One of the great ironies of buying a new car is that many of them aren鈥檛 really new. The architectures now deployed beneath so many shiny clearcoats are engineered to last for years upon years鈥攄ecades in some cases鈥攕o even cars billed as 鈥渁ll new鈥?often aren鈥檛. This is not a value judgment; there are obvious benefits to the tried and true, especially when it comes to reducing costs to the automaker, which can translate into more features and amenities for the buyer. Which brings us to the seventh-generation 2019 Jetta, in which Volkswagen has deftly blended its best small-car technology into a welcome update to its compact sedan. The biggest change to the Jetta comes in adopting VW鈥檚 MQB architecture, which debuted in the United States in the seventh-generation Golf for 2015 but was used in other parts of the world even earlier. The Jetta is the sixth American-market VW Group nameplate to use MQB, and it鈥檚 also the least expensive.
When VW last redesigned the Jetta for 2011, it slashed prices by extreme de-contenting, including fitting drum brakes and a 1993-vintage engine in base cars. Calling these measures cutting corners would be too kind鈥攊t was more like driving right through the infield. VW spent much of the rest of the sixth-generation Jetta era undoing the damage. This time, however, the move to MQB seems to have helped the bottom line enough that there鈥檚 little evidence of VW taking shortcuts. 27,795) that includes leather upholstery will no doubt help VW raise average transaction prices and improve overall profitability of the line. The 2019 Jetta is marginally bigger than the old car, continuing a trend that has seen the Jetta grow to roughly the size of the fondly remembered B5-generation 1997-2005 Passat. The Jetta鈥檚 wheelbase has been stretched 1.3 inches to 105.7 inches, which helps the car maintain its proportions even with an overall length that has grown to 185.1 inches. That鈥檚 as long as the Tiguan crossover, another MQB platform-mate from which the Jetta borrows some of its exterior styling.
Interior volume has increased only nominally, with legroom actually decreasing and headroom virtually unchanged. The trunk, however, has shrunk from 16 to 14 cubic feet. The numbers are better when it comes to mass, with Volkswagen quoting sub-3000-pound curb weights for both the manual and automatic versions of the 2019 Jetta, which it claims are lighter than the old models. Under the hood the new Jetta uses the familiar turbocharged 1.4-liter inline-four from last year, although both transmissions are new. The six-speed manual is available only in the base trim, but it doesn鈥檛 feel like so much of a cheap-car choice as the five-speed manual it replaces. All the pleasure from rowing your own gears is present and accounted for, with progressive clutch takeup and a nicely weighted shifter. The automatic has also been upgraded from six speeds to eight, helping the 2019 Jetta to now earn the same EPA fuel-economy estimates regardless of transmission choice: 30 mpg city, 40 highway, and 34 combined.
While the automatic car is inherently less fun to drive, this new transmission shifts quickly and smartly, plus it offers manual control as in other Volkswagens, by sliding the gear lever to the side and pushing fore and aft. From a standing start, a heavy right foot causes the Jetta to surge forward rapidly enough to spin its front tires and trigger its traction-control system. Throttle response is excellent, with almost no lag, as the turbo four is tuned for low-end grunt. Its 184 lb-ft of peak torque comes at just 1400 rpm, making the Jetta seem like a much more powerful car, an illusion it can maintain right up until encountering a freeway on-ramp. It鈥檚 there that the shortcoming of having just 147 horsepower reveals itself, especially as the engine passes 4000 rpm, where its intake sound grows louder and coarser as the tach ascends to the engine鈥檚 5000-rpm power peak.
