When it comes to getting great fuel economy out of a car, I tend to go with the traditional approach. That approach is with a diesel engine in a vehicle, and one of the world’s leaders in diesel cars is Volkswagen.
The car I spent a great deal of time in was the Jetta, which I consider to be their upper end, mid-sized vehicle in the VW range of cars. If you have not been paying much attention to the Jetta line, you will be surprised to find that the car has grown in size and not just a VW Golf with a trunk. The Jetta is a line into its self and has no real common body parts with the Golf line.
My car was the Highline Diesel, the upper model in diesel category of the Jetta group. Like the rest of the line, the car comes only in an attractive 4-door sedan. This car had a standard leather/vinyl interior, which looked very nice and was comfortable, something I can say is not the case in many cars. Back seats had adequate legroom and were comfortable for individuals of average height.
One thing that surprised me was the manual adjusting seats. Generally a car in this price range would have power seats, but I have to admit that with plenty of adjustment options, I did find a comfortable spot.
The controls in the car were pretty straightforward and easy to find and use, as there was nothing hidden in odd electric switches. All the analog gauges were large enough to easily read at a glance, which I like, again a nice feature. The controls for lights and wipers were typical European or Volkswagen in general. So it might take the average person, who is not used to this kind of set up a few minutes to find and get oriented to the controls, but overall it is generally pretty easy.
Out back you will find a fairly generous trunk for a car in this category, a nice feature if you have an active family with an abundance of stuff. Also like most Volkswagens it has fold down back seats for those slightly longer items. I have to admit this feature came in handy when visiting a local home improvement store and I had a few pieces of wood to bring home.
I have over the years driven all generations of Volkswagen diesel engines and I have to say that this generation is by far the best yet. The diesel in this car is a 2L direct injection turbo charged 4-cylinder unit, which is the standard diesel for the VW line of cars. Power for this gem is a modest 140hp at 4000rpm.
But torque for this little 2-litre engine is a jaw dropping 236 ft.lb. at about 2,000rpm. If you’re not technical what this really means is that this car can embarrass many gas engine cars. I found that for getting around traffic and off and on highway ramps, this Jetta pulled quickly without any hesitation. Powering up hills was effortless as the transmission used the power of the engine wisely, shifting at just the right time in gear.
Speaking of transmissions, this Jetta was equipped with the optional 6-speed automatic unit, the standard automatic in the Jetta line. If you prefer shifting for your self, a 6-speed manual transmission is the base unit.
The base Jetta diesel without some of the extras lists for about $24,000 while my Highline model listed for close to $27,000, which is par for a car with this array of equipment.