DRIVER’S JOURNAL
Day 1: I’d always found the shape of previous Jettas to be a bit bland and hard to pick out from similar models from other manufacturers. So I was pleased to see that VW seemed to have tried a bit harder for this new version. Overall it now looks more distinctive and upmarket. My own car is a VW Golf, so the Jetta’s interior was familiar in terms of some of the knobs, switches and quality of the materials and finish. The major immediate difference was the numerous technology features fitted to this top-of-the-range Execline model. The first impressions from my short drive home after picking up the car were that it has a very comfortable ride, is very quiet and has the feeling of solidity and a connection to the road I’ve come to expect from VW.
Day 2: Had to drive from the deep south of the city to the far north today. Having done my homework and read (well, skimmed) the nearly 380-page manual, I am more familiar with the car’s features, which include blind-spot detection, adaptive cruise control, lane assist, forward-collision warning with autonomous emergency braking, and rear cross-traffic alert. It’s a wet day, so I appreciate the rain-sensing wipers, which change their speed based on how heavy it’s raining. The ability to choose the colour of the interior ambient lighting based on your mood (Red for road rage? Blue for asleep at the wheel?) seems like something you’d play with once and never bother with again.
Day 3: Went downtown to pick up a large display board. It fit in the car easily with the 60/40 rear seats folded down. Even with the seats up, there’s a lot of space in the trunk and it’s not at the expense of rear legroom. The digital dash and central screen provide lots of information that can be customized as to content and position. For example, the navigation system can be displayed on the central screen, in the middle of the dash or right across it.
Day 4: Went to Red Deer for the weekend to visit our daughter. I was interested to see how the Jetta performed compared to the Golf. The Jetta is slightly longer and looks and feels like a bigger car. They both have turbocharged engines, but the Golf’s is 1.8 litres compared to the Jetta’s 1.4. With the Golf, there is a definite feeling of boosted acceleration when the turbo kicks in, which was less apparent in the Jetta, but it didn’t feel underpowered at all. The eight-speed automatic transmission probably helps make up for the power deficit.
Day 5: Drove back from Red Deer. With the adaptive cruise control on and music playing through the Beats Audio system, the Jetta makes for a relaxed highway cruiser. On more twisty roads, it handles well with nicely weighted steering, especially in sport mode.
Day 6: Some short trips locally. Went to the car wash to make sure the car looked its best for tomorrow’s photo shoot. The Silk Blue metallic paint suits the car well. The front-end treatment is particularly striking, with its LED headlights.
Day 7: Final day with the Jetta. I hadn’t been checking fuel economy regularly but when I did look it was usually at or around 6.0 L/100 km. Overall I enjoyed driving the Jetta. It didn’t have any glaring weak spots and had a fairly good balance of performance, ride and handling.