2012 Volkswagen Jetta User Reviews

I — It probably has a little more road noise than the other luxury car I own but quieter than my 2010 pickup which is a crew cab. I don't do a lot of driving, my local town is 15 miles away. I go the the Twin Cities 2x per month and drive the VW half the time, the 2012 Volvo the other half the time. I don't drive the pickup very often, it is my transportation to the dump, going fishing or picking up building materials.

Rented A 2.5se For A Week - Really Liked It — I recently went on a west coast trip to San Francisco. Enterprise had me down for a Standard size car but after I declined the Chevy HHR, the attendant laughed and gave us a Jetta. To my surprise it wasn't the base model and was the upgraded engine (2.5SE). At first, I hated it. The interior was cheap / 90's looking and the engine felt gutless. The next day, I get to into the car with friends and I decided to try Sport (S) mode. After all, what's the worst that could happen? Well, it turns out that Sport mode transforms the car. The car finally gets out of it's own way and holds second gear up the steep San Francisco hills. My friends and I joked about how much quicker the car is in sport mode by saying "I'm sorry ociffer, but SPORT MODE!". The 5 cylinder engine has a unique growl around 3.5k RPMs which continues until it gets a little raspy at 5k. After that little 10 mile trip, the Jetta had grown on me. The next day I ended up deciding to see what Muir Woods is all about (it's a national monument with lots of redwood trees). That trip took me down some of the coolest and twistiest roads in our fair country. We're talking roads with unregulated speed limit and 10mph corners. This is where I decided to see how the car fared in manual mode - as the automatic can be manually shifted. Most of the time I spent in 2nd gear with the occasion shift up to 3rd on a straight on down to first in one or two insanely tight hairpins. The car won't really let you do much damage to the transmission. It will automatically shift up if you redline it but odds are, the wail of the engine will alert you to that first. The shifts are as quick and precise as anything within several thousand dollars (to my knowledge) and anyone cross shopping this car with an Optima/Sonato turbo (which my father owns and I've driven frequently) should go with the Jetta if this feature is the deal breaker. After Muir woods, I headed up SR1 (also called Highway 1) for even more twisty-turny action. Here I could open the car up a bit. The German roots came out as the car was just as responsive and communicative as it was quiet and supple for city driving. The car does oversteer at the limit (duh, it's front wheel drive), but you have to try real hard to get it out of sorts. The traction control is "stuck on" and never turns off. It lets you spin the wheels a bit and get you jollies but thankfully, at least on SR1, keeps you from spirited-driving-yourself off the 40 story high ocean cliffs. Strangely enough, I didn't really desire more power. The car has about 170hp but pulls very strong - much better than my own four-banger Scion tC. There were Maserati's, Porsches, Infiniti's, BMW's, Lexus's and every other sport luxury car out there on SR1 with me but the curves are the big limiter. I was just as content in the Jetta as I would have been in a Porsche Boxster - and I never broke 40mph. I'm not saying I wouldn't rather own a Porsche, but if I had to settle for something German, great in the twisties, supple around town, and roomy for friends - I think this is it. I came back the way I came but decided to go back to Sport mode. Having adventured into manual land and having gotten a great feel for the gears, I was interested in seeing how it handled things on it's own. I was really disappointed by sport mode but in a move to save fuel, it's not quiet as sporty as I would have hoped. The car seemed to downshift very quickly when I stepped on it, but shifted back up a bit too soon - leaving me in the wrong gear to enter - and subsequently exit the next corner. Having said that, it still good fun. All in all, I'd recommend anyone check out the Jetta (at the very least the 2.5 engine or the GLI - which I now intend to test drive). The overall driving feel of the car, quietness around town, and great transmission make it fantastic bargain for a car despite despite the cheap albeit well-laid-out interior. * As a side note, I know many auto enthusiast types (which I count myself in), LOVE a proper manual gearbox. At no point, in or around San Francisco, did I find myself missing a clutch. If anything, all I wanted was some flappy paddles on the steering wheel - which I believe come in the GLI.

Primary Use: Sport/fun (spirited driving, track racing, off-roading, etc.)