by "Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
Published 11/22/2017 at 13:00
by "Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
Published 11/22/2017 at 13:00
Tags: MXDM
; Mexican Domestic Market
STARS: 8
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We are mad proud of the Jetta here in Mexico, oh do our minds fill with pride every time an underpaid factory worker in Puebla superglues the fake chrome plastic emblem to the noses of various vehicles. An emblem that has come to characterize the city if not the state of Puebla. Oh the hubris with which we look at the metallic paint sparkling and the alloy wheels shining as a sleazy dealer in an ill fitting suit approaches us and says, because
they always fucking say it:
“Usted sabe que este coche se fabrica en Mexico?”
“Usted sabia que Volkswagen fue de las primeras automotrices de Mexico?”
Yes. we know. we know VW was the first of the many that eventually settled here, we know its a Mexican car, we know everything you told us because everyone is so fucking proud about it!
Yet, it’s difficult to think of the Jetta objectively unless you remove it from its environment, but how can you remove a car from its market and the popular conception of it?
Removing the Jetta from the context of Mexico and the year 2017 in one of the more competitive markets: it wasn’t a bad car when it came out.
On the contrary! its an elegant if not forgettable sedan, it shows almost perfect determination to do one thing and one thing only: being a car. Its not specially fast or specially slow. It wont stand out in a beauty contest, and that is both good and bad. Its not luxurious but its not austere by any means, while yes the dash does feel like hardened play doh, it serenades you with bluetooth audio that is surprisingly fast to connect to your phone.
VW Jetta: for the Republican that voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016: while its not everything this person wanted he/she understands that its a good compromise that will ensure stability.
This isn’t a car for someone worried about the new ECU tune getting on time on the mail, but then it couldn’t be because the twist beam suspension ain’t helping getting those lap times on the board yo. But then again, its not a car that would amass Camry dents either.
VW Jetta: what Ralph Nader would’ve designed if he was part of the Corvair design team.
This is a car for people so aggressively reasonable that after going on a date with them you don’t hate them or love them, you just like them. You don’t quite understand what moves them but something is definitely ticking, even they can’t kill the impulsive and trivial behavior we evolved to have.
VW Jetta: The Cosmopolitan’s interpretation of what the proletariat wants.
About the ticking thing, again, nothing impressive, its a twenty valve, multi-port-fuel-injected straight five in a transverse position. Generating a not very massive 170HP and 177 ft-lb the Jetta is hurdled to sixty in about eight seconds thanks to a six speed automatic transmission and its not quite considerable 3200 pound heft. Absent is any good sound as the engine is tuned to be quiet: it normally sounds like a broken vacuum cleaner through a pistol silencer.
VW Jetta: as forgettable as the names of character actors in an NBC police drama.
You could buy the GLI version with the old GTI engine making 200 horsepower, which would come with four corner independent suspension but that would be like using the $20,000 Josper charcoal oven to cook hot pockets: its simply something that shouldn’t be done. All this because the Jetta wasn’t meant to be a quick car, it was meant to be a car, a simple good car.
VW Jetta: We... we know....
But lets go back to Mexico City and this unforgivingly cold morning outside my friend’s apartment. As I drive she explains that she doesn’t care about the car, and that’s why she can live with it, it wont make her feel good, or bad... See she somehow surpassed the imagery of the Jetta and ran past into the no-fucks-give zone. She doesn’t seem like the average Jetta owner, after owning the car for almost five years, she’s not wanting to change it for another VW and I can understand why.
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The engine, much like someone pleading the 5th in federal court, isn’t willing to cooperate, but push it past 4 grand it starts sounding nicely if not muted. The gearbox (and for this analogy its lawyer) is to blame for the engine’s unresponsiveness: not exactly slow in manual mode, but in automatic it is often unwilling to kick down, showing it’s economy-based tuning. The Jetta accelerates the most in the mid upper range but it doesn’t like running any faster than 2500 RPM , I don’t imagine it’d be a particularly willing highway cruiser, but then again, sometimes you need to go the GTMO way.
The car has soft dampers and suffers a good amount of squat on braking; much more than I’d expect in a car its size or weight. However soft the dampers are, the springs are quite harsh. This translates road imperfections weirdly, the more common ones are, well, dampened. Otherwise you can expect a harsh response when falling into potholes, riding through expansion joints, or going over speed humps.
The brakes are OK, this is the version that comes with four wheel disks after all (you could get the Jetta with rear drums pre-facelift), but not anything I’d show off or trust above 150km/h.
Quick stereotype: I don’t understand how JETTA owners feel comfortable driving like fucking animals in the highway with these brakes.
The pedal has medium travel and felt linearly progressive, something BMW could learn from.
The interior and switch gear is tightly held and doesn’t rattle despite this Jetta being the old the pre-facelift model. The seats aren’t uncomfortable, but their plushy nature makes me fearful of backaches during long trips. Even at 6'2" I felt like the seat better adjusted to my dimensions than in larger cars like my Jeep Grand Cherokee. However, I’ll have to pray for whomever seats behind me because there is absolutely no room, yet, we need to admit this is a common issue in any car smaller than a five series.
The Jetta was recently facelifted (its a 7 year old car now), VW dropped the drum brakes, the twist beam, and it now comes with DLRs and a few light redesigns here in Mexico. Otherwise, the Jetta much like Mexican university students, behaves conspicuously better outside its home country. Despite being in company of better students, Jetta now also gets better grades, a newer engine helped improve its failing GPA. But it seems to leave those in the dorm because in Mexico its same old five pot: This makes me go nuts.
But because everyone in Mexico loves the Jetta I caught this post facelift one in the parking garage; its black so you really can’t tell the redesign much, perhaps the lamps...
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GOD NO! Go and buy a Golf, or an Elantra, or a Cruze, or a Mazda 3, literally any of those is more technologically advanced, economical, and safer. The Jetta was merely average seven years ago and it hasn’t changed a thing here in Mexico. Its an old dog and the owner in full confidence that we, the Mexican people, wouldn’t give a shit decided its dog wouldn’t learn any new tricks for this year’s derby.
And Volkswagen de Mexico was right, we don’t give a shit. We don’t give a shit that the Golf is better, we like the aesthetic of the Jetta because of everything it stands for. The Golf is a better car and its not significantly more expensive but its not Mexico’s car (even though its made here). Its weird shape is foreign to us lovers of the sedan cars of years past, we can’t stand that its better than the Jetta. But it’s not Jetta’s fault, its just how aging works.
But I can’t be happy with VW, even with the Jetta set to be using the MQB platform soon. I can’t because this current facelifted but old engined Jetta and the NMS Passat, and the Atlas, and the lack of Artheon, and the old underpowered engines just proves to me that VW doesn’t love us anymore, did they ever actually love us? Mexico became so consumed by the notion of foreign approval that we forgot to expect and ask for a certain respect from our germanic overlords. VW isn’t bad, they just made a marketing decision based on how the market is: Complacent.
And boy did the get it right.
"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani)
11/22/2017 at 13:01, STARS: 0
We are mad proud of the Jetta here in Mexico
This or the Nissan Tsuru?
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:03, STARS: 0
What do you mean, like... sure we’re proud of both for some twisted reason... But if I had to chose I’d obviously have the Jetta, it’s leagues better than the tsuru
"kanadanmajava1" (kanadanmajava1)
11/22/2017 at 13:07, STARS: 0
I like inline-5 engines quite a lot. I think only Audi TT-RS and RS3 are currently offered here with such engine. VW Transporters with diesel engines are of course offered too but I don’t care about diesel engines.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:09, STARS: 0
This inline five is a piece of garbage, its the N/A one, Audi uses a better one that I think was just changed to an aluminum block
"BrianGriffin thinks “reliable” is just a state of mind" (briangriffinsprius)
11/22/2017 at 13:11, STARS: 0
The Golf is also assembled in Mexico and is a superior vehicle in every way. Why does national pride not follow the Golf?
"450X_FTW" (mistermic)
11/22/2017 at 13:13, STARS: 1
I’ll let Taco explain why I like the Jetta
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:15, STARS: 0
Because the golf changed manufacturing site later on.
Also because of this:
They made a special edition of the Jetta for the bicentenial of the Mexican independence.
I mean, it wasn’t the bicentennial in 2010.. it hasn’t been. But the movement did start officially in 1810 so I guess that, yes?
http://www.univision.com/noticias/volkswagen/vw-jetta-bicentenario-2011
But being honest I think it has more to do with Mexicans liking the 3 box design more...
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:17, STARS: 1
I’m sending this to the owner, she’ll be either charmed or disgusted.
ONLY time will tell LOL.
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
11/22/2017 at 13:27, STARS: 0
You can also buy a Juke for $19k usd.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:29, STARS: 1
In Mr. Regular voice:
“ UUUUGH NOT THE SAME SEGMENT!”
but I wouldn’t judge people cross shopping those two, or the Ford Fusion which i think is a larger car? i don’t know....
"EL_ULY" (uly)
11/22/2017 at 13:41, STARS: 1
se la rifa el Tiida mas que el Jetta, al chile. Jetta son para las fresitas en Polanco carnalito, neta.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:44, STARS: 0
No son del mismo segmento, pero si es un coche mirrey la verdad ahhaah
"EL_ULY" (uly)
11/22/2017 at 13:48, STARS: 0
no pos, se pasan con los precios en VW.
"Maxima Speed" (maximaspeed)
11/22/2017 at 13:49, STARS: 0
Weird, I know somebody who fits that exactly.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 13:54, STARS: 0
Es que el peso se fue a la chingada, si ves el mercado como mexicano pues si esta jodido porque hace 10 años 500,000 pesos valian lo mismo que 900,000 hoy
"EL_ULY" (uly)
11/22/2017 at 14:01, STARS: 0
Culpa del Dolar igualmente, pero mas las pinches ratas
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 14:16, STARS: 0
En realidad la devaluacion del peso es positiva para el trabajador Mexicano, hace que la exportación sea mas barata, por eso los coches que mas subieron de precio son aquellos hechos fuera de Mexico!
Pero para el consumidor si es negativo ya que casi todos los coches (y productos como la comida que importamos de EEUU) importados y sus refacciones subieron de precio.
"bwp240" (bwp240)
11/22/2017 at 14:18, STARS: 0
I have driven a Jetta with the 2.0, it is much worse than this...
I have also driven a 2014 GLI, it was substantially better... If it wasn’t for the fact my Regal’s interior is better in every way, I probably would have got one.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 14:31, STARS: 0
The new engine is the 1.8 TSI. the base model is the 2.0
The GLI has four point independent suspension in the back (like the old SEL (I think?) and all of the new facelifted ones)
"kanadanmajava1" (kanadanmajava1)
11/22/2017 at 17:29, STARS: 0
It cannot be very bad. 170 hp from 2.5 liter engine is still pretty decent. It doesn’t use modern direct injection or fancy valve timing. The worst thing that I can see is pretty horrible bore to stroke ratio (82.5mm/92.8mm) and according to internet rumors the timing chain seems to have some reliability issues.
But compared to the various reliability issues that have been piling for Euro spec TSI engines and DSG transmissions I can’t see this as a very bad engine.
"Spanfeller is a twat" (theaspiringengineer)
11/22/2017 at 17:43, STARS: 0
It is certainly subpar compared to other VW engines and other cars in the same segment. I don’t know much about the TSI’s you talk about, but if you’re right then well, its VW being VW.
I guess it stayed in production here in Mexico because of what you said: its not fancy, thus its easy to repair. But its more environmentally damaging.
Yes, that is a very weird ratio, but it kinda makes sense in a transverse engine with limited room? I mean, i’d make more sense if they just made four large bores instead of five medium ones in a transverse setup.
