The 2022 Jetta Sport--Does Anyone Need More Car?

[RMR]

Originally Posted by JST

It's amazing to me that people have abandoned sensible cars.

The 2022 Jetta is among the last of a breed that used to utterly dominate the automotive marketplace--the midsized sedan, sized to carry 4 adults and their luggage.

It addresses all of the familiar concerns. It has a big trunk. It has decent interior room. It has comfortable seats. The interior materials aren't expensive, but the design does a good job of disguising how cheap the plastic is. Most people wouldn't notice or care. It's not fast but it can keep up with traffic, and for a non-hybrid it gets remarkably good gas mileage. 1.5 liters and 157 hp isn't a lot, but the upside of the basic spec and smallish engine is a curb weight of less than 3000 lbs.

The Jetta doesn't handle like a sports car, but the damping is reasonable, the steering is light but accurate, and the braking is competent. It has a manual transmission, which is itself something to write home about. Shift throws are longish and the clutch is very light, but it's easy to drive and the small engine and tall gears means you actually have to shift to keep things moving, which is kind of fun.

Does it have a lot of features? Not really, though it's got more than you might expect. CarPlay, (manual) AC, a key fob that remotely unlocks the doors. Power windows, of course. The one I bought is missing some blind spot monitoring features because of the supply chain, but it has a back up camera. It has a brake-based eLSD, which you won't notice except maybe in the snow. The digital dash display is a basic, smaller, and way less flexible than the Audi-esque units on the upscale Jettas, but it looks nice and is legible.

All of this is 22K. Five or 10 years ago, when GTIs were 22K, this would have seemed insane, but these days it represents perhaps the best value in the automotive world. Other companies have walked away from this market completely, and those that still play in it (like Honda) don't actually have cars to sell you. And in all honesty, the Civic sounds like it might be a better car for similar money, if you can find one. Which (spoiler alert) you can't.

Most people are shunning these cars in favor of the Taos, which shares the same platform and engine but weighs a few hundred lbs and costs a few thousand dollars more. For the life of me, I do not understand this. The Jetta is all the car you need.

Not wanting to hijack this but anyone looking at a current VW is better off with a Honda. Similar engines, Honda Hatch etc............I've owned many GTI's btw