View Photos of the 2019 Volkswagen Jetta GLI
Based on the seventh-generation Jetta, the new GLI is an instrument of joy in need of a better instrument panel.
I love the Volkswagen Golf GTI. I've owned three of them. Last year alone, my sister became a GTI owner, and my friend Rudy bought one after he asked me for a recommendation. Unlike everyone else in my life, he actually listened. The GTI is an easy car to recommend because it never disappoints. It balances practicality, performance, refinement, and price in a way that has earned it 16 10Best Cars awards. Most of us would spend our money on one. Several of us around C/D HQ have. But there's less enthusiasm for the GTI's mechanical twin, the Jetta GLI, which returns for 2019 riding on the VW Group's ubiquitous MQB platform. There's a reason for the ambivalence. The GLI isn't as good-looking, inside or out, as the hatchback GTI. Starting with the last Jetta and continuing in the new generation, Volkswagen has pulled pennies out of the sedan's take-a-penny-leave-a-penny dish until it was left with a dollar-store version of the Golf.
If you've ever bought sunglasses for a dollar, you know that dollar stores are great for bargains, and the 2019 Jetta GLI is a bit of one. Equipped with the same 228-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four as the GTI, the GLI starts at $26,890, or $1600 less than the Golf-based hatchback.
Think of that discount as an apology for the molded-in stitching on the instrument panel, the hard and shiny door plastic, and a tacky gauge cluster that even prebankruptcy General Motors might've rejected.
At least VW offers a welcome and bright 10.3-inch digital instrument cluster but only on the top Autobahn trim level. Speaking of which, a GLI decked out in Autobahn trim begins at $30,090, or $6800 less than a similar-spec GTI.
If you're shopping for a loaded example, the GLI's price advantage becomes a more serious incentive to go with the sedan. You could buy a whole dollar store's inventory with the savings.
Our 35th Anniversary example came to a reasonable as-tested $28,985, with its only options being the $800 DSG seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and $295 for Pure Gray paint with a contrasting black roof.
Our test car with the standard six-speed manual was an entry-level S model, as no-frills as the GLI comes.
Easily the best-looking part of the GLI's interior is the steering wheel borrowed from the GTI. As in the hatch, there's real feel behind the GLI's leather wrapping.
Select the higher-effort Sport setting or leave it in Normal; the quick steering (2.1 turns lock to lock) is accurate and pleasing in either mode.
On Hankook Ventus S1 Evo3 summer performance tires that VW assures us are available—the option isn't on VW's consumer website yet—grip levels on the skidpad measured an impressive 0.95 g for the automatic car and a stellar 0.98 g for the shift-it-yourself version, which also trimmed seven feet from the automatic's 160-foot stop from 70 mph.
In fact, the body control, the rightness of the primary controls, and the acceleration are all right there with the GTI. We measured a zero-to-60-mph time of 5.6 seconds with our dual-clutch automatic test car, matching the best figure we've recorded for a GTI, and a still-solid 5.8 seconds with the manual.
At 3178 pounds, the weight savings of the stick shift versus the automatic amounts to a mere 23 pounds. But the manual is a bit more sluggish over the 5-to-60-mph dash—6.5 seconds to the automatic's 6.1—and significantly so when tasked with top-gear passing maneuvers from both 30 to 50 mph and from 50 to 70 mph.
That's mostly an artifact of the testing procedure, during which the automatic downshifts for itself while the manual labors against its tallest ratio.
Right off idle, the short delay before the power hits reminds you that the turbo needs a little time to make all 18.0 psi of boost, otherwise the throttle snaps to attention at anything above 2000 rpm.
You hurtle ahead on the wave of a 258-lb-ft plateau of torque. Piped-in intake sound is adjustable and ranges from spot on in Normal to annoyingly loud and juvenile in Sport.
There's more car to love here than in the GTI, and for those who buy by the inch, the Jetta GLI will be an easy choice. Put up against its only sedan competition, the Honda Civic Si and the Subaru WRX, the Jetta GLI makes an even more compelling case.
The Civic Si is smaller, has less power, isn't as quick, and comes only with a manual transmission. Compared with the WRX, the GLI costs less and is larger, but it lacks all-wheel drive and can't quite match the Subie's acceleration.
In addition to those three GTIs, I also owned a GLI. But my fourth-generation Jetta GLI was virtually identical to the equivalent GTI. VW wisely made the new GLI as good to drive as the GTI, and it's a superb experience. But not fitting the GTI's better interior leaves the latest GLI just short of greatness.
View Photos of the 1987 Sterling 825SL
2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Interior Photos
2025 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Exterior Photos
View Photos of the 2027 Ferrari 849 Testarossa
