We’re Driving the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta. What Do You Need To Know?

I’ve had plenty of take a look at autos this yr… however that is the primary press automotive I can keep in mind shortly. That is the refreshed-for-2025 Volkswagen Jetta in its high SEL trim, and it’s one in every of a dwindling variety of honest-to-God sedans left available on the market. This one even will get an actual colour: Monterey Blue Pearl! By the easy advantage of being an precise automotive painted an precise colour, I am already a bit smitten.

For 2025, the Jetta’s updates are delicate. Barely up to date entrance and rear fascias with new LED lights, new paint colours (together with the blue hue of my take a look at VW), mildly modified inside fine details, and a bigger touchscreen for decrease trims comprise the majority of the modifications. Sadly, the handbook transmission has disappeared fully; now the 158-horsepower 1.5-liter turbo-four is paired solely to an eight-speed computerized, no matter trim stage.

Picture by: Victoria Scott / Motor1

Picture by: Victoria Scott / Motor1

Picture by: Victoria Scott / Motor1

The SEL is on the pricier aspect of the sedan market, with this totally loaded take a look at automotive punching in at $30,225. That places some sportier sedans—such because the Honda Civic Si—inside hanging distance, and as an adrenaline-seeking 29-year-old, tuned-up compacts will at all times be the place my coronary heart lies. However the Jetta’s base worth is simply $23,220, which makes it one of many most cost-effective choices left on an more and more costly market. That is laborious to dislike.

And from what I can inform primarily based on a number of brief drives, it’s actually frugal. To date I am additionally completely loving the gasoline mileage I am seeing. The scale of the Jetta is straightforward to intuit and has made piloting it via metropolis streets a breeze. A part of that’s simply the truth that it is a small automotive, to make sure, however the sight strains are fairly good. It does not really feel like sitting in a high-belted coffin, like some trendy vehicles. I might see this making a wonderful first new automotive for somebody; it is easy to drive, it isn’t costly, it is fairly cozy. What else might you need?

Let me know what else you would need, and what you’d wish to know, and I will do my greatest to reply within the feedback or within the full overview.

Picture by: Victoria Scott / Motor1

• It is a comparatively cheap fuel-efficient sedan. It might accomplish nothing else and I might nonetheless be thrilled with it.
• The inside is comfy and the sight strains appear nice. Total, I might name it fairly ergonomic, besides…

• …The brand new climate-control interface does away with buttons and knobs and replaces them with a flat slab of capacitive-touch plastic that gives zero suggestions. It’s irritating to make use of and feels low-cost.
• The eight-speed computerized is a little bit gradual to answer throttle inputs.