2007 Volkswagen Jetta Review

Specifications

Talk about a walk down memory lane. Volkswagen is selling its 2005 Jetta as a new 2007 car in Canada, and Canadians are eating them up. Oh, and the regular Jetta, redone in model year 2006, is also available at a much higher price point. What’s going on? It’s simple economics, really. Fact is, Canadians are strangled by high taxation (you think U.S. income tax is bad), a high cost of living and exobitant fuel costs (etc, etc), making it so
their purchasing power is much lower than Americans, which translates into a booming subcompact and compact segment, compared to a booming midsize segment in the U.S. VW can’t get a car capable of competing in the entry-level league to pass Canada’s stringent safety/environmental regulations, so it turned to an old model that it could continue building at a much lower cost, and transfer the savings to the consumer. So, VW ends up with what is arguably the most appealing car in the C-segment, for the price of a Korean or Japanese compact? Yup. All it takes is $16,700 CAD (the equivalent of about $14,200 USD),  before freight charges (but then again before a dealer discount) and any Canadian can drive away in a two year old Jetta. Say what? Oh, sorry for the confusion. It’s not a used car or anything, but rather a trusty old design repackaged (read decontented) as an all-new car with a 2007 model year designation, specifically for the Canadian market. Only in Canada, eh? Pity.

The City Jetta isn’t the only car to ever target Canadians over Americans, mind you. Acura put its top-line Civic under the knife and devised the EL, which is now the CSX, while Toyota brought its Echo Hatch from other global markets to be sold in Canada, turning the market upside down overnight. Suzuki sells its Swift+ (known in the U.S. as an Aveo5) and Chevy its Korean-made Optima and Epica (Suzuki Forenza, Reno and Verona), just to name a few. It’s also not the first time an outgoing model was dusted off, repackaged and made new again. GM did it for years with the GMC Jimmy, which, after sticking around to fill a gap the much pricier Envoy left open in 2002, left the U.S. market after model year 2004 and soldiered on in Canada for another year. The difference here is that the old Jimmy had stale dated years before GM decided to keep it around for another few years, where the Jetta never really ever started looking old.

In fact, to my eyes it’s more intriguing than the more expensive, much newer 2007 Jetta (the rounder, larger car that has since taken the City Jetta’s place). The newer design is nice, mind you, so don’t try and read in between my lines that I’m saying it’s not a worthy replacement, it’s just that the old car had a more distinctive character that I’m particularly fond of. The vertical headlamps and taillights were way ahead of their time, and the clean, blocky design still appears fresh and current, especially in my tester’s Campanella White paint scheme. Incidentally, VW doesn’t make 31 flavors available so as to keep the price down, with the only alternative hues for the City Jetta being Black, Spice Red, Shadow Blue, Reflex Silver Metallic and Platinum Gray. No shade of green, purple or orange, bright red, chocolate brown or gold, yellow, fuchsia or pomegranate, cumquat, pineapple, lychee, pink grapefruit… you get the picture. Still, for a bargain basement, entry-level vee-dub, six colors is nothing to sneeze at. Guaranteed that about 33 percent will buy the silver, so if a savvy Canuck were to go white or black he’d be almost original, with the red and blue being positively outside the realm of normalcy… such a radical. The interior, by the way, is anthracite (automotive-speak for gray-black) or anthracite, whichever you like best.

The only way anyone will know that cross-border shopper wandering between legs with a map on his lap is driving an ’07 City Jetta instead of an ’05 Jetta (which was priced thousands higher)is the tiny little “City” badge that sits under the larger “Jetta” script on the rear trunk lid. The way its positioned makes it read “Jetta City”, which is probably the way it was supposed to read before the marketing department made an error in the ad copy and everything had to be changed (OK, that’s pure speculation but it’s fun to spread rumors about marketing screw ups, no?).

Steve, our trusty man servant who picks up the new test cars and drops off the old ones every Monday morning, left the City Jetta in my parking stall, so when I went outside after work it was dark, and it looked radiant in its glossy white panels, chrome trim and five-spoke alloys, shimmering under the parking lot spot lamp. Nice car, I thought. Compared to the rather odd looking, totally uncomfortable and sloppily built Chrysler Sebring that he took back (never to be borrowed again) I felt pretty cool flicking the switchblade key, clasping onto the impressively sculpted body-color door handle and clicking open the solidly constructed aperture before slipping behind the thickly padded steering wheel into the oh-so-back-and-buttocks-conforming, ergonomically, anatomically, organically grown Jetta driver’s seat. I wonder if this thing has heated cushions I thought to myself as the temperature continued descending into sub-zero territory, when at the very blocked synapse my derriere started to warm and it all became very clear… seat warmers are part of the package. But hold on. This isn’t some run of the mill compact, but a VW. Forget the on-off switch that tries to pass its warming capability off for multi-level temperature settings… or at the very best, two actual presets that 1) starts off singeing the wee follicles off of places we dare not discuss let alone think about, and with a second click 2) fades away into an afterthought of vague, noncommittal, hardly noticeable warm thoughts (as if it’s the thought that counts after all). No. The City Jetta sports the same, top-of-the line five-position dial as the old Jetta, which starts off at a kind and gentle nice-to-meet-you breath of warm introductions and escalates, at level 5, to a gotta-do-something-to-soothe-that-torn-hamstring flame. How much is this car?

But that’s not all, not for a minute. Just like the old Jetta, the new one boasts those ultra-cool electric blue and red backlit gauges, making you feel like you’re driving a much moreexpensive European luxury car. Actually, everything about the bottom-dollar Jetta is nicer than its contemporaries, from the quality of its top-tier, premium-level interior plastics to its Audi-like switchgear, it’s a car that makes me shake my head and wonder why every Canadian isn’t peeling the plate off of their old jalopy and heading down to their nearest Volkswagen dealer to sign on the bottom line. After all, do they think this car is going to be around forever? VW can hardly like selling a car that it previously fetched upwards of $20K CAD for, at the new price of entry. No doubt it’s expensive to build, compared to most of its contemporaries that don’t come close to offering the same level of fit and finish, or the City Jetta’s fine, German-engineered road manners.

I couldn’t help but take it for a little run after turning over the little four-cylinder, and hearing what seemed to be a rather anemic sounding putt-putt, eight-valve exhaust note. Surprise, surprise! Despite VW’s efforts to spoil my fun and dog down the performance with the optional, non-Tiptronic four-speed automatic transmission, it still picked up and went with more enthusiasmthan its 115-horsepower and 122 lb-ft of torque rating should allow. Yeah, that’s pretty pathetic compared to its rivals, which mostly start above the 135 horsepower range and often edge into 150+ territory, but just the same I wasn’t wanting for go-power. I remember not too long ago when a compact car with 115 horsepower would have been considered a sport model, but the times have changed dramatically since then and, in the process, the Jetta has gone from one of the top selling in its class to a wallflower only capable of luring eco-diesel-geeks onto the dance floor. Of course, the City Jetta just might have what it takes to fill up its dance card, thanks to that intriguing price point mentioned earlier.

So, it’s hardly a power house of forward momentum, but its need for only regular unleaded is a welcome change from the turbocharged 2.0-liter’s thirst for premium (although its 24 mpg city and 33 mpg highway fuel consumption isn’t exactly diesel or hybrid enlightened), plus its standard four-wheel ABS-enhanced disc brakes put it into a class of few. But that’s not all. It comes with a host of standard features, such as power remote door locks, tilting headrests, tilt and telescoping steering wheel, variable intermittent, speed sensitive wipers, a tachometer, six-way driver seat adjustment,60/40 split-folding rear seatback, high-grade cloth upholstery, plus a six-speaker AM/FM/CD audio system that sounds great for a base system.

It also gets hydraulic power-assisted rack-pinion steering, light to the touch in parking situations but well sorted when the road starts to wind and the Jetta comes into form. Yes, the old car was a real performer, and there’s nothing changed under the skin with the City Jetta. Incorporating an independent strut setup with an anti-roll bar and gas-pressurized shocks up front, plus a semi-independent torsion beam suspension with another anti-roll bar and an additional set of gas-pressurized shocks in the rear, it soaks up bumps well while holding to tight turns with seasoned agility. Speaking of seasons, the tires are designed for winter, spring, summer and fall, and sized at 195/65R15 at all corners. The standard wheels are steel with wheel covers, but if that’s not good enough sportier Canadians can get alloys like my tester.

Yes, instead of delivering an absolutely base car as would have been preferred in the case of the new City Jetta, VW couldn’t resist filling up the test car with lots of goodies. Some of the addedextras make a lot of sense considering the price, mind you, such as the $540 CAD ($460 USD) Convenience Package that adds power windows, powered and heated sideview mirrors, cruise control, that switchblade key remote for the central locking system, and an electric side mirror defroster. If you’re Canadian and reading this, you’re crazy not to upgrade to this package, and my guess is that the only Jetta on a dealer’s lot that doesn’t have it is there as a loss leader, necessary so that the car can be advertised at its rock bottom price.

If you really must you can get it with the $1,600 CAD ($1,360 USD) Luxury Package, that adds a power tilt and slide glass sunroof with a manually operated sunshade, as well as 15-inch alloy wheels.

While I wouldn’t opt for the luxury package, a no brainer anywhere in Canada is the $205 CAD ($175 USD) Cold Weather Package, which integrates those fabulous heated seats I just mentioned, plus front heated windshield washer nozzles.

I also think that $405 CAD ($345 USD) isn’t too much to pay for stability control, nor is $160 CAD ($135 USD) for front-seat thorax airbags or even $410 CAD ($350 USD) for side-curtain bags protecting all outboard passengers. But $1,350 CAD ($1,150 USD) for air conditioning?C’mon! I think I’d pass and wait until a pre-owned A/C system arrived at my local wrecking yard. Although, even when the $715 CAD ($609 USD) destination charge is factored in the City Jetta only breaches the $23K mark, at $23,120 CAD ($19,683 USD). Sure this is a fair bit more than the $16,700 CAD ($14,200 USD) we started with, but even Hyundai’s new Elantra climbs into this range; albeit swathed in leather and featuring such niceties as automatic climate control, more rear seat legroom and a longer warranty, not to mention way more power.

I suppose it’s rather tight in the back seat of the City Jetta, and it probably won’t deliver the same stellar reliability as the Hyundai, let alone a Corolla, Civic or just about anything else if third-party analyst J.D. Power and Associates claims for bottom-sucking dependability can be trusted. Still, the City Jetta looks so good, has so much character and feels so right from behind the wheel on a curving country road, that I can almost overlook its potentiality for mechanical or electronic disaster. After all, it’s got a bumper to bumper warranty for 4-years or 80,000 kilometers (50,000 miles), whichever comes first, and a powertrain warranty for another year or another 20,000 km (12,500 miles or so), so why worry? Canadians should drive it, enjoy it, and bring a good book along for the ride just in case theyfind themselves waiting for roadside assistance… also part of the package. Certainly, in this age of appliance-like reliability a little laid-back retro road rest almost sounds appealing.

While some owners’ City Jettas may just prove absolutely dependable (I’ve spoken to owners of the previous-generation Jetta that have enjoyed faultless reliability, as well as others who have sued the company due to everything from fires that burnt their cars to the ground to having so many electrical problems that their cars were at the shop more than in their driveways), buyers should be sure that they’re willing to make the sacrifice for a car with a high cool factor and plenty of character before taking the plunge. The City Jetta will reward in all the ways I’ve outlined in this review and more, yet could frustrate Canadian consumers beyond reason if owners’ opinions are anything to go by.

I, for one, tend to opt for quirky character over drab sameness, so the City Jetta was made for me. I’d probably opt for the base five-speed manual car with the convenience package, side and curtain airbags, stability control and that cozy cold weather package. This setup would cost me a mere $18,715 CAD ($15,933), and then negotiate the entire deal down 10 percent, squabble over paying $715 CAD ($609 USD) for the destination charge (which is really quite reasonable compared to most rival freight charges), put up a fuss over the dealer’s documentation fee, get him to throw in a set of floor mats, a full tank of gas and a set of snow tires, and finally price out an aftermarket A/C system. Then I’d spend the leftover cash on an extended warranty, with as much bumper to bumper coverage as I could get. Now that’s a car worth owning!

It’s important to realize that the City Jetta is a stopgap car for Volkswagen, as is the City Golf (yes, Canadians can also by the previous generation Golf at a discount). What I’m trying to say is that it won’t be sold in Canada forever, with plans no doubt afoot to replace it with something more cost effective in the subcompact/compact arena. The Polo, sold in other markets, would be this car if Canadian regulations would allow, but such is not the case. Therefore the next generation Polo, or whatever VW calls it, will probably be designed with global implementation in mind, and VW Canada (along with VW USA) will get a version to take over from the City Golf, and possibly something a little larger to replace the City Jetta as well. These cars were allowed to soldier on despite being older designs because VW Canada desperately needed something to stop their eroding market share, especially considering that the Jetta TDI has been temporarily canceled and there’s no diesel being offered in the Rabbit yet; diesels having made up about 40 percent of VW’s Canadian sales. Fortunately for VW Canada and Canadians on the whole, the new City cars are easily good enough to wear the VW badge, and represent themselves well in the segments they’re now competing in. Canadian consumers are the benefactor, but what about those in the U.S. of A who haven’t bought into the German brand because the price of entry has long inhibited them from joining the ranks of Volkswagen ownership? You’d probably want to check with regulations before you border hop to your friendly Canadian vee-dub dealer and put $14K and change down on the table. It should import well being that it was sold in all 50 states prior to model year 2006, but once again its best you first check with the authorities. Those not living next to the Canadian border will just have to wait until VW gets its product portfolio in order and brings a serious competitor to market in the $14-15K range. This won’t happen anytime soon, though, so keep buying your Toyotas, Hondas, Hyundais and Kias in the meantime, while keeping your fingers crossed. As for our Canadian readers, this might be a small window of opportunity to own a truly fine piece of German engineering for a very reasonable price. You may want to consider that for a minute or two.