New VW 'best car'?

Ask anyone what is the best car Volkswagen has built and you'll probably get one of two answers: the Beetle or the Golf.



For me, though, maybe there's another option. One that might not rank in the top three in most people's mind. Drive it and see.

The Jetta has been here a while now, the replacement for the Bora. The sedan companion to the Golf, it is smart in style, a long drive ahead of its predecessor. It is roomy front and back, and maybe even has become an in-house competitor to its bigger brother Passat.

I like sedans. I like them better than hatches. As designs they represent the traditional shape of the car much better than any of the current niche derivatives. I even remember when hatches were niche.

Anyhow, this is also a country which likes sedans, so Jetta is a viable model here.

Let me run through the other attributes, then I'll get to the best one of the review car.

It is arguable that the latest Jetta also represents some of the best build quality in the business. The gaps between sheetmetal components are minimal indeed, and that helps to present an image that is as good as the best luxury cars out there.

The overall styling is nicely understated, yet very much of this time. And by not being avantgarde, the Jetta will wear well as a design through its model life. The front end, despite having a strong flavour in line with VW’s current grille philosophy, is well balanced to the rest of the car. The comparison with cousin Audi’s A4 is certainly to be made here –- the latter car always looking a bit heavy on the front.

The interior design is very recognisably Golf and its derivatives. Not VW’s strongest point, but even if a little staid, it is in this case very well executed. The materials on the review car’s dash and trim were excellent, and I was glad to see no trace of wood-effect in this Comfortline version. VW does not do wood well.

I mentioned roominess earlier. If there was only to be one reference made between this car and its predecessor Bora, it would have to be the extra room for the rear passengers. This is what really makes this one a contender against the best of its competition.

From a driver’s accommodation perspective, I have to highlight the footwell. A strange thing? Not really, because too many cars still cramp things in this area. Not only is there ample room for a wide size 10 across the pedals line, and a good rest for the left foot when not in use, but there’s also an equally good rest for the right foot. Which proved a real boon when using the cruise control that is part of the Comfortline package.

The leather multifunction steering wheel was an extra, as were the 16-inch alloys which did enhance the exterior looks. The steering wheel is worth whatever it costs, feels good and the buttons for entertainment and communication are in the right places and easy to use.

The review car came with a manual six-speed, as neat a shifter as I’ve ever come across.

And why the six? Well, that’s part of the package with the 1.4 litre engine. Not your ordinary 1.4, but the lesser-power version of the Twincharger unit about which I was recently so positive in the Golf GT. That latter was 170hp, this one is 140hp.

Think about it; a car I owned not too many years ago had a 2.0 litre engine and a creditable output of 120hp. Now VW is getting up to 170hp -- and will get more -- from a 1.4 four?

This is VW’s take on how to reduce fuel consumption and emissions: use proven technology to make small engines with very high output. In this case, the engineers took the mechanical supercharger and exhaust powered turbocharger concepts and married them to the same engine in ways where they most suited.

Superchargers provide instant extra punch at low revs but draw too much power from the system at high revs. Turbochargers, on the other hand, need to be wound up a bit to work well. So the Twincharger combination uses the supercharger at low revs, then declutches it in favour of the turbocharger when the engine is spinning fast enough.

I liked its 170hp variant very much. But maybe I like this 140hp unit even better. It feels as smooth as a six-cylinder engine in operation, and in the Jetta its 220Nm of torque gives an extraordinarily smooth application of acceleration, even from as low as 1,200rpm in top gear. That’s diesel-like pulling power. It means that not a lot of rowing that six-speed is necessary.

Yet, with the ability to run up to 7,000rpm, and provide a cracking good sound in the process, it can be as sporty as you like and as conditions allow.

The 1.4 TSI engine is the one to go for in the Jetta range, especially when you consider that it sips fuel at 20 percent less than an ‘ordinary’ 2.3 litre engine of similar power. And despite all the extra pressure on the power unit, they’ve tested it to 300,000 kilometres of endurance.

I’m certainly sold. This is one of the best cars in its class that I’ve driven in the last twelve months. BB.