2011 Volkswagen Jetta debuts

I am extremely disappointed. No, no, no, I am not saying that it looks bad; in fact I think the new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta looks quite stunning. But I am thwarted because it looks like the two chaps designing the new Jetta simply put high-res pictures of Volkswagen Golf and Audi A4 on their huge screens and went about talking to each other about the cars’ sections to lift off, for the new Jetta.

There ensued an argument between them so a third designer walked in to settle it. He asked the first one to lift the front end off the VW Golf and the second one to use Audi A4’s rear. No imagination there – just two cars and their front and rear sections being combined to create an all new design. Simple solution. Brilliantly pathetic, too.

Just look at the video and the pictures and you’ll know what I mean. The moment I saw the video, I immediately said aloud “F**k, this looks so much like the A4 from behind.” And continued, “and the new Golf from the front!”

But keeping aside my discontent on there being no real imagination behind the looks, what Volkswagen have done here is take two great looking cars to draw up the latest Jetta, so that itself is a good base for design. And the end result is quite pleasing.

I’ve never been a big fan of the way the current Jetta looks; in fact I even criticized it for looking too ordinary for the money it demands. But this 2011 version that we see here in the pictures is, simply put, the best looking car in the segment. Yes, even better than the current beauty queen – Honda Civic. And that’s saying a lot.

The new Jetta is about 3.5 inches longer than the current model that we get here in India, so expect there to be more leg space owing to longer wheelbase. The interior is going to carry all the usual bells and whistles and I expect VW to throw in a sat-nav too. On the engines front, we will get the 2.0-litre TDI featuring common rail injection and I am just hopeful that the woefully underpowered 1.6-litre petrol will make way for the 2.0-litre TSI motor.

The new 2011 Volkswagen Jetta should be priced at more or less the same level, if not cheaper.