2012-2013 VW Jetta Base and 2.5L

Once again, I apologize for a ridiculously slow update. Its been nearly half a year since I updated this blog and fortunately I have more entries. New to my reviews is my personal conclusion. Anyways here's some new cars to enter.

Introduction: The Volkswagen Jetta was introduced shortly after the introduction of the Volkswagen Golf/Rabbit. The Jetta became the compact car in VW's lineup, bigger than the Golf but smaller than the Passat. One of the few things that has differentiated the Jetta over other vehicles is the always available option of having a diesel even though many North American vehicles dropped or never introduced diesel as an option. After seeing disappointing sales for the 5th generation Jetta, VW has decided to build its 6th generation with a new direction. Seeing modest success from the City Jetta line from both Canada and 2nd/3rd world countries, VW has opted to go the route of lowering the base price of the car.

Now, whenever I hear of an automaker going the route of cheaper cars I worry greatly. The problem being is something good might actually be cut and reduced to mediocrity or worse something mediocre becomes bad. I do not have many positive things to say about VW's City line so I was not entirely eager about this car in this form.

Performance: Apart from the TDI Jetta which is a diesel, the other two petrol options are the 2.0L and the 2.5L. I'm going to pretty blunt here, the engine to choose is the 2.5L. The reason being is the 2.0L is an awful engine, this is a now 22 year old engine design which has not seen many updates and is still lacking things like multi-valve heads which was standard in a Kia Rio 10 years ago. The result is you get 22 year old power and fuel economy, and the 2.0L only produces 115 hp. By choosing the 2.0L you're driving the slowest car for 2013. The Smart fortwo in perspective is 11.3 seconds to 100 km/h, this Jetta is capable of 12+ seconds. Now as for the 2.5L, you're now dealing with a 5-cylinder so expect worse fuel economy over the competition but sadly this is still better than the 2.0L base engine. It outputs 170 hp and 177 lb.ft of torque which is better than previous versions. Acceleration, expect the 2.5L to take the Jetta up to 9 seconds with the automatic, the manual is faster. Case in point, if you're buying a Jetta totally skip the 2.0L and go straight for the 2.5L.

My Score(Base): 0/10 - This engine was outdated 15 years ago, VW doesn't seem to care, inferior in all aspects. It shouldn't exist.

My Score(2.5L): 6/10 - A mild improvement over the previous iteration but still not outright impressive.

Handling: When you take the Jetta around a corner you can expect the Jetta to actually handle most corners with some confidence. Any difficult corners will of course be meet with understeer as is usual with VWs. On the fun factor, I'm not inclined to say its all that fun, while the steering has enough weight to it...it doesn't have much feel either. Every time I took either versions of the Jetta while cornering it performed like any other car which doesn't make it special in any way. In some ways, this car is actually kind of boring where its alright but its neither good nor bad. VW definitely intended you treat this as an appliance as simply an item to be used and disposed of.

My Score(Both): 5/10 - Nothing impressive, nothing horrible, pretty boring.

Interior: This is one of the areas where you'd expect to see some cuts on a downgraded version of a car and the Jetta is no different. I didn't find the previous Jetta to be all that nice inside, unfortunately that interior was actually more colourful than this one is. This interior is very bland and uninteresting, no special features and on base models the wing mirrors are actually still manually operated. If you come into this car from any previous Jetta you can definitely see this interior is more barren and less substantial than before. In this case newer is definitely not better. Visibility wise the only issue is the rear windscreen being small, which is a problem on modern sedans as of late. Build quality is not great, you're not getting German build quality meaning seeing misaligned panels or loose trim is something to expect. The Jetta is built in Puebla, Mexico.

My Score(Both): 2/10 - Less colourful, less content, same disappointing build quality and lesser materials compared to a mediocre interior from before.

Styling: As always this is subjective, however in the case of the VWs my score is pretty easy. I consider these designs as a fail, not because they're hideous but because they're so blatantly lazy. Confusing a Jetta for a Passat is so freaking easy, the moment the car loses its visual identity is the moment in my mind it ceases to exist.

My Score(Both): 0/10 - Blends in so much that its unidentifiable.

Value for money: The base Jetta does bring out an attractive price of $15K, but when you find out what 16K gets you...you'll be sorely disappointed. Truthfully the base Jetta is only worth its price if you can find it for 10K new, compared to even base model subcompacts its awful. Now as for the 2.5L you have bring the price up to $23K...again not a good price considering you have to buy this one to not get shafted with the worst engine of 2013. When a Hyundai Elantra gets a decent engine and decent equipment at base spec for $16K why would you spend $7K more on a lesser car for a VW badge?

My Score(Base): 0/10 - Worthless.

My Score(2.5L): 3/10 - Ok handling and so-so power for a lot of money is a rip off.

Conclusion: Taking into account the price and how in general the car is mostly awful I can't in good faith recommend this car to anyone. I particularly hate when a company decides to stick it to their consumers with a relic of an engine just because they bought the base car. To me its assuming the consumer is too stupid to research and find out the 2.0L was a brand new design in 1991, if you had a 1994 Jetta for instance this was the engine you had and it was slow back then. The fewer people blindly buy a car for its badge, the less likely companies like VW can screw you over with an inferior car.

Overall(Base): 7/50 - Utter rubbish

Overall(2.5L): 16/60 - An overpriced, boring car.

2007-2009 Volkswagen City Golf

I wanted to do a review sooner than this but blogger.com went down. Anyways here's a Canadian exclusive model.


Introduction: The VW Golf is one of the company's most important vehicles. As a replacement of the famous VW Beetle it didn't technically succeed as the Beetle was still sold in a few markets well until 2003 while the Golf was available in 1974. The original Golf was known as the Rabbit and eventually used the Golf name for all models. As VW continued development on the Golf they released a high performance version called the GTI which would start the fierce hot hatchback wars. The standard Golf would eventually phase out the Beetle completely and become one of the best selling vehicles in Europe. The Volkswagen Golf is now in its 6th generation, this review focuses on the 4th generation model sold in Mexico and South America but also Canada. As part of Volkswagen's City line, they continued to sell these older models alongside their Mk V counterparts in a bit to compete at the lowest price bracket. The City line has been replaced by the new base Mk VI Jetta which has slashed its price to be one of the least expensive new VW models.

These were the first VWs I was exposed to, I knew they were supposed to be no frills old models. Yet somehow I couldn't help but wonder why they exist in a market like Canada when this is more commonly seen in 2nd or 3rd world markets. China for instance still sells the 2nd gen Passat, and South Africa continued making the Mk I Golf until 2009.


Performance: As a no frills model, this means the City Golf was given only one choice of engine. Its the 2.0L engine VW has used since 1993. To give you an idea how old this engine is, it only has 8 valves something that was last seen by Japanese 4-cylinders in the 1980s. As a result this engine produces 115 hp and 122 lb.ft of torque. Its able to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in about 10.5 seconds. This car is essentially as slow as the subcompacts which make due with less power and less displacement. It doesn't even make a nice noise when being pushed, just an annoying drone. This engine is paired to a 6-speed automatic which I'm afraid isn't necessary on an engine this slow. Worse its not that fuel efficient due to its ancient design remember it doesn't have valve timing so its at best capable of 28 mpg tops. I honestly don't like this engine and it confounds me that VW is still using it in a brand new 2011 Jetta.

My Score: 2/10 - I guess its technically cheap but you get what you paid for.

Handling: Being a no frills model I was hoping at the minimum the handling would be nice since there's a lot less weight. Unfortunately I didn't really find that with the City Golf. First things first, this car understeers rather early even before you feel you reached its possible limit. Secondly the steering is extremely vague making this a rather boring car to drive. The ride quality wasn't even that good, not appalling but its not that comfortable. Not the worst car I've taken around a corner but it was certainly the least amusing.

My Score: 4/10 - Very boring with lots of understeer.


Interior: The City Golf interior is a bit lacking in features because of the nature of this trim something I can't criticize here. You don't get power windows, you don't get power locks, no cruise control, nothing you'd consider luxury is found in this car. Its finished fully in grey, black plastic and fake chrome. The only item that has any colour is the ashtray which is red. Interior space is decent front and back but the tailgate is where the majority of the space is. Headroom is reasonable for any average size person. As for the build quality, its not very good. I've seen trim pieces just pop out and never return, others fall through the gaps in the center console. The City Golf is made in São José dos Pinhais, Brazil.

My Score: 5/10 - Lacking in colour, built to a price, but has a spacious tailgate area.

Styling: This is just a slightly modified Mk IV Golf, in all honestly nothing is truly different from the two models. The old Mk IV Golf was bland looking and this is very much the same. Just a typical hatchback, nothing enticing or exciting.

My Score: 2/10 - It wasn't interesting 11 years ago, hasn't changed since.

Value for money: This is where I can start to criticize its lack of features. What VW believes is people will buy a old stripped out VW model for the price of a new compact car being offered by everyone else. Now I'll make it clear the Corolla and Civic in their basest forms do lack some features but the Corolla is lacking power windows and the Civic only lacking power locks. The City Golf however lacks both. The Golf is competing against the hatchbacks thus the Matrix, the Mazda3, the Dodge Caliber, the Hyundai Elantra Touring and lately the Mitsubishi Lancer. The only car in this lot that's worse is the Dodge Caliber but in its defense it is bigger than the City Golf. You can buy a City Golf with some options but all the sudden the price advantage over its rivals is thrown out. I wouldn't buy this car at all, in fact a better solution is just to buy an used original Golf from this generation it'll be better made, has a better selection of engines including a diesel(far better for fuel economy) and cheaper to buy. The City Golf is just not worth it, you get an old car with no equipment for the price of a new one that has some standard equipment. It might be a different story if the car was much cheaper than any new car.

My Score: 1/10 - Logically this car makes no sense, if you wanted this model of Golf a used one is better and if you wanted a cheap car there are many new cars available that are cheaper and better equipped.

Overall: 14/50 - It feels its age, its not cheap enough and offers little anybody really wants.