Don鈥檛 like any of the factory combinations? There鈥檚 a Custom mode whereby you can choose for yourself. That note, incidentally, is augmented through the sound system so you can think you sound like a race car but you won鈥檛 bother the neighbours. Our drive route started in Knoxville, and headed generally south to the famed Tail of the Dragon, an 11-mile stretch (it is in the U.S.A. You know a road is famous when it鈥檚 got its own website. If you plan to evaluate a car鈥檚 real-world handling and fun-to-drive factor, you could hardly do better. Especially at this time of year before every motorcyclist on the continent shows up. Our route also took us along the equally famed and equally beautiful (if not quite as entertaining driving-wise) Blue Ridge Parkway. The GLI is a treat to drive 鈥?hey, it鈥檚 essentially a GTI, so how bad could it be?
Especially so when pressing on, which presumably is the point of a car like this. Acceleration is strong, and there鈥檚 very little in the way of turbo lag. Handling is pin-sharp, the cornering limits are very high, and while we were driving fairly vigorously 鈥?hard not to do on this road 鈥?the nanny systems remained mostly quiet. VW has leaned how to adjust the trigger points for these systems to suit the particular vehicle. In a family-oriented SUV you probably want them to come in sooner and harder; in a sporty car you can let things hang out a little. We drove both the manual and the DSG-equipped cars. I was particularly pleased to note that the vague manual gearbox I found in the base Jetta last year has either been replaced or fixed, because this one was fine. The DSG manu-matic is a mixed blessing. Certainly for tooling around town in auto mode, it saves wear and tear on your left leg.
Shifts are immediate and seamless. But when using the manual override function, which you鈥檇 think would be a major feature in a car like this, VW gets the shift pattern completely wrong. First, to engage the manual mode you shove the lever to the right 鈥?my driving companion on this event had an issue with this; typically this feature is engaged by pulling the lever closer to the driver. But that wasn鈥檛 my main complaint. To select the next higher gear you shove the lever forward, which is not only counter-intuitive but counter to the laws of physics. Think about how your body weight is being shifted as you accelerate 鈥?to the rear, correct? So to engage the next gear, surely you should pull the lever in that direction. Likewise when downshifting, your body weight is being transferred forward as you brake, and that鈥檚 the direction the lever should be moved to select the next lower gear. Well, presumably when you are shifting for yourself, you are driving in a spirited manner.
Why would you force the driver to do something that is contrary to those laws of physics? This flaw is far too common in cars with this feature, but just because it鈥檚 popular doesn鈥檛 make it right. And this is just wrong. Another concern I have is a long-standing beef with VWs. The rear seat headrests restrict your rearward visibility far too much. As I have said before (is no one listening??), statistically speaking, there is almost never anyone riding in the back seat for whom a headrest might be helpful in a rear-end crash. But there is always a driver who needs to be able to see through the rear window via the inside mirror. In our own VWs, we just remove the rear seat headrests and re-install them whenever someone is riding back there. They should be foldable. That apart, and assuming that as a sporty driver you would be going for the manual gearbox, the GLI is an excellent choice for someone who wants a sports car but needs a sedan. Volkswagen Jetta GLI. 4 doors, 5 passengers, compact sedan. Engine: 2.0 litre inline four cylinder, double overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder, variable valve timing, direct injection, turbocharged.
