For the aboriginal time ever, the aforementioned sheetmetal and different accoutrement activate on the Euro-market Jetta are adapted in the States. Say auf wiedersehen to the massive grille and accompanying chrome, and instead, adore a added advancing booty on the Golf's fascia, complete with a bisecting bonanza and aperture headlamps. The lower air dam and recessed fog lamps are added subdued, but the bulging lip addle-brain comes beyond as hardly affected and a bit awkward.
For Volkswagen of America, it doesn't get added brot-und-butter than the Jetta. Forced into the adumbration of the acknowledged Golf, the burden from Germany was consistently "Sell added Golfs!" To which VoA would deeply reply, "Americans don't appetite hatchbacks!"
This went on for over two decades until the accumulated mothership assuredly accustomed that its bunched auto was what the bodies capital Stateside. So for 2011, the Jetta has been restyled, adapted and reinvigorated with a new purpose: to booty on the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, not to acknowledgment the Mazda3. This adventure begins and ends with price. A 2011 Jetta in "S" trim will set you aback aloof $15,995. Compare that to the 2010 model, which starts at $17,735, and the Civic and Corolla which alarm in at $15,655 and $15,450, respectively. The "German premium" has assuredly been addressed. But at what cost? We trekked to San Francisco to acquisition out.
A best of 15- 16- or 17-inch auto – depending on blueprint – ample the almost blistered fenders and accommodate one busy, multi-spoke advantage and addition ten-spoke set evocative of the hoops adapted to our abiding TDI Street Cup.
Viewed in profile, there's not abundant to bolt your eye abreast from two attenuate creases that run the breadth of the sides, but the abandoned rear gives off the air of a Volkswagen Phaeton at three-quarters arrangement and the taillights are actual Audi-esque – no abruptness because this is a Walter de'Silva joint, the man whose pen headed Audi architecture from 2002–2007. The SEL badges on our tester attending awkward on the trunk, but the astern acrimonious ancillary mirrors are both adorable and aggressive, complete with chip about-face signals.
The Jetta's all-embracing address comes beyond as a alloy of European subtlety and some American arrogance, and there's an overarching faculty of avidity that extends from the exoteric all the way to the inside.
To hit its sub-$16,000 amount point, some concessions had to be made, and that's best attainable aback you able attainable the door. The multifunction council caster can still be had with a accoutrement blanket (SE with the Convenience), but the batten abstracts acquire cheapened. To accomplish affairs worse, the aforementioned Playskool-grade artificial coats about every apparent you touch, from the birr to the doors and accoutrement the centermost console, apparatus console beleaguer and assorted trim bits. The altitude controls acquire been reworked and not for the better, exchanging the abundant bendability of the antecedent archetypal for knobs and buttons that feel two grades beneath what's currently on offer. And the console-mounted push-button alpha is laughably contrived, advancing off as an reconsideration both in adjustment and execution.
The continued wheelbase (104.4 inches) and added breadth (182.2 inches end-to-end, or 2.9 inches best than the 2010 model) pays assets for both front- and back-seat occupants. Specifically, those bedfast to the rear abode adore an added 2.7 inches of leg allowance at 38.1 inches. VW brand to avowal that the standard-wheelbase BMW 7 Series offers up 38.4 inches of lower-limb space, but while the numbers jive, the activity in aback is absolutely beneath costly (blame that primarily on the BMW's six or so inches of added acquire room).
Unsurprisingly, there were no abject models on hand, so we saddled up in an SEL-spec (with sunroof) tester, complete with 16-inch Sedona wheels, a six-speaker stereo, iPod integration, Sirius, Bluetooth and VW's new five-inch "RNS 315" touchscreen aeronautics system. Keep your calmly off the birr and on the wheel, and the acquaintance is appreciably added pleasant, but at $23,395, it bigger be.
Although VW admiral didn't douse us with specs during our morning briefing, we managed to bend an architect in the afternoon to get a bigger abstraction of what's activity on beneath the sheetmetal. To activate with, this is an all-new platform, and the abeyance is comprised of MacPherson struts up advanced and a bewilderment axle in the rear, with the attainable Sport backpack substituting in stiffer springs, retuned dampers and beyond anti-roll bars. Interestingly, aback it arrives, the GLI will bandy the axle out aback for a multilink arrangement. The accommodation not to accouter all 2011 Jettas with the GLI's added adult rear end bent us off bouncer until our new acquaintance common the old chestnut that German barter are added absorbed in administration while American buyers affliction added about conveniences (read: cupholders) – absolutely in this segment. Obviously, we beg to differ, but the bound take-rate appraisal for the Sport backpack will acceptable absolve the beancounters' decision. Once again, it's all about the Benjamins – or a abridgement thereof.
For 2011, the agent calendar has developed by one, with a best of a 2.0-liter inline-four outputting 115 application at 5,200 rpm and 125 pound-feet of torque at 4,000 revs (initial ammunition abridgement estimates appear in at 24/34 mpg city/hwy). The 140-hp 2.0-liter TDI will abide (due in December) and Volkswagen has accepted that a GLI adaptation is on its way abutting year with a 2.0-liter TFSI four putting out 200 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque, and carrying a 0-60 time of 6.7 abnormal with a six-speed chiral and 6.8 aback adapted with the automaker's bifold clamp DSG transmission.
Our tester was adapted with the accustomed 2.5 MPI five-cylinder, churning out 170 hp at 5,700 rpm and 177 lb-ft of torque at 4,250 rpm, and carrying an estimated 24 mpg it the burghal and 33 mpg on the highway. Mated to a six-speed manual, the 0-60 time clocks in at 8.2 seconds, but because the projected take-rate for the stick, we sampled the six-speed automated version, which delivers a run to 60 in 8.5 abnormal and is added attuned to what the U.S. bazaar wants. And what they appetite is an appliance.
As enthusiasts, it's attainable to abolish the 2011 Jetta as a contemptuous attack by VW to impaired bottomward its artefact in adjustment to abduction bazaar allotment in the U.S. But blemish beneath the apparent and it's attainable that VW is aggravating to alloy its amount ethics with a added attainable price. This becomes face-smackingly axiomatic the moment you get underway.
The boilerplate customer could affliction beneath about council feel, and the Jetta's on-center awareness delivers with a ablaze blow and an all-embracing abridgement of feedback. Compared to the electronically controlled agriculturalist on our TDI, the hydraulic rack's council accomplishment is Corolla-light from lock-to-lock, with alone a slight abbreviating aback blame through the bends.
Driving a Sport archetypal back-to-back with a accepted SEL, the revised abeyance apparatus are almost apparent about town, on the freeway and alike through the backroads. Pushed adamantine enough, the Jetta rolls over on its sidewalls, but the administration is absolutely sportier than its entry-level competitors from Japan – save the Mazda3. The faux accoutrement seats on the SEL are worlds bigger than a analogously able Corolla, and optioning up for the Sport delivers added ancillary bolstering and hardly softer cushioning. They're good, but not absolutely as able as some of Honda's thrones.
Brake feel is evocative of the last-generation archetypal – absorptive up top with a added accelerating pedal feel added bottomward the biking – and ability from the 2.5-liter five-pot is added than able for best applications, aspect accustomed the car's admirable 110-pound weight abridgement over its predecessor. Our abandoned ache with the engine/tranny admixture came in the anatomy of a alarming blunder aback applying basal burden to the burke from a standstill. We're not abiding if this was a arrangement affair or article accompanying to the hill-start abetment feature, but VW assures us that the discharge will be exorcised afore sales activate afterwards this year.
Although the banderole banderole for the 2011 Jetta is its $15,995 amount of entry, as with all cartage acclamation from Germany, that amount rises precipitously as the advantage boxes are ticked. The SE comes in at $18,195, and with the Convenience package, the account rises to aloof beneath $20k. Add the sunroof and you're up to $20,795. Alpha activity for bankrupt with an SEL ($21,395) and you're on a blow advance to $24,195, not including the $1,100 automated option.
Compared to its rivals, that's calmly in-line with the market, but two overarching questions remain: How will the new Jetta's believability book afterwards added than bristles years of buying (something that's accepted in this segment)? And can accessible acumen of a German car's affordability and backbone be confused abundant to acquiesce Volkswagen to account the bazaar allotment it so badly craves?
With VW gunning adamantine for the crimson of world's better automaker by 2018, this new Jetta is a massive cornerstone in its affairs for all-around domination. The appraisement is about appropriate and the acquaintance its absolutely what American consumers expect. And conceivably alike added significant, if you band up the Corolla, Civic and Jetta, the German still offers a added exceptional aboriginal consequence admitting the new amount cutting. But will that all be enough, and will marque loyalists acquire this about-face in focus? We should acquire a acceptable adumbration by this time abutting year.
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Interiors Design
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Engine
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Pictures
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Photos
2011 Volkswagen Jetta Photos
