2011 Volkswagen Jetta: What's It Like to Live With?
Read the latest updates in our long-term road test of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI as our editors live with this car for a year.
What do you want to know about?
- Introduction
- Steers and Handles Despite Image
- Second Guessing
- Easy Navi Views
- Turned Off
- Diesel Shocker
- I Am the Lizard King
- Nice, Big Footrest
- All Down the Line
- VW - 1, Buick - 0
- Satellite Controls are Merely Average
- Which Car? Oh, the Red One
- Weekend Commuter
- What Happened to the Cool VW Gauges?
- I Don't Like This Car
- Broke Seat Surround
- Stuck With a Stick
- Information Blackout
- But...
- Too Many Jettas?
- My Knees Were Pleased
- More Sales Fever
- Interior Volume
- Visiting the Cousins
- For One Reason
- It's all About the Range
- New Red, Old Red
- Headlights and DRLs
- Speedo and Tach Attack
- Totally Twisted
- Aerodynamics and MPG
- Windows Vs. AC Test
- Home on this Range
- A Word About the Seats
- Lag
- Sirius Howard Groupies
- Memorial Pit Stop
- Should I Have Owned a Jetta?
- A True World Car
- More Shiny Stuff
- High mpg, Low Refinement
- Seeing Stars
- Coming Out of the Shadows
- Great Mountain Climber
- Child Seat Fitment Test
- Art House Versus Mainstream
- VW's New Navigation System
- I'd Buy The DSG
- Something Wrong?
- Will Try To Beat 42.9 MPG
- New MPG Record
- TDI Versus GDI
- Got Handling?
- Possible Recall
- Why is the Jetta Such a Popular Diesel?
- Unnecessary Roughness
- Annoying Door Locks
- Going After the Range Record
- Needs a Second Chance
- A Bright Spot
- Armramp
- Drove the New GLI, Too
- Forgot To, And For-got That, Too
- 10,000 Mile Milestone
- Going the Distance
- Service Due
- Color Is not Cheap
- Colors
- Uncomfortable
- Dos Speedos
- Missing Something
- Tranquility
- Burn Hazard Recall
- Starting Up the Hornet's Nest
- Even I'd Get the Manual
- So Why Don't Americans Like Diesels?
- First Service
- Rev Matching
- Unloved
- Will The Bikes Fit?
- Bring Back The Knob
- Impending Recall?
- Ding-Dong
- More Damage
- Telling Time
- Ambient, Are You Out There?
- Not-So-Tight Turns
- These Brakes are Killing Me
- Navi Destination is Always Available
- Passat TDI for Green Car of the Year?
- 1000 Mile Dinner
- Sport's Fine
- Foglights
- Is the Spoiler Sporty?
- Compact Car, Big Trunk
- Cupholders
- Agree and Disagree
- A Simple Plan From A Simple Man
- Everything Is Illuminated
- Some Light On The Matter
- What's the Weirdest Track on Your iPod?
- Rush-Hour Review
- Smart Use of Space
- Sure, I'll Drive It
- Taxi Service
- Seeing Red
- Clean Dash
- Interior Storage Review
- Transmission in Sport
- Now That's How You Do Sun Visors
- 15,000 Trouble-Free Miles
- This is a Diesel.
- The Jetta for John
- Now That's a Seat Heater
- I Dig It
- Dog Report
- 5 Reasons To Get a Jetta TDI Over a Prius
- Kid's Nav Screen
- Fourth Time is a Charm
- Alright! Who's the Wiseguy?
- Save As
- Hybrid, Why Bother?
- More TDI vs. Hybrid
- City Engine With Highway Mileage
- Rear Defroster
- Diesel Quiet
- Put This in Every Car
- Turn Signal Death Spiral
- What a Jerk
- iPod Cord
- How About A Hot Cuppa Diesel?
- All Diesels Should Have This
- Getting Synchronized
- No Parking Lights?
- Strong First Half
- Diesel Needs A New Name
- Mythbusting
- Beating the EPA is Easy
- Best SLO Sandwiches
- Empty Tank, Full Bladder
- Challenge Accepted
- So, How'd I do?
- Spring Training Calls
- Cactus League MPG Run
- Thanks, George Vernon Hudson
- Arrow-Star-Arrow Icon?
- No Break on the Price of Fuel
- A Valid Case For Rump Toasters
- Big Brother Saves the Day
- (Not Quite) Going the Distance
- The Black Hole
- Good Ride in the Rain
- Service Complete
- One Last Service
- Nickel and Dime
- The Future of BioDiesel?
- Barely Worth the Space
- The Opposite of Intuitive
- Changes Settings on My iPod
- Easy Inflation Instructions
- Ways It's Better than Mine
- Something's Missing
- I Could Own This Car
- Can't Drive 75
- Jet Fuel
- How Green is Diesel?
- Wrap-Up
Introduction
The 2011 Volkswagen Jetta got off to an inauspicious start. When we first drove the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta SEL we said, "The reason it's hard to love and fully recommend the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta is because it's a step backward in a number of ways. The cost-cutting scissors were out in force this time around and it's all too obvious where money was saved."
And while that's a bad thing in our eyes and, perhaps, for owners of the last generation of Volkswagen's Euro-feel midsize sedan, this cost-cutting means that now the Jetta starts at just $14,995. This low price is expected to bring thousands of new buyers into the VW fold, while returning Jetta buyers can always step up to the higher trim levels to get stuff found in the previous models.
Given the shaky nature of the strategy, we figured it was a good time to revisit the Jetta. And with gas prices soaring to nearly $5/gallon again and memories of our 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI still swirling in the back of our brains, we waited until the diesel hit our shores and ordered a 2011 Jetta TDI.
What We Got
Our Volkswagen 2011 Jetta TDI is equipped with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder TDI clean diesel engine rumbling out 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque. Routing the power to the front wheels is a six-speed dual-clutch (DSG) gearbox. Controlling the torque on the ground are a set of Hankook Optimo H725A tires sized 205/55 R16.
As features and options go, the TDI comes standard with a power tilt/slide sunroof, intermittent wipers, heated power side mirrors, Bluetooth hands-free calling, Media Device Interface (MDI) with iPod, Sirius (3 months), aux-in, V-Tex leatherette with leather shift knob and steering wheel, six-way heated manual seats, ABS (with rear discs) and hill hold. Think of the TDI as a Jetta SE with the Sunroof and Convenience package.
As such, don't expect the TDI to be priced around the $15,000 mark. Instead, this car starts at $22,995. The only option available is the TDI Clean Diesel With Navigation package. It runs $1,200 and includes a navigation system with a 5-inch color touchscreen, SD memory card reader, keyless access with push-button start, halogen foglights, adjustable lumbar on the driver seat and chrome grille and window trim.
Do the math and include the $770 destination and handling fee, and you're looking at a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI that stickers for $26,065, though this car was provided by the manufacturer for the purpose of this test.
Why We Got It
Car guys are constantly complaining that new cars are all wrong. They're too heavy, they're too complicated and they have too many luxury features. Compared with our 2009, the 2011 Jetta TDI is nearly 200 pounds lighter. That should mean better fuel economy and more enthusiast-friendly handling, right?
According to the EPA, our new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI returns an estimated 32 city and 42 highway mpg. Normally the price premium of diesel engines and the price premium of diesel fuel greatly reduces the benefit of oil burners. But as the price of 91 (the highest fuel grade available in California) and diesel are reaching parity here, now is the precise time that a diesel could show returns — in more than just torque-derived smiles — in the States.
We've got 12 months and 20,000 miles with the new Volkswagen Jetta to see not only if the new one is as good as the premium-focused last-gen Jetta, but to see if now is finally the time for a diesel sedan in America.
Current Odometer: 1,947
Best Fuel Economy: 27.8
Worst Fuel Economy: 25.5
Average Fuel Economy (over the life of the vehicle): 27.2
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.
I rolled in our new long-term 2011 VW Jetta TDI for the first time last night and came away impressed: this thing steers and handles well. There's good feel buildup when steering and no dead spots. And it feels planted when cornering, with not a lot of body roll.
Unfortunately, the test track numbers don't validate this. Our Jetta only turned 0.78g on the skidpad and ran a slalom speed of 62.0 mph. I'll bet the skinny 205/55 R16 tires didn't help.
While those numbers don't lie, the handling feels good subjectively. And considering its Young Professional Women image, to me, that was a surprise.
See that flowchart above? That's what it's like when you apply pressure to the accelerator. Whether it's throttle tip in or turbo lag, I don't know, but I don't like it. Our new diesel Jetta just seems hesitant to comply for the better part of a second when I ask for a little more power. I don't seem to remember this in our last TDI. Is it something to do with a break-in period? Does the system need to learn our driving style like our Cruze? At least from the driver's seat, it feels like the throttle linkage is made up of about 20 rubber bands strung together. Initially nothing happens, then once there's enough pressure, the engine surges with power. I really hope this isn't permanent.
In some vehicles, particularly those with remote input devices, it is quite difficult to choose between the views of North Up and Heading Up to track your progess on the Navi screen. Not so, in our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI.
Our Jetta not only makes it easy to select from those two, it also gives you the option of a 3D view. I normally use North Up zoomed-out if I am far away from a distant destination, then zoom-in using Heading Up as I reach my target. I also use Heading Up locally.
Human Factors studies have shown that some people, especially the elderly, have trouble with spatial orientation when using North Up and must rotate the map display in their minds to make a turn.
And the 3D view (which in the Jetta seems to only display Heading Up) doesn't seem useful to me.
It just looks nice.
And you? Which view do you prefer when you use Navi?
I had our new Jetta for a long weekend and found a lot to like about it. It handles great (and I needed that on Thursday, when I had to do some unplanned backing and u-turning to cope with roadblocks and traffic upheavals associated with President Obama's visit to Edmunds' neighborhood). iPhone pairing and music navigation were a snap. Fuel economy, as befits a diesel, was impressive: Despite commutes and fair amount of around-town driving, I came back to work with more than 300 miles of range remaining.
The only slightly weird moment came on Sunday, when I programmed the navigation system to take me home. It directed me to make a left turn into my neighborhood, and there was just one little problem with that. It was pointing me to a street that has been blocked off and fenced for more than two years. (There were big problems at this uncontrolled intersection, including t-boned cars and one pedestrian fatality).
I've read about nav systems that have directed people to cross bridges that didn't exist, but this was the first time I've been told to make a turn that wasn't possible (as opposed to a set of directions I just didn't agree with). How about you? Has your nav system ever steered you seriously wrong?
Boy, diesel is expensive! A quick survey of Edmunds' neighborhood shows the lowest diesel price to be $4.55 per gallon, and I've seen it as high as $4.89. That really drives home the point about saving money by using less-expensive regular fuel, doesn't it? Around here, regular is going for a (relatively reasonable) $4.19. Ten gallons of regular versus that expensive diesel is a big $7.00 in savings.
Is your blood pressure spiking? Calm down. Of COURSE I didn't put gasoline in our diesel-drinking Jetta. But since I got so much flak for using regular gasoline versus premium in our VW GTI, I figured I could get you to fall for this.
Apparently, not everyone knows that a shiny red VW sedan could even be diesel powered. When I was at a Chevron station yesterday, a truck driver in a hurry for his own diesel fix urged me to pull forward to another island — one without a diesel dispenser.
"This car takes diesel," I said.
"Diesel?" he said, eyeing the car (VW, Tornado Red) and me (skirt, pumps). His face registered disbelief.
"Yes," I said, smiling through some mild exasperation. "Diesel."
He backed off, I filled up. Hat tip to Mike Schmidt for the Kutcheresque blog idea.
I know it's not a new motif. But having not been in a Jetta for a long time, something about our TDI's hard, reptilian dash stood out. And not in a bad way. We've panned the Jetta interior as cheap and disappointing, but I didn't feel that. Maybe the color masks it, or it works with the minimalist planes and longitudes framing the vents, buttons and knobs (what would Kant drive?).
Maybe I'm used to it from our GTI. Or maybe I just don't expect much from the Jetta (even for its time, my MkII didn't stand out as particularly refined). But put in context of what you can get for the same or fewer dollars, the criticism stands. Honda has started down this road. Or maybe Ford, Chevy, Mazda and Hyundai just have a better supplier for the softer, spongy stuff.
Not a personal deal breaker, but your mileage may vary.
Many new vehicles including several of our long-term test cars have itty-bitty footrests. On long trips, especially, this can lead to discomfort and foot squirming for me (size 9.5 chukka shown).
However, this is not the case with our long-term 2011 VW Jetta TDI. It's got a nice, big (but not juicy) footrest that's easy to find.
A decent-sized footrest is particularly difficult to package in manual transmission-equipped cars (although our Jetta is 6-speed DSG-equipped — no clutch pedal).
Does this matter to you?
I like diesel. I don't know why. Like the energy, like the smell. Like the sound of the word and the images it evokes of Mack long-haulers and Santa Fe cross-country freights. Less enamored of the particulate emissions that end up embedded in our respiratory tracts, though. So I like our Jetta TDI almost by default. Its 2.0-liter turbodiesel makes a nice chatter at idle, not at all noisy inside. Feels like it has purpose and a surprise skill set, the Jetta sibling steered toward a law career that instead traveled abroad and ended up running guns in Afghanistan.
It's got great pull on the highway. Just keep it in the sweet spot (70 mph, 2,500 rpm), then stomp to pass or arc around an erratic wolfpack, and it uncoils effortlessly. It's rated at the same horsepower as the Honda Civic (140), but with 100 lb-ft more torque, the two couldn't be more different. On the streets around town, I too noticed some of the hesitation and sponginess Mark wrote about. It displays a similar character in congested traffic. We're at almost 2,500 miles; is it still breaking in or learning our style?
For this kind of range, I could live with it. It's not as bad as the standard hiccup mode in recent BMWs, anyway. Tight parking can be a little dodgy. Lift your foot from the brake and instead of inching forward, you sit there. Don't go for the accelerator too quick, lest you end up with a bumper-full of bumper. But after having put 260 miles on it during this trip, and with the 14.5-gallon tank still more than half-full, we're looking pretty close to VW's estimated range of 609 highway miles.
A few weeks back during the 2011 New York Auto Show, I got a sneak preview of Buick's new Intellilink technology package. It's a pretty slick looking — and easy to use — in-dash system for linking phone / nav / audio and more via app-like buttons. It's neat.
Unfortunately, Buick doesn't trust their drivers (well, GM in general doesn't) as to use the navigation you either have to pull over or do it via OnStar. Buick even had the nerve to say that having to pull over was one of the worst things about built-in nav and that they'd developed a solution!!
After the presentation, I reminded them that most of the Germans (and Honda / Acura ) have no problem allowing one to use the nav while moving. Our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta fits into the category of "cars for adults who like to make their own decisions." Click "OK" up there and you've got full control. Nothing's greyed out. No need to pull over.
Sorry, but if I pay for a car, I want it to work when I want it to work — that includes nav and iPod control. I've said before that I'd buy the nav on any new vehicle I bought as the nav system is, generally, the easiest to use with an iPod (or a USB stick) and, well, they look cool. This wouldn't be the final decision maker if I were cross-shopping vehicles, but it certainly would be a check in the plus column of the VW. (Though to be fair, this system is not as pretty or as easy to use as some of the fully-integrated systems — Sync, Intellilink — out there.)
Yesterday I singled out the steering wheel controls in our Kia Optima for their simple, functional design. Here's a less inspired design courtesy of our Jetta TDI.
I know this because I accidentally hit the microphone button at least twice while parking last night. I never use voice command controls. Call me crazy, but it seems easier to simply reach out and push a button or turn a knob rather than push a different button, wait for it to respond and then hope it understands what you're saying. I'm annoyed just writing it.
Also notice the volume and seek buttons. They're not terrible, but they're not great either. Once you get used to them it's easy enough to feel your way around, but I find myself looking down often to remind myself what I'm about the push. Maybe it's the lack of color coding?
At times, the new-generation Volkswagen Jetta still looks distinctive to me because of the painstaking tidiness of its grille and headlights. Lather it up with the industrial soap at the self-serve wash, though, and it could be any car, no more special than the circa 2000 Accord in the stall next to it. The bright red paint helps, I guess, but somehow our 2005 Jetta TDI looked and felt more special even with its Eeyore gray paint.
But I'm probably just saying that just because our '05 TDI had a manual gearbox and three pedals.
There's no question this 2011 model is more practical. For one thing, it's a lot bigger. It was all I could do to get all the bodywork soaped up in the allotted 4 minutes, and then it took me 10 more quarters to get it all rinsed off. (I then heaped on the love and spent another 4 quarters to vacuum the car.)
I could never have asked adults to ride in the back of the '05 Jetta, but I have no qualms about doing it with this car, which has another 3 inches of wheelbase (104.4 in.) over even our 2009 Jetta TDI. Rear legroom is up to 38.1 inches versus 35.4 in the '09. Mothers Day is Sunday. I'll let you know how it goes.
I'll probably even be happy about our long-termer's automated manual gearbox this weekend, as a baseball game is in the plans for Saturday, and sometimes it's nice not to have to do the clutch in/clutch out thing during the post-game slog. I can't figure out how the throttle response got so strange in the 2011 redesign, especially since we had the same 2.0-liter motor (yep, 140 hp, 236 lb-ft) and 6-speed dual-clutch 'box in our 2009 TDI, but maybe I'll recalibrate my right foot over the weekend. I'll let you know how that goes, too.
I psyched myself up for a weekend in our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI with the reasoning that I like the sound and power delivery of diesels, and that it was the right size car for my driving needs (myself plus two not-too-tall adult passengers). Also, I always liked the seating position and the ride quality of our 2009 Jetta TDI.
By Sunday evening, I'd determined that our 2011 Jetta meets my needs in a weekend car. We went as far as Anaheim (to see the Saturday night Angels/Indians game) and Arcadia, and the car offered ample room and comfort for three adults. The ride is a little too stiff over certain sections of freeway, but for the most part, it's compliant enough over Southern California roads. The turbodiesel four-cylinder has ample torque for passing at 70 mph, and I barely went through half a tank of gas in well over 200 miles of driving.
In spite of that, I can't get excited about the prospect of actually owning this Jetta TDI, and it really doesn't have anything to do with the bland exterior styling. I'm not sure whether to complain about the throttle response or the dual-clutch transmission or both, but this car is pokey and hesistant when accelerating at city speeds and I never can seem to tailor my accelerator pedal inputs to get the response I want. I don't remember our 2009 Jetta TDI being this difficult to drive smoothly.
I feel the same way about the brake pedal, which is overly soft and doesn't give a lot of feedback about your progress in getting the car stopped. I've noticed this about several VWs I've driven in recent years, including a CC, and it's annoying, especially when you have passengers on-board and are trying to brake smoothly.
The hydraulic-assist steering in this car is steady on-center at highway speeds, and the effort levels are OK off-center, but there's little feedback. I'd like quicker steering, I think, but it probably would feel out of character on this car, which just isn't eager to change direction.
A real manual transmission is probably the solution to all my complaints, because then I'd have something to keep me busy while driving the 2011 VV Jetta TDI.
One of the biggest disappointments about the redesigned 2011 Volkswagen Jetta is staring me in the face each time I get into our TDI sedan.
Yes, this is all you get. The analog temperature and fuel gauges are gone. The blue and red illumination I liked so much in the 1999.5-2005 and 2005.5-2010 Jettas is gone, replaced with this spare white-with-red lighting.
And the trip computer has very limited functionality, and its small display takes up only half of the big plastic indentation allotted to it. This (below) is the only alternate screen, evidently featuring a distance-to-empty display and a mileage-to-next-service readout, and it only stays up for 5 seconds before cycling back to the previous default screen. (Of course, you can also toggle between seeing the odometer reading and the trip counter.)
I was so saddened over this I had to take a trip down memory lane. Below are the gauges from a 2006 Jetta GLI we compared with an Acura TSX (Mk I). And below that a glimpse of the still good gauges from our long-term 2009 Jetta TDI. James and I see eye to eye on Jetta gauges, and he actually did a comparison between our '05 Jetta TDI's gauges and the ones in his previous 2000 Jetta VR6.
I don't like the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta. Oh, it's certainly a competitive car amongst the so-called "compact" sedan class. It has lots of room inside and it actually gives you a ton of equipment for the money. During the Jetta's press launch, VW was quite eager to show how much more you got with the Jetta than a comparably priced Honda Civic. It also has that solid German car feeling that the Civic lacks.
So why don't I like it? Because I remember what it used to be. Because I never really considered it a Civic competitor, but rather an alternative you pay a little extra for but get so much more than can be quantified by a spreadsheet of features. Because with the right engine and equipment, it was also an alternative to entry-level European luxury cars.
What's changed exactly? In short, they've cut out a lot of those little details that made the last Jetta (and in some cases, the Jetta before that) more special than the average compact car. Here, let me show you some.
The center armrest no longer slides or allows you to raise it to your preferred height. It now just sits there on a rather useless downward angle. This was a Jetta (and VW in general) feature that can now be found in other cars in its price range. The Elantra for instance has a sliding armrest. Oh, and the Golf still has the sliding and rising one.
The Jetta's seat back used to be adjusted with a knob that provided infinite adjustment angles. This knob could be a tad difficult to reach at times, but infinite is better than the normal detent system the car now provides. Actually, in the later years of the previous-generation Jetta, even the base car came with power reclining seats (the other adjustments were manual). Oh, and the Golf still has the knob.
The Jetta used to have air vents right here. Now it has a rather useless bin and a power door lock button, which is something I guess. I don't know, I'd rather have cool air blowing at me on a hot day. True, this is a rather rare feature amongst compact cars, but that's exactly my point. The Jetta used to go that little extra mile, now it sits back and counts its money. Oh, and guess what the Golf still has?
The parcel shelf used to be covered in a carpet-like material. Now it's hard plastic.
The inside of the trunk lid used to be lined in the same fabric that lined the trunk itself — just as is done in most luxury cars. Gooseneck hinges aren't necessarily a sign of cost cutting (a Mercedes-Benz S-Class has them), but in this case, it certainly looks that way. At least there's a shock in place to dampen the movement of the lid.
And finally, interior materials. They used to be soft, now they are hard. Dating back to the MKIV Jetta ('99-'04), they used to have a low-reflection finish that became a criterion for what a "high-quality cabin" meant. Now they are shiny. At least the switchgear is still the same high-end buttons and knobs found in the Golf (which still uses the soft and low-reflection stuff), since I suppose it's cheaper to raid the parts bin than come up with special cheap stuff.
I could mention the rear suspension downgrade or the crummy base engine that we thought was scrubbed back in 2005, but I think you get the point. The Jetta just isn't as good as it used to be. Maybe it will sell better because people do want more room and more stuff for their money. Maybe nobody noticed any of those little details in the first place and nobody will miss them. Maybe it was the price that torpedoed the last Jetta's sales rather than styling. That's certainly possible and in fact, I would actually recommend the Jetta alongside the Elantra, Civic or Cruze to someone searching for a compact car. On paper, it makes sense — and I'm sure it does for many buyers.
However, for those like me who are willing to pay for those intangibles, the Jetta is no longer the compact car that goes the extra mile. It no longer feels special, as if it stands above the pack. For me, that's the 2012 Ford Focus. Oh, and the Golf.
Not sure how it happened, but the rather sturdy plastic piece that surrounds the Jetta's driver seat has broken. Poor quality? Excessively catch-prone pant legs? Don't know, but since it's not making it difficult to move the seat, I'm guessing we'll get to this whenever we get the car in for its first service.
Here's some creature comfort grousing about our Jetta: skip ahead if you have no patience for coddled editor sniveling.
This is important consumer research, folks. Following the lead of some readers here, I've started carrying around a USB stick with music and podcasts. Just works easier than constantly syncing an iPhone/Pod, and usually has a higher success rate in our fleet. Not all of our cars have Bluetooth audio streaming or Apple i-connections, but most have a USB port.
Not the Jetta.
It does offer the proprietary MDI cable and port in the glovebox for iPhone/Pod, and presumably anything else that works on the same bus architecture. And there's an Aux jack on the faceplate. That'd be useful if I carried around a mini-cable with me. So I plugged in the 3G iPhone and got the "this device is not optimized…" message. No problem. Seemed like it recognized the phone and could grab music from it. Until it cut out about 10 minutes into the drive.
Leaned over, opened the glovebox, and rapped the phone on the hard plastic a couple of times. Didn't seem to re-establish the connection. Funny that. Powered the system on and off a couple of times to no avail. Ended up freeing the phone from its cable and streaming via Bluetooth, but that too cut out once.
Finally gave up and switched over to Vin Scully, broadcasting another Dodgers tank job. Tell ya, the Jetta's diesel has more heart than those guys.
See that blank space on the 2011 Jetta TDI's steering wheel? That’s where the controls for the Multifunction Display (MFD) used to be. The current Jetta Sportwagen and the Golf have on-wheel controls. And our last Jetta TDI had them too.
The MFD has a ton of cool features such as instant and average fuel economy gauges, distance to empty meter, compass, radio station display, turn-by-turn directions (in navigation-equipped models) trip timer, digital speedometer, speed warning, and many more. This Web site goes into more detail for those interested.
This is our Jetta's non-MFD display. It shows time, outside temperature (not engine temp), trip, odometer and fuel. That's it. If you look closely at the instrument panel, you'll see the outline of where the more robust MFD screen would have gone. It looks as if VW wedged in a less expensive — and less functional — display in place of the MFD.
As a TDI owner, I love scrolling through and using all the MFD features. On a road trip, I've used the MFD to see how long I've been driving, what my average speed and fuel economy was, and used it to display my navigation directions, leaving my passengers free to use and display the radio and its info.
The largest omission on this car is the fuel economy gauge. While I know that that it may not be entirely accurate, I use it as a reference tool to monitor my driving habits. Every fuel-efficient car should have some way of showing its performance.
As you've know doubt heard, James Riswick does not like our Jetta TDI. And I can't say that I disagree with him one bit, but...
... it's the most comfortable car I've driven in a year.
Yes, really.
In a rare alignment of the ergonomic planets, the Jetta TDI has managed to fit me so well that I forgot all of James' pointed criticisms. I'm not saying it's sumptuous, but the combination of the seat, the position of it, and the steering wheel are so agreeable to me that I would not hesitate to buy this car if I had a commute of any serious distance. It's that good.
Yes, the interior is still dour and more than a little sparse, but while I was driving it, I never noticed.
Wonders never cease.
Our friend Itai Lottati over in the data department at Edmunds.com told us an interesting story about his own Jetta recently. Here are his thoughts:
As the owner of a 2009 Jetta TDI, I'm slightly concerned about the resale value of the Jetta now that it seems like VW is pumpling a lot of new ones into the U.S. market.
Even though I plan to keep my Jetta diesel for a long time and I primarily got it for its fuel economy (which it does deliver, as I am consistently achieving at least 33 mpg in mixed driving around Los Angeles), I can’t help but wonder what’s going to happen to my Jetta when it comes time to sell it as a used car.
After all, Volkswagen sold 13,905 Jetta sedans in April, an 87.7-percent increase from last April 2010. VWoA has sold 57,975 Jettas in just the first four months of this year, which compares to the 123,213 Jettas sold in the U.S. in all of 2010.
I live in the Valley, and I am seeing a lot of brand-new Jettas on the road every day during my commute to and from work. I see a mixture of styles, but out of all the styles, I must say that I happen to see more of the base, S or SE styles. I’ve only seen a few of the SEL styles, which might further imply that people are going to buy the most economical style if it is being offered in volume at a really low price. Furthermore, Volkswagen of America has added a base model for MY2011 that starts at around $15,000. Previously, the cheapest Jetta style that was offered was the S, and it cost somewhere in the $17k range if I remember correctly.
It's great to see so many people choose VW, but it does make me wonder what will happen when people like me put their cars into the used car market in a few years. Will the value of our cars be depressed because there are so many Jettas on the road? Will we feel like the value and reputation of our premium-style Jettas have been undercut by the new model?
Finally, the opinions I have heard regarding the 2011 model vary widely. I’ve heard people like the new model because the styling is a little bit reminiscent of Audi’s styling (I think just in the taillights). However, I think most people do agree that the exterior styling is very boring compared to other vehicles out there in its class and that the interior quality has diminished from the previous model years.
Of course, this is speculation about the future. For my part, I'm really enjoying my Jetta TDI, which I bought with 17-inch alloy wheels and a spoiler. I bought it because it is extremely comfortable and has great performance — great torque and wonderful acceleration and handling. The elegant blue and red instrument illumination is probably one of my favorite things about the car.
For me, the Jetta TDI is a premium sedan. I hope someone else thinks so too when it's time to put it into the used car market.
Yes, those are my knees. Note their distance from the front seat back. Not bad for a car of this size. I'll point out that the front seat was adjusted to my liking which is abnormally close for a person of my height (6'2").
This Jetta is often knocked for getting too big and going too mainstream. The bland styling doesn't help either. But can you blame Volkswagen for making it more comfortable for average sized people. Makes sense, no?
The seats themselves are about average as far as shape and comfort. Nothing terrible about the rear bench, nothing great about it either. Overall, it's about the kind of rear seat you would expect in a car like the Jetta.
If it seems like you’ve been seeing more VWs on the road lately, that’s because you have.
Volkswagen of America reports that it sold 30,100 vehicles in the U.S. during May, a 27.9 percent increase over May 2010. Jetta sales totaled 16,671, a 58.6 percent increase over last year, while TDI variants of all VW models represented 22 percent of the month’s sales.
It appears that Volkswagen won’t rest until it has covered the whole country with the VW badge. It makes you wonder if it can come close to the glory days of the 1960s, when a half million VW Beetles were sold here. What kind of magic can the VW badge still have?
I would have bet you a dime that the interior of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is significantly more spacious than that of the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze.
And of course I am wrong once again.
When you use the manufacturer's own measurements of interior volume, the Jetta TDI has 94.1 cubic feet of interior passenger volume and 15.5 cubic feet of trunk volume. The manufacturer specifications say the Cruze has 95 cubic feet of interior passenger volume and 15 feet of trunk volume.
It must all be in the proportions, because the Jetta appears far more spacious to me, maybe because the cowl seems low and the expanse across the windshield from pillar to pillar seems significantly larger.
Let's see if we can learn anything further from the specifications.
In front, the Jetta has 38.2 inches of head room, 55.2 inches of shoulder room and 41.2 inches of leg room. In the rear, the Jetta has 37.1 inches of head room, 53.6 inches of shoulder room and 38.1 inches of leg room.
In comparison, the front seats of the Cruze have 39.3 inches of front headroom, 54.7 inches of shoulder room and 42.3 inches of leg room. In the rear, the Cruze has 37.9 inches of head room, 53.9 inches of shoulder room and 35.4 inches of leg room.
Basically they are totally the same.
All this just reminds me that talking about the view out of the windshield and the interior architecture might seem silly and superficial, but these factors have a lot to do with your sense of space and comfort as a driver or passenger. You can look at specifications and pictures all day, but it's only the driving that really tells you what you need to know.
There's a Porsche in my family that needed a new air-filter housing, so I took the Jetta along to the local dealership on Saturday, figuring it could spend a few minutes rubbing shoulders with its German kin while we worked on the service order.
It's hard to beat the Porsche 911 for sheer style. (Although I can't say that for the Cayenne. Yech.) But I think our lipstick-red Jetta has a je ne sais quoi all its own. Is it the practicality? The fuel economy? The radically lower price tag? What do you think?
My wife owns a '97 Jetta with the I-4 engine and 140k miles on it. It's been an oil sucking, breakdown machine for most of it's life. I think it's a horse with a broken leg while she wants to squeeze every possible mile out of it before it dies.
She and I were talking about possible replacements the day before I drove our long term Jetta. I'm a little hesitant to recommend another Volkswagen after her experience with her current car, but after driving our long termer and doing a little research, another Jetta just might be a great car for her.
Here is my reason:
She commutes about 30 miles a day. Might not be as long as some of you, but that mileage adds up. I'm not sold on the hybrid just yet, especially considering that I could probably get a current generation Jetta TDI as a used car in a year or two at a pretty good price.
I say a year or two because not only does my wife has a death grip on those keys, but I'm thinking of our own positive experience in buying a used '09 Jetta TDI. Yes, buying used you don't get the free maintenance that VW is offering right now, and reliability is my biggest concern with another Jetta given our past, but the current offerings seemed to have closed the quality gap from everything I've read. I'm following our current tester closely.
The TDI gets a pretty solid EPA estimated mpg rating of 32 city/42 highway. Our latest observed average of 32.6 mpg is inclusive of a large concentration of resident lead foot operators. Gas prices are getting pretty high here in Southern California. While they may go up and down every day, the trend is ever upward creating parity with premium.
I feel the cost benefit of a used TDI to undercut a new Prius, or a used one for that matter, will be a good amount of savings while delivering similar mileage and performance. Do you think I'm crazy in thinking that? What else should we consider?
Why would I consider buying a VW Jetta TDI?
In a word: range.
Look at that IP. Already 103 miles driven on a full tank of diesel, and the needle hasn't moved from full.
That, plus another 420 miles distance-to-empty equals fewer gas stops which makes me very happy.
When I saw our bright, shiny red VW Jetta TDI parked in front of this aging Mazda Miata, it made me wonder what the TDI's paint will look like in 10 years.
The Miata looks like it's lead a pretty full beach life here in Southern California. Hope the Jetta wears a higher SPF.
Ever notice that the Volkswagen Jetta tends to burn out headlights? One-eyed cars are rare nowadays, but it seems to us that certain late-model Volkswagens are the most common motorcycle impersonators.
And we're not just saying that because it happened to us two generations of Jetta ago, when our 2005 VW Jetta TDI turned into a cyclops. These older Jettas use their regular headlights as daytime running lights (DRLs) too, which subject them to near-constant use.
Clarification edit: at full brightness, not some reduced voltage.
We also think the previous generation Jetta, as represented by our 2009 VW Jetta TDI, used the same headlights-as-DRLs strategy. We're not entirely certain because our photographers always want the headlights on in beauty shots and drive-bys. But with a little digging I found a series of shots that were never used in a blog that seem to implicate the headlight theory.
Our new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI shouldn't have a problem with iffy headlight life because its DRLs are stand-alone units. The headlights themselves only come on when the headlights are turned on. Imagine that.
PS: I know what you are thinking: Why have they had three Jetta TDIs in a row? Good question. We like to keep an economical diesel compact close at hand when discussions of hybrids, plug-ins and electric cars get frothy. We don't want to leave diesel out of the mix.
Volkswagen's human factors engineering department must be experiencing some sort of ongoing internal power struggle. Take a look at the speedo and tachometer in our 2011 VW Jetta TDI. In particular, have a look at the tach.
See anything amiss? Apart from the lowish diesel redline?
Sorry, it was a trick question. There's nothing seriously wrong here.
Now let's look at the last generation Jetta TDI. Ours was a 2009 example.
This tach uses rpm x 100 numbering, which makes it look like a speedometer. Yeah, I always tell my friends I shift at 30-hundred rpm. I'm glad they finally woke up in 2011 and got it right.
Wait a minute. Are you telling me they had it right two generations ago in our 2005 VW Jetta TDI? They had a perfectly reasonable tach with thousands on it and then went temporarily insane for a generation?
I know, English is weird. We'll say "three thousand" and "fifteen hundred" in the same breath and not even blink.
But tachs should be in thousands. Always. No matter how we describe our shift points in conversation. The 2011 VW Jetta has it right — again. Leave it alone this time and move on.
It was weird. It was my first time driving our new Jetta TDI, and I was gassing it up. The pump clicks off, and I go to remove the nozzle from the fuel filler hole, but it won't come out. It's stuck. Won't budge. I try it multiple times. I pull. I push. I take a deep breath, and try again. Nuthin'. I look for a release button somewhere. Negatory.
I double-check that it is, in fact, the proper diesel nozzle and that I haven't accidentally put in regular unleaded gasoline. Nope, I didn't mess up. I walk away and walk back to the car, thinking maybe I can sneak up on it and fake it out. No dice. I think about going into the cashier/mini-mart to ask for help and then think better of it.
Last ditch effort: I call Mark Takahashi's cell phone. I explain my dilemna. He and James discuss and suggest I call Ron Montoya (or Rontoya, as Magrath likes to call him), since he owns a Golf TDI. I call Ron's desk and am starting to leave a rambling, idiotic message when I turn around and suddenly see Takahashi standing between the pump and the Jetta smiling at me. What the what?!
"How did you...where did you...wha?" I manage to blurt out.
"James and I were eating at the Greek place around the corner. When you called, we figured it was a good bet you were at this gas station, so I took a chance and walked over," says Mark.
Hallelujah. Mark fiddles with the handle of the nozzle and confirms that it's stuck. But he's brave enough to try something I hadn't tried yet: twisting the nozzle. It works! He twists it almost all the way around and it unscrews itself, essentially. The Jetta is free from its greasy, stinky tether, and I'm too relieved for words.
So now you know what to do if it ever happens to you.
I've always thought that the instantaneous fuel economy gauge is pretty useless since the number bounces around so much it's hard to draw any conclusions about fuel consumption. But while driving the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI through the San Joaquin Valley, on the way to the Bay Area, it was so straight and so flat that, when I set the cruise control, the instant mpg leveled out and gave me a nearly constant reading. My father was along for the trip, and he's a huge fan of diesels (he's owned five diesels dating back to the 1980s and currently owns the 2009 Jetta TDI) so we decided to do a rough test of aerodynamics.
Let me quickly underline the phrase "rough test." I know that this isn't conclusive. But it does give an interesting indication of the drop off in fuel economy as the speed builds and the wind resistance increases. Here's what we found for 60, 70, 80 and 90 mph.
First, here is how we did the test. I used the cruise control to set the speed exactly at the different speeds. I then watched the instant fuel economy reading for several miles. It still fluctuated and it is very sensitive to any incline, but after a few miles the average becomes clear. It was 94 degrees Fahrenheit with little perceptible wind. We did the test twice and got nearly identical results.
Here are the results averaged for the two tests:
60 mph = 47 mpg
70 mph = 40 mpg
80 mph = 36 mpg
90 mph = 33 mpg
So it's clear that the higher speeds reduced the fuel economy. But it was a little surprising that the fuel economy didn't drop off more sharply at higher speeds. When my father made a graph of the results it was nearly a straight line, not the exponential result I had expected. However, it's also important to remember that the diesel engine might have different characteristics than a gas engine.
You might be yawning and saying, "So what?" Well, for many people fuel economy is basically about saving money. So I did a few calculations to try to drive my point home, so to speak. If you were driving 500 miles and decided to go 80 mph rather than 70 mph, it would cost you almost $6 more in fuel at $4.30 per gallon of diesel (the current price in California). Driving at 90 mph, common on Interstate 5 in the San Joaquin Valley, it would cost $11.40 more. Are you still saying, "So what?"
One interesting thing I noticed was that the road surface seemed to have an effect of fuel economy. In several cases I drove over smoother concrete surface rather than the pebbled asphalt and the mpgs jumped up. This makes sense because I once heard that hypermilers drove with one tire on the white stripe at the end of the road to reduce friction.
There's one other thing I'd like to mention: this Jetta TDI is one of my all time favorite cars.
On my drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco, I ran an informal fuel economy test and got some enthusiastic comments. Some of you wondered why I didn't do a windows-versus-air-conditioner test and, well, I had to agree. So heading south on Interstate 5 through the San Joaquin Valley, I took some readings that I found revealing.
Just to recap, there has been a debate over which is more fuel efficient — air conditioner off and windows down, or windows up and air conditioner on? Windows up is more aerodynamic but running the air conditioner makes the engine work harder. Here's what I found.
I ran the test at 70 mph because I felt this was a typical speed drivers would choose. It was 94 degrees Fahrenheit with little wind and the road was dead flat. So, at 70 mph, with the windows up and the AC on, the instantaneous fuel economy gauge showed I was getting 41 mpg. (This was close to the 40 mpg I got in my test three days earlier.) With the front two windows down and the AC off I got 45 mpg — a 9.7 percent improvement.
I was amazed that the improvement was so great. I was also impressed with how horrible it was to be in a really hot car at 70 mph with the windows open.
After a few miles of pondering the results, I decided to try the test with a different variable — air conditioning off and all the windows down. This time I got 41 mpg, the exact amount I got with the windows up and the AC on. So, with two windows down it is a 9.7 percent improvement and with all the windows down the car is turned into a parachute.
My feeling has always been that the aerodynamics of cars is so different that you can't predict the results. So if you are curious about this, and you don't mind being ripped apart by wind in the name of science, try running this test yourself.
I'm in Santa Cruz getting ready to drive back to my home in the Los Angeles area, 363 miles away. I know the range on the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is the best in the business so I check the distance to empty gauge and find I've got about 380 miles before I need a fill up. That's not so good. But then I look at the trip meter and find I've already driven 202 miles.
Five and a half hours later, I pull up in front of my house with 10 miles left to empty. Some people might consider that cutting it close. But I liked the fact that I covered all the distance without breaking my stride (except for coffee). By the way, I averaged 44 mpg over the 363 miles cruising between 65 and 75 mph.
There was considerable discussion about seats around here lately, so here's my two cents on the Jetta's accommodations. As good as they look, they're not that great to sit in. The driver's seat feels supportive initially, but after longer periods of time behind the wheel I find myself shifting around quite a bit to stay comfortable.
Part of the reason are the odd adjustment controls. The fore/aft pull is simple enough, but the racheting seat height adjuster never gets me to the right spot. Then there's the oddly placed seatback angle lever that requires you to contort your arm at an odd angle just to work it.
Granted, it's better than a dreaded dial adjuster, but would it kill them just to use a flat lever like the one right in front of it? I played with them all constantly and still came away wishing for better seats. Never remember feeling that way about the GTI.
The 2011 VW Jetta TDI produces 236 lb-ft of torque @ 1,750 rpm. When driving the Jetta TDI starts to take off, then it lags, then the turbo kicks in. The lag is significant enough to bother me.
Red lights turning green should be fun.
There's a Howard Stern lover in every crowd. Or in our office, there seems to be quite a few.
Most times I get in a long-term test car I find the satellite radio has been left on 100.
While I'm not a big fan of Stern, I do like the VW Jetta's screen. So simple, bright and clean, this quick pic doesn't really do it justice.
This is our Jetta in front of the U.S. Submarine Veterans WWII National Memorial - West. It commerates the 52 submarines lost during WWII and the 3,505 men who went down with them. The Jetta seemed like an appropriate ride since it uses diesel power just like the WWII submarines. If you're ever in the Seal Beach area, the memorial is worth a stop.
A couple of guys were talking in the office a while ago, and I heard them refer to the Volkswagen Jetta as one of the quintessential (not gonna say chick cars) cars for young college women.
"Huh?" I said, thinking back. I couldn't remember a single friend of mine who owned a VW, much less a Jetta. But then, I'm from Michigan, and I didn't make my final western crossing of the Mississippi River until my late 20s.
My friends probably didn't even know Volkswagen made a car other than a classic Beetle, let alone considered buying one. Their Dads made sure they drove Ford Escorts, Chevy Chevettes. Maybe a lucky few scored a Chrysler Le Baron convertible.
The other day the local KCBS Los Angeles anchors were discussing their first cars on the morning news. Three of the three women at the desk said they owned Jettas.
So did I miss a revolution, or was it just a regional thing?
German car. Built in Mexico. Rides on Korean tires. So that's how Volkswagen makes all that money.
In our ongoing gripe-fest regarding overly glare-y interior bits, the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI gets dinged. Its metal breastplate around the shifter shines like the dickens (whatever those are) when the sun's out. Fortunately that only happens every day. Unless you live at one of the poles, in which case you have more pressing things to complain about, like being pursued by polar bears or chafing from your moose-hide undergarments.
Where were we? True, the offensiveness of the Jetta's breastplate is tempered by its sorta-matte-like finish and a generally uniform profile. Regardless, you'll want to drape a t-shirt around the Jetta's shifter when driving in a sunny area. Grumble grumble.
[Note that the photo above doesn't capture the reflection in anything like a real-world way. It's far more blinding/annoying in person.]
I'm not the kind of guy who whines about a lack of comfort or refinement. But I won't hesitate to point out when a car falls short of the mark. As I made my way home last night, I was struck by our diesel-powered long-term Jetta's lack of refinement.
Besides the delay between throttle application that I noted earlier, there's no mistaking this VW as a diesel. The rattle from under the hood is not just noticeable, it's downright prominent. I can almost feel and hear each combustion stroke at idle. That's all fine on a Harley, but in a Jetta? No. Under acceleration, that rattle gets louder. So loud, that you might think something is wrong with the car.
Then there's the deceleration. Lifting off the pedal results in a significant amount of engine braking. So much, that it reminds me of our MiniE's regenerative braking. I was consistently on and off the brake pedal because the car was being slowed by the engine in a rather unpredictable manner. I'd brake as I normally would, then the car would chug to a stop, well short of my intended spot.
On top of that, every now and again, the diesel would produce a strong sputter and shudder as I rolled to a stop. It was so strong, that it felt like a start/stop motor, except most cars with this feature do it much more smoothly. As I tried to work around these quirks and adapt, I was so disenchanted that I fully expected the Jetta to start belching a thick cloud of black smoke.
But what really bugged me was the fact that our last TDI didn't seem to suffer from any of these ills. Seems like this might be a step backwards.
That thing you see between the cars in this photo isn't a UFO. It's a crack in the windshield of our Volkswagen Jetta TDI, and it happened on the way back from Vegas, after Fuel Sipper Smackdown IV. I never saw the object that hit the windshield, but it made a loud pop.
I've driven the car for over 200 miles since the impact and so far the crack has not spread. We will monitor it closely and get it fixed if it worsens.
Unlike you're some sort of sales data geek, you probably don't know that the latest Jetta is experiencing a bit of a resurgence. Through June of this year, the Jetta is up 77% over the same period in 2010. In June alone, sales more than doubled over the prior year.
Maybe this is just a sign of a market that's finally bouncing back, or maybe this Jetta is a far better combination of what the U.S. consumer in looking for in a compact sedan. We've noted on various occasions that we weren't all that impressed with the visible cost cutting done to make this Jetta more affordable than its predecessor. Then again, a lower price automatically translates into more potential buyers.
As you can see here, the new Jetta isn't dramatically different in terms of styling compared to the older model. The average buyer probably barely notices the difference. One thing they always notice, however, is a difference in price. It's probably why Volkswagen's plan is working so far. Should be interesting to see if it works for the Passat too.
I recently took our Jetta TDI over the Tejon Pass (locally known as the Grapevine), which on the Interstate 5 freeway connects Southern California to the northern parts of the state. Driving over Tejon isn't terribly challenging, but its 4,000-foot elevation gain is a nice test of a car's power and gearing. As for the Jetta, it rocked.
Most cars I drive on this pass require a downshift or switching over to manual-shift mode (if they're automatic) to get what I want in terms of maintaining speed or desired rpm. With the Jetta's TDI engine, though, the combination of ample torque and the elevation-negating effects of the turbocharger meant there was no need to shift. I just kept it in drive the whole time, and the Jetta easily powered up the hill. Plus, if you do want to shift for yourself, the TDI has got your covered thanks to its DSG dual-clutch automated manual gearbox.
Since I have a brood of two now, I've amassed an impressive collection of child safety seats. Figuring I'd put them to good use last month, I tested them out in our TSX Sport Wagon to find out how well (or poorly) the TSX fared for kid-hauling duty. Today it's the Jetta's turn. Does the Jetta's newfound expanse of rear seat space make it a keen choice for families with small children?
The short answer is, mostly.
On the bright side, Jetta's increased length and wheelbase for 2011 has freed up more rear-seat legroom. And the more rear legroom a car has, the easier it is to install a rear-facing safety seat. (If you're unfamiliar with safety seats, these are the ones used for infants, and they're typically the hardest to install because they take up so much legroom.)
On the Jetta, I installed the pictured Britax Companion rear-facing seat on the passenger side. There was still enough room for the front passenger seat to be comfortably positioned for an adult. The extra legroom is also useful for older kids sitting in a booster seat. With the extra space, there's less chance of your children kicking the front seatbacks. So far, so good.
But then I went to test my Britax Marathon reversible seat. This seat, when in a forward-facing position, almost always needs the rear headrest to be removed. I went to remove the Jetta's and found they wouldn't come out. Ruh-oh.
This safety seat is just placed in the car and not secured or installed properly. For demonstration only.
On some cars you can raise the headrest enough to fit the seat underneath (and that's actually what I did with the Recaro booster). But in this situation, that didn't work. For the Jetta and this Britax seat, the headrest needs to be removed in order to get the safety seat fitting flush with the Jetta's seat cushion and snug against the seatback. (Removing the headrest also makes it a lot easier to attach the top tether strap.)
There is a way to remove the headrests, as detailed in the owner's manual. But it's tricky, as you need a tiny screwdriver and probably a second set of hands. If I recall correctly, the rear headrests in our 2009 Jetta TDI were removable in the normal fashion.
Overall, the new Jetta should work out well if you have small children. The extra rear legroom is nice, and the generally flat contouring of the Jetta's seat will help ease installation. But the rear headrests will certainly be an annoyance.
I was at a friend's house over the weekend.
"What are you driving?" he asked.
I told him a new Jetta.
"Oh, so how is it?" he said, curious.
"It's, well..." I replied, but I had to pause as I didn't have an immediate response. Thinking a little, I regrouped with: "Yeah, It's a nice car." I expanded on how it's roomy, competitively priced and, at least in my mind, handsomely (though conservatively) styled. I also noted that you can get it with the TDI engine like our car or the upcoming GLI with the GTI's turbo-4. My friend seemed reasonably satisfied.
In thinking about this conversation later, however, I noticed how the Jetta isn't quite as easy to talk up as it used to be.
Before, I felt like I was letting people in on a little secret when I told them about the Jetta. "It's got an upscale interior, it drives really well and it has top fuel economy with the TDI. You'll have to pay a little more, but it's worth it," is what I would have generally said about the prior two generations.
When discussing the 2011 Jetta, it's less about intangibles and more about spec sheets. This might seem like the wrong way forward, but maybe the Jetta was just too art-house. Critics like me liked it, but not enough of the general public did (from VW's standpoint, anyway). So the new Jetta, with its more mainstream appeal, could work out well. And if you go by the sales increases the new car has posted so far, that would seem to be the case.
One of the new features for the 2011 Jetta is VW's latest "RNS 315" sound and navigation system. It comes standard on the Jetta SEL and is optional on the TDI ($1,200, though that also gets you keyless ignition/entry, fog lights and extra chrome trim). RNS 315 is now the main VW head unit and is found on everything except the Touareg and Routan. Some observations on it follow.
For the most part, I like the new head unit. The navigation system is flash memory based, so it reacts very quickly to inputs. The screen itself is bright and crisp. The audio presets are different as compared to the ones in our departed 2010 GTI, as they are set in an arc that moves across in blocks of six presets. Using the main rotary dial will scrolls through the presets, letters on the keyboard for navigation entries and lists on a MP3 player. It's also a touch-screen, so just about everything has redundant control either by touching or by using the rotary dial and flanking buttons.
I've only used the navigation system for a couple destinations, but for what I used it for it worked out fine. As for downsides, I have two of them, though one might be solvable. The main one is that 5-inch screen is kind of small, and that limits the amount of useful map you can see. It also doesn't display as much information (say, street names) at normal zoom levels as I'd prefer. Also, I can't figure out if there's a way to pan to different parts of the map. Touching the screen doesn't move the map, and there's no other control that you can navigate with. Unfortunately, our test car seems to be lacking a manual for the navigation system so I can't read up further.
Direkt-Schalt-Getriebe. Well, at least it's a lot easier to say then Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe. That one really just rolls off the tongue. Anyway, if I were buying a 2011 Jetta TDI, I'd get DSG instead of the manual.
Sure, I like three pedals. Every car I've ever owned has had a manual transmission. But the DSG gives up so little compared to a traditional manual (and gains so much) that I see little reason not to spend the extra $1,100.
Stuck in heavy traffic? Just keep in automatic mode. Want to have more control of the shift points? Place it in manual and do it yourself. The shifts are very quick, and you get rev-matching for downshifts, too. It's the best of both worlds. I'd like our Jetta even more if VW gave it shift paddles on the steering wheel.
Granted, on a sports car (say, a Porsche Cayman), I'm pretty sure I'd still get a manual. In that case, I'd still want the true man-machine connection you get from really rowing the gears and working the clutch. But for an economy car like the Jetta TDI, it's DSG for me.
Back in early July, Mark wrote a post noting some issues of refinement he had about our Jetta's TDI engine. These boiled down to: 1) delayed throttle response; 2) elevated amounts of engine noise; 3) elevated amounts of engine braking; and 4) occasional sputtering or stuttering when coming to a stop.
I've been driving our Jetta TDI for a couple weeks now. And while the Jetta doesn't seem to necessarily have anything wrong with it, I've also noticed some of these same issues. So just to ensure we weren't dealing with a bum car, last week I took our Jetta to a dealer to have it checked out.
I made an appointment at Michael Volkswagen in Fresno, Calif. When calling for the appointment, I was upfront that I worked for Edmunds.com and the car was on loan for Volkswagen. That's not the way we normally operate, but I wanted to make sure I got the access I needed. The service advisor was very helpful and hooked me up with the shop foreman.
Once I arrived, I gave the key to the foreman and we took the Jetta for a test drive. I told him the issues we've noticed and asked him to see if he noticed them as well. He agreed with the throttle response and engine braking but said they were normal for the car. As for the engine noise, he said it sounded normal. He didn't notice any sputtering when coming to a stop.
After the drive, he brought the Jetta into the service area. He ran a diagnostic on the car (everything normal) and let me compare our Jetta to a previous-generation Jetta TDI he happened to have in the service bay. We both agreed that with the hoods open and standing outside the car, the new Jetta's engine was a little bit noisier. But with the hoods closed and sitting inside the cars, both Jettas sounded pretty much the same in terms of sound level.
The upshot: our Jetta TDI checked out normal. But to add some second opinion, here are my thoughts on the items Mark mentioned.
1) Throttle response: I pretty much agree with Mark here. It's usually instances when you're ina light throttle situation and suddenly apply more throttle. But because it's DSG, it's easy to negate by using the sport mode or by manually selecting the gear.
2) Engine noise. Overall, I don't think our Jetta's engine is any worse than our old Jetta's. When the engine is cold, sure, it certainly sounds like a diesel. And I will say it might be a little more prone to rattling at low engine rpm, say below 1,500. (Incidentally, this might be aggravated by the DSG transmission, which upshifts to sixth gear pretty readily. So in city driving, around 40 mph or so, you can hear it more.) But overall our Jetta is still pretty quiet on the highway.
3) Engine braking. This is most certainly caused by the DSG. When braking and coming to a stop, the DSG downshifts around 15 mph, and that brings about extra engine braking that can make you come up short of your intended stopping point. Honestly, I can't remember if our old Jetta TDI with the DSG also did this. But it also hasn't bothered me. And one other editor on staff I asked about it said he actually liked the extra engine braking.
4) Sputtering. I haven't noticed this at all.
So, overall, I'll back Mark up on three of his four observations. Interestingly, points 1 and 3 are almost certainly related to the DSG. So if you had the manual you likely wouldn't encounter them. But I haven't been bothered by them that much, either, so I guess that's part of the reason why I'd buy the DSG.
(Special thanks to Kyle and John at Michael Volkswagen for their very courteous help.)
If you noticed the latest fuel economy report, our Jetta's best fuel economy so far was 42.9 mpg, obtained by none other than Golf-TDI-owning staffer Ron Montoya. Perhaps with a bit of irony, he obtained that figure driving in Los Angeles during the infamous Carmageddon weeekend. (Ron's explanation: "There was nobody on the road.")
Well, I've got a 225-mile trip planned for tomorrow, and I'm going to try and beat Ron's number. In my favor, it's almost all highway driving, which is right up a diesel's alley. I've also seen a couple other 40-mpg tanks on our Jetta's fuel log, so I know 42.9 isn't otherworldly. Finally, I'll be actually trying for good fuel economy. However, I won't be driving like a hypermiling weenie, either. I'll match the posted speed limits (65 to 70 mph for the route) when possible and turn off the air-conditioning when possible, but that's about it. I'll also be going up and over the 4,000-foot Tejon Pass.
It'll be close. But I'm hoping for 44 mpg. I'll let you know tomorrow.
As detailed in yesterday's post, this morning I set out to top Ron's record of 42.9 mpg for our 2011 Jetta TDI without resorting to extreme hypermiling. And yes, it was Mission Acomplished(!). But it wasn't nearly as easy as I thought. Lots of semi-interesting details plus the final number follow (what, you thought I'd give it to you without any suspense?).
My plan of attack for beating 42.9 mpg was to make a 230-mile highway trip following three basic premises: 1) Drive conservatively and use cruise control whenever possible; 2) Maintain a speed of about 65 to 70 mph, thereby matching the posted speed limits along my route (and not be a rolling chicane); 3) keep the air conditioning off.
Here's how it went, along with some other random notes.
8:30 a.m. I leave my house and know I want to top off as close to the freeway as possible. (Explanation: I typically work remotely from our Santa Monica offices, hence the long drive.) But I also have my daughter with me and need to drop her off at her school. I have no idea what gas stations near her school carry diesel. On a whim, I check the POI database in the Jetta's navigation system. Woo-hoo, it has a separate category for diesel gas stations! I pick a nearby 76 station, though I end up having to drive about 5 miles in the city after fueling. Still, the trip computer is showing about 38 mpg averaged, so it shouldn't impact my goal that much.
10 a.m.: Things are going really well. I've been rolling with the cruise control set and had minimal disruptions. The Jetta's trip computer is now my best friend, and I'm checking it constantly. Though I know it's likely optimistic, it's showing an average of 48.7 mpg after driving about 85 miles with an average speed of 70 mph. I'm excited. Almost 49 mpg? Beating 42.9 will be a piece of cake, I think to myself.
10:10 a.m.: Hmm. I'm getting pretty hot. Outside temperature gauge is saying 82 degrees, and the sun's angle is such that it's beaming in right on my chest. I'm not sure how much longer Tactic Three is going to last. I've got the fan blowing but the windows up.
10:13 a.m.: I nearly get side swiped by an Audi A4. I'm just cruising along in the middle lane when I notice in my peripheral vision that the car coming up to me on the left is very close. I edge over in my lane for a cushion. Then I edge over some more. What the heck?
I watch the A4 pass, and it soon becomes apparent that something's very wrong. The driver can't maintain lane composure. He's drifting around. He's puts two wheels into the left-hand run-off area, kicking up dirt. Then he's swerving over all the way to the right. My guess is he's drunk. (But at 10 in the morning?) I drop my 70 mph limit and speed up to follow him (at a safe distance). I watch as he nearly drifts into a semi. This guy is whack. I decide to call 911 (not something I do lightly), and I report him as a drunk driver. At this point I drop back down to 70 mph, but fully expect to catch up to him and see a wreck.
10:30 a.m.: Full swamp butt has set in. This just isn't going to work. I click on the air-conditioning. I suck. Moses and the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years. Me, modern wussy boy? I last a whole 30 minutes of being uncomfortable. But arriving at the Edmunds office soaked in sweat isn't going to work, either. And lowering the windows instead of the A/C (hot and windblown!) doesn't seem like all that great of an alternative.
10:40 a.m.: I pass a California Highway Patrol officer parked on the side of the freeway. Could he be waiting for the A4? I never saw the Audi again, so perhaps he pulled off. Too bad, it would have been so nice to see the CHP notch a win here.
11:00 a.m.: Rest stop break. Using the A/C has nicked my average. On the positive side, I've still running with a displayed 46.4 mpg. But having eyeballed the instant mpg meter, I figure the A/C is dropping me by about 3-5 mpg. This isn't good.
11:10 a.m.: It's really not good. I'm climbing the grade for the 4,000-foot Tejon pass. My average is dropping precipitously. I'm down to 44.5 mpg. Figuring in the gauge's optimism, I guess that I'm now no better than Ron's 42.9 mpg record. Redoubling my efforts, I turn off the A/C and crack the front windows.
11:48 a.m.: It's 97 freakin' degrees out. What am I thinking? A/C goes back on. But from here on out I cycle it manually on and off so that it's not running constantly. Must...Beat...Ron.
11:50 a.m.: I'm on the down slope for the Tejon pass. My average is creeping back up. Still, it just doesn't seem enough. So, it's here that I, uhh, cheat some. Traffic's light on a particular stretch, so I pop the DSG selector into neutral and take advantage of the decline so that I can coast at the speed limit. Safe? Not really. Don't do this, please. Also, spay and neuter your pets and wash your hands after using the restroom if you're an employee.
12:15 p.m.: Almost there. But then ... slow traffic up and over the 405's Sepulveda Pass. Oi. Still, I'm tenuously holding onto 47.2 mpg average.
12:35 p.m.: I exit the freeway and stop at the Shell station next to our office that carries diesel. The in-car gauge is showing 47.4 mpg. But how optimistic is it? 229.9 miles and 4.986 gallons later, I have my official reading: 46.1 mpg. Our Jetta TDI now has a new best-mpg record. (Official EPA highway is 42 mpg, just in case you're wondering.)
Somebody in the office will probably try to beat this at some point. And it's certainly beatable. Don't use A/C, drive slower, don't chase errant Audi A4s and you'll probably bounce up by perhaps a couple more mpg.
Overall, though, I'm pretty impressed with our Jetta TDI. Obviously a hybrid like the Prius is rated higher overall for mpg, but I doubt they would deal with the Tejon pass as well as the Jetta. Also, stay on the lookout for our Fuel Sipper Smackdown test in the coming weeks, in which the Jetta participated.
Alright, so here's a question: is the new wave of fuel-sipping small cars a serious threat to Volkswagen's diesel-engine hegemony? In the past five years or so, we've given high praise to the Jetta for its TDI availability. If you didn't want a hybrid, here was the next-best (and really only) choice for high fuel economy. But with new cars like the Cruze Eco, Focus SFE and Elantra offering comparable fuel economy thanks to technologies like gasoline-direct injection, does TDI still have a place considering its traditional price premium?
Here's a comparison chart from fueleconomy.gov. As you can see, the official EPA are all quite very similar.
On its own, this is just fine. But the Jetta is the most expensive of the bunch. It's hard to get a direct comparison in terms of features (the TDI comes with a lot of features as standard, including heated seats, a sunroof and a premium sound system), but here's what I came up with as ballpark:
2012 Chevrolet Cruze Eco: $19,245
2012 Ford Focus SEL: $20,300 (I put the SEL here, but technically the SFE package is only offered on the lower-equipped SE that starts at $17,400)
2012 Hyundai Elantra Limited: $20,445
2012 Volkswagen Jetta TDI: $22,525 (a comparable Jetta SE with the five-cylinder gas engine is $21,185)
In addition to this, you have the higher price for diesel. But the TDI does counter with its unique power delivery, which some people really like.
So, what do you think? Does the Jetta TDI finally have real competition?
Nope.
Throw the TDI into a corner with even the least bit of aggression, and it just pushes right back. Pretty uninspiring for a German car. I don't care that it's a diesel. Or a Jetta. Even Jetta owners deserve better handling than this.
(Photo by Scott Jacobs)
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a preliminary safety probe into an estimated 40,000 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDIs and Jetta SportWagen TDIs after receiving seven complaints alleging leakage from the fuel line. .
We are not one of the seven. Our car is doing just fine at this time.
According to some recent sales numbers compiled by HybridCars.com, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI is far and away the top selling diesel-powered vehicle in the U.S. Nearly 57,000 of them have been sold through July. The next best seller is the Golf TDI, but it's barely up to 6,000 units sold in the same time period.
So why does the Jetta rule the class so handily? I think it has less to do with its performance and more to do with its legacy. The Jetta has offered diesel power on and off for years now while other vehicles are just now starting to include a diesel engine on the options list. The BMW 335d is an excellent use of diesel power, but how many 3 Series buyers even know it exists?
Legacy is the only reason, though, as this Jetta backs up the name with satisfying performance. It's about the perfect size for the 2.0-liter TDI. The Passat on the other hand starts to strain the 2.0-liter to the point of making you wonder if it's worth the trouble. I never feel that way in the Jetta, it just goes. Should be interesting to see if any vehicles start to catch up with the Jetta as fuel mileage becomes more of a priority.
A while back, I briefly noted that our diesel Jetta doesn't roll to a stop smoothly. At the time, it didn't bother me all that much, perhaps because I wasn't stuck in traffic like I was last night.
My girlfriend and I made the trek from West Hollywood to Hermosa Beach around 6pm. The constant stop and go made me begin to despise this Jetta. I consider myself to be a fairly smooth driver, but executing a "limo stop" in this car is an exercise in futility.
Take a look at the Dynolicious graph above. Dropping below the zero G line indicates I'm decelerating and applying the brakes. I was trying oh so hard to do it smoothly, but the Jetta simply wouldn't allow it.
Now look at the graph below. It's a nice linear decoration that most cars are capable of. The difference? I dropped it into neutral.
There was a bright spot to all of this, though. The hesitation that drove me bonkers when the Jetta was new seems to have dissipated significantly. It no longer feels like the drivetrain is constantly second guessing me, instead, it just feels groggy.
**Edit: I've gotten some emails saying that there is a way to fix this in the car's settings operated by one of the stalks. I didn't see it anywhere, but will look again tomorrow A.M. and report back.**
We've talked here before about door locks. I want them to work when I press the door lock button and ONLY when I press the door lock button while some of you want computers trapping you inside of cars for no apparent reason.
Previously I'd commended the BMW 528 and the Volvo S60 (both in a different tax bracket than our Jetta) for having smart, driver-selectable door-locking programs. Now it's time to rant about the Jetta for having really, really dumb locks.
So first things first, you can't change how they work. They do this and nothing else.
Here's what they do...
....You can open the door without using the key. That part is good. (And you can start it which is good, but doesn't have anything to do with the door locks, so we won't talk about that.) But it won't unlock the rears, nor can you just grab the rears to have them unlock. Cheaper to build? Yes. More annoying? Yes. Deal breaker? Absolutely not.
It's once you start moving that things get more annoying: The doors lock. (Okay, that's only annoying to some of us.) Thankfully they unlock once the moving stops, but it only unlocks the front doors!
So here's the process:
Open front door
Press button on inner door panel to unlock rear doors.
Place bag / lunch on rear seat
Close rear door
Get in car, close front door, start driving
Doors lock
Finish driving, put in park, doors automatically unlock
Get out, close door, try to pull open rear doors
Curse because they're still locked
Open front door
Unlock rear door
Close front door
Well, you see where this is going. The point is that the car is willfully undoing something I intentionally did and then refuses to put things back how I want them. I'm not sure how long it would take me to acclimate to this scenario, but I've had the Jetta for over a week at some points and never failed to screw it up.
Is it too much to ask that cars leave me alone?
When the mpg record I set in the Jetta TDI was topped, I felt like I needed to do something to regain my diesel street cred. I've done some serious highway driving in my 2010 Golf TDI recently and I was in a position to beat the Jetta's range record of 564 miles, set a few months back. It wouldn’t quite be an apples-to-apples comparison, since the Jetta weighs about 170 pounds more, but they both have the same size fuel tanks (14.5 gallons). And it would make for an interesting challenge.
On this particular tank of gas, I had driven from Santa Barbara to LA, went round trip to Palm Desert and drove a few days to and from work. I had broken my personal range record of 519.9 miles and had gotten to about 542 miles when the low-fuel warning light came on.
I drove home that day determined to beat the record. When I left the office, the needle on the fuel gauge was sitting at the top of the red zone. My range indicator said I was about 45 miles away from empty. It would be close, but I figured I had more than enough fuel to beat this record.
I caught traffic on the way home, which made the range drop rapidly. I also noticed that the needle moved much quicker towards empty. About halfway home, the range was down to 10 miles. I decided to throw in the towel and head for the nearest exit.
My navigation system told me that there was a gas station that carried diesel right off the exit. That turned out to be wrong. Maybe the station had diesel at some point, but for the moment, I needed to find someplace else. I was getting pretty nervous and perhaps suffering from diesel range anxiety. Luckily, there were two other stations nearby. I pulled into the closest one but then realized that the gas tank was on the opposite side (Yes, this was my own car, but this is what happens when you drive different cars). The moment I pulled out to turn around, a car swooped in and took my pump. "Not a big deal," I said to myself, "No need to road rage over this. There's another station a few blocks up."
The other station had plenty of free spaces — probably because they were charging twenty cents more per gallon. I was desperate, but I couldn't fill up in good conscience, knowing that the station down the road was much cheaper. I went back to the busy station and found a place to refuel.
The final range was 555.8. I filled up with 14.066 gallons. I came pretty close, but I didn't break the record. I didn't even break the "most fuel put into the car" record. Someone else had put 14.085 gallons in the Jetta, but, surprisingly, only went 480.9 miles on that tank.
My fuel economy for this tank was 39.5 miles per gallon.
What's the furthest you've driven in your car?
I drove our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI last night to Hermosa Beach, and although the steering and chassis performed adequately, I was underwhelmed by the powertrain performance.
Several of us have noted poor driveability, and even some hesitation at low speeds, especially when the engine is cold. But last night, for the first time, I experienced a new problem.
Almost every time I would try starting the car with the Start switch near the shifter, the car would immediately stall. However, it would fire right up on the second try. This happened after a few trouble free starts in the afternoon. But every time last night and this morning it puked on the first attempt.
We'll keep an eye on this and see if others here have the same experience.
Sometimes I feel bad for constantly pointing out the negatives in a car. I found myself in this very predicament this morning when I complained about out Jetta's armrest, so I just wanted to point out something that I do like. And that would be the touchscreen.
It's not all that big, but it is very legible. The graphics are also quite attractive without being flashy or gaudy. The font is very legible but still has a little personality to it. I was trying to place where I've seen it before, then there it was, right in front of me. It's the same typeface that is on the gauges.
Nice touch.
I'm generally easy to please when it comes to seat comfort. But one thing that annoys me is when a manufacturer messes up something as elementary as a center armrest. Whether they make them out of hard plastic, uneven with the door armrest or leave them off altogether, man, that just bugs me. And my stinkeye has turned to our long-term Jetta on this one.
See that armrest above? It's canted forward. Why? I don't know, but it shouldn't be. That armrest doesn't really allow me to rest my arm there, it just offers a tenuous perch for my elbow. Besides the angle, it's also too small. Other VWs have an armrest that slides forward, but not our Jetta. If I were on a road trip, I'd probably prop it open with my wallet or something.
(Photo courtesy of Volkswagen of America, Inc.)
At the Volkswagen event I attended earlier this week (hence the previous Golf R post), I also briefly drove the new 2012 Jetta GLI. I was excited to drive it as I've spent plenty of time with our long-term Jetta TDI and wanted to see how the two cars compared.
As with previous iterations, the new GLI is a Jetta with GTI hardware. That means the GLI gains the GTI's 200-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engine, a choice of a six-speed manual transmission or six-speed DSG transmission, 17- or 18-inch wheels, bigger brakes, an independent rear suspension and retuned spring and dampers rates with a lower ride height. It also looks a bit different on the outside (new grille, dual exhaust, front spoiler) and has a GTI steering wheel, sport front seats and red-accent stitching on the inside.
As you can imagine, the GLI is much more interesting to drive. Just as in the GTI, the turbo-4 is a gem, with a wide torque band and a pleasing engine/exhaust note. The DSG comes with paddle shifters (they're not offered on the TDI), making it easier to snap through gear changes. (Also, for what it's worth, I didn't notice any of the low-speed engine braking that Mark pointed out recently. It could be a TDI quirk). In terms of handling, the GLI is more responsive and gripper when cornering. The overall suspension tuning is still on the soft side, though, reflecting the car's balanced approach to performance and comfort.
Make takeaway from the brief drive: the GLI is the enthusiast's choice within the Jetta lineup. It's pretty fun to drive and won't embarrass itself on a curvy road. It also comes closest to being what the Jetta used to be — a bridge between basic sedans and more upscale European entry-level luxury sedans. On that latter aspect, though, the biggest hold-up continues to be interior design. There's not much here on the GLI that's different than the regular Jetta and consequently the GLI's interior doesn't rise any higher than ordinary.
But overall I think the GLI is pretty cool. It has the new Jetta's strengths like a big backseat and trunk and adds a decent set of enthusiast credentials. Pricing starts at $23,495 at moves up to $25,545 for the Autobahn trim level. We'll also likely be getting GLI into the office in the coming weeks for full testing.
This daytime reenactment doesn't fully convey the shame and self-loathing I felt when I walked out my front door this morning at 5:30 am to discover that I had somehow managed to leave our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI's headlights on all night. D'oh!
The Jetta's rotary light switch has two positions, "on" and "off"; there's no "auto" setting like the car I drove the previous night. (A useful feature, that.) The act of locking the car must've cut the main lamps, because only the dim front parking lights and the taillights were on this morning.
It was with no small amount of trepidation that I pressed the start button, worried that the few remaining electrons would be insufficient to turn the little diesel over.
I needn't have worried. She cranked right up. Bullet dodged.
Later this morning, finally at my desk, I couldn't find my iPhone. And then I remembered the second thing that I'd forgotten...
I'd left my phone in the Jetta's glove comparment, attached to its short (and mandatory) VW-supplied umbilical.
Aside from this leave-it-behind scenario, I utterly hate this setup. I don't like having the phone entombed where I can't see my maps and traffic data. In a world where Google's phone-based traffic service is free, I see no reason to pay for traffic data on a car's native nav system. Heck, with a smartphone I don't even need the nav system.
Sure, I could insead use Bluetooth Audio for the tunes, but then I wouldn't have the charging function and I'd be forced to peck at the iPhone screen to select music in a manner that's not that dissimilar from texting. The intergrated iPod cord is by far the better way to go, just not THIS cord.
None of the above should be construed as an excuse. I forgot to turn off the headlights. I forgot my iPhone in the glove box. End of story.
Kurt's the tough guy here. Photographers are always trying to make a stand and prove some sort of political point which is why he went crazy, stuck it to the man and took his milestone photo at 10,012 miles.
I'm not that bold and like palindromes (and I misjudged how long it would take to come to a stop) so today's Milestone is at the wonderful 10,001 mile mark!
It took us just over five months to hit that number and during those 10,001 miles, absolutely nothing has gone wrong. It hasn't even required a service yet, though one is certainly on the horizon. We've averaged 35.1 mpg with a best of 46.1 mpg and a best range of 642 miles.
Fingers crossed for 10,001 more trouble-free miles.
The Ron Montoya is the natural enemy of the Mike Magrath. Ron Montoyas are friendly, hard working and generally pleasant. Mike Magraths are jerks. Ron Montoyas can also grow beards. Mike Magraths think that beards are for criminals.
So when Ron Montoya had set his sights on claiming the range record for our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, a Mike Magrath had to beat it...
The plan was simple enough: Drive our Volkswagen Jetta really, really far on one tank of gas. There was a hike in Death Valley the girlfriend and I have wanted to do for a while and Death Valley is pretty far away. So we went there.
We took the same route as the Fuel Sipper Smackdown series, but traded the pre-determined fuel stops for no fuel stops and traded the standardized driving style for one that would increase range and tolerability.
Rules:
1) No AC
2) Coast as much as possible. If there was nobody on the road, coast (in D) until the car hit a pre-determined low speed and then use neutral to extend the cruise. (Yes, using N uses more fuel than D, but if you don't need to use the throttle to maintain speed as I certainly would have if left in D, then it's a net win. Plus, doing this averaged about 200mpg on the instant read while coasting in D registered ---mpg. )
3) Use AC when coasting. Hey, free power, why not?
4) Drive with the trucks: Whenever possible and necessary, I'd accelerate with the trucks. No faster. No slower. These guys are moving a LOT more mass and are WAY more concerned with fuel economy than I am.
5) No stops.
6) Look ahead. Way ahead. This is a good rule for every day driving, but essential for fuel economy. Can't get trapped behind slow / turning traffic, can't jam on the brakes, can't accelerate out of bad situations.
7) Don't be annoying: I had to be able to live with myself during this drive, I couldn't be a roadblock.
Everything went well until the temperature hit 115. At that point we needed to start cycling the AC on every few minutes to avoid dying. When it hit 120 we needed it even more. By the time the mercury climbed to 127, it was on full blast non-stop.
So the AC was on and it was over 120 degrees for at least two hours of the drive, neither of these factors helped. And then, because it was 120+ degrees, we were drinking more fluid than normal which meant — gasp — that we needed to stop. Twice. That didn't help either.
At the end of the drive we'd managed 642 miles on a single tank which then took 14.056 gallons of fuel. Based on my full-tank average of 45.724 (the MPG record here is 46.1 mpg), I could have gone another 20ish miles, but by that point, I'd been driving for hours and didn't want to risk it.
On a cooler day with less air conditioning, I'm convinced that 800 miles is doable. Hopefully I'll get another crack at it before the car goes away.
During the 10,001-mile Milestone, I mentioned that our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI hadn't yet called for service. Now it has.
VW offers free maintenance or 3 years / 36,000 miles, so this one should be relatively painless. Now, let's see if they overfill it like they did on our 2009 Jetta TDI.
We’re always talking about color values around here. It’s a kind of art thing, and we have three guys (Kurt, Mark and Rex) in the editorial department who went to school at the well-known Art Center College of Design and they keep us all talking about art things whether we want to or not.
“Color value” is a notion that speaks to the character and quality of a color itself. I understand it as essentially an authentic reproduction of the color as defined by a kind of abstract scientific quantity — purity rather than dilution. It’s one step up from the paint chips that you get down at Home Depot.
But for me, “color value” is just another way of understanding that color also has another kind of value, which speaks to our terrific and yet terrifically cheap Volkswagen Jetta TDI.
As we’re related in our critiques in both a First Drive and a Full Test, the new Jetta has had a ton of money sucked out of its production cost in an effort by Volkswagen to make the price of the car competitive with other brands. For many of us who are enthusiasts of the Jetta (and Volkswagen), this has seemed like a disaster. If you look closely at the Jetta, you can find evidence of the cost-cutting in little short cuts in the way features have been deleted, materials have been compromised, and manufacturing standards changed.
The overall plainness of the entry-level Jetta is no more than a visual representation of this exercise, which is — to be fair — a matter of financial life and death in a mass-market car company like Volkswagen. After all, you can only produce a level of quality for which people will actually pay, and no one in America really wants to pay a fair price for good quality. (It’s for suckers, which is why we all shop at big box stores that offer cheap goods and terrible customer service.)
For all this, I still enjoy every second I’m in our Jetta TDI. Part of this has to do with the different character a VW has compared to other brands. But part of it also has to do with the excellent color values represented both by the exterior and the interior.
First of all, the red paint has real depth, and it reminds me of the way American and Japanese manufacturers as well as Volkswagen of America itself scrambled to get their red paint to achieve the quality of the Guards Red that Porsche introduced during the 1980s and which became a real fashion trend (along with Pearl White) during that decade.
Second, the character of the black presented by the interior materials is also very good. Though the interior materials are notably less impressive than those of the previous generation car, black covers up the compromises, and this turns out to be a very nice shade of black. It’s is not an easy color to work with, as it can look very, very cheap if it’s not up to standards, which is why a lot of manufacturers no longer work with this color (especially in entry-level cars) unless they’re trying to communicate a message of high performance.
It’s easy to associate the use of color with cheapness, yet cars like the Fiat 500, Mini, and this VW Jetta TDI show us that the use of a good color helps mask the pain of the cost compromises. At the end of the day, you might be shopping for a cheap car, but if you’re careful about choosing a strong color with a good color value, you won’t mind the compromises that you’ll be living with every day.
I was trying to capture the beautiful sunset but when I focused on the bright red Jetta, my camera washed out the sky.
The sky really looked like this, but I couldn't photograph the car and the sky at the same level. I need Scott Jacobs and Kurt Niebuhr to give me some tips. Would you be interested in an online car photography tutorial?
I hope you had a beautiful holiday weekend.
I find the 2012 VW Jetta TDI to be uncomfortable. All of the surfaces are hard-touch plastics.
And the seats are sticky. Not in a gross way but the pleathery fabric or whatever you call this stuff:
clings to my clothes when I try to slide in and out of the seat. When driving it certainly keeps me in place but it is unpleasant. I'd rather have cloth.
I know plenty of cars have two speedometers, the "old-fashioned" round gauge and a digital readout, but as I fired up the VW Jetta this morning, I thought, "Why?"
Tell me why, please.
This isn't the dash of our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. If it were, I wouldn't have a post for today. This is the dash of Ron Montoya's 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI.
Now, apart from lacking the "highline combi-instrument display" that allows you to reconfigure the annoying door locks (it's also got a bigger screen, different colors and controls for footwell lighting!), our Jetta is missing some other things present here....Spot 'em?
See 'em now?
The Golf gets the benefit of a coolant temp gauge and an analog fuel gauge. The fuel one isn't that important as the digital one works just fine, but let me tell you that I really would have felt more at-east climbing the hills through Death Valley when it was 127-degrees if I'd had a temp gauge. It's not something you need every day, but when you need it, you need it.
This, combined with the door lock thing (and the hatch) would probably be enough to push me into a Golf were I considering a Jetta TDI. At that point we're looking at more than $1,000 price difference.
Worth it for just these features? Probably not. Worth it on the whole? I think so, and so does Ron.
Don't get me wrong: I like manual transmissions. But they're no fun on the 405 Freeway at 4 p.m., when you do the herky-jerky for 27 miles. That's why I decided on the Jetta for the commute yesterday. For all its demerits and decontenting, I like the car's unfussiness and its zen (for lack of a better word). I feel calm when I'm driving it.
Although by saying this, I might have to turn in my stick-club credentials, along with the gun and badge I have been called on to surrender, but it's the truth: I really liked not having to constantly clutch and shift on the drive home.
Volkswagen is recalling 30,294 2011 Jettas in the U.S. because a port-installed stainless steel exhaust tip may pose a burn hazard according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recall is expected to begin in November.
Exhaust tips are hot. Don't touch them unless you want to be burned. We always thought it was common knowledge but it's good to know NHTSA is looking out for us.
A call to our local VW dealership confirms that the recall is known. But they are not yet prepared to remedy the problem. Being that our car does not have stainless exhaust tips, we're going to predict we are in the clear.
Apparently I stirred up a baby hornet's nest when I posted last month that our long-term 2011 VW Jetta TDI had a bit of trouble starting.
I drove it only for 1 night when I reported that, and started it a few times in the course of my brief driving stint.
I did extensive testing this week on our Jetta (with Video!) and it turns out that my original quick diagnosis wasn't correct.
When I drove the Jetta TDI last month, I thought I had thought that night that the Jetta would start then die (stall) immediately afterwards. That wasn't the case.
The starter would turn and the lights in the meters would come on; that's why I thought it died upon the gear shift into D.
What is happening is that our diesel Jetta is difficult to cold start on the first try. I normally press the start switch briefly, then I will move the shifter immediately afterward.
This procedure works for me in every car I have ever driven with a smart start switch — except our Jetta.
The Jetta TDI, it turns out needs an inordinate hold time on the start switch — over a second and a half — to get started.
And although Donna said it's always been like this with our Jetta, that's not my recollection and I didn't have this problem when we first got it.
The video shows me in our long-term Jetta TDI. I press the start switch and get nothing. I immediately press again a second time and the car starts right up. Weird.
After shutting it off, I then show a successful cold start up by holding the start switch for over a second and a half; it eventually starts up.
But it's a diesel, right? "They all take a long time to start."
By luck we happened to have a 2012 VW Passat TDI for comparison, right next to our Jetta. It started right up from cold, no problem at all.
So our Jetta diesel doesn't start up, then stall. On cold start you just have to hold down the start switch longer than normal.
That's why I don't think this condition is normal.
I'm the guy who ALWAYS wants the dual-clutch automatic (or, more correctly, the dual-clutch automated manual, but that's a taxonomy argument for another day) instead of the manual.
Done right they're faster, smoother, more precise, less prone to human error, easier / lazier in traffic and, when driving hard, free your brain up for more vital tasks like steering, accelerating and braking.
Unfortunately, this one just isn't done right. And I don't simply mean because of the lack of paddles and the wrong-way orientation of the shifter's manual mode, or the not-very-sporty S mode.
Takahashi nailed the sluggish acceleration part with a flowchart here, and the awkward braking part with a graph here (he likes pretty pictures), but the real sticking point is that the clutch, at least on the '10 TDI Cup I drove, is light and easy enough to not bother my bum knee even in the heaviest traffic. Oh, and it saves $1,100 bucks while returning the same fuel economy.
If you drive it casually between 20 and 50 mph, the DSG is a fine transmission, but my commute involves stops and hard acceleration above 40. I want more control and more smoothness than this and the manual provides just that.
We dropped our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI off at Santa Monica Volkswagen the other day. In the past this hasn't been our favorite dealer. But its proximity to our office makes it so convenient it was worth the gamble in service quality.
This time the gamble paid off. Of course, our bets were hedged by the fact our Jetta fell under Volkswagen's free maintenance program. So we left the car with the dealer in the morning and had it back a couple of hours later with fresh oil. No appointment was necessary. While there, VW performed a campaign to replace the front window guide at no charge.
Our long-term 2011 VW Jetta TDI just might be the least sporty car in our fleet. I'm being completely serious when I say that I think our Sienna minivan could take it on Glendora Mountain Road.
And yet, the Jetta's DSG transmission is one of the few gearboxes in our fleet that matches revs on downshifts. And it does this very, very well. Go figure.
Basically, VW engineered the Jetta's transmission for enthusiasts, but not the rest of the car.
People are down on this car. Some on our staff even flat out reject it. Takahashi mocks its bumbling pickup and shift behavior. Jacquot dismisses it because it's not a Raptor. And Austria's definitely over the Jetta, now studying maps of Miami and plotting his rescue of a destitute divorcee indebted to the Chrysler Italians. Even our erudite reader Bodyblue calls the Jetta the most boring car in our long-term fleet.
I disagree. I dig this car.
Dig its clattering diesel, its sound of purpose. Dig its front suspension that hops and snowplows when cracking the wood through a long sweeper. There's one by my home that I've written about, a nice wide transition road. It's where I'll someday end up putting a car — with my luck, one that Oldham really likes — into the carbon-soaked iceplant. Try holding a nervous Jetta through a swelling curve like that, while teasing out 236 lb-ft, and stick that in your boring bong, Bodyblue.
Nah, this car's great. Shift for yourself and you've got no issues. There's pull throughout the range. Yeah, the interior's gone downmarket. The old special Jetta touches are gone and our copier is more interesting to look at. So what? VW's playing for large money now. Everyone sells out, even Jane's Addiction. I still wouldn't buy the Jetta TDI, though. Not when $1,500 more gets you into the Golf TDI, and $2,500 more gets the Sportwagen diesel.
Or you could just save it all, buy a Fiat 500 and point it towards South Beach.
I needed to get two bikes into the Jetta yesterday, as one was headed to the bike shop and then I'd continue on with the other to do a ride up Glendora Mountain Road to Mount Baldy Village. Honestly wasn't sure they would both fit in the Jetta, but figured why not give it a shot?
Thankfully the rear seats fold down, but they are far from flat. Luckily, the pass-through is relatively large, especially for a car the size of the Jetta. So I thought I had a chance.
The mountain bike took up quite a bit of space, and I knew the crank and pedal could get in the way of the other bike.
But after a nice bit of padding, the road bike slid in no problem at all. The Jetta's wide and tall pass-through is what made the difference here. Definitely a good idea to put the bulkier mountain bike in first, and the lighter road bike in second, if you're going to do the stack-fest.
And no, we won't be getting a bike rack for the long-term Jetta.
I miss the seatback adjuster knob that used to be so common on VWs, as opposed to this lever that's found on the Jetta now.
There's nothing overly wrong with the Jetta's current lever setup. But the knob was superior because it gave you the ability to just barely turn it for the smallest of adjustments, giving that perfect seatback angle every time.
It appears there might be a recall in our diesel Jetta's future. Volkswagen issued a stop-sale order on many 2009 – 2012 2.0-liter TDI models. The problem, described as, "fuel injection pulses could coincide with the natural frequency of the injector line #2 in specific load and RPM conditions. This resonance creates additional stress on the fuel line which a small number of parts (based on the statistic spread of line strength) cannot withstand over lifetime."
I have no idea what they're talking about either, but smarter people tell me that some fuel lines with scratch marks can lead to fuel leaks. And fuel leaks lead to fires. And fires lead to, well, you know. A quick check on VW's owner portal revealed no recalls, but perhaps that will change.
I walked out to our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI yesterday to find this ding in the door. I don't know how it got there. But it's there now. We'll have it popped out before returning this car to VW.
I found a ding in the door of our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI the other day. It bummed me out, but I got over it. Today I see this scuff on the underside of the front bumper. Now I'm getting upset. One more thing to add to our list of repairs. Maybe it will rub out.
Our Jetta has a feature that's common in lots of cars: thumb-friendly bump-outs on the steering wheel that let you comfortably place your hands at the 10 and 2 positions.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I learned at Edmunds' annual driving school last week that 10 and 2 are not the best positions for your hands when you're driving. You're better off at 9 and 3 or even 4 and 8. (It goes without saying that you shouldn't be a 6:30 or high-noon driver.)
During our evasive maneuver exercise, the instructor laid out the reasoning for us: Let's say your hands are at 10 and 2 and you're in the midst of a sharp swing left. Your right arm is now in front of the airbag, which is set to cushion your chest and head — which are 18 inches away. Your arm, being much closer, is likely to get broken by the airbag when it explosively deploys.
Isn't it strange that many steering wheels invite a hand position that driving experts say is not the best for your safety? Judging by a quick Google search, our instructor was definitely not in the minority with his advice. Lots of driving schools — and even New Jersey's driver's manual — advise 9 and 3 as the safest position for a driver's hands.
Are you a 10-and-2 driver?
The first thing you want to do when it gets really, really hot outside is complain to someone about how really, really hot it is. When I got in the Jetta TDI today, I couldn't easily find the ambient temperature display, so how was I going to complain (brag) about our current heat wave to my family back east?
After scrolling through the few menu options in the gauge cluster and running through the menu options on the nav system, I finally pulled out the owner's manual.
Found the page that told me what it meant if a snowflake appeared next to the ambient temp reading, but still not how to find it.
Then I saw the sentence that read: Depending on the vehicle model, different information may be shown in the insturment cluster display.
I know Magrath recently posted that our car doesn't have a coolant temp gauge, but is it possible it doesn't have an ambient temp gauge either?
It was a rough Monday morning, so I decided a quick run through the Starbucks drive-thru might help turn my already-crappy day around.
It's a sharp right into the driveway, and I was suprised how difficult it was for the Jetta to make the cut. At full lock I was still certain I was going over the left curb. Luckily it didn't happen, but since I've been through this drive-thru numerous times and never remember having that trouble before, I looked up the Jetta's turning radius after I arrived at the office.
Here's what I found:
VW Jetta: 36.4 feet
Honda Civic sedan: 35.4 feet
Toyota Corolla: 35.4 feet
Hyundai Elantra: 34.8 feet
The Jetta turns at least 12-inches wider than its direct competitors.
Not literally, of course, as they do stop our Jetta in a reasonable distance. It's their feel that drives me nuts.
I'm not sure what it is, but it feels like there's some kind of weird interference whenever you try to modulate the pedal with any degree of precision. Jam on them hard and they clamp quickly. Barely brush them and they'll scrub off a little speed. Anything in between and it's a mixed bag of jerkiness. Mmmm...jerky.
Anyway, it a constant annoyance that mars what is otherwise a pretty good driving experience. I don't find the throttle lag nearly as troublesome as a few others around here and the lack of sportiness doesn't bother me either. It's a diesel Jetta, not a GTI. Wouldn't mind if the brakes felt more natural, though, good car otherwise.
On many navigation systems, the navi will tell you that your have arrived at your destination, but won't tell you which is the exact building. I've usually have forgotten the house number by the time I arrive, and it's difficult to dig out of the navi system unless you go to Previous Destinations. On some new systems the address does pop up on the screen when you arrive, but in my experience, most don't.
Well our long-term VW Jetta TDI has got this covered. If you press the small "i" switch at the upper right when a destination has been entered, you get a screen with the complete address — and the house number. It's always available on your route. Nice.
VW even gives you the Lat and Long map coordinates just in case you need to call in an airstrike on that Al Qaeda safehouse.
Can you guess what the Passat TDI and the Jetta TDI have in common? Well, the Green Car Journal just released its list of finalists for its annual Green Car of the Year award, and the Passat TDI got a nod; you may recall that the Jetta TDI was a finalist back in 2009 and went on to win the award. The other finalists this year are the Ford Focus Electric, the Honda Civic Natural Gas, the Mitsubishi i and the Toyota Prius V.
Nominees are selected by the editors of Green Car Journal along with a panel of leaders from national environmental organizations. According to the Journal, "models are considered that feature improved environmental impact and increased efficiencies."
My money's on the Prius V, which is far and away the most fuel-efficient choice in the wagon/compact crossover segment. What's your guess as to which model will come out the winner?
Actually it was only a 100 miles, but Santa Barbara is a long way to go for dinner, even if I was curious about the Mille Miglia North America Tribute, an adjunct of the classic, 1,000-mile, Italian road event for old cars.
I’ve done dumber things than drive 100 miles for dinner, but of course the bar is pretty high in that respect. For example, it seemed even dumber to start out on a 200-mile round trip late on a Tuesday afternoon with only a half tank of fuel, even in the Jetta TDI.
I could hear the voice of my dad in my head telling me to fuel up before I started, no matter what kind of cruising range the Jetta turbodiesel might promise. Sixty years ago, he worked at Pan American Airways with old pilots who could still remember not being sure if they could get the airplane all the way to their destination, much less find the airport when they got there, so a full tank of fuel was always a good thing to have.
But of course I went the back way to Santa Barbara along the coast and then through the strawberry fields in Oxnard in order to avoid traffic on the main freeways and there were not so many gas stations along the way and was late besides and so never stopped.
This is not a big deal, of course. It’s only interesting because it shows you how you recalibrate your cruising range expectations when you’ve got the fuel economy of a diesel going for you. I quit thinking about fueling up pretty quickly. And it’s not like there weren’t gas stations with diesel pumps along the way if I went looking for them.
Once I got to the event and saw some cars and met some people who were about to set off on 1,000 miles of back roads in California over the next three days, I realized that in fact the Jetta TDI could probably make the Mille Miglia on just one pit stop along the way.
When it comes to pit stops, I’m always in favor of making fewer of them. We all watched the Audi R18 TDI win the 24 Hours of Le Mans this year by making fewer pit stops than the Peugeot turbodiesel. And I’ve even picked up a trophy in some races myself by making fewer pit stops, although the most notable example came in a Renault Le Car that was less powerful than a lawn tractor so there wasn’t any other strategy really possible in any case.
So when the dinner wrapped up and I started back to Los Angeles at midnight, I didn’t stop for fuel during the 100 miles back home, either. Of course I had the warm glow of the cruising range calculation on the tripmeter to reassure me along the way. Nevertheless, my pit stop didn’t come until the following morning at the office with a total of 495 miles elapsed on the tripmeter for the complete tank of fuel and still had an eighth of the tank remaining.
I love skipping pit stops.
Our guy Montoya, who is a crazy man with the Golf TDI he owns, quickly brought me down, though. He said I was a total wimp for not pushing the Jetta all the way to empty. Could have had another 80 miles easy, he said.
Workarounds. Seems like you need to find them more often with newer cars. Tuned to look pretty for EPA fuel estimates, the factory settings for newer automatic transmissions take all the fun out of driving. The solution, of course, is to get a manual transmission. Good luck finding one of those these days.
I've found two useful approaches to driving the Jetta TDI outside of the default D setting.
One is Sport mode. Misleadingly named perhaps, but Sport hangs on to revs longer in third through sixth gears, enough for satisfying pulls around slower traffic. It's a good way to navigate from city streets to the highway.
Out on the highway, it's into manual shift mode, particularly in the bumper-to-bumper stuff. It's surprisingly responsive, with rev-matched downshifts enabling quick, happy slingshots around left-lane banditos and other oblivious members of the wolfpack.
The Jetta's diesel is at the heart of all this. I never tire of the torque. In commuter traffic, it's more useful than horsepower. In most of Southern California, you'll usually run out of useful road before pulling a 335i's worth of horses out of the stall (although maybe not the Jetta TDI's 140 horses). Horsepower is sexy, but torque never goes out of style.
Much as I like the TDI though, I'm now even more amped to see what a Mazda 3 can do with one of those new 2.2-liter diesels.
There are few things that our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI has that the previous generation TDI didn’t. Many of you may already know that a number of features were left behind to bring down the price of the vehicle, which is why I was surprised to see that this Jetta TDI came equipped with a set of foglights.
Foglights come standard on the top trim Jetta SEL with the 2.5 liter engine, and also on the TDI trim level. However, they're not quite up to par with other VW foglights. The foglights on the Golf TDI, Jetta Sportwagen TDI and Toureg TDI all have a cornering light feature.
When the low beams are on and you make a turn, the corresponding foglight will illuminate the direction the vehicle is turning. Then it automatically turns off when you bring the wheel back to the center position. The cornering lights also come on when you have the turn signals on, perhaps as an extra sign to other cars that you are headed in that direction.
Are foglights a big deal to you? Would you want them to have the cornering feature?
This is one of the oddest details on the new-generation Volkswagen Jetta sedan, at least it is for me. VW press material says the extended front spoiler adds to the Jetta's sporty look, but I have to think it must bring some tiny aerodynamic improvement which yields some infinitesimal EPA fuel mileage benefit, because it just looks so odd and draws my eye every time I walk up to the car. Of course, that's my speculation, free of actual facts, and should I find one of those (a fact, that is), I'll report back here.
Our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI has been getting creamed over here for its driveability.
But we can't knock its utility.
For a Compact sedan, it has a big trunk. Check out the pic above: those are 2 international-travel size, big suitcases. They fit, no problem. On the jump you'll see 4 carry-stand golf bags that fit in there. I easily could fit in a fifth. Impressive.
If you check the Edmunds comparator (a great tool, btw), you can see that the cargo capacity of the Jetta TDI is 15.5 cu ft, while the Civic, Corolla, Mazda 3, and Cruze are at 12.0, 12.3, 11.8, and 15.4, respectively. Hmmm... the Cruze has good luggage space too.
Yeah, I know, thrilling stuff. Cupholders are something you might not think much about unless they're really bad. But believe it or not, I do have a cupholder story: It was several years ago and I had taken a Mini Cooper S out for a quick lunch and was hightailing it back to the office with a chocolate shake in the cupholder. I took a left-hand turn pretty hard, forgetting all about my shake, until it went flying across the car and spilled all over the floormat and carpet. The most upsetting thing wasn't that I had to spend so much time cleaning up the mess, but rather that I didn't get to drink my shake.
Even today all cupholders are not created equal. It's amazing how many are incapable of properly holding drinks in place, whether it's because the cupholders are too large, a lack of anti-tip tabs or because of a slippery base surface. Or all of the above.
But the Jetta's two center console cupholders are done right. Four anti-tip tabs per cupholder, a large enough size to fit most drinks and a grippy rubber surface at the bottom. The only downside is that those plastic anti-tip tabs can make quite a scratching noise when removing flimsier water bottles from the cupholders.
I have yet to encounter any drink becoming dislodged during hard cornering in the Jetta TDI. Although I must admit I haven't done the chocolate shake test yet...
I agree with Donna D. that the Jetta TDI's interior has a lot of hard-touch surfaces. And I also agree that the leather-ish material on the Jetta's seats can be particularly sticky on hot summer days, especially when wearing shorts.
But, as I drove from Santa Monica to Dana Point yesterday, I realized I disagree that the Jetta is actually an uncomfortable car. The front seats have impressively plush cushions, while the seatbacks have ample lateral support for the (albeit limited) cornering forces the Jetta can attain. And the ride is plenty smooth for highway duty.
Like some others on staff, I've developed my own driving habits/shifting methods for the Jetta TDI. I don't dislike the car, it's just that the usually terrific DSG does not work quite as well in TDI form as it does in other VWs, hampered also by imperfect throttle calibration.
Basically I run the TDI in Sport mode almost all the time (Drive mode is way too lazy), enjoying the DSG's ultra-quick upshifts and willingness to hold gears a respectably long amount of time. It also downshifts obediently when I need more power. For any and all on/off-ramps or any turn of consequence, I switch to manual mode to make sure I'm in the correct gear at corner apex, much appreciating the nice throttle blips on downshifts. And this Sport mode is smart enough to know it should get into top gear on the highway. Not all do.
Where the TDI gets annoying for me is in stop-and-go or almost-stopped-but-still-going traffic, specifically 5-15 mph running. In this setting the TDI becomes extremely jerky when going either on or off the throttle. So when traffic gets really slow, I switch it back to standard Drive which, although laggardly in responses, greatly smoothes things out. What do I care if it's laggardly? I'm going slow anyway because I'm sitting in traffic. I just have to remember to switch it back to Sport or manual if I'm about to change lanes and need the transmission to quickly respond with a lower gear. That is, if I don't want to get rammed by the car bearing down on me.
While this might seem like a lot of moving the lever around, it's really not a big deal and for me it just became part of the TDI process.
But here's my simple plan:
Since we're about to hit 15,000 miles on the TDI, I propose we trade this DSG model in for a six-speed manual. Then we can see for ourselves how much better we like the manual version over the next 10,000 or so miles.
As I was leaving work in the Jetta TDI on Friday night I realized I needed to adjust the side mirrors. I glanced over at the driver-side door and was pleased to find that the controls that allow you to do this are illuminated. As you can also see in this top photo, the controls that heat up the side mirror light up as well.
And...
...the same goes for the control that opens the trunk.
With many cars, all you get are lit-up window controls on the driver-side door cast against a sea of blackness; if you need to use any of the other switchgear typically found on the door, you're left fumbling in the dark. Good on the folks at VW for being thorough in this area.
So I was futzing around with the sun visor in our Jetta and noticed this...
Slide the panel back to reveal the vanity mirror and a light above the mirror is automatically illuminated. Fun! So helpful for those times when you're picking your nose at a red light.
Not a new feature or an especially unique one. But in the wake of the decontenting, it's nice to see that some thoughtful touches like this remain.
The audio display in our Jetta shows how much time is left to a song. I find this very helpful.
We don't have a satellite radio subscription in our Jetta, so I hooked up my iPod to the cord in the glove box. I set it to shuffle all songs. And since I have a lot of weird stuff on my iPod, like singing lessons and hour-long hotel mixes, I skip through a lot of tracks.
To skip forward to the next track I used the right arrow on the steering column, but when I tried to go back with the left arrow, it just kept skipping to random songs.
Tell us what is the weirdest track you have on your iPod?
I have a mix of Scott yelling at me. He's fake yelling at me for a video but it still freaks me out when it comes up in a random mix.
Since I had to drive to Pasadena from Santa Monica (about 25 miles) last night in the worst traffic (Thursday nights seem to be cursed that way) I got a chance to evaluate our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI as a rush-hour conveyance. I liked the Nissan Juke for getting through this daily ordeal but the Jetta is pretty decent, too.
Magrath said he didn't like it because he wants "more control and more smoothness" during his commute which consists of "stops and hard acceleration above 40." But I have the same commute and didn't find the TDI problematic to drive at all. I liked that it felt like it was using engine braking to slow down so I didn't have to hit the brakes as much. And I didn't even make use of its automanual. I also found it sufficiently zippy for getting around the distracted on the 10 East.
As technology goes, our Jetta doesn't currently have a Sirius subscription but I was able to drum my fingers to my playlists on Spotify via iPhone and Bluetooth Audio. Plus thanks to Bluetooth I could call up my mom and get an up-to-date report on who's dead and who's having babies. Seat heaters soothed me as I waded through the sea of brakelights.
However, I hated the map in this car. Too rudimentary to make sense of in that tiny screen. As editor Brent Romans pointed out, it "doesn't display as much information (say, street names) at normal zoom levels" and it's difficult to figure out how to navigate around the map. Good thing I already kinda knew where I was going.
But, yeah, the Jetta TDI did a fine job of getting me to my destination unfrazzled.
Look at that. That's the Jetta's glove box. See how there's a separate little ledge there up top? This allows you to store the car's owner's manual while leaving plenty of space for anything else you might want to shove in the glove compartment.
That's a smart use of space. I like thoughtful little touches like that.
For the record, I don't mind driving our Jetta. Actually, I kind of like it. It's taken a lot of lumps during its stay in the long-term fleet, most of them deserved. But I guess those issues just don't bother me much. De-contented feature list? It's still got the truly important stuff. Odd feel for brakes, throttle calibration and/or DSG shifting? I got used to them. Seat material? It's fine.
Meanwhile, I'm still driving a right-sized sedan (not too big, not too small) that's super easy to drive around town. The suspension is soft, smoothing over broken pavement, and the TDI engine gives the car some personality and is great for low-speed driving, fuel economy and range. Oh, and it's got a big trunk.
For a car that you don't think have to think much about, the Jetta is great. This might sound like damning praise — I could be describing a Corolla — but sometimes that's all I want.
My family was hosting for the Thanksgiving holiday this year, and the Jetta ended up doing a lot of shuttling of relatives coming to visit. This included two round trips to the airport and and daily pick up and drop off at a local hotel.
I suppose it would have been fun to use the M56 or A8 as they would have more easily impressed in terms of gadgets. But the Jetta certainly got the job done, providing respectable legroom for backseat passengers and lots of trunk space for luggage. Plus, it managed fuel economy in the high 30s throughout the ordeal.
The Jetta TDI's engine note and power delivery may be coarse, but you can't say the same about its Tornado Red paint job. We've rhapsodized about its richness and depth before, but for me, it's a point that bears repeating; the look of the paint catches my eye every time I walk up to the car and goes a long way toward making the sedan look more expensive than it actually is.
Neutrals like silver and gray are popular with car buyers, probably because they tend to impart a premium look. With the Jetta, it's obvious that red can be just as upscale.
Not a huge fan of clutter. That's probably why, for me, the dash layout on the Jetta is just about perfect.
All the info I need, and none of the stuff I don't. I glance at the thing and I never have to take a second squint to find what I'm searching for. And I also like the look of the font — simple yet elegant.
I know there are some — many? — who think the dash looks too bare and perhaps a bit low-rent. What do you think? Clean or cheap?
One of the few things I didn't like about our departed 2010 GTI was the lack of interior storage. There just weren't many places to put your stuff. That's not an issue with our Jetta, though, as it fares pretty well. Detail photos follow after the jump.
Front seating area: Up here, the Jetta offers a lined front cubby, wide door bins with bottle holders, two cupholders, a medium-sized lined center console bin, a sunglasses holder and a glove box. The glove box isn't very big, though it's two-tiered and has extra coin and pen storage capability.
Rear seating area: In back, it's pretty standard but still useful. The Jetta has rear door bins, a rear map pocket and two cupholders in the fold-down armrest. There are also two small storage slots behind the center console; I'm not sure what one would use them for, but they're there nonetheless. I also noticed the Jetta has two dry-cleaning hooks per side (one below the grab handle and one on the B-pillar).
Overall, I think the Jetta scores pretty well here. In some cases, you can see where the Sonata still holds an advantage.
Last night I rolled in our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI and played around with the DSG auto transmission. I'm not a fan of the drivability of our Jetta diesel, but the transmission's Sport setting helps, removing most of the low-speed stumbling and bumbling.
There's quicker throttle response, overall and when starting from rest. And if you keep your foot in it, the engine quickly zings up past 4000 revs (redline is at 5K). Shifts happen more quickly too.
I don't know how big an effect this will have on fuel economy, but I like the S position more than both D and the manual gate, so this is how I'll drive it from now on.
What about you VW TDI owners? Do any of you normally drive around in S?
Now here's a sun visor done right. In our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI you can actually extend it to cover up that hole left by most other sun visors, like in:
Mini Cooper Countryman
OK, now that we know this technology exists there's no excuse to continue making visors without an extender, right? Riiight?
By the way, in the Jetta the passenger is SOL as the passenger side sun visor doesn't extend.
Our Jetta TDI's odometer clicked past 15,000 miles this morning, and I quickly grabbed my camera to memorialize the moment.
The shiny red VW has been to the dealer just once during our ownership, and that was for its 10,000-mile regular service which included a TSB for the door seals.
Here's to 15,000 worry-free miles.
Subtle punctuation is all that's needed to convey how I feel about our Jetta. In the past few years, I've been pleasantly surprised by some diesel-powered vehicles (Audi, BMW, Mercedes), prompting me to ask/exclaim, "This is a diesel?"
In the case of our Volkswagen Jetta TDI, it's simply, "This is a diesel. (period)"
There's no mistaking it for anything else. Once you start it up, that rattle coming from the hood just screams diesel. Then there's that lazy launch off the line that I've commented on before. If you're cruising down the highway, though, the Jetta feels just fine; that is, until you go to pass someone, then that rattle and hesitation reminds you.
Granted, our Volkswagen costs about half of what the aforementioned impressive diesels do, so I really can't fault it too much.
I'll say it right here and now — I'm a fan of our Jetta TDI. Yes, the power delivery could be less lazy off the mark — although putting the tranny in Sport mode takes the slack out of the step-off acceleration. And so would going with the manual tranny, as I would. Either solution renders this gripe a non-issue for me.
And no doubt you've heard enough about the sedan's little trip downmarket (more hard plastics/less soft-touch, non-adjustable center armrest). But let's not forget that the Jetta's price was dropped too and that most of the essential Jetta goodness remains — solid construction, comfortable seats, sharp styling and a nice ride/handling balance for the real world of grueling workweek commutes and weekend road trips.
What too many people forget are the Jetta TDI's uncommon and greatest strengths — great fuel economy along with plenty of pull when you want it, in a roomy, comfortable sedan. There's no need to "try" to get high fuel economy, just drive it in a normal fashion and you'll get 35-45 mpg. Lean into it to pass a left-lane laggard and that swell of turbodiesel power whisks you past. Even with our team of leadfoots and a steady diet of ever-present L.A. traffic, our Jetta is averaging 35.4 mpg, which is slightly better than the EPA's 34 mpg combined figure.
Yep, I'll take the Jetta TDI over a tiny, under-powered subcompact or complex hybrid any day. Specifically, I'd like a Jetta Sportwagen TDI as it looks good, holds a lot of stuff and retains the previous Jetta's nicer cabin. It was also my top pick in our Fuel Sipper Smackdown.
Heh, seems Donna and I are on a seat heater tear.
OK, now this is what I'm talking about. Had our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI last night and cranked up the seat heater to the highest setting. Within a short amount of time, I was feeling the need to shed my wool coat, the same one I wore when testing out our Infiniti M56's seat heater, and enjoyed the roasting from the VW's seat. Loved it!
This morning it was particularly chilly and after 10 minutes of driving the seat had warmed up, not at its hottest temp yet but still better than how the M56 did, which was tepid. (I might have to borrow that laser thermometer for official numbers.) And I know no one would cross-shop these two cars but I'm just comparing them since I experienced them back to back. Anyway, props to the Jetta for warming my bones so efficiently.
Our longterm 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is a smooth, torquey, comfortable, quiet, roomy car that's frugal on fuel. And I do mean quiet - there's almost no road noise to speak of. If you were to pareto-ize the demands of the American consumer, all of the above attributes would be in the top ten.
Sure, when accelerating from a standstill you can catch the diesel mill off boost for a split second. But it's hardly a thing. The posts by other editors might have you thinking it's a big deal. It's not. Don't buy into it. Once rolling, this thing is all torquey goodness, all the time.
And yes, it has a soft brake pedal and nonlinear braking response. When you apply a constant pressure at the pedal, the car decelerates more and more aggressively as the speed drops. It's strange, but nowhere near as offensive as, say, the brakes in most hybrids.
Unlike hybrids, the TDI drives like a car. It's honest. I dig it. I'd rock a TDI as a daily driver.
For the New Year's holiday weekend, we stayed in town but did use our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI to take my dog Mya hiking. Every New Year's Day I like to hike up to Griffith Observatory and past that to Mt. Hollywood to get a lay of the land. Fortunately Griffith Park allows dogs on its trails so Mya was able to tag along.
It was so easy to load her up in the Jetta. I always love it when the seatbelt fasteners protrude from the seat because then it's easier to buckle in this squirming dog. On an unusually warm January day, we turned on the A/C. Unfortunately there aren't any vents in the back but the air coming from the center dash up front was able to reach her just fine.
We didn't have to bring too much of her gear this time — just the collapsible water bowl and water bottle — so storage space wasn't an issue.
Mya seemed comfortable enough back there. And as you can see from the photo (man, her head looks huge), she really enjoyed being able to look out the window, sitting up most of the time. Usually when traveling, she'll just lie down.
Anyway, we give the Jetta two paws up for dog hauling. Heh.
1) Our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI has more get-up-and-go than a Prius. (The 2011 VW Jetta TDI's 0-60 is 8.8 seconds; Prius V's 10.3, 2010 Prius 10.1.)
2) People won't see you coming and instantly assume you're a bad driver.
3) Doesn't emit toxic gas called Smug.
4) That HOV sticker no longer works for Prii so why bother?
5) Comparison Test: Jetta TDI vs. Prius V. 'Nuff said.
Any you'd like to add?
PS: Relax, I'm just havin' fun. Happy New Year!
This morning my daughter, who has only recently graduated to front-seat passenger status, asked a funny question.
"Why does this car have a kid's screen?"
Glancing down at the Jetta's nav display, I realized she had a point. It is so simple in its presentation, it is almost cartoonish.
Clear is the new clever.
This was my first time our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI and I was pleasantly surprised to find it has an intelligent-key entry and ignition. Follow the jump to see what wasn't a pleasant surprise.
There are so many vehicles with push-button starters now that I thought they all worked the same: A brief press and vaaa-rooom! Right?
Not so much with the Jetta: First press unlocks the steering (you'll hear it). Second press turns the engine over, but it doesn't actually start up. Third press, ditto the Second. Finally, the fourth press (held until ignition) actually starts the car. I know, I know. If I were the true owner of this car, I would know that I need to depress the button until ignition, but I thought the regulations for emissions testing stipulate that the test begins once the button is pressed (or key is turned) and the automated starter system took over.
How many new vehicles actually still require a persistent, positive, driver input to start it up? I thought that went away with the automated start-up years ago. I see I was wrong.
At some point during the night, somebody got into the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI and threw a bunch of leaves all over the front seats. Oh, wait. That was boneheaded me. I forgot to lower the tilt-up moonroof.
Besides the incredibly warm temperatures our notorious Santa Ana Winds bring, they also bring increased wildfire potential, leaves, pollen, and dust. Lesson learned. Thankfully, I don't have hay fever.
This weekend, I paid Mark a visit. After inputting his address, the Jetta's navigation system asked me if I'd like to save the address. It turns out, you can essentially do a "Save As" and name your destination anything you'd like. Since Mark's place already has a name, I thought it only fitting to Save As...
Volkswagen introduced its 2013 Jetta hybrid Monday at the Detroit Auto Show. The carmaker estimates that the hybrid will have a combined average fuel economy of 45 mpg. My first thought was: "Why bother having a hybrid when Volkswagen already has a perfectly good diesel option?"
We've had a difficult time getting close to the combined mpg numbers in many of the hybrids that have come our way (Ford Fusion Hybrid, Kia Optima Hybrid and Honda Insight, to name a few). You're probably thinking that's because Edmunds editors have lead feet.
Perhaps we do, but the lead in our feet doesn't seem to have a negative impact on the TDIs we've had. We've been able to meet or exceed the combined fuel economy ratings in all the TDIs we have tested.
I prefer diesel engines because they deliver more consistent results and I find that the torque is much more useable in everyday driving.
Despite this clear advantage for diesel, I can think of a reason why Volkswagen would still produce a hybrid — perception. As far as we've come in terms of clean diesels, the public perception of these engines is years behind the times. Ask people what comes to mind when they hear the word "hybrid." Then ask them to do the same for the word "diesel." Chances are you'll get opposing answers: clean and dirty.
I get that Volkswagen wants to cover all the bases. But if these hybrid VWs catch on, I wonder if it will be the end of TDIs.
What about you? Would you rather have a Jetta hybrid or diesel?
In case you missed the 2013 VW Jetta Hybrid post from the Detroit auto show floor, it's definitely worth a quick read.
Impressive specs? Yes. But I have no problem sticking with the TDI.
This is easily one of the best engines around for city driving. The instant torque it serves up works perfectly for pulling out of driveways, squirting into traffic and otherwise negotiating all the various stop and go situations that go along with driving on crowded streets.
Then there's the fact that the same engine returns an easy 35mpg on the highway. And I say "easy" because that's this car's overall average over the roughly 16,000 miles we've driven it. On pure highway stints it no doubt returns even better numbers.
Made me wonder how Volkswagen is going to market the new Jetta hybrid. Should be interesting.
It was 45 degrees outside this morning when I left my house at 7 a.m. The windows of the Jetta were completely fogged over, but certainly not frosty.
I immediately hit the rear window defroster button. Next time I looked down, it was already off. After turning the defroster on two more times, the rear window had only cleared to this point.
Hmmm...can the Jetta really not handle a California beachfront winter, or is there a more serious issue?
Last night I pulled into a parking spot at the grocery store, just as a Chevrolet Equinox parked beside me. The woman in the Equinox let her engine run for a minute while she sorted through her coupons.
I was immediately struck by how quiet the diesel Jetta was compared to the older Chevy. No doubt the Chevy wasn't in as good of shape as it could be, but still, it was another nice reminder just how far diesels have come.
I talk about sunroofs quite a bit on this site but most of the time the conversation is simply about the roof itself. I don't delve into the issue of sunroof control as often as I probably should, so let's start out with the best one in the game which is found in our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI.
This is, by far, my favorite method of sunroof control and should probably be installed in every car — damn the licensing costs. How's it work? Easy as can be: Turn it all the one one way to open it all the way, turn it all the way back to close it. No holding it, no waiting, just one touch and it's done. It's as quick and easy as turning off the stove. You only want it open part of the way? Don't turn it the whole way.
If we're being honest, a big dial hanging off the roof isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but the function far exceeds the aesthetic shortcomings.
So the Jetta's is the best, which is my least favorite?
This is the sunroof control in our 2012 Toyota Camry SE. The buttons are very small (especially for a Toyota), the roof doesn't close automatically and the tilt is in a separate location from the normal sunroof controls. It's an afterthought for a non-standard feature and it feels like it. Toyota — and everyone else — should just buy the Jetta's dial and call it a day.
I find one-touch / three-blink turn signals, like those in our longterm 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, useful and handy. However, such a feature should always include a 'cancel' function, which is something our TDI lacks.
For example, a car materializes in the adjacent lane just as you tap the turn signal lever down for a three-blinker. Wanting to cancel the turn signal, you quickly tap the lever the opposite direction, but the Jetta three-blinks the other direction. In desperation you tap the lever down once more... congratulations, you're in a turn signal death spiral. It happened to me twice during the weekend. Argh. Surrounding cars probably thought I was messing with them. Or on drugs. Maybe both?
As I'm typing this it occurred to me that it's possible our TDI has a cancel function if you tap the lever in the same direction. However, I'm one foot out the door for a flight so will have to look into this at a later date. Or perhaps one of our trusted readers knows the answer?
I grabbed the keys to our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI last night. When I walked down to the parking lot this is what I saw. Who parks like this? I know it wasn't me because I was there first. What a jerk. Yes, that means you, Honda guy.
Our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is a prime example of Exhibit E. Don't remember Exhibit E? I refer the jury to my recent iPod cord post on the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic.
Volkswagen and Audi are fond of short leashes that keep the device shut away in the glove box. One could argue this is OK for an iPod or other music-only device, but it eliminates the possibility of using any other iPhone function or app while the phone is docked as a music player, which in my case is 100 percent of the time I'm in the car.
And I'm talking about perfectly acceptable and legal uses such as any use while stopped, any use by your passenger (aka navigator) while moving. With smartphones, it's not enough to assume Bluetooth pairing for the phone and a physical dock for the music player is enough.
VW and Audi are also fond of bespoke single purpose cords instead of the generic and omnipresent USB socket that can interface with the cords we already own or don't need because our music is on a memory stick. This iPod leash/cord comes with the car, but they do make others — which they'll happily sell you — that plug into this non-standard socket, including one with a USB end.
None of them are three feet long, however.
Tell you what, VW: replace that unique socket with a USB jack and STOP. If you have space enough for the jack in the center console, so much the better. No further effort is needed or desired on your part. We'll take it from there.
Compared to the 2012 Chevrolet Sonic, this glove box iPod-centric interface is a big fat pile of fail.
With the previous-generation Jetta TDI, VW offered a supposedly sporty version called the Cup Street Edition. Shown above, it had a sport-tuned suspension, 18-inch wheels, upgraded brakes, paddle shifters for the DSG gearbox, a tasteful body kit and cloth sport seats. It also had questionable bodyside graphics I could do without. Sadly, it was rather disappointing when we put it through its paces on the test track.
Still, I like the idea of an enthusiast-oriented version of the Jetta TDI, provided it's done right, of course. Am I deranged or does anyone else think this would be cool?
But many don't. In fact, our 2012 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is one of the few I've run across with this feature.
Wait, what are we talking about?
It's the little "D" on the gas station POI list. I noticed it when using the navigation system POI feature after discovering the massive new Chevron station I pulled into did not have any diesel pumps. The 2009 Audi Q7 TDI I drove in the Audi Mileage Marathon didn't have this capability, nor did any of the contestants in our heavy-duty diesel truck shootout.
Back in 2006 I was driving the Dodge Ram and towing the big yellow 10,000 pound trailer back from the test grade near Borrego Springs. At one point I needed to stop for fuel in an unfamiliar part of eastern San Diego county, but the "D-less" POI list on its navigation system was of no help. Much swearing and consternation ensued.
Past experience had taught me to put little faith in the presence or absence of diesel fuel price signs, which sometimes look like portable real estate "Open House" signs, but without balloons, so I eventually wheeled the big rig in and out of three gas stations before I found one with a diesel pump.
Automaker engineers that configure navigation systems generally do so on a corporate-wide basis, and diesel tends to get forgotten because it represents a tiny fraction of total sales here in North America. The two companies that supply map data to all automakers certainly know which stations have diesel, but that knowledge costs a bit more and the in-car database and display system has to reckon with another variable.
Yeah, implementing this feature requires a few extra calories. But the effort seems absolutely vital if you're the one who bought a diesel-powered machine and paid the princely sum they get for navigation — especially when you're traveling outside your zone of familiarity.
If you're considering a diesel car or truck, punch up "gas station" on the POI list before you leave the showroom. And I think we'd all be interested to hear from diesel owners with navi about any other cars that do or do not have this feature.
The Jetta's key fob had a mind of its own this weekend. The thing did just fine when it came to opening the car, but it wasn't quite pulling off the job of locking the Jetta's doors securely when I was ready to exit the red four-door and go on my way. Click, click, click. I'd press the thing over and over again and still it wouldn't do as it was told.
I figured the key fob battery couldn't be the issue, since the red light on the fob lit up when it was activated; also, when I locked the doors (while seated within the car, using the interior door locks), the key fob opened the locks without a hitch.
After poring through the owner's manual for a moment or two, I learned the source of the problem: The car's key needed to be synchronized. Read all the thrilling details involved in this process after the jump.
The first step involved whipping out the fob's key bit, which I then used to pry open the cap on the front driver-side door handle. Doing so left the handle looking a bit exposed, as shown in the photo below.
Next, I pressed the "Unlock" button on the key fob, and quickly followed that up by inserting the bit into the door lock (the manual says insertion needs to take place within a minute of pressing the "Unlock" button). Then I entered the car and started the ignition.
After following those steps, the fob was back in sync with the car, and I was able to use it to lock the doors. And what caused this lack of synchronization to befall the Jetta in the first place? The manual says the fob and the car may become out of sync when the fob's "Unlock" button is repeatedly pressed while outside operating range.
Have you ever had to synchronize your car's key fob? Was the process as simple as it is with the Jetta?
I was looking at the light switch on our Jetta this morning and was curious about how few options I had for lighting choices. From 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock, we've got Fog Lights, Lights Off and Low Beams. No Parking Lights option.
I can live without automatic headlights, but I actually use parking lights frequently enough to miss this option on the switch. The owner's manual tells me that when the ignition is switched off, the parking lights and daytime running lights may stay on, and that "Parking Lights" as a light switch option is available on some Jettas. But this isn't the case on our TDI's light switch.
What do Jetta TDI owners do at the drive-in? Does anyone go to the drive-in anymore? I used to love the drive-in.
Yes, the trip odometer had been reset properly when our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI was last filled with diesel fuel. This appears to have been a very strong half-tank performance, but the lesser figure on the miles-to-go readout suggests that maybe this gauge isn't accurately predicting the halfway point.
I pulled up to a pump and refilled the tank to sort it all out.
The Jetta took on 9.551 gallons out of a possible 14.5, so by rights the fuel gauge should be at the one-third point. Still, this tank of mixed driving — a bit more freeway than city, perhaps — works out to 38 mpg. The Jetta's EPA combined rating is 34 mpg.
Overall performance after 17,100 miles goes like this:
Average lifetime fuel economy: 35.3 mpg (better than EPA-rated)
Best fuel economy: 46.1 mpg
Best single tank range: 642.7 miles
Average range: 357.7 miles on an average fillup of 10.1 gallons
This car can easily top 400 miles per tank if you allow the needle to get past the one-quarter mark. The tank pictured above already exceeds the average and still registers half full. Heck, it's still be impressive if it accurately read one-third full.
Remember that we're stopping at the pump less often than once per week, on average, even though we're driving at a an elevated pace intended to achieve 20,000 miles per year. Drive 12,000 miles per year and you may only need to stop twice a month.
The best part is this: this thing is no slug off the line. We're not hypermiling the Jetta to get these numbers. Diesel torque rules.
Ever wonder why diesel hasn't earned broad acceptance? Why cars like our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI still represent a tiny share of the market?
Even though it's still not the case, diesel cars have the lingering reputation of being noisy and stinky. But it is true that the fuel smells greazy and comes with an unshakable urge to wash your hands Right Now if you get any on you.
Also it's named after poo.
It seems so unnecessary to add the sad little "#2" onto signs and pumps. "Diesel" by itself seems to suffice. And has anyone ever seen Diesel #1? Is that one pre-mixed with the urea solution necessary for clean emissions?
I jest, of course. There is such a thing as Diesel #1, even though most of us have never seen or sniffed it. It's sometimes called Premium Diesel because it is more expensive to make and is generally found only in very cold areas because of it's lower viscosity. But it's not exactly the premium choice (if you have a choice) because it has less lubricity than #2 and contains fewer BTUs per unit volume.
At best it will allow your engine to run at all in the Great White North, albiet at reduced MPG; at worst it could ruin your engine if it's too un-cold outside.
Here's an idea: let's call Diesel #2 by the name Diesel instead. Or maybe Regular Diesel. Diesel #1 can then be Thin Diesel or Cold Diesel.
Let's face it: we all have a third grader buried deep within our psyche (some deeper than others), so why give the brain any subliminal ammunition it could use to drag diesel fuel and diesel engines through, as it were, the mud?
Myth: IL is playing "let's see who can get the highest mpg" games with the Jetta. — commenter @brn.
Sure, last year editors Brent Romans and Ron Montoya battled it out to try and get the best mpg in our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI without hypermiling.
But I'll have you know, at least speaking for myself, I don't drive the Jetta with fuel economy in mind. And seeing as how editor Dan Edmunds claimed, "Diesel torque rules" in a previous post, I'm guessing a lot of the other editors don't either.
In fact, editors Al Austria, Dan Frio and Mike Monticello drive it in Sport mode. The Jetta just manages to hold onto its top spot in spite of how we drive it. Busted!
If you're curious to see how the fight for best average mpg played out between long-termers Jetta TDI, Fusion Hybrid, Mazda 3 Skyactiv, Fiat 500 and Mazda 2, hit the jump.
April 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
18.3 |
31.7 |
39 |
| Mazda 2 |
38.1 |
21.1 |
31.5 |
32 |
| VW Jetta TDI |
31.8 |
25.5 |
28.7 |
34 |
May 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
38.8 |
25.5 |
32.6 |
34 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
18.3 |
31.7 |
39 |
| Mazda 2 |
38.1 |
21.1 |
31.5 |
32 |
June 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
40.3 |
25.5 |
34.2 |
34 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
18.3 |
31.7 |
39 |
| Mazda 2 |
38.1 |
21.1 |
31.6 |
32 |
July 2011: Editor Ron Montoya upped the TDI's best mpg during Carmaggedon weekend thanks to the fact that "There was nobody on the road."
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
42.9 |
25.5 |
35.1 |
34 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
18.3 |
31.7 |
39 |
| Fiat 500 |
42.4 |
25.4 |
31.5 |
33 |
August 2011: Editor Brent Romans beat Montoya's best mpg for the Jetta and without hypermiling.
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
46.1 |
25.5 |
35.4 |
34 |
| Mazda 2 |
38.1 |
21.1 |
31.8 |
32 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
24.4 |
31.6 |
39 |
September 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
46.1 |
25.5 |
35.3 |
34 |
| Mazda 2 |
38.7 |
25.7 |
32.0 |
32 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
24.4 |
31.6 |
39 |
October 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
46.1 |
25.5 |
35.4 |
34 |
| Mazda 2 |
38.7 |
21.1 |
31.9 |
32 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
24.4 |
31.6 |
39 |
November 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
46.1 |
25.5 |
35.4 |
34 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
24.4 |
31.6 |
39 |
| Fiat 500 |
42.4 |
25.3 |
31.0 |
33 |
December 2011
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
46.1 |
25.5 |
35.3 |
34 |
| Mazda 3 Skyactiv |
39.7 |
23.5 |
31.8 |
32 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
24.4 |
31.6 |
39 |
January 2012
| Car |
Best |
Worst |
Average |
EPA |
| VW Jetta TDI |
46.1 |
25.5 |
35.3 |
34 |
| Fusion Hybrid |
37.7 |
24.4 |
31.7 |
39 |
| Fiat 500 |
42.4 |
25.3 |
31.1 |
33 |
Even with the optimistic self-reporting of which most cars are guilty, I was able to eclipse the Volkswagen Jetta TDI's EPA estimated Highway fuel economy of 42 mpg. I set the cruise to 76 mph and ran the AC the entire 250-mile distance to produce this 44 mpg average. I'm fairly certain this car can get 45 mpg. What are "hyper-milers" getting, 50 mpg?
I made a quick trip up to San Luis Obispo this weekend. Thanks to one of those handy, crowd-sourced review sites, I found what the locals rate as the "Best Sandwich Shop in SLO." It's way off the beaten path, but worth finding in its residential neighborhood. Been there?
No. I didn't drive the entire 509 miles in one sitting. It was a weekend round-trip without refueling, but that's some serious range (at an average of 39 mpg). There is only one entry with a longer trip, but I wasn't hyper-miling — far from it. Thank you Mike Valentine.
I left our Santa Monica offices for Flagstaff, Arizona yesterday morning with one goal in mind: crush the mileage record for this car. So far, the record for our long-term diesel Jetta is 46.1 mpg. As the image above shows, I had 395 miles of straight and boring highway in front of me.
About 40 miles into the journey, I was feeling pretty confident, as the on-board trip computer estimated my mileage at 47.2 mpg. "I've got this," I thought to myself...
And then this happened.
Traffic came to a complete stop. According to the traffic report, there was a hit-and-run accident that was serious enough to require landing a medevac helicopter on the freeway. I was caught up in the mass of cars that were inching along for about two miles. It took almost a full hour to get past the incident.
Well, that pretty much killed my chances, so I decided to indulge in my usual road trip fare (beef jerky, Red Bull, trail mix and nacho cheese Doritos) and drop the hammer. I was pacing myself with other cars on the eastbound 10 freeway, in an effort to make up for lost time. I had to be in Flagstaff by 7pm and the navigation was estimating 7:25pm.
I reached the hotel at 7:03pm, which in my book is a win. But I was surprised to see that the trip computer was showing an average of 41.9 mpg from L.A. Even driving with way more enthusiasm, this Jetta TDI managed to hit its EPA-estimated mileage — traffic and all. This certainly supports Chris Walton's most recent experience.
I'll be driving back to L.A. on Thursday morning, and, barring any other hiccups, I am still confident I can top 46.1 mpg.
What do you think I'll average?
In the last post, I made the trek from L.A. to Scottsdale, AZ (not Flagstaff, as I reported earlier) in an attempt to beat the 46.1-mpg record. I failed. But on the return trip?
I was determined to beat the record, but didn't even come close. I even tried cheating, but I came to the realization that I'm better at hyper-galloning than hyper-miling. I was drafting big-rigs and got the trip computer to display a 48.4 mpg average until I got back into California, but then I gave all of that back when I had to climb a few hills and the headwinds kicked-up near Palm Springs.
In the end, the indicated average mpg was 46.6. The actual mileage was 43.57 mpg. On a side note, the 41.9-mpg indicated average on the way to Arizona was actually 40.98 mpg. So despite my best efforts, the difference was a measly 2.59 mpg.
Forget this, I'm driving the way I normally do. The Jetta TDI still achieved impressive figures when I was heavier on the throttle.
Baseball spring training calls to me, so I’m away to Phoenix and a couple of games.
Got the Volkswagen Jetta TDI lined up. Was thinking about where to stop for fuel between here and Phoenix Municipal Stadium where the A’s play, about 400 miles. Phoenix Muni is pretty much the oldest and most charming of the Cactus League stadiums, where the original light standards came from the Polo Grounds in NYC and Willie Mays hit the first home run.
Finally I figured it out. The Jetta TDI has been getting 35.3 mpg and as much as 46.1 mpg. The tank measures 14.5 gallons. Cruising range = 512 miles. Wait a second, no stopping necessary between here and Phoenix. So, no planning necessary. A diesel is the ultimate car for spontaneous travel.
Of course, this just means more guilt when you want to stop for Twinkies and the fuel gauge has hardly moved for 200 miles.
After Takahashi went to Phoenix and back with the Jetta TDI, I took it right back again for the opening day of the Cactus League, baseball’s spring training in Arizona.
With the annual winter increase in gas prices, it was a good time to be driving the TDI, since diesel fuel was usefully cheaper than premium gasoline at most of the fuel stations I saw. It gave me a glimpse of a world where diesel might be a rational exercise in technology instead of a dumb strategy to buy a really expensive engine and really expensive pollution control equipment while paying more money for fuel than gas cars.
Takahashi recorded 41 mpg on his way there and then a remarkable 44 mpg on his way back, so I was interested to see the way my fairly careless driving on cruise control would compare to his hypermiling effort.
I had the Jetta on cruise control at 75 mph practically the whole way there after leaving at dawn and got 41 mpg. On the way back I stopped at the Colorado River at Blythe (where the alfalfa fields were just being cut), to see if I’d get any downhill factor from Phoenix, but it turned out that I got just 38 mpg. Over the rest of the way to L.A., the traffic speed went down to 70 mph on a crowded evening, then I added another 120 miles during commute hour over the next two days at speeds between 30 mph and 60 mph, and the fuel economy went to 44 mpg.
Now that 40 mpg is achievable in a selection of gas-powered cars like the Ford Focus SFE, I’m still asking myself if diesel is worth the trouble. Then again, the torque output of this turbodiesel delivers a little better drivability around town than the relatively low-powered gas engines that are required to make the 40 mpg number. I wonder if we’ll soon start seeing diesel cars tuned for extreme mpg numbers so they can compete with the eco-calibrated gas cars.
Aside from this, the Jetta proved a great highway car. Plenty quiet, with a poised suspension calibration that’s typical of VW. A soundly ergonomic driving position with an excellent steering wheel. Surprisingly good seat driver seat that’s supportive despite flat cushions designed for full-size Americans and yet comfortable enough for all-day travel thanks to nicely resilient cushions and adjustable lumbar support.
Though the interior has been de-contented in this latest-generation VW (a consequence of the same difficulty with the currency exchange rate that faces Japanese carmakers), the Jetta looks and feels far better than the Mazda 3 that we have in our test fleet. At the same time, the low-tech, cell-phone-style navigation system has me wondering about the future of carmaker-installed navis in cars
Not a lot to report from Phoenix Muncipal Stadium, where I saw the Angels play the A’s, though the nice thing about the beginning of the Cactus League season is the relative lack of crowds at mid-week games, so you can see more than just the back of the head of some guy sitting in front of you and there’s no line for a bratwurst or foot-long dog in the beer garden.
Teams have been coming to Phoenix for spring games ever since the Tigers played the Pirates in 1929, although it was the wildly innovative Bill Veeck who really formalized Cactus League baseball when he brought out his newly acquired Cleveland Indians in 1947 to train near his winter home in Tuscon and convinced Harold Stoneman to bring the Giants along and train in Phoenix. Apparently there’s a little display at the Phoenix airport right now that tells the story and naturally you can read about it at the Cactus League site on the Web.
The big thing is just to feel the thrill of the grass after the winter.
You'll likely be seeing more of these posts today thanks to a certain 19th Century Entomologist. Some folks mistakenly credit Benjamin Franklin for the idea of Daylight Savings, but according to those who actually do research on such things, it turns out he was merely joking around with an idea to save money on candles. It was Hudson — and a couple World Wars — that cause our circadian rhythms to get all messed up twice a year (unless you live in the Republic of AZ).
So, in order to reset the Jetta's clock, I thought I'd use the prominent SETUP button on the dash, then select SYSTEM, then CLOCK. Well, that wasn't right. Another trip to the owner's manual...
Oh, of course. Why didn't I think of that? The intersecting rectangles within a rectangle button casually hanging around the edge of the tachometer and the trip-reset button. I'm such an imbecile.
(somebody gets a freebie "Milestone" post tonight)
I know what the Bluetooth icon is, but I can't for the life of me determine what the one below is/does. It doesn't respond to touch, I cannot select it with the rotary knob, and doesn't change size/color/presence based on anything I can do. Yes, I consulted all three owner's manuals this morning (photographic evidence below). A little help?
With all the talk about the price of gas these days, you would think that diesel-powered vehicles might finally get their due. With their generally superior mileage, cash strapped consumers should flock to them right?
Well, that's not really happening. For one, the choices are slim, our Jetta TDI being one of the few when it comes to small sedans. More importantly, the price of diesel fuel has been rising right alongside the price of gas. The national average this week for diesel is $4.12 while a regular gallon of gas is roughly $3,83.
Add that to the higher cost of buying most diesels in the first place and it's easy to see why they don't get much attention. Then again, I much prefer driving our Jetta compared to most sedans in its class thanks to the ample torque, but that a hard idea to get across in a 30-second commercial.
Diesels are efficient.
As a consequence of this, VW equips all 2011 Jetta TDIs with something to keep your buns warm.
The very characteristic of diesel engines that makes them frugal with fuel — high thermal efficiency — also extends their warmup time.
Compared to gasoline engines, diesels convert a larger fraction of the fuel's energy into propulsion rather than "waste" heat, and that "waste" heat is what is ultimately plumbed through the cabin heater and warms up your buns (and everything else) on cold days.
Simply put, diesel engines sloooowly generate meaningful calories that can be enjoyed by chilly mammals within the passenger compartment. Our TDI is no exception.
To ameliorate this situation a bit, VW installs seat heaters in all TDI-equipped Jettas. The seat heaters are pretty danged solid. There's also word of an auxiliary electric heater (and our car has a 100-amp fuse in the underhood box, suggesting the heater is present) which supplements the conventional heater core when certain conditions are met. I wouldn't expect a blast furnace from this device, rather something simply to help defog/defrost the windshield.
In summary, the slow engine warmup doesn't affect your comfort. In the words of Kirk Lazarus, it "ain't nothing but a thang." There are becoming vanishingly few reasons not to buy a diesel... aside from the fuel price issue.
"A) Are you home. B) Do you have jumper cables?" read my text to the staffer you'll never, ever be able to guess by reading the back of his Blue Jays jersey.
"Yes and Yes."
"Great. Can you stop by?"
Five minutes later, the unnamed savior of the day stopped by my apartment with a set of jumper cables and our long term Audi A8L.
"What died"
"Jetta."
"Did you leave the lights on, having momentarily gone deaf and not heard the insane beeping?"
"Nope. I don't know what happened. The battery's just dead. I can barely get interior lights and the stereo plays. That's it."
It took about three seconds to jump the Jetta with the big Audi and there hasn't been a problem since. Any guesses?
In August of 2011, I took out 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI on our Fuel Sipper Smackdown route with the sole intention of getting the inter-office miles-per-tank record. Despite nearly 130 degree temperatures, my heavy right foot and the girlfriend's insistence on staying hydrated, I managed 642 miles and 45.724 mpg.
While it wasn't bad, before we hit the unearthly weather, the Jetta was assuming that I would've managed almost 800 to the tank. At the end of that post I said I'd try it again before the car went away. This weekend I tried it again. I even went ahead and bought a diesel-specific jerrycan...just in case.
While it was 130 degree weather that ruined the first trip, this one was ruined far, far sooner. The weather report for Los Angeles called for rain and I assumed that it would be local to LA. (I didn't look at the weather beyond a quick glance.)
It wasn't.
There were torrential downpours for just about the first 150 miles of my trip. At the first landmark I'd noted my estimated range from on the first attempt, the Jetta was now reading nearly 300 fewer estimated miles. Fuel economy was down 11 mpg at this point. (39 compared with 50.) Turns out that trying to push through heavy, heavy rain doesn't do good things for fuel economy.
So I said forget it, strapped on the V1 and hit the open road for a cold, rainy day in Death Valley.
The drive was highlighted by two freak sandstorms that limited my visibility to the front of the hood (those of you in the snow belt know what I'm talking about — except in this case you can hear the sand peeling the paint away from the bodywork) and some of the coolest cloud formations I've seen.
Wind was whipping rental Jeeps nearly off the road, but the Jetta was dead stable. There was, however, significant wind noise from the top of the windshield when the gusts hit. The seats of the Jetta are still incredibly supportive and comfortable for the long haul.
So, what did driving like an enthusiast in the rain do to my range? I ran it until well past the 0 miles-to-empty warning and managed 520 miles on that tank. Fuel economy was down to a still respectable 37 mpg.
It's no record, but it was a lot more fun.
That's the passenger's footwell. Or what I call, the Black Hole.
The Jetta's black-on-black interior and lack of footwell lighting makes it difficult to find items that were either placed in the footwell or fell from the passenger seat. Like my black purse, my black running shoes, my black laptop sleeve, my cell phone...
I've left countless items behind in the Jetta when I parked it for the day. Granted, it's not so bad in super bright daylight, but this photo wasn't taken during the dark of night, either.
Give me a lighter interior, or bigger light package, please.
I tried to time my trip to the supermarket between downpours. I managed to get to Sprout's in a light drizzle. But coming out of the store, the rain was biblical. I tried to wait it out but it didn't seem to be letting up. So I made a mad dash for the Jetta, getting soaked despite having a bumbershoot.
Southern California can't handle rain, especially a rapid Noah's-Ark-style deluge. The run-offs and drains can't process the water quickly enough and you get huge puddles that cause traffic jams while the waters subside slowly.
I drove home on the same road that I took to the store. It was fine going but 20 minutes later it was backed up for three blocks. Three cars were stalled on the side of the road having attempted to drive through a large puddle. People continued to try, most getting through unscathed. By the time it was my turn, the water was much lower. The Jetta had no problem.
Accelerating and braking on the wet, oily L.A. roads was no problem either. The tires gripped confidently. No hydroplaning, no skidding. I know you're thinking that any modern car will do well in the rain. But I'm talking torrential waters, what my mother would call teeming.
The adjustable intermittent windshield wipers work well. I had them on low on the way to the store and I needed to put them on double quick on the way back. They adjust to a normal speed when you stop at a red light. After a year in the long-term fleet, which is like dog years for cars, the blades still clean the window very evenly.
The VW Jetta even looks good wet with that super bright Tornado Red paint.
Our Jetta TDI is back from its routine maintenance getting fresh oil and filters, a tire rotation and pressure check, and topped off fluids.
Our service advisor let us know of three outstanding recalls on the Jetta as well. One was an exhaust tip inspection that determined we didn't need updated tips. With the second they installed rubber grommets on the fuel injection line, and third was a software update.
No charge for any of this service. Santa Monica VW estimated the car would be ready by 5:00 p.m. They called me at 3:00 p.m. to say it was ready. Everyone was very polite and helpful. We also talked for a few minutes about what it's like to work at Edmunds.
The dealership is conveniently located near our office so I also got in a nice walk in the sunshine.
Our Volkswagen Jetta TDI will be leaving the fleet soon, having served its year and surpassing its 20,000-mile goal.
This service light popped up over the weekend. So, we took our Jetta to Santa Monica Volkswagen for one last appointment before it returns to VW.
We should have our little red friend back by the end of the day.
The test price for our long-term Jetta TDI is about $26,000. With that not-insignificant sum for a Jetta comes the proprietary MDI cable that connects your iThing to the multimedia system. We had a Passat S in here a couple of weeks ago with no MDI connection nor even a USB port. Just an AUX In jack. The Passat is also about $6,000 cheaper.
To get iConnectivity in the Passat, you need to commit $26,800 for the SE model, and that also gets you a sunroof and navigation system. That's a lotta cheddar just to get some iPhone music in a VW sedan. And that's for a proprietary system with its own protocols that may or may not always work for you (one colleague here reports problems using MDI after a recent iPhone update).
Yes, the Passat has Bluetooth. But that limits you to volume and track forward/back. That'll do in a pinch, but streaming quality is inferior and inevitably we end up fumbling with our phones trying to find a playlist, until we rear-end a Subaru Forester full of rescue puppies so traumatized by the incident that they grow into adults that cannot be housebroken.
A simple USB port, that's all I ask. In every car. And especially this, the People's Car.
When you mention biodiesel, I'm always thinking about those crazy guys who collect used cooking oil from restaurants. Some diesel car drives by and it smells like French fries. Like that.
Volkswagen apparently thinks different, as it recently did a deal to loan a couple of VW TDIs each to some high-tech players in the biodiesel world, Amyris and Solazyme.
Amyris uses its proprietary bio-engineering to enable algae to produce oil from plant-sourced sugar through fermentation. It has a partnership with Total, the French fuel company, to develop jet fuel, and it has another partnership with Brazil to develop large-scale production using sugarcane.
Meanwhile, Solazyme has its own biodiesel made from algae fermentation and it already has achieved some impact on the fuels front in partnership with Chevron as a supplier of experimental biodiesel for jets and ships to the U.S. Navy.
At the same time, large-scale biodiesel production from algae is still down the road, a measure of just how difficult it is to replicate laboratory experiments on a commercial scale. Indeed, delays and even bankruptcies have plagued the biofuel industry, and it's a future that seems to recede into the distance before our eyes.
It's fair to say that there's a way to go before biodiesel gets here in the kind of volume you would notice at the gas station. Yet these developments suggest that it indeed will get here in the end, only we're just not sure in what form. In any case, diesel models accounted for 23 percent of Volkswagen sales last month, an increase of 44 percent over the same period in 2011, so there are plenty of empty fuel tanks waiting.
After using the Jetta's navigation system a few times over the weekend, I'd say it's barely worth the space on the dash it occupies. Sure, it works and all if you put an address in, but the level of detail shown by the maps is not very helpful.
I like to be able to see the names of the streets as I approach them but the Jetta's maps don't show much until you zoom almost all the way in. At that point, you lose your sense of direction since all you can see is the block or two ahead. One one hand, some might say that this is an entry-level car with a corresponding nav system. On the other hand, it still added $1,200 to the price of the car so it should be better than this.
Ok, this is admittedly picky, but since the Jetta's time is almost up here I figured it worth a mention.
I've never liked the way you adjust this car's mirrors. The knob just isn't very intuitive. Turn it backward to adjust the right hand side, clockwise for the left and I'm not sure what leaving it in the middle does. Oh, and crank it all the way forward for heat. I wonder if anyone even noticed that's possible?
Add to that the fact that it unnecessarily clutters up the door and I rest my case. Just put it down on the dash somewhere and stick a rocker switch on it already.
I'll preface this post by saying that my iPod is ancient. I have the original Touch that was carved out of stone. I think it was even playing in the lounge when the Titanic went down.
Whenever I connect my iPod in our long-term VW Jetta, I choose all Songs and Shuffle. I like the strange mix I get when I jumble all of my music together. I even have a track with Scott Oldham pretending he is yelling at me about blogging. That really wakes you up when it comes on in the mix.
If a track comes up that I don't want to hear, I can advance to the next song by pressing the arrows on the audio system or on the steering wheel. If I want to go back or replay a track because I was really enjoying that Lindsey Buckingham guitar solo, the system goes to the next track regardless. So the forward and back arrows both advance. They just keep shuffling on.
A weird thing it does, is reset the settings on my iPod. The next time I use it outside of the car, it has been set to repeat. I didn't notice this until I put it on one night when I went to bed. I put on a relaxation track that lasts about 40 minutes. When I woke up the next morning it was still playing. It had repeated all night and I couldn't get it out of my head the next day.
Not a big deal once you know about it. But I find it strange.
That damn tire warning light starting to annoy you? Well then, here's a set of handy instructions on what to do conveniently located on the door sill or the Jetta.
Oddly enough, getting rid of the low tire warning involves filling up all four tires to their recommended pressures. After that, just hit the reset button for two seconds and poof! Warning light gone. Who knew it could be that easy?
I returned to my alma mater of Pepperdine University last night for the retirement party of Dr. Mike Jordan: journalism professor, student paper faculty advisor and one of those people who've played a huge role in my life and career.
That meant driving up the coast to Malibu and I could think of no more fitting car to drive than our VW Jetta TDI. You see, while I was there I was accompanied by a 2000 Jetta VR6 (oh how I miss her). Now, rather than going on as I have in the past about why Jetta Mark IV is better than stripped out Jetta Mark VI, I decided to remove my rose-tinted windshield, push aside my general dislike for this car and consider ways in which this Jetta has nevertheless improved over the years.
1) Buttons on the steering wheel. Mine didn't have that. The car in between had more.
2) iPod interface, touchscreen, satellite radio, navigation system, et al. Those things didn't exist in 1999.
3) Improved switchgear. The rest of the cabin has been cut for cost, but the parts bin switchgear is still better than what it was 12 years ago.
4) Fuel economy. True, my VR6 was about a half-second quicker from zero to 60 than our TDI and didn't grumble like a canal boat. But it also got a pretty pathetic 17 city/24 highway and 19 combined.
5) Transmission. I'm not the biggest DSG fan, but it's monumentally better than the four-speed auto that was in my Jetta (hey man, I was 16 and couldn't drive a manual yet).
6) Safety. Twelve years of airbags and structural innovation obviously add up.
7) Some would probably say back seat space, but I wouldn't. I liked the smaller Jetta. If you want a bigger back seat, buy a Passat.
8) Oh man, struggling here.
9) Warranty! Mine only had a pathetic 2 year bumper-to-bumper warranty, though with free scheduled maintenance. My Jetta was pretty problem free, but the current car's 3-year warranty would obviously be preferred.
Yep, I think that's it. Won't make it to 10. Damn it, I tried. Might be a back handed compliment, and maybe it's hard to overcome pleasant memories, but those are the ways I think this Jetta is better than its grandfather.
Did I miss anything?
Here's one of our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI's rear doors. Something obvious is missing here, but I never would have noticed it if I hadn't had my family in the backseat.
Over the weekend, my fiance and I went out for lunch with his parents in the Jetta. And the rear doors didn't automatically unlock when I put the transmission in Park and shut off the car. I was barely aware that the Jetta did this (leave the rear doors locked, that is) until I heard the discussion in the backseat — they were feeling around on the doors looking for locks to pull on or push and not finding anything.
Eventually, they found this central unlock button... it's on the back of the front console and not exactly in a location where rear passengers would normally look for a means of opening the rear doors.
Update: Turns out this is a moot point. The passengers have changed their stories... they were able to pull on the door releases and open the doors. Nothing to see here, folks. Sorry.
I'd call this cost-cutting, because surely, one plastic button costs less than two locks
.
I spent a long weekend with the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI, and though I'm still liable to fuss over small details, this is one of those cars that integrated fairly seamlessly into my life and began to feel like my very own car. I've even thought about the car a few times since I turned it over to the next driver. That sounds insignificant, but I'd say this happens only half the time with the long-term test cars I drive.
For some reason, I feel very comfortable driving our Jetta TDI. The driver seat is flat, but it fits me perfectly and the steering wheel is scaled just right for my hands at nine and three. I like the sound and feel of the diesel engine, too. Oh, I could certainly do without the dead throttle response off the line, and I'd pick the conventional manual gearbox so I'd have more to do while commuting, but as it is, there's still enough torque for satisfying bursts of acceleration.
Also, fuel stations are often crowded and competitive in Southern California, so I usually put off going as long as possible, and with the TDI's range, I can go more days between fill-ups.
I'll offer a parting thought on space. During a family outing, my soon-to-be father in law decided it would be OK if I drove us in the Jetta instead of all of us getting into his Avalon. He sat up front, and I'd preemptively moved the seat back to accommodate him (he's about 6 feet tall). The amount of legroom in the car took him by surprise, and he kept moving the seat up, noting repeatedly how much room is in this cabin.
I chewed on that for a while and then noticed how much space there was behind my seat (see below). It's a lot — there's considerably more rear legroom in this car than in the four-door GTI my fiance are targeting for future family use. Maybe the North-Americanized Jetta isn't so bad after all.
Can't is really too strong a word, but over the weekend, I noticed the our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI's 2.0-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder has a mildly irritating drone at 75 mph in the DSG transmission's 6th gear (2,400 rpm).
Back off to 70 mph (about 2,200 rpm) and it goes away. Or, speed up to 80 mph (about 2,600 rpm) and it also goes away. I didn't get a chance to assess whether the drone is audible at 2,400 in the lower gears.
It's not a big deal, but I now make a point of driving 70 in the Jetta to avoid being mildly annoyed.
Gotta love them polished tankers. This one's full of good old 1863, otherwise known as "aviation fuel, turbine engine." Jet fuel. It's similar to diesel, and our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI might even run on it. But the fuel's lower lubricity would do the VW no favors.
Here's a post Earth Day question for you: Do you consider diesel cars to be "green"?
Ask any anybody at Volkswagen and they'll tell you that diesels are most assuredly green since they're more efficient. But the average car buyer, at least in the U.S., probably thinks much differently. Diesels are what smelly trucks use right? How clean can those be?
It's actually a complicated answer depending on your view of greenhouse gases vs. strict efficiency, but forget all the technical details for now. Are you convinced that diesels can be as green as a hybrid? And more importantly, could you convince someone who had never heard of the term "clean diesel?"
Wrap-Up
What We Got
When Volkswagen announced a fully redesigned 2011 Jetta, we figured it would be worth a look. It was the latest iteration of VW's world car and it was bigger, with a softer ride and increased fuel economy. It was quickly turning into a very American compact sedan. With that in mind, we ordered a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI with Navigation.
Why the TDI? Well, the alternative fuel movement is here to stay. With so much focus on electric and hybrid vehicles we figured it was worth reminding the public of the original gasoline alternative, diesel. The 2.0-liter inline-4 of the Jetta generates 140 horsepower and 236 pound-feet of torque, while its six-speed dual-clutch (DSG) gearbox directs it to the front wheels. On paper, our Jetta TDI was said to return 30 city and 42 highway mpg, numbers that rival some hybrids. This car was worth our attention.
We had already tested a long-term 2005 Jetta TDI and 2009 Jetta TDI, so we know the ins and outs of diesel ownership, which made for good generational comparison. Our decision to add navigation was one of convenience. Included in the package were keyless entry, push-button start, driver seat lumbar adjustments, foglights and an MSRP of $26,065.
We spent one year and over 22,500 miles behind the wheel of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. There was good. There was bad. And we documented it all.
Our Impressions
"Something about our TDI's hard, reptilian dash stood out. And not in a bad way. We've panned the Jetta interior as cheap and disappointing, but I didn't feel that. Maybe the color masks it, or it works with the minimalist planes and longitudes framing the vents, buttons and knobs. Maybe I'm used to it from our GTI. Or maybe I just don't expect much from the Jetta. But put in context of what you can get for the same or fewer dollars, the criticism stands.... Maybe Ford, Chevy, Mazda and Hyundai just have a better supplier for the softer, spongy stuff. Not a personal deal-breaker, but your mileage may vary." — Dan Frio
"I noticed how the Jetta isn't quite as easy to talk up as it used to be." — Brent Romans
"The Jetta's DSG transmission is one of the few gearboxes in our fleet that matches revs on downshifts. And it does this very, very well. Go figure. Basically, VW engineered the Jetta's transmission for enthusiasts, but not the rest of the car. — Scott Oldham
"Here's my two cents on the Jetta's accommodations. As good as they look, [the seats] are not great to sit in. The driver seat feels supportive initially, but after longer periods of time behind the wheel I find myself shifting around quite a bit to stay comfortable.... I played with the [seat adjusters] constantly and still came away wishing for better seats. Never remember feeling that way about the GTI." — Ed Hellwig
"It's the most comfortable car I've driven in a year.... In a rare alignment of the ergonomic planets, the Jetta TDI has managed to fit me so well that I forgot all of James' pointed criticisms. I'm not saying it's sumptuous, but the combination of the seat, the position of it and the steering wheel are so agreeable to me that I would not hesitate to buy this car if I had a commute of any serious distance. It's that good." — Kurt Niebuhr
"Volkswagen has overtaken Toyota as the sissiest car company in the world. The Jetta doesn't even have an 'off' or 'partial off' button for its ESC. To make matters worse, the stability system is over-the-top intrusive, adding brakes and cutting the throttle if you get the least bit aggressive. Steering is slow, car feels heavy and the tires offer little grip. Overall, [performance testing] is not a fun experience. — Mike Monticello
"I don't like the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta.... So why don't I like it? Because I remember what it used to be. Because I never really considered it a Civic competitor.... Because with the right engine and equipment it was also an alternative to entry-level European luxury cars. What's changed exactly? In short, they've cut out a lot of those details that made the last Jetta (and in some cases the Jetta before that) more special than the average compact car." — James Riswick
"I could never have asked adults to ride in the back of the '05 Jetta, but I have no qualms about doing it with this car, which has another 3 inches of wheelbase over even our 2009 Jetta TDI." — Erin Riches
"It's got great pull on the highway. Just keep it in the sweet spot (70 mph, 2,500 rpm), then stomp to pass or arc around an erratic wolfpack, and it uncoils effortlessly. It's rated at the same horsepower as the Honda Civic (140), but with 100 lb-ft more torque, [the Jetta] couldn't be more different." — Dan Frio
"For the record, I don't mind driving our Jetta. Actually, I kind of like it. It's taken a lot of lumps during its stay in the long-term fleet, most of them deserved. But I guess those issues just don't bother me much. De-contented feature list? It's still got the truly important stuff. Odd feel for brakes, throttle calibration and/or DSG shifting? I got used to them. Seat material? It's fine.... For a car that you don't have to think much about, the Jetta is great. — Brent Romans
"Our long-term 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI is a smooth, torquey, comfortable, quiet, roomy car that's frugal on fuel. And I do mean quiet. There's almost no road noise to speak of.... Sure, when accelerating from a standstill you can catch the diesel mill off boost for a split second. But it's hardly a thing. The posts by other editors might have you thinking it's a big deal. It's not. Don't buy into it. Once rolling, this thing is all torquey goodness, all the time.... Unlike hybrids, the TDI drives like a car. It's honest. I dig it. I'd rock the TDI as a daily driver. — Jason Kavanagh
Maintenance & Repairs
Regular Maintenance: Routine service was covered 100 percent by Volkswagen Carefree Maintenance. The program spanned the first three years or 36,000 miles of scheduled maintenance. Our Jetta requested regular service at 10,000 and 20,000 miles, costing us a total of $0.
Service Campaigns: All maintenance was not carefree, however. During its first routine visit, the dealer replaced the front window guides and front door seals per an open TSB. At this time it also replaced a broken front seat trim piece under warranty. During our second scheduled visit, the dealer handled a fuel line recall and a TCM update. One final recall arose, but did not pertain to our vehicle. It was to remedy a burn hazard caused by the factory chrome exhaust tips. We didn't have them, so our car was fine.
Fuel Economy and Resale Value
Observed Fuel Economy: The 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI returned impressive fuel economy over the past 12 months and 22,000 miles. We averaged 35.7 mpg. Our single best tank of diesel garnered 46.1 mpg and covered a range of 642 miles. This ranked it among the best long-distance cars ever to enter the long-term fleet.
Resale and Depreciation: Resale value for the TDI was above average. By the end of our test, Edmunds' TMV® Calculator depreciated our 2011 Volkswagen Jetta TDI with Navigation by 19 percent from its original MSRP. This calculation was based on a private-party sale. For reference, our 2009 Jetta TDI dropped just 16 percent with 25,000 miles on the odometer.
Summing Up
Pros: Comfortable for a wide range of drivers, quiet on the highway, roomy in the backseat, very fuel-efficient.
Cons: Down-market interior materials quality. Less available content compared to previous generations. The cost of diesel fuel over gasoline could negate fuel economy benefits depending upon market trends.
Bottom Line: The 2011 Volkswagen Jetta wasn't as easy to talk up as it used to be. Its resale value remains commendable, however, and the diesel powertrain can easily deliver 40-plus mpg on the highway. Free maintenance makes it easy to own once you've committed.
| Total Body Repair Costs: | None |
| Total Routine Maintenance Costs: | None (over 12 months) |
| Additional Maintenance Costs: | None |
| Warranty Repairs: | Replace door seals, replace window guides, replace broken seat trim, install fuel line grommets, TCM update |
| Non-Warranty Repairs: | None |
| Scheduled Dealer Visits: | 2 |
| Unscheduled Dealer Visits: | None |
| Days Out of Service: | None |
| Breakdowns Stranding Driver: | None |
| Best Fuel Economy: | 46.1 mpg |
| Worst Fuel Economy: | 25.5 mpg |
| Average Fuel Economy: | 35.7 mpg |
| True Market Value at service end: | $21,136 (private-party sale) |
| Depreciation: | $4,929 (or 19% of original MSRP) |
| Final Odometer Reading: | 22,538 miles |
The manufacturer provided Edmunds this vehicle for the purposes of evaluation.