Volkswagen Passat vs Jetta 2012 Comparison

Volkswagen Jetta 118 TSI?
Price Guide (recommended price before statutory & delivery charges): $26,490?
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): None?
Crash rating: Five-star Euro NCAP?
Fuel: 95 RON PULP?
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 6.5
CO2 emissions (g/km): 150?
Also consider: Mazda3 Neo ($20,330), Ford Focus Trend ($26,790); Toyota Corolla ($22,490), Renault Fluence Dynamique ($22,990)

The most notable thing about Volkswagen’s sixth generation Jetta when it was launched mid-2011 was its size. My how it had grown, thanks largely to a new platform all its own, independent of the Golf platform on which previous Jettas had been built.

The Jetta started life as a Golf with a boot – American buyers have long preferred boots to hatches. The new model is a response to increasing market fragmentation, an environment giving rise to more and more new niches. That’s how it’s come closer than ever to standing on the toes of the Passat, the stablemate from which it previously stood a clear arm’s-length apart -- small versus medium. On the outside, there’s now less than half a finger length between them -- around 25mm.

Which has raised the question more than once among those who’ve tried both: why buy a base Passat 118 TSI when you can buy a base Jetta with the same drivetrain for around $12K less?

Turns out there are reasons, and good ones at that. Mostly, they come down to matters of ambience and equipment. But the differences start with the drivetrain. The nameplate might be the same, alluding to near identical power outputs, but the engines are quite different. The Jetta’s ‘twin-charged’ 1.4-litre four-cylinder uses a supercharger to get it off the mark before handing over feeding duties to a turbocharger. The Passat’s 1.8 uses turbocharging only, with the extra displacement enough to get it off the mark and over the 0-100km/h threshold nearly as fast -- 8.5 seconds against 8.3 for the Jetta.

Both mills are calibrated for 118kW, but the Passat reaches that peak a little quicker, at 5000rpm to the Jetta’s 5800. Both engines hit peak torque at a nice, low 1500rpm. The Passat gets a little more and keeps it a little longer, its 250Nm lasting up to 4500rpm. The Jetta’s peak 240Nm drops away at 4000rpm. Whatever shortfall the 1317kg Jetta might suffer in muscle, it makes up for with a weight advantage of more than 200kg.

That weight difference shows up in real-world driving, too. Over a week in urban Sydney with an overnighter to the Blue Mountains, our Passat averaged 8.3L/100km. That’s some way up on the official 7.2 combined.

In our city-only week in a manual Jetta, we averaged 6.8L/100km, factoring in a run with four grown-ups plus gear through Galston Gorge, which yielded 9.1 in isolation.

With both engines as tractable as they are, in the face of the DSG-only Passat, the base Jetta’s six-speed manual makes it the more enjoyable drive on a decent ribbon of road. Despite the similarity of external dimension, back to back the Jetta feels more compact in every way. It’s less of a lounge room inside while at the wheel it’s nimbler, with the better steering feedback of the two. Each electro-mechanical rack-and-pinion system is calibrated in parallel with the engines, reflecting different priorities.

This extends to the ride and handling package, with each a well sorted balance of surface absorption and flat, neat cornering. No Volkswagen is soft in the belly, but nor is either unduly hard. Although the ride is similar, the Passat achieves more of a highway cruiser feel by virtue of better insulation on every front -- less engine NVH, less wind and road noise with the extra weight helping absorb the worst of the microtopography.

Indoors, the Passat feels more like a genuine medium segment contender. A $12K-plus price difference has to show up somewhere, and inevitably it’s in the materials, the kit and the way they’re put together.

The base Jetta is better equipped to pull small sedan buyers up a couple of thousand dollars than to persuade medium buyers to save a few grand. Past the normal power windows and air conditioning, it comes with 16-inch alloys, six airbags, cruise control, trip computer and Bluetooth for phone and audio. A seven-speed DSG adds $2500.

Despite a fair amount in common in the way of switchgear, the Passat is altogether classier, starting with the standard full leather, its cockpit is imported direct from the modish CC. Along with the 17-inch alloys, it has parking beepers all round, a better audio package and climate control HVAC, run with other functions from a large touchscreen. The seats are bigger, there’s more hip, shoulder and leg room front and rear.

On the downside, Volkswagen has work to do on making some of those centre controls more user friendly. Bluetooth pairing is a pain, and from this driver’s perspective the sat-nav system (among the options served up in our Passat) is infuriatingly counterintuitive.

Both cars have come with a five-star Euro NCAP crash rating, but the Passat gets side airbags for rear passengers on top of the Jetta’s dual front, side and full-length curtain package. In a first for its segment, the Passat also gets a driver fatigue detection system which monitors driver behaviour through the steering, the pedals and the phone connection. Any aberrations and it lets you know with a beeper and a cup-of-coffee light suggesting it’s rest time.

It also opens up a wide world of options not there in the Jetta. It’s the model in its segment to offer adaptive cruise. Order it and it comes bundled with Front Assist and City Emergency Braking systems, capable of overriding the driver when they detect the car bearing down too hard on an obstacle ahead.

Both cars have enormous boots – the Jetta 510 litres, the Passat 565 – with full sized spares underfloor.

The two Volkswagens may be remarkably close in exterior dimensions, but that’s about where the similarity ends. Back-to-back testing reveals stark differences reflecting the differing values of the segments into which they’re pitched.

The Passat puts a serious competitor in amongst the Accord Euro, Mazda6, Mondeo, Latitude and Liberty set. The Jetta doesn’t, not even in high spec, which brings it just $1000 short of the base Passat tested here. It feels altogether smaller and lighter, because it is.

Where the Jetta succeeds is in throwing an even bigger value bunger into the small car segment -- Mazda3, Cruze, Focus, Corolla et al -- than Passat does among the mediums. The Jetta’s size advantage in its segment simply gives it more bang.

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