Why would a Golf not be a better buy than a Jetta?
The Jetta loaner I had once sucked. At one time the Jetta was nice and maybe the latest one but a hatchback has more usable room. Guess it is the hatchback hate in USA.
Had a chance to putz around in a Mk7 jetta for a day while I had some recall work done. Only thing that jumped out to me as being superior than the Golf was the rear leg room and literally nothing else. I was actually rather surprised on discovering just how much cheaper it felt compared to the Golf. Now I knew it would be worse, but little things such as the inferior tactility of the buttons, the rubbery feel of the automatic gear selector (Golf has a nice gated feel to it), and even the physical aspect of turning the ignition just felt worse than its hatchback cousin.
Then again the Jetta stickers for the same amount as a corolla, so what do you expect.
I'm sad to see the TSI go, but it really was too good for this world. The 1.8 in particular was stupidly overbuilt and powerful for a car meant to compete with civics and corollas, something VW themselves realized when they swapped in the 1.4 on the hatch on face lifted models. The 1.8 really is just a baby GTI, virtually everything that bolts on to the 2.0 bolts on to the 1.8, and despite not having the forged crankshaft it really has no problem holding 300+hp.
