2019 Volkswagen Jetta GLI First Drive Review
While the 2019 Jetta is all well and good, the variant that most likely appears to the majority of R&T readers is this, the quicker Jetta GLI. Our man Zach drove it on the Tail of the Dragon this week so you can learn all about it. It comes with a manual. There鈥檚 still an optional DSG seven-speed dual-clutch for those who prefer to leave the shifting to the car. Both are great, with the manual offering near-perfect ratios for the coiling tarmac on the Tennessee/North Carolina border and the DSG delivering the lightning-quick shifts we鈥檝e come to know and love. Like the GTI, the GLI gets a VAQ limited slip differential and Volkswagen鈥檚 XDS electronic differential lock, which manages torque to each front wheel via the brake system. It has Golf R front rotors. The GLI gets the massive 13.4-inch front discs from Golf R, same as the GTI.
Rear discs are also larger than a standard Jetta at 11.8-inches. The set up takes an impressive amount of abuse. Volkswagen flung us at the infamous Tail of the Dragon with its 318 turns in 11 miles. This road is a brake system鈥檚 worst nightmare, with serious grades, plenty of speed, and tight radii. At no point did the brakes fade. The multi-link rear suspension is back. The Jetta rides on Volkswagen鈥檚 MQB architecture, which means it was made to accept both torsion beam and mulit-link suspension designs. While the standard Jetta uses the former, the company turned to the latter for the GLI. Engineers robbed the GTI toy box for parts, and the two share spring rates and front sway bars, though the GLI gets its own specific rear bar that鈥檚 1.7 mm smaller in diameter. Volkswagen鈥檚 building 3,500 35th Anniversary Edition versions of the GLI, and those cars get the company鈥檚 swank DCC adaptive damping system.
It鈥檚 great, but so are the standard struts and shocks. Both suspensions are softer than you鈥檇 imagine, but are happy to hustle when you grab the car by the scruff. Volkswagen says that even more so than the GTI, the GLI is made to be a performance-oriented daily driver, and that means it needs to get you down the road without jouncing your internal organs from their homes. It is effectively a GTI sedan. The theme here is take everything we love about the GTI and shove it into the Jetta. The two cars weigh about the same and share a laundry list of parts, including a brilliant turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder. It鈥檚 good for 228 horsepower, about 18 more than the outgoing GLI, and 258 lb-ft of torque. The old engine made do with 207. That means the car is properly quick. We don鈥檛 have official numbers just yet, but our guess is the GLI will stick close to the GTI鈥檚 6.0-second 0-60 time.
As usual, the torque is the star, giving the car more muscle across a broader swath of the rev range. We found ourselves leaving the car in third, and letting the low-end grunt pull us out of everything but the tightest corners. And, because the GLI doesn鈥檛 look like a slammed Euro hatch, that makes it a proper sleeper. Look, we will always be hatchback people, but there are plenty of buyers out there who prefer a sedan, and if you want GTI fury with four doors and a trunk, the GLI is your car. It鈥檚 bigger, but weighs the same. The 2019 GLI is larger in every direction than its predecessor. Engineers added 1.2-inches to the wheelbase, 3.0-inches to the overall length, and .8 inches of width over the previous generation GLI. That all adds up to more head, shoulder, and legroom than before, but we have to wonder why. The old car had plenty of room inside. Despite the growth, the new car doesn鈥檛 weigh significantly more than its predecessor, about nine pounds. 1,600 cheaper than an equivalent GTI.
As with the others, there鈥檚 also no torque steer of note to contend with. The GTI, however, remains a hot-hatch at its most enjoyable up to eight-tenths - and in isolation. Start to push the limits and the Volkswagen simply can鈥檛 keep pace with its rivals. There鈥檚 notably more body roll from the narrowest car here, and the GTI鈥檚 chassis ultimately starts to become flustered when asked to negotiate a series of tight, alternating corners. And while MY19 brings larger brakes from the Golf R, stopping confidence is even higher in the Megane and i30. The Hyundai鈥檚 brake pedal feels quite firm in regular driving, though you get used to it. Perhaps inevitably for three cars wearing performance-focused tyres (Pirelli P Zeros for the i30 N and GTI; Bridgestone Potenzas for the RS), tyre roar on coarse-chipped country roads is prominent. For what it鈥檚 worth, the i30 N is loudest and the GTI quietest in this respect, but none is hushed.
