PP C&C? Salvage Operations?

[Super Simple]

My wife and I took a drive the other night, and this is one of the photos that I took that didn't turn out very well. (Beginner trying out different settings...)

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/4434/resizeddsc0075800x531.jpg

This is my attempt at salvaging it with a few quick adjustments:

I like the second one much better. But, I'm looking to find out if I've managed what I intended. (i.e. Am I sort of going in the right "direction"?)

(The first is from a JPEG, the second is an adjusted NEF/RAW. I shoot in both JPEG and NEF/RAW just in case.)