Last Thursday I acquired a new Car. A 2024 Jetta SE. My 2007 Audi A4 Avant Quattro has become rather long in the tooth and needs a great deal of replacement parts and repairs… So much so that it’s going to have to be sidelined for awhile. And that saddens me, but I do look forward to the car’s final and ultimate form. In the mean time… this Jetta now my Daily Driver. I’ve always respected the Jetta, but never really personally liked them very much. But the new body style is just too good looking. I love the new grill and headlights. I had other options of course, and I test rode all of them. But none of them felt nearly as good as the Jetta. Just getting in and shutting the door told me that unlike the other cars, this was a real German Sedan. It’s almost as big as the discontinued Passat, and you’re not paying big Audi dollars… but it looks like you did.
It’s powered by a 1.5 Liter Turbo that I was anticipating to be woefully lacking in everything. But paired with the 8 speed Tiptronic transmission… With Gear ratios properly sorted out… the car is both smooth and fast. And since the engine is displacing less than a Harley V-Twin, the fuel consumption is Very Conservative. And by that I mean, I’ve never had a car before that sipped gasoline so delicately. 40 miles per gallon if I drive within the bounds of the law. Cruising at 70, with the Adaptive Cruise Control activated, I was still getting 38.5 MPG’s. And that’s a lot of MPG’s compared to what I’m used to. My A4’s consumption can not match at only about 22 MPG’s for the same trip, and while burning Premium.
Android Auto, Apple Car Play, Dual Zone Climate, Defrosting Mirrors with Blind Spot Monitoring, Lane holding assist… it has all the technology I could ever want. I’m not even used to all this. I love the blacked out wheels, dark platinum paint… It just looks fantastic.
Inside the car, there’s actually more space than the A4. And the trunk is pretty much just as big as the Avant’s Wagon rear cargo area, though not as tall. It’s very usable. You could camp in the trunk.
I do think I need to get this car’s Windows tinted, just to complete the look. If you are in the market for an affordable and economical car that’s not just an Eco-Shit Box… The new Jetta is well worth a test ride.
Don’t turn your nose up on some of those shitboxes.
I’ve got a ’93 Camry wagon that I have a quarter million miles on, and it is still running fine.
Oh, I don’t really… I hold Toyota in high regard.
Not so much later models. They started that loose piston ring thing in 2012, in order to get a microscopic mileage boost.
Rings get stuck slightly lopsided, and the engine drinks oil like a sewer while destroying itself. Same issue with later model Audis.
I’ve been following the mechanic guy Scotty Kilmer On U-Tube, mostly for his zany style. But his opinion of the German car makers is that to have a prayer of getting what is advertised, it has to be built _IN_ Germany, not a foreign plant, and that the newer years all turn into money-pits over a relatively short time… Would the Audi you have be fitting that? Looking to prove or disprove his theory, for myself….
Scotty is also a biased jackass. So there’s that.
There’s an astronomical amount of plastic parts under the hood of every VW. You will have problems past 80K with every VW. Unbiased ASE mechanic here.
That’s fine. My son is a VW Tech. And I probably wont have this car that long anyway. I’m not worried.
I was a big VW fan back in the TDI days, having both a TDI Beetle and a TDI Jetta. Now I have an A3 TDI and a Mercedes E250 Bluetec. Either will get in the mid 40s if driven right, but they are not available in diesel anymore. Based on your review, it sounds like they finally figured out direct injection in the gas models!
Really nice looking sedan. Now it’s time for a long road trip to break it in.