Test Drive: VOLKSWAGEN Jetta 1.4 TSI (122 HP) - 2009 - "New Cars Collection"

Volkswagen's love story with winds started in the 1970s. Coincidentally or not, that's when the Wolfsburg-based car manufacturer transformed from just having its reputation completely based on the success of the Beetle to a real global player in the automotive market. That was also the era when the Vee-Dub company introduced the Golf (named after the Gulf-Stream, ed). Just a few years after that it introduced its second best-seller in the US, the Jetta.

Sir May B. Bach's Opinion

If I ever fulfill my dream of becoming a car company... ahem... CEO, let's say, of Volkswagen, the first thing on my dictatorship agenda would be to outlaw every engine that makes less than 150 horsepower. Seriously now, 122 horsepower on a sedan? What is this, the 1950s? My Alcantara and Amboyna Burl wood-filled electric rocking chair has... ahem... more power than this puny Volkswagen.
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Comparing the Golf V with the latest Jetta in terms of styling would be like comparing the Jennifer Lopez from 1995 to Jennifer Lopez from 2009: basically they look the same, with the exception that the latter has a much bigger trunk. No offense to J Lo fans, but that's pretty much the truth.

Lou Cheeka's Opinion

You know what I would like to further test about the Volkswagen Jetta? Its pedestrian protection, using Sir Bahauser or whatever his name is as a crash test dummy. Who the hell does he think he is calling me a "retard"? If only we were a bit closer on the world map he'd see how much damage a pellet gun can do to his face from point blank. I can shoot a squirrel 100 yards away, remember, I'm a good shooter. Read more >>

Apart from some tiny fit and finish details, talking about the Jetta's interior compared with that of the Golf V is pretty much the same deal. The design and interior layout are the same, the overall passenger space is identical and the materials used are almost indistinguishable. We don't know if it's because the car is assembled in Mexico (although that might be a good reason) or because our test car wasn't exactly at its first journalistic driving abuse, but some of the fit and finish wasn't perfect.

Mary's Opinion

OK, I am now officially in desperate need of some Valium or Xanax. Are you kidding me, the car I drove had no ABS? As in none, not even on a single wheel? I can't believe how obtuse you guys can be, what if I had crashed it? I have to admit, the fact that the tires emitted quite a distinctive shriek whenever I was too optimistic about a green light seemed to be a little peculiar, but I didn't give it too much attention at the time. Read more >>

Compared (again) with its hatchback counterpart - the Golf - the Volkswagen Jetta is obviously less prone to handle great in the city, especially in one with killer traffic. This is of course happening because of the car's sedan shape, since when driver is looking behind him there's another meter or so of car behind the rear window. That, along with the fact that the Jetta we drove wasn't equipped with front or rear parking sensors, can't make driving in the city any easier.

Still, overall visibility isn't that bad, it's just a little bit worse than that of the Volkswagen Golf. The exterior rearview mirrors are nicely-shaped and have a decent size, thus giving a lot of information of what is going on behind you.

As far as the fuel economy goes, despite the fact that the 1.4 TSI engine is quite a bit more voracious than its TDI brothers, things aren't going as bad as you might think. Remember, although it provides a decent amount of power (122 HP) for its minimal displacement (only 1390 cc), the 1.4 TSI we drove brought between 10 and 12 liters per 100 kilometers (US 19.6-23.5 mpg) of fuel economy while being engulfed in heavy stop-and-go traffic.

Compared to the official numbers, our measured fuel consumption is about 20-25% higher, but considering the circumstances (heavy traffic, heavy right foot) we won't give any negative points for it. The rather high torque figures for such a small engine are available from under 2000 rpm, just like in a diesel, which means you can get a much lower fuel consumption if you use the power band a bit wiser than we did.

Considering our test car was sadly equipped with malfunctioning ABS and ESP units, we didn't exactly drive it to the limit, so we can't give a fully objective opinion on the vehicle's handling. During the few hours we got the chance to experience the Jetta 1.4 TSI, most of the driving was done in the city, but we also put a few miles on the open road. That - plus the fact that we've also experienced the car's hatchback brother – means we will try to offer some opinion anyway.

Just like on the Golf, the suspension setup is a bit on the sporty side, except it will handle a bit different than its tailless sibling because of the extra weight. The feel of the steering on tight turns is invigorating, while the way the suspension acts during cornering or hard(ish) braking provide a nice and safe modus operandi for the driver.

As far as performance goes, we failed to get any highway time with our test car because of the short window in which we had the car, but we can tell you it should be much more than what someone would expect from a 1.4-liter four banger. The naught to 100 km/h (62 mph) acceleration sits just under the round 10-seconds figure, while the 200 Nm (147.5 lb ft) of torque are more than helpful when passing long lines of cars.

The acoustic comfort at speeds averaging 90-100 km/h (55-62 mph) is adequate as long as you keep the engine rev until 2500-3000 rpm, since after those figure it begins to enter the cockpit via sound waves. Not to say it sounds bad, since it actually provides a nice deep growl at low revs and has a pretty good pitch at higher rpm. We didn't perceive any bad aerodynamic noises at those speeds though, which was to be expected from a sedan (when compared to a hatchback, ed).

To our surprise, the Jetta appears to provide a little more comfort than the Golf. Which is, of course, a bit on the strange side considering that beside a different suspension setup and weight, the two are almost identical. We are of course talking about the suspension comfort, since everything else that can influence it is configurable.

Beside some pretty good handling the rear multilink setup can also provide a nice, comfy ride. It can soak up almost any road imperfection as long as we're not talking about off-roading or actual asphalt craters. The ride is sporty but not bouncy, and the added weight in the rear can make it a little more stable than the Golf at higher speeds.

Although our car wasn't equipped with the optional shell-like sports seats, the seating arrangement is firm in true Germanic nature and the lateral support is more than adequate. The interior features would be best noted as average, since our test car wasn't fully equipped with Volkswagen's latest comfort options. Although completely unneeded in the desert-like weather we drove the car, we had the optional three-stage heated front seats, which could provide a nice place for your tooshie in those cold winter mornings when you have to drive to work.

Considering this isn't exactly a premium compact sedan, teh Jetta also benefits from a pretty good acoustic comfort. This is most likely thanks to the gasoline engine, which isn;t very intrusive from this point of view as long as you don't over rev it (which we did more than once just to hear the high-pitched notes).

As we mentioned before, and is probably common knowledge by now, the Jetta shares almost all of its underpinnings with the architecture of the Volkswagen Golf V. Talking about its technical bits is therefore pretty much like describing a "Golf with a tail", as some people call it.

The highly-touted TSI engines began appearing on some Volkswagen models about three years ago, first on the Golf, and then on the rest of the compact range. On the course of these years they also made their appearance on the Jetta, in different configurations. Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to drive the "twincharger" version, but the 122 horsepower one, which delivers these figures with the help of "only a puny" turbocharger.

Even so, the compact turbocharged four-cylinder deliver quite an impressive surge of torque from low down on the rpm scale, while the fuel economy isn't half bad. Considering the conditions of our short test drive, we didn't get to fully acknowledge its entire attributes and/or downsides, but we can honestly say this is quite a small marvel of modern engineering.

The 200 Nm (147.5 lb ft) of torque could as well belong to a two-liter normally-aspirated engine, while the fuel economy appears to be that of a 1.6 liter from the same category of intake. Unlike its higher-powered sibling, the "T" in the "TSI" version we experienced doesn't stand for "Twincharged" but for "turbocharged" , while the "S" and the "I" stand for "stratified injection. That is all of course a fancy name for a directly-injected turbocharged engine, whose benefits go well beyond the marketing.

As for the gadgetry found on the car we tested, as you're probably expecting from the interior pictures, the list isn't very long. We didn't benefit from the intelligence of a double-clutch DSG gearbox, nor from the visibility given by the optional HID headlights. No wonderful RNS 510 infotainment system with touch screen either, although the audio unit we had wasn't half bad either.

Now let's see what our car actually had. Pretty much everything we're going to mention could be considered as only half of a what a great gadget actually is. For example, the audio system was way above average, but knowing you could upgrade to a near-perfect RNS 510 unit can really make it look and feel cheap.

The steering wheel could be manually adjusted in height and had buttons for controlling either the audio or the onboard computer, while all the power windows had an "automatic" function. As we mentioned before, the dual-zone climate control system is more like a compromise between a manual air-con and an automatic one. Also, although it didn't help us one bit in the hot summer day on which we drove the car, the front seats were three-stage electrically heated.

On the whole, the Jetta 1.4 TSI we tested was far from lacking the normal or decent gadget features you would expect from a modern compact sedan, but it didn't actually impress us to bits. Thankfully, for the ones interested, the options list is rather long (as with most German cars), which means you can configure it with almost anything imaginable on a car in its class.

From the ten different chapters in this test drive, the safety one is probably gonna be the trickiest one to write. Why is that, you ask? Well, in case you didn't find out by now, our test car wasn't exactly your average Volkswagen Jetta from the dealer lot, like all of the cars we drive are. It had two "small glitches" in the active safety department. If you can call non-functional ABS and ESP systems "small glitches", that is.

Obviously, an internal struggle was carried in order to decide the final score for this chapter, considering the aforementioned information. You see, the Volkswagen Jetta per se is pretty far from being an unsafe car. On both American crash test organizations (the NHTSA and the IIHS) the Jetta has scored maximum or close to maximum points, while its platform siblings all achieved the maximum of five stars at EuroNCAP.

That should pretty much cover the passive safety, but what about the active one? Well, in our example it isn't very good, obviously. We've tested cars cars without ESP before, but all of them at least had a working ABS unit, which is pretty friggin' important, we reckon. The Jetta we tested didn't even have that. So, what to do, what to do?

Well, after some careful consideration and a brainstorming session transformed in a Tequila party, we reached an agreement. The final safety score would be an average between what the car would have scored with the aforementioned systems in perfect working order and what it would score if all Jettas didn't have ESP nor ABS. Taking into account the crash test scores and its number of airbags, the Jetta would have gotten eight out of ten points. A car with all that but with no ABS and ESP would probably get half of that, which is four out of ten.

Well, there you have it. The final average is six points out of ten for the Jetta we tested. Not a great score, but we were constrained by the out of the ordinary situation to proceed like this. The Jetta might be a safe automobile in general but our test car didn't actually share the same traits.

Honestly, the Volkswagen Jetta isn't quite the greatest-looking sedan in the world, but it's not ugly either. Boring and numb yes, but it's not downright ugly. This is actually a great quality in some people's minds. Yes, numbness can be a quality of design sometimes. More people than you'd think actually appreciate not standing out from the crowd and enjoy the the intrinsic qualities of a car rather than its capacity to bring its owner into the spotlight. This is probably the main quality of the Jetta. It's a "politically correct" compact family sedan which offers the basics and doesn't stand out.

The worst part about our test car was obviously the non-working ABS and ESP units, but we would rather speak about the Jetta 1.4 TSI in general when it comes to this model's main downside. What we all unanimously observed during our short test drive was the car's inability to stand out as a better buy in front of its TDI siblings. Sure, the 1.4 TSI engine is quite the engineering marvel for its petite size, but only when we're comparing it with a similarly powerful gasoline engine. The fact is in its single-turbo 122 horsepower form, the 1.4 TSI doesn't really strike out as the better choice when it comes to fuel economy, nor does it offer a more pleasurable drive. It only becomes more pleasurable to drive if you do it in a very non-economical manner, thus compromising its fuel efficiency.

The ugly part about the Volkswagen Jetta 1.4 TSI is probably its contradicting design. It looks like a blinged-out Golf V from the front, while the rest of the car is trying too much to resemble the Passat. The result is almost like a bad Chinese VW Passat replica, which is anything but flattering to either model.