Volkswagen Jetta 2011 Review

Volkswagen Jetta

A major part of Volkswagen's pitch for this Jetta is value, evident in a $2500 drop in entry price to $26,490 plus on-road costs. The company has rationalised the lineup, cutting the choice of drivetrains from five to three. Gone are the two diesels which formerly bookended the range – the base 77 TDI and top-line 125 TDI – leaving two petrol engines at low and high ends and a diesel in the middle.

It takes no more than a glance to see an altogether different car to the one it supersedes. The cabin sits back behind a longer bonnet, the wheelbase gains 55mm and a broad C-pillar alludes to a big boot. Which it is, at 510 litres.

Much of the extra wheelbase has gone into rear-seat legroom, helping turn the Jetta from a small car into something closer to the medium segment.

Although the company expects the mid-spec Comfortline to be the volume seller, the base spec is the value buy.

Alongside the usual power windows and air conditioning, base-spec buyers get 16-inch steel wheels, daytime running lights, Bluetooth connectivity for phone and music, eight-speaker audio, anti-whiplash head restraints, cruise control, leather wheel and shift-knob, and glove-box chilling.

The mid-spec Comfortline comes with a choice of 118 TSI petrol ($32,490) or 2.0-litre 103kW TDI diesel ($34,990). They're DSG only – seven-speed with the petrol and six-speed with the oiler [diesel].

Comfortline models get 16-inch alloy wheels, interior and exterior trim upgrades, a 'Comfort' front seat upgrade with more bolstering and lumbar adjustment and an electro chromatic rear-view mirror. The HVAC goes dual-zone climate control, the headlamps and wipers gain auto-on sensors. There's a reversing camera and front and rear corners get parking beepers.

The top-shelf Highline inherits the 2.0-litre 147kW TSI petrol four from the Golf GTI (where it's since been tweaked up to 155kW), with a six-speed DSG. Starting at $37,990, it adds leather, heated sports seats with storage drawers, extra trim upgrades inside and out, 17-inch alloys, fog lights with integrated static cornering lights, sports suspension with the ride height lowered by 15mm, headlamp washers, an audio upgrade with six-CD stacker and 6.5-inch touch screen controls, and a 12 volt power outlet in the boot.

Comfortline and Highline models take advantage of the substantial redundant computing power available in most vehicles these days with the addition of a couple of novelties. The electric fold-in wing mirrors come with a triangulating feature for simultaneous adjustment – do one side and it automatically calculates the other. It can be a bit confusing – it doesn't make life as easy as it sounds, at least initially – and it miscalculated, requiring manual adjustment.

More useful is the extension of the key-fob functions to include remote opening of windows and sunroof to help cool the car before you get in.

All Jettas come with a full sized spare.

The options list is modest by German standards, with highlights including a glass sunroof for $1900, SatNav at $3000 in Comfortline and $2500 in Highline, a Sports Package (17-inch alloys, sports suspension, fog-cum-cornering lights, tinted glass) at $2000 for Comfortline and $700 for Highline.

Don't be put off by that diminutive cubage. This is yet another example of German ability to pull a bucketload of power from a thimble. Dovetailing the blowers eliminates turbo lag and helps extract loads of muscle from a small displacement at low revs. It generates a healthy 118kW at 5800rpm and 240Nm peak torque, available across a nice broad band from just 1500rpm up to 4000rpm.

It's enough to carry the 1317kg manual (1337kg DSG) Jetta from 0-110km/h in a creditable 8.3 seconds and give it loads of mid-band, mid-gear overtaking muscle. It's a terrific marriage with the manual, giving it enough flexibility to skip gears two and three at a time without complaint.

Combined fuel consumption is a low 6.5L/100km, with CO2 emissions of 150g/km. On the launch drive program, we achieved 6.9 in the manual with a fair amount of time tackling the twisting ribbons around Victoria's Kinglake in third and fourth.

Sitting midrange is the well-established 103 TDI common-rail turbodiesel married to the six-speed DSG. As with most oilers, a relatively modest 0-100km/h sprint figure of 9.5 seconds is deceptive in imparting the way the car feels. Though they're not blisteringly fast off the mark, they're at their best in midrange rolling acceleration. This one's no exception, also delivering a combined-cycle fuel consumption of just 5.5L/100km. On our drive program, our 103 TDI Comfortline achieved 5.9 with a fair amount of foot-down experimentation.

It's a pity there's no manual option in the Highline. With 280 Newtons on tap from just 1700rpm from the 147kW turbo four, the six-speed manual is a fun thing indeed in the Golf GTI, and is tractable enough to render any self-shifter virtually redundant. With the DSG it's good for 0-100km/h in 7.5 seconds and 7.9L/100km combined

The DSGs still suffer bouts of over enthusiasm and jerkiness at low-speed, but they seem to be improving.

If it seems odd that the smallest mill gets seven cogs while the muscled ones only get six, it's down to different technologies reflecting different priorities. The dry-clutch seven-speed is designed to make the most of smaller mills producing less than 250Nm of torque, while the six-speed uses a wet clutch to cope with up to 350Nm.

Much of this we can put down to practicality and simplicity of function, things VW has given much consideration in this generation of Jetta.

It now holds five grown-ups in relative comfort, with reasonably generous storage fore and aft and a Commodorish boot with a flat floor, a big mouth, no side intrusion and a proper spare beneath the floor. A 60:40 split-fold rear seat extends cargo space into the cabin; Comfortline and Highline models get a folding rear armrest with load-through for skis and the like.

As an added security measure, the rear seat-back sections can only be dropped from inside the boot, preventing boot entry boot from the cabin.

The front seats get anti-whiplash head restraints and seatbelt pretensioning.

The Jetta also gains the crash impact sound sensor introduced in the Golf. With crumple zones set up to absorb impact shock-waves on which airbag sensors depend, adding an acoustic sensor to detect typical crash sounds and cross-checking them against deceleration data can make the millisecond's difference that might save a life.

Euro NCAP testing saw the 1.2-litre base Jetta score five stars.

Despite the considerable entry-level price drop, even in base spec the Jetta still commands a premium over many of these. Fortunately it feels the part. The interior looks austere by comparison, particularly with the Koreans, and it's not as well equipped as some. The base model left me wondering if it's really that hard to put a USB port in, especially when you're tilting at a younger demographic, although that particular shortcoming is mitigated by Bluetooth audio streaming.

But what it lacks in glitz it makes up for in build quality and ergonomics. The build materials are palpably classier than most of its counterparts. It's also a better proposition than most for five people and their gear.

On paper and on the road, even the base 1.4-litre engine with either transmission option leaves much of the competition looking and feeling prosaic, in some cases agricultural. And it's the same underneath. If the chassis isn't as well sorted as the Golf's, it stares down most of its sedan competitors on handling if not always on ride.

On fuel economy it's outstanding in every spec (a few quick combined-cycle comparison figures: Honda Civic VTi 6.9L/100km; Holden Cruze diesel auto and 1.4 petrol turbo both 6.9; Mazda Mazda3 diesel 5.7; Renault Fluence petrol CVT 7.9; Hyundai Elantra 1.8 petrol auto 7.1).

They've set out to pitch a package with all Volkswagen's signature virtues directly into a small sedan segment dominated by Japanese and Koreans. Yes, it still commands a premium but they're betting many an early-$20Ks buyer who will take a look into the mid-$20s to get behind a Volkswagen badge. For many, a test drive should clinch it.

It's not perfect. Those familiar with the Golf chassis will feel the extra wheelbase. The ride is teutonic-firm, possibly too firm for some. But it's a quality drive.

Come time to change direction, the electro-mechanical steering is typical Volkswagen – well weighted and responsive, with no free play at 12 o'clock. The back end can get skittery when pushed hard into bends on sub-standard local roads, but in the scope of its abilities, the Jetta has its target market's driving prowess covered with room to spare.

All Jetta variants are well insulated from road, wind and particularly engine noise. Even on coarse-chip tar the cabin is a pleasant place to be – at least until a decent pothole comes along, at which point it can ruin the atmosphere with a decent bang.

Our pick is the base model 118 TSI manual. The six-speed is a terrific box, with an easy, intuitive throw no matter where you're taking it. The engine is tractable enough to make for easy driving even in bumper-to-bumper traffic. It's also the one to take for ride comfort, with the 16-inch wheels (rather than 17s) putting an inch more air between backside and tar.

Outside of crawling traffic and parking lots, the six-speed DSG marries well with the oiler. But given DSGs are generally better used manually than left to their own devices, paddle shifters would be nice, at least as an option. The day will surely come when they're offered as much for comfort and convenience as for boy-racer chic. That said, the DSG can at least be made to change gears manually via the shift lever.

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