Rowing with the gears of the 2015 Volkswagen Jetta S TDI’s six-speed manual transmission since we roll over the scenic two-laners of Virginia’s horse country, we marvel on the fact that we’re actually wonderful time. Yeah, fun. On a Jetta.
Never would we have expected this back when Vw first introduced the current Jetta for the 2011 type year. While it boasted increased space, son-of-Audi styling, along with a more reasonable price, the Jetta was soundly criticized for the utter dearth of character, relentlessly cheap-feeling cabin, gruff five-cylinder base engine, and chassis that had regressed to the Ancient with rear drum brakes along with a torsion-beam back suspension.
Since then, VW has made incremental and substantial enhancements to the North American bread-butterer, and with 2014, all U.S.-market Jettas featured four-wheel disc brakes with an independent rear suspension. Furthermore 2014, another EA888 1.8-liter turbocharged base four-cylinder engine forced the cantankerous 2.5-liter five-cylinder into retirement. Go into the 2015 Jetta, with its midcycle update that brings new front and back styling, upgraded interior components (including-at last-a soft-touch dash top), and a new EA288 diesel engine in TDI models. Alas, it appears that the Jetta has now become the car Volkswagen should have been building since the beginning.
Usually, the most critical aspects of a vehicle’s midcycle refresh are modified lighting and fascia aspects, however in the 2015 Jetta’s case, they're arguably the least fascinating of its updates. A fresh grille focuses on the car’s wider, along with the new rear bumper, while new head lights offer extensively available LED daytime running lamps plus the taillamps evoke its Audi-brand cousins. And for the first time, perhaps the lowest priced Jetta rides on aluminum tires. How much the revisions help the Jetta’s looks is up to the observer, but arguably it is ever harder to see the difference relating to the Jetta and also the one-size-up Passat.
The interior, when among the Jetta’s worst attributes, has turned into a convincingly nice area to hang out for 2015. It’s still Teutonically austere plus the door panels are tough plastic, but the dashboard seems far classy, covered as it is with tunneled gauges and reflective piano-black trim panels. High-end material including navigation has trickled down from higher trims to low- and mid-grade ranges, and interestingly, an available touch-screen infotainment system without navigation is really bigger than those of the navigation-equipped cars. Plus the seats of the S, SE, and SEL types we drove were secure and supportive.
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