About the Volkswagen JETTA
E D purchased this Volkswagen JETTA used for $11,000 (including all on-road costs) in 2023. E D would buy this car again because: “Great on fuel, averages around 5.7L/100km on the highway. Decent performance for pulling away from lights or overtaking slower moving traffic and fairly comfortable though on bumpier roads ride can be a bit unbalanced. Also very practical with decent boot space”
How reliable has your car been? Tell us about any issues.
This is a high mileage car (bought at 230,000 now has 255,000) car has needed a new turbo, and timing chain.
Turbo bearing supposedly failed and the car was sluggish, timing chain became stretched causing car to misfire and stall randomly, of course these are not issues a lower kilometre example would have
What do you think of the ownership experience with your car?
It’s been a very easy going experience, it’s been quite easy to live with.
Easy to drive and quite comfortable, just note it has got quite a large blind spot that makes parking annoying as the backup camera is quite pixellated and dated.
The rear boot space is astonishingly bigger then expected at 510L of usable space which with the seats folded down becomes over 850L, I’ve never had any trouble filling up the boot for a road trip
Are you happy with the price and features of your car?
For the price I purchase this vehicle for I am very happy with how well equipped it is.
Heated seats, automatic wipers, automatic dual zone climate control with auto recirculation, bi-xenon headlights that avoid other vehicles and follow the road, front and rear parking sensors, backup camera, passenger seat with manual lumbar support and a power adjustable driver’s seat with electronic lumbar adjustment.
What do you think of the performance and economy of your car?
The 2.0 TSI EA888 turbo four-cylinder engine (closely related to the Golf GTI and R) is very capable, delivering both surprising performance and decent fuel consumption.
0-100 claimed by Volkswagen at 7.49 seconds, 0-100 tested on a car with 240,000km was 6.8 seconds.
On the other side of the spectrum, in town driving during mild traffic can average 7.1L/100km.
On the highway doing a trip from Sydney to Dubbo, used just under one third of a tank and averaged 5.8L/100. Usually on the highway get roughly 6.3L/100. Overall a surprisingly quick car with decent fuel consumption.
What do you think of the technology in your car?
The Jetta originally came with the factory Bluetooth head unit, this was an older VW system that got updated for the next model year.
I replaced this system because it was slow at times and the maps were outdated, the Android system I picked up for $100 was certainly an upgrade.
Regarding the central display between the tachometer and speedometer whilst not in colour is very easy to read and provides a lot of useful information whilst being intuitive.
What do you think of the ride comfort and handling of your car?
From the factory the 2015 Volkswagen Jetta 155TSI comes on 18-inch alloy wheels.
Since these run on low profile tyres it means at times the ride can be a bit jarring.
Overall comfort could be compared to a early E90 3 Series, though a touch stiffer with a sense of sportiness in the seating positions.
This car handles amazingly, when pushed passengers and people driving it have called it a budget friendly Audi S3, even though it’s front-wheel drive on the limit it has very minimal understeer (at times it oversteers) the steering feel whilst dull at times allows enough communication with the road for an engaging drive
Do you have any additional comments about your car?
After owning a 2014 Jetta 118TSI trend line I can confidently say this was the right choice to make.
It’s very hard to find a car that packs a lot of features into a smart package like the Volkswagen Jetta 155TSI Highline Sport