Bad seats ruin an otherwise decent experience
Emissions scandals aside, the Volkswagen Jetta used to be the cool alternative to the Ford Focuses and Honda Civics of the world; always feeling like a little extra thought was put in to styling, handling and overall creature comforts at a fair price. German engineering and all that. Now I think the Americans and Japanese competitors have caught up, and possible surpassed the strong selling little sedan.
Beginning with the creature comforts, they just aren’t that comfortable anymore. The leatherette seats are hard and flat, offering up almost no support for my back let alone any lateral support. I drove it for a few semi-extended periods of time over the weekend and ended up with a twinge in my lower back. The seat heaters are strong, which is nice on a chilly November morning and the wipers seem to do a good job of clearing off the frost.
The touchscreen radio is good looking and easy to use, though some of the buttons feel a little cheap. But I think that screen is standard, which is a nice touch. Same deal on the rest of the switches and buttons, they feel plasticky, but seem to work. I do wonder how they’d hold up after a lifetime of use though.
The Jetta interior is plain, but useful.
The turbo four is just barely adequate, and had me wishing for that torquey diesel that we may never see again. It lags a bit before getting up to speed, but expressway passing isn’t too bad when you put your foot to the floor. I had to put it in sport mode to make it livable in normal traffic. The brakes on this particular model weren’t very efficient. I had to move the pedal a good five inches before anything starts to happen. They get a little more grippy once you’re that far in, but so does every other brake pedal on the planet.
The Jetta doesn’t feel as solid as the past cars did, as far as I can remember. It sounds a little tinny when you slam the doors, and much of the road sound penetrates the cabin, especially at higher speeds. It’s the same with big potholes and road cracks, they broadcast into the passenger compartment through the floorboards.
Steering is on the lazier side, but it’s probably better than 50 percent of the cars on the road. Changes of direction are fine, with a little bit of body roll. Braking and acceleration are about the same with a bit of lift and dive, but it isn’t so soft as to be annoying.
So the Jetta starts at $ 18,700 or so, within a few hundred bucks of the Civic and a thousand or so of the Ford Focus. So they’re all right in the range. The Jetta used to be the cool choice; it also used to have some character in its styling. Now the rest of the small cars have caught up, and possibly passed it, and since it doesn’t win on styling anymore either it would be a tough buy for me. And of course there’s the emissions issue to think of. Give VW a year or two, I’m sure they’ll be right back on top. For now, stick with one of the many other choices in the segment.
OTHER VOICES:
“Whatever else this Jetta might have had to offer, it was all eclipsed by the horrific torture chamber VW passed off as the driver seat. After a single 11-mile drive home, my back was a wreck, and three days later I still suffered from a seriously busted lumbar. When I did manage to push the pain out of mind for a moment, it turns out maybe fitting the Jetta with that back-mangling seat was a deliberate move: I found very little to recommend the car, period. The brakes barely stopped the car, the engine barely made it go and the overall design barely made an impression, not helped in the least by the dull silver paint. The infotainment system is among the least usable, and every time I had to slow to a stop, the transmission would send shudders through the car on every downshift. This car has to be the most disappointing I’ve driven in years.” –Natalie Neff, editorial content manager
“Even with a redesign the Volkswagen Jetta is definitely lacking an allure. The back seat was cramped, the infotainment screen was small and the cabin seemed to be filled with hard plastic. I would personally go with the Mazda 3 instead of the Jetta. It is fuel efficient, more roomy and more fun to drive for roughly the same price.” -Justine Woodard, editorial intern
OPTIONS:
None
