Short Take Road Test
Statistically, if you’re the owner of a Volkswagen diesel, you’re 189 percent more likely to have passed out at a Grateful Dead concert than the rest of the population, 92 percent more likely to have yelled, “Kind veggie burrito!” at one point in your life, and 61 percent more likely to have slept in a Volkswagen bus, or under one. Okay, maybe the numbers are a hair off.
Until recent gas prices awakened drivers to the whole finiteness of finite resources, Volkswagen diesel owners were a unique breed who put up with tepid acceleration in order to go farther on a gallon of fuel. Their diesel interest stemmed from a mix of stick-it-to-the-man frugality born of diesel’s ability to burn a variety of fuels and an iconoclastic resistance to the latest yuppie icon, the hybrid Toyota Prius. But now that frugality has reached the mainstream, the Jetta TDI may have what it takes to appeal to buyers who might confuse Jerry Garcia with a flavor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
The frugalistas were out of luck for ’07 and ’08 as Volkswagen had to sit out the diesel game because it couldn’t meet the more stringent Tier 2 emissions laws that were imposed on all vehicles in 2007. While potential buyers resorted to scouring used-car listings for the VW diesel of their dreams, engineers were busy cleaning up the emissions of a thoroughly reworked 2.0-liter, turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine.
For 2009, the Jetta TDI gets a 140-hp turbo-diesel (40 more than the previous 1.9-liter engine) with 236 pound-feet of torque (59 more than before). The new engine is squeaky clean—enough so that it can be purchased in every state in the union. According to the EPA, the Jetta TDI achieves 29 mpg in the city and 40 on the highway, so we weren’t too surprised to get 33 mpg. What did surprise us was the TDI’s 8.1-second sprint from 0 to 60 mph, which was 2.2 seconds quicker than the ’06 Jetta TDI’s. In fact, this new TDI exactly matched the 0-to-60 and quarter-mile times of the last 170-hp, five-cylinder 2.5-liter gas-engined Jetta we tested. And that one even had a manual.
Put an unsuspecting driver in a Jetta TDI, and most wouldn’t think the car unusual in any way. The new 2.0-liter diesel feels far more powerful and refined than the previous 1.9-liter turbo-diesel engine. Power builds in a steady and linear manner, and although a whiff of turbo lag remains, it is far more tolerable than it was in the past. The massive torque increase makes passing easier, too, but the optional dual-clutch automated manual can be reluctant to downshift
on its own.
At $22,640 for a manual sedan, the Âdiesel doesn’t qualify as cheap, but the feds are offering a $1300 income-tax credit for Jetta TDI buyers in recognition of the diesel’s advanced lean-burn technology. Free money? That, like the efficient Jetta TDI, will appeal to everyone.
