The driving position is excellent. You can open the door, slide in, adjust the height and fore-aft manually, fiddle with the power seatback, tilt and telescopic wheel and there you have it, the ideal manoeuvring stance. Furthermore, the front seats provide very good support and comfort for short or long trips. The back seat also provides very adequate cosiness for a long drive. Visibility is generally good, however I found the side-view mirrors to be somewhat too small.

The new 2006 Jetta is nearly 17.8 cm longer and 6.5 cm wider. This translates into much needed legroom for the rear passengers and more elbow room for all occupants. The trunk capacity is the same at 400 litres, remains deep and the opening is wider that the A4 Jetta which helps loading and un-loading.

Technical

At the moment, there are two engines available. The first is an all-new 2.5L inline 5-cylinder that develops 150 hp at 5 000 rpm and 170 lb/ft of torque at 3 750 rpm. The second, borrowed from the recent past Volkswagens, is the 1.9L turbocharged inline 4-cylinder TDi than runs on diesel. It develops 100 hp at 4 000 rpm and 177 lb/ft of torque at 1 800 rpm. There are two transmissions offered with the Jetta at the moment: a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic. 4-wheel disc brakes handle stopping duties and the Jetta finally has a fully independent suspension. The electromechanical power-assisted steering has variable speed intelligence, in other words, variable assistance. It is also possible to modify the setting to more or less (GTI) assistance at your local dealer.

A 200 hp 2.0L turbo 4-cylinder will be offered possibly as late as early 2007 with the introduction of the performance version of the Jetta; the GLI. This engine will be mated to either a 6-speed manual transmission or a 6-speed Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG), the same one found in the A5 GTI and Audi A3.

On the road

The 2.5L engine is peppy and torquey. Its power delivery is smooth and it is accompanied by a typical 5-cylinder hum that is more metallic than, and not as deep as, the one from a Volvo. Acceleration times are quicker than the 2.0L engine of the previous Jetta. When the hammer is down, the Jetta actually feels like it is moving much faster than it actually is. 0-100 km/h times are consistently above the 9 second mark which is not very impressive. My average fuel consumption was a respectable 11.5L per 100 km and this, always with 65 to 75% of the driving done in the city.

The automatic transmission upshifts crisply but is very slow to react when the lever is moved from Reverse to Drive or vice versa. When the shifter is positioned in the Tiptronic mode, the movement required for a shift is very short and has a nicer sequential feel to it than other manual-mode automatics.