Just finished 2 weeks of driving a 2019 Jetta while on vacation in South Carolina. Thought I'd share my impressions; The car was virtually new when I got it with only 400 miles on the odo and I put close to 2000 miles on it. It had the 1.4 L turbo and 8 speed dual-clutch automatic. Not a bad car overall, comfortable, low wind noise so nice when cruising down the highway, decent suspension, big trunk and fairly nice interior. Nice backup camera and lane assist warning plus follow-to-close warning. It may have had auto breaking, but I'm not sure. I did have a chime and display warning go off when I came up on someone too quickly but I was applying the breaks hard at that point so I'm not sure if the car helped or not.
Overall, the drive-train was a bit disappointing. While it had plenty of power it was pretty noisy when pushed. The programming on the trans really keeps the RPMs low and it really lugs this little engine in order to get fuel economy. Speaking of which, fuel economy was pretty good. The dashboard MPG readout often had the MPG showing in the mid 40's for individual trips but I only averaged just over 38 on each tank when I filled up and calculated it by hand.
I kept it in "sport mode" which raised the RPM's by about 300 or so and kept it just under 2000 RPM under most conditions. But for a "sport" mode, it still shifts really early. I also frequently shifted it into manual mode to pick a better gear for various cruising conditions. Jerkiness was another issue. You felt every downshift when coming to a stop. On normal acceleration, it would often feel like it was bogging due to the early shifts but then when you press the accelerator further to gain some speed it would lurch forward as it downshifted. Kinda difficult to drive smoothly.
Finally, it does have the start-stop feature so it turns off at stop lights pretty regularly. Unfortunately, when it stops it lurches a bit. There was a button to defeat the feature but it has to be pushed every time you start the car, default is enabled. So overall, not a bad little car but some rough edges with the drive-train...
Overall, the drive-train was a bit disappointing. While it had plenty of power it was pretty noisy when pushed. The programming on the trans really keeps the RPMs low and it really lugs this little engine in order to get fuel economy. Speaking of which, fuel economy was pretty good. The dashboard MPG readout often had the MPG showing in the mid 40's for individual trips but I only averaged just over 38 on each tank when I filled up and calculated it by hand.
I kept it in "sport mode" which raised the RPM's by about 300 or so and kept it just under 2000 RPM under most conditions. But for a "sport" mode, it still shifts really early. I also frequently shifted it into manual mode to pick a better gear for various cruising conditions. Jerkiness was another issue. You felt every downshift when coming to a stop. On normal acceleration, it would often feel like it was bogging due to the early shifts but then when you press the accelerator further to gain some speed it would lurch forward as it downshifted. Kinda difficult to drive smoothly.
Finally, it does have the start-stop feature so it turns off at stop lights pretty regularly. Unfortunately, when it stops it lurches a bit. There was a button to defeat the feature but it has to be pushed every time you start the car, default is enabled. So overall, not a bad little car but some rough edges with the drive-train...