At last January's Detroit auto show a few cars really surprised me. On the positive side, a couple of new cars from Saturn will actually be desirable. I very much look forward to driving them. Then there was the totally redesigned VW Jetta.

The old Jetta was a very distinctively styled car, in its round cuteness about as close to a Beetle as a four-door sedan can get. When I first saw the new one in the metal at the show, one thought stuck in my mind: for some inconceivable reason VW had knocked-off the styling of the slabsided, awkwardly proportioned Toyota Corolla. In being restyled, the car had been destyled. Copying Toyota's styling, while a first of sorts, just boggles the mind. What were they thinking?

From magazine reviews I've read, it seems what VW was attempting was a scaled-down Phaeton (the marque's slow-selling $70,000 luxury sedan). Supposedly the Corolla-like outcome is the fault of the smaller car's necessarily stumpier proportions. While the Phaeton is hardly a looker aside from its imposing dimensions (the A8 and Bentley got all the looks in its family), it does have a certain grace. This grace is barely evident in the new Jetta. So I'm still thinking they knocked-off the Corolla.

Well, here at Eps you're not supposed to simply review the styling of a car. So to learn whether the Jetta might have some redeeming qualities I took a loaded Package 2 example for a test drive.

Styling

I've already tossed a few bricks here. But I have more. Before testing the car I saw a few on the road. When coming at me, a swath of chrome on the bumper never fails to catch my eye. In a bad way. If a Detroit or even a Japanese manufacturer graced one of its cars with a grille this overwrought it would be a laughingstock. Ridiculous. Luckily, the GLI version coming this fall will have a black finish in place of this chrome.

Inside the car I have less to gripe about. Among the many premium contents of the $4,660 Package 2 are leather and real wood trim in a rich, dark brown shade. (Want leather? Then you're getting Package 2 even if you don't want all the other stuff.) With these, the Jetta's interior feels every bit as rich as any German car costing less than $50,000. Easily the strongest aspect of the car, and the main justification for the $26,740 MSRP. For the new Chevy Cobalt GM clearly tried to replicate the premium look and feel of the previous Jetta's interior. But it still falls a bit short of that car, and way short of the new one.

In terms of styling, the new interior is stark and rectilinear in the grand German tradition. Frankly, aside from the premium materials it's rather plain, with little flow from one surface to another. The interior of a Mazda3 or Volvo S40 has more character if lower grade materials.

My major gripe with the new Jetta's interior concerns a short wall that rings the forward edge of the instrument panel. Although the car's instrument panel is already higher than those in most compact cars, the car's cowl is higher still, necessitating a step up from the instrument panel to the base of the windshield. The original Ford Probe had a similar little wall. I didn't like it in that car, and I don't like it in this one. Why is the cowl so high, anyway?

Accommodations

Aside from the overly high cowl, the driving position in the new Jetta is good. A wheel that tilts and telescopes helps. Even better, Package 2 includes 12-way power seats for not only the driver but the front passenger as well. I've driven many luxury cars that shortchange the passenger in terms of seat adjustments, yet the relatively inexpensive Jetta does not. The adjustments include not only power recliners but also lumbar supports that adjust vertically as well as in and out. These seats should prove very suitable for long trips. If they were a half-size larger they'd be suitable for a luxury sedan.

For a sport sedan they'd need larger bolsters for more lateral support. And in the GLI they'll get them.

Moving to the rear seat, a much needed inch-and-a-half has been added to the Jetta's rear legroom. There's now enough space back there that the average adult won't feel cramped. The cushion is a reasonable height off the floor, so thigh support is better than in the average sedan. Package 2 includes a manual sunshade, which together with the rear air vents standard in all new Jettas should make for a comfortable climate back there. (In my Mazda, which lacks such vents, it can be hard to cool the rear seat on hot days.)

The Jetta has always had a large trunk for a compact, and the new one upholds this tradition. The rear seat folds, and (except for the Value model) also includes a pass-through via the rear armrest. Inside the car, many useful storage compartments are provided. The center console and glove compartments even have A/C vents in them to chill beverages and the like.

As should be clear by now, the new Jetta is just chock full of content. The Japanese and Americans tend to go through a cycle, adding content to their cars, then realizing they've become too expensive and taking much of it back out. VW, on the other hand, just keeps adding stuff. Gotta admire them for sticking to their guns. But will the resulting high price hurt them?

On the Road

The previous Jetta's base engine, with just 115 horsepower, was about the weakest in the class. Especially with the additional mass of the new car--at nearly 3,300 pounds it weighs as much as the average midsize sedan--this old four clearly would not do. So VW added a fifth cylinder and two more valves to each cylinder, yielding 150 horsepower at a very accessible 5000 RPM from 2.5 liters. The low power peak suggests a torquey engine, and this one is, with 170 foot-pounds at 3750 RPM. To further assist this larger engine in motivating the new Jetta's Passat-class mass, it is paired with a six-speed automatic. (A five-speed manual is also available, but the smaller number of gears suggests it was not a development priority.)

Add it all up and the new Jetta feels quite punchy off the line. I unintentionally burned a bit of rubber twice, even with only part throttle. But once up to speed the plump torque curve and short initial gearing provide less of an assist. Flooring the car to merge into some fast-moving traffic, I had a stressful moment or two. If you want to avoid such an experience, either wait for a larger gap in traffic or wait for the GLI, which will have an excellent 200-horsepower 2.0-liter turbocharged four (see my A3 review for the details). A six-cylinder option is further out. I liked the VR6 GLI far better than any other previous Jetta, but suspect that the next Jetta six will be well over $30,000. Ouch.

I didn't measure fuel economy during my test drive. The EPA numbers are 22/30--about the same as the 260-horsepower 3.5-liter supersized Toyota Avalon I drove earlier the same day. All that mass coupled with a stressed engine takes its toll. If you want better fuel economy, you'll want the upcoming diesel.

The previous Jetta was never known for its handling, at least not in a good way. Even in GLI form the car's chassis leaned a bit much in turns and generally felt mushy when pushed. The new Jetta's chassis is much better. Even in non-GLI trim lean is reduced and the car feels more stable. In hard turns the nose plows just a bit and the tires don't squeal too soon or too much.

The steering system is the new-fangled electric-assist sort, where the hydraulics have been replaced by an electric motor that provides assist directly. Such systems tend to dampen steering feedback--why I do not know--and the Jetta's is no exception. That said, the system was better weighted than the altogether odd-feeling system in many GM compacts. It did not destroy my ability to enjoy the handling of the car. The car's mass is a larger issue, robbing the new Jetta of the agility I personally seek in a compact. (GM's new Chevy Cobalt similarly suffers.)

Ride quality, though not as suggestive of a luxury sedan as the interior, is good. Tar strips and the like elicit just a bit of noise and harshness. Noise levels are generally moderate, which is to say low for a compact. The car is a match for a Corolla it so resembles in this regard.

Overall, the new Jetta retains the solid, thoroughly engineered feel typical of German cars, though you will find more of this feel in an Audi, BMW, or Mercedes.

VW Jetta 2.5 Pricing

For quick, up-to-date pricing, and especially user-specified price comparisons, check out the website I created: www.truedelta.com. Why yet another vehicle pricing website? Well, I personally lacked the patience to keep using the others. They were too slow and required too much effort, especially when trying to compare prices. So I taught myself some programming and created a site where there is no need to dig through option packages, prerequisites, and the like one by one -- the TrueDelta algorithm figures these out for you in one swift pass.

I've already mentioned the Jetta's high price. It starts at around $18,000, but opt for a loaded Package 2 example and you're looking at nearly $27,000. How do others compare?

Compared to a 2.3-liter Mazda3, my favorite compact, a Package 2 Jetta has a lot of additional content. TrueDelta gives it a $3,700 credit as a result. Even after this large adjustment it is about $1,900 more than the better-performing Mazda. Compare a Package 1 car to the 2.0-liter Mazda, and the gap rises to about $2,200.

Compared to the most similar domestic model, the unexpectedly refined and similarly porky Chevrolet Cobalt, the Package 2 Jetta is $3,500 more expensive, even after a massive $4,500 feature adjustment. At a minimal equipment level this gap falls to about $2,300.

What about compared to other European cars, though? After a $1675 adjustment for features in the Jetta's favor, a Volvo S40 is about $5,500 more expensive. Compared to an A4, the feature sets are dead even. But the prices are not--a similarly equipped Audi is $6,600 more expensive than a Package 2 Jetta.

Feel free to compare other cars and equipment levels at my site. This brief analysis suggests that the Jetta is pricey compared to Japanese compacts, especially before adjusting for its higher content level, but inexpensive compared to other European compacts. So whether the price is justified depends on how much content and German-ness you need in a compact sedan.

VW Jetta 2.5 Reliability

many people are interested in such information, so I've started collecting my own data. Results, once they are available, will be posted to my site, www.truedelta.com, with updates every three months.

Unlike other sources, TrueDelta will clearly identify what difference it will make if you buy a Jetta rather than another vehicle by providing "times in the shop" and "days in the shop" stats (among others). You will be able to specify the number of years, annual miles, and types of repairs to include in VW Jetta reliability comparisons.

Before I can report results, I need data on all cars--not just the Jetta--from people like you. To encourage participation, those who help provide the data will receive free access to the site's reliability information. Non-participants will have to pay an access fee.

For the details, and to sign up, visit www.truedelta.com.

Unless my research finds otherwise, I'd be very wary of buying a Jetta. My sister recently traded a 2002 because she could no longer deal with its frequent trips to the shop. Took a real bath on it, too. Most trips were for minor niggles, like a turn signal clicker that came on at random times and fuses that kept blowing. But most recently the check engine light kept coming on despite repeated--and costly--service visits. She never did find a dealer who seemed to know how to fix the car. Based on the boards I've read, her experience was not unusual for a VW owner. (I recall one Touareg owner who said most days he loved his SUV, but on others he wanted to drive it over a cliff.) So if you buy a Jetta after reading this review, and it proves troublesome, don't say I didn't warn you.

Last Words

I'm impressed by the new Jetta's content level and quality of interior materials, but disappointed by its styling and tepid performance. Add in the very poor reliability record of the previous generation car (which had fewer things to go wrong), and I'd suggest this one only for those who must have a European sedan despite a limited budget. Even for these people, waiting a year for reliability ratings would be a very good idea.

Update: Initial results for the new Jetta are actually promising, not too far off where Japanese cars are scoring and better than any American model. But these cars are still fairly new, so stay tuned.

To learn more about my reliability research and sign up to participate in it, or to perform thorough, up-to-date new car price comparisons, visit www.truedelta.com. A link to this website and alphabetized links to my other vehicle reviews can be found on my profile page.

My reviews of related vehicles:
Chevrolet Cobalt review
Ford Focus ST review
Hyundai Elantra GT review
Mazda3 review
Saab 9-3 Linear Review
Saturn ION review
Toyota Corolla review
2003 VW Jetta GLI review
Volvo S40 review
Amount Paid (US$): 23000
Model and Options: Pkg 2