When last I checked, if I had burned gasoline rather than diesel I would have saved all of $32.20 burning gas. That's pennies. But, take the high mileage of the diesel into account and the diesel becomes the star of the fuel cost story.

At one point, my TDI was returning 40.2 mpg (Imp.) or 33.5 mpg (U.S.). That's far better than a comparable gasoline powered car. For instance, a 2011 Toyota Corolla with a 2.4 L, 4 cylinder and a five speed automatic may deliver 25 mpg (U.S.) in mixed city/country driving.

Taking both cost of diesel and fuel consumption into account, I calculate I have saved something in the neighbourhood of $2000 in fuel costs so far. Very nice. Does that cover the extra cost of the diesel over the gasoline engined Jetta? No it doesn't but it is closing the gap. I can see the break even point on the horizon.

Remember, these figures are mine. Your numbers may differ. If you drive a lot of highway miles, the difference may well be in your favour. For the longest time I was making a monthly trip to Burlington and my mileage was noticeably better. Now that I am driving almost exclusively in the city, my TDI fuel economy has suffered.

One last word on fuel economy: I'm often asked, what is the best fuel economy achieved by my diesel thus far? The answer is a little better than 60 mpg (Imp.). To achieve this, I stayed off the freeway on a drive to the Kitchener/Waterloo area. By taking older, slower highways I kept my cruising speed between 80 and 90 km/h. An ideal speed for the achieving the lowest possible fuel consumption figures.

VW Clean Diesel Distance Calculator

What is the farthest I've driven between fill-ups? That one is easy. Twice I have driven from London, Ontario, all the way to Montreal, Quebec, without needing to stop for fuel. You gotta love it.

VW Canada has posted a Clean Diesel Distance Calculator. Type in your postal code or address and discover how far from home you can travel on one tank of fuel. VW figures I could drive all the way Mont Ste. Anne's for a skiing holiday in Quebec without making a fuel stop. I believe them

The base VW Jetta TDI has a stick shift but my wife and I opted for the DSG (dual-shift gearbox) automatic transmission. This added $1400 (Cdn.) to the price of our car but we are glad we did it. You see, the manual shifter has collected some complaints. Reportedly, the 2011 Jetta TDI has a relatively stiff clutch pedal. Some drivers encounter stalling problems when pulling away from a stop. Others have complained their cars stall when shifted too early into second gear. Holding the car in first gear longer, some say, eliminates these stalls.

The stalling complaints are not new. According to Consumer Reports (CR) in an August 2010 article:

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched an investigation into stalling problems with 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI diesel cars. . . . CR went on to report their manual transmission-equipped 2010 Jetta and Golf TDI were both overly easy to stall in some low-speed situations, such as second-gear stop-and-go traffic. That said, Consumer Reports did not experience stalling as described in the NHTSA report.

My second car is a Morgan I bought new in 1968.

I have drove a stick shift for 45 years, a Morgan Plus 4 with no syncro in first. I think I understand the present VW problem. I found my Morgan ornery at first. And when others, not familiar with the little roadster, tried to drive her, she balked. Some cars insist on being understood.

After 43 years shifting an old moss box, I opted for the DSG tranny. This sophisticated double-clutch transmission can be thought of as two transmissions in one, each fitted with its own clutch. This is how Autos.ca. describes the set-up:

"One clutch manages the odd gears (1,3,5), the other clutch manages the even gears (2,4,6). When you’re in an “odd” gear, the transmission pre-selects or pre-engages the upcoming 'even' gear, so that changes are almost instant" — some claim the DSG system can shift in as little as 8 milliseconds.

Both my wife and I have found our DSG tranny well matched to our TDI's torque-rich power curve. The turbo diesel pumps out 236 ft-lbs of torque at 1,750 rpm. (The new engine in the 2015 delivers very similar numbers.) This big hit of torque in the low end of the power band gives the  illusion of the car being incredibly powerful for a four — it is — but if you think it is far faster than other cars in its class, well, it isn't.

It must be noted that some owners have complained that their DSG transmission shifts harshly. It can be tricky programming a computer controlled transmission to please everyone. When I wrote this, Volkswagen was still trying. A few months after buying our Jetta, the dealer upgraded the firmware in our DSG transmission to fix a problem we didn't know we had.

The transmission firmware, found in the Electronic Control Unit or ECU, uses "fuzzy logic" to quickly adapt the shift response to the driving style of the driver. The DSG tranny, controlled by the onboard computer, doesn't exactly learn as some claim but it does custom tailor its shift points during use. The December software upgrade apparently modified the "fuzzy logic" algorithm used by our ECU.

The Jetta TDI transmission can be operated as either a six speed automatic, this save fuel, or as a sporty five speed. In the D or six speed position both my wife and I have believed the engine felt like it was lugging a little at low rpm's — especially in the city.

It is not actually lugging I've been assured. Diesels don't lug like gasoline powered cars. Yet, some folk find this annoying and their complaints forced VW to modify the computer code to rectify a non-problem.

A quicker cure for the lugging problem is simply using the sport setting. This allows the revs to climb higher before the shift. In the city, I like the extra bounce this puts in the Jetta's step. But, as much as I like the sport setting, I keep returning to D. It keeps my fuel bills low. One month I didn't spend $40 on fuel. You've gotta love it.

Lastly, the driver can shift the DSG transmission manually by sliding the shifter all the way to the right. In Tiptronic mode, push the gear shift forward to up shift and pull the lever back to down shift. In this mode, the DSG transmission is operated primarily by the driver, but there are some built-in overrides to protect the transmission from driver error. Of course, there is no clutch pedal.

As you have probably already gathered, the VW diesel is not a thumping, clunking iron beast pumping out sound, fury and blue smoke. They don't call it a clean diesel for nothing. A modern direct injection diesel engine burning today's Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) fuel cuts exhaust emissions and eliminates diesel odors at the tail pipe.
Is it hard to find ULSD fuel? No. All diesel fuel sold at stations across Canada and the United States is now ULSD fuel. It's the law. The only problem I have run into is pulling up to a pump only to discover that the nozzle is too big a diametre for our car. Apparently, large diesel trucks are filled with fuel using an oversized nozzle to save precious time by pumping more fuel quickly. Recently, on a trip to Montreal, we encountered this problem.

All that said, I must admit that there have been times when our Jetta didn't hide its diesel heritage. For instance, on cold winter mornings, before the engine has warmed, the engine can be louder than usual. But, these times have been only momentary distractions. Generally our TDI has been very well mannered, keeping its unique diesel voice politely muffled.

One nice feature of our Jetta are the heated front seats. Both the seats and the seat backs quickly get warm and toasty. With three levels of heat intensity, you can wean yourself off the luxury of the smile-inducing heat in stages. No need to suffer heated-seat-withdrawal.

Diesels, by the way, take a little longer than a gas engine on fiercely cold winter mornings to pump out cabin-warming air. On those mornings, all too common this winter, the heated seats are a godsend.

During the cold months, I fill the tank more frequently with the goal of minimizes the chance of  water condensation contaminating my fuel. I understand this can occur in an almost empty fuel tank. And, speaking of contamination, I always try to say I am fueling the car and not gassing it up.

I do this to remind myself I am driving a diesel. I understand keeping gas out of the tank has been a problem for some diesel drivers. The nozzle on a diesel pump is usually a larger diameter than the one on an unleaded gas pump. This difference makes it difficult to put diesel in a gasoline powered vehicle but it does not protect the diesel driver from gasoline contamination.

I know one Jetta TDI owner who pumped gas instead of diesel. That resulted in a big, unexpected bill. Then he lent his car to a friend who topped it up with gas before returning it. Another big bill. Then he had an attendant at a full service station, or should I say fool service, pump the wrong fuel. Aauuggh, again! Another tow to the VW dealer and another big bill.

Many diesel pumps and/or nozzles are colour coded. But the colour coding is not consistent. In and around London, Ontario, bright yellow indicates diesel. In the States pump nozzles may have a green, black or even red plastic cover, depending on the station and the location.

Look for the word diesel; Keep the brain in gear; Keep gasoline out of the tank.

I also stay away from biodiesel. Another driver I know had serious problems after the biodiesel congealed in the cold Canadian winter. The result was a costly repair consuming a lot of the accumulated fuel consumption savings.

My "no biodiesel rule" is stricter than the recommendation from Volkswagen. The German car maker allows a 5 percent blend of biodiesel. I might play with biodiesel in the middle of the hot Canadian summer but otherwise I say no thanks. For more about the Jetta TDI and its green creds, follow this link to a Hybrid Cars article.

I guess I can't put off addressing the styling of the new Jetta. Obviously, I like the look but lots of early reviewers didn't. On its release, the automotive press recoiled at its conservative styling and at the choice of cabin interior materials. "Too much hard plastic," the critics said. Some went so far as to call the look "cheap."

Note the wicker seats in the Renault 4CV Ghia Jolly from '62.

My response? I say, "They don't know cheap." I'm old. I'm in my 60s. I can recall when cars really had cheap interiors. I believe it was a Renault 4 my friend Kathy drove in the '60s that had front seats made of canvas suspended from steel-tube frames. Now, that was cheap! (But that car was also cool, as was Kathy.)

That said, the Jetta interior is on the simple side and to me that's good. The Honda Civic was on my list of potential cars, as was the Ford Fiesta and Ford Focus.

Ford Fiesta interior

All got bounced for a number of reasons. One reason common to all was the look of the interiors and the complex stack of controls rising from the centre console. Lots of buttons and often lots of faux matte aluminum-looking surfaces. And lots of confusion for an old geezer.

One note: My nephew, an architect, bought a Fiesta. He loves it. He finds it a wonderful subcompact hitting well above its weight class. Clearly, one man's confusion is another's delight. Don't write off any car because of a reviewer's opinion. Go to the dealership and take a look for yourself. Go for a test drive.

VW dash layout is simple and executed in hard, black plastic.

We also considered the Prius and the Lexus hybrid. I liked the look of the Prius but my wife didn't. The Lexus hybrid was out too, out of stock, with no new cars expected for 60 to 90 days. All the problems in Japan at the time slowed deliveries of the fuel sipping luxury car.

Plus, both my wife and I were leery of the batteries in those hybrid cars. I have had bad luck with rechargeable batteries in cameras, computer notebooks and toys. Rechargeable batteries are not a selling point with me. Time may prove me wrong. We'll see.

The Jetta TDI Comfortline instrumentation could have been more complete. I miss a temperature gauge and an oil pressure gauge, for instance. It would be nice to have the cruise control placed in a handy spot on the top of the wheel spokes instead of being found on a control stalk which is somewhat hidden.

On the other hand, when driving in the States I can program the digital dash display to show my speed in mph: Handy. Also, there is an outside temperature display that flashes and beeps a warning if the temperature falls close to freezing. Disc brakes on all four wheels are another bragging point but personally I have never been disappointed by cars with drum brakes on the rear, and I think they are cheaper to buy and to maintain.

I have tested my Jetta's accident avoidance abilities; It passed. A fellow pulled out from a driveway into my lane. I made a quick dodge around the careless dude. The Jetta handled beautifully. My wife tells me that she too has had to take quick, evasive action. She found the car responsive while in-control. She gave our Jetta two thumbs up and she's a tough critic.

Our car has lots of pluses but so do many of its competitors in the compact car market. I'm thinking of the stuff that came standard on my Jetta Comfortline: traction control, stability control, ABS brakes, air conditioning, cruise control, adjustable steering wheel, heated seats, anti-theft system, alloy wheels . . . . Lot's of cars can match that list feature for feature.

When it comes to features, there is one car that easily beats my 2011 Jetta — and that's a new Jetta. Stuff that was optional is now standard and some of mechanical components have been upgraded. A new Jetta may look the same as mine but in reality it is a better car.

One last confession: I can't really afford my Jetta. I'm retired and money is tight. When I was working, I drove the least expensive cars I could find. When I left the newspaper, I was driving a Saturn Ion. I hang my head in shame. My Morgan never had to share garage space with the Ion.

So, how did I afford a car that's worth almost twice that of my old Saturn? I didn't pay for it, at least not all of it. Volkswagen has a program where you pay back only a portion of the cost of your new car. There will be a balance owing at the end of the payback period. After 60 months, I will be stuck with a balloon payment for just under $8000.

When the five year loan is repaid, I must make the balloon payment. I will probably get a 30 month bank loan. If the car is worth more as a trade than the balance owing, I may just trade-in my Jetta and buy a new one.

Kelley Blue Book in the U.S. figures 48-cents/mi over 6 yrs.

My hope is my Jetta will be a fine car to own, with reasonable maintenance costs. It's already saving me cash on fuel, lots of cash. (I'm spending about 9 cents a km on fuel. This climbed from about 7.7 cents as fuel prices rose over the past few months.)

VW recommends an oil change every 15,000 km or 9300 miles. That's good; A TDI oil change is more money than I'm used to paying — the cost at the dealership is just less than $100. That's not surprising as the VW branded oil is more than $10 a litre. Still, all costs considered, this is fractionally less for oil than I had been paying. Another small savings.

At 60,000 km I am required to have the oil and filter changed in my DSG transmission. The dealer charges $425 for this service. I have heard some whining over this maintenance cost but if you look at the big picture, this oil/filter change does not amount to even a penny per kilometre. This is not a "break the bank" cost.

I can see a brake job in my future. Brakes wear, that's life. I can live with this. It's my engine and my tranny I'm praying will only require normal servicing. To me, both seem like sophisticated pieces of machinery and sophisticated can translate into expensive when repairs are needed.

Let's admit it. Some things can be compared easily and some things can't. If you want to compare gas mileage of various cars, I advise using the EPA site out of the States. The EPA numbers are far more accurate than the numbers released by the Canadians.

Important stuff, like the DSG transmission and the turbo charged diesel, are far harder to evaluate for others, especially when the competition in the car market is so fierce. This is why it is so important that you take a VW Jetta TDI for a long demo drive. Talk to the dealer and do more than circle the block. Get a feel for the car, and let the car get a feel for you.

I did and the car sold itself.

Photo: PR Volkwagen

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Two sour notes: With less than 65,000 kms on the car, the front coil spring on the passenger side exploded. My wife and I were at a service centre on 401 when the spring, part of the front suspension, broke with a loud bang. Luckily, the car was not moving at the time. Witnesses said they saw a burst of dust coming from the front of the car and then the front passenger side corner fell an inch.

We had the car towed to the nearest VW dealer where is remained for five days. We were forced to rent a replacement automobile in order to complete our trip. VW is picking up the cost of the tow and the repairs as the car is still under warranty but it appears they may only reimburse us for $300 of our out-of-pocket expenses related to the incident: hotel room, unanticipated restaurant meals and rental car. We spent more than $400 and are annoyed that a major component failed while under warranty and yet we are out money.

But that is not the end of this story. When I brought my Jetta in for its 105,000 km oil change and inspection, it was discovered that the front coil spring on the driver's side was broken. My believes she heard it 'explode' one night while parked in our garage at home. She thought the loud bang might have been a very large bird flying into our garage door. She was puzzled when she found nothing in the morning.

Now, both front coils have had to be replaced. This simply shouldn't be. My bill for what should have been a simple oil change and inspection came to just more than $800. Wow!

Did VW get install a batch of defective coil springs? Something is certainly amiss. I am beginning to believe that having these coils fail is not a rare occurrence. One theory holds that automobile manufacturers, like VW, in striving to cut the weight of their vehicles have cut too much. They have trimmed so much from the front suspension coils that these important items are now prone to failure from metal fatigue caused by thousands of miles of constant flexing.