VW3& JETTA has long enjoyed a loyal following among youthful hip urbanites, but that may be changing. A completely redesigned Jetta went on sale last March, and we darned it with faint praise for its comfortable, quiet ride, roomy back seat, and adroit handling, while sharply criticizing its all-new inline-five-cylinder engine for a coarse idle, moaning engine note, and leisurely 8.3-second 0-to-60-mph performance. A turbodiesel variant good for up to 46 mpg and packing 177 pound-feet of torque joined the lineup in May and a frisky 2.0-liter direct-injected turbo engine shared with the Audi A3 recently went on sale. Either of those engines would undoubtedly have won the Jetta a few more friends among our voting panel than did our 2.5 model.
This car struck us as having strayed off of…
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MotorTrend (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2006