16 Jetta TSI

I installed the OEM splashguards I bought off ebay and rotated the tires. While installing the rear splashguards,I noticed something I'm not too fond of. The rear wheel well liners isn't smooth plastic like in most cars,it's like a felt type material,almost like what the inside trunk liner is made of. Seems like that will be a good thing for the winter salt and snow to stick to and destroy. I wonder how many years they've been using this material? Engine oil was about 1/2 way between the hashmarks,I'm at 6300 miles. I think I'll take it in for oil change between 8-9k miles-I do have 3yr/30k miles of "free" maintenance, I guess I'll give them 1 chance to see how it goes.....

Just another example of VW cheapening their cars.....

tomo366 said:

Just another example of VW cheapening their cars.....

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Value Engineering is the correct term!!

The felt wheel liners have been around for at least 6 years. I think it's for sound deadening, not as a cost-cutting measure. Since no one has reported problems with it, I don't think you'll have one this winter either.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

The felt wheel liners have been around for at least 6 years. I think it's for sound deadening, not as a cost-cutting measure. Since no one has reported problems with it, I don't think you'll have one this winter either.

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I recently had to replace the Right Front wheel liner on my 2015 Jetta SEL TDI and it was not the felt.....

tdidieselbobny said:

I installed the OEM splashguards I bought off ebay and rotated the tires. While installing the rear splashguards,I noticed something I'm not too fond of. The rear wheel well liners isn't smooth plastic like in most cars,it's like a felt type material,almost like what the inside trunk liner is made of. Seems like that will be a good thing for the winter salt and snow to stick to and destroy. I wonder how many years they've been using this material? Engine oil was about 1/2 way between the hashmarks,I'm at 6300 miles. I think I'll take it in for oil change between 8-9k miles-I do have 3yr/30k miles of "free" maintenance, I guess I'll give them 1 chance to see how it goes.....

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The felt like carpet/recycled carpet stuff in the wheel wells have been very common for about 5+ years on most makes....Honda, MINI, BMW, etc all use it from about 2010+

$70k Lexus and $90k Audi models have felt wheel liners. It isn't exactly something I would consider "cheap".

The NCS' cheapening comes from not painting many surfaces not readily seen, less (or none at all) spray on batting under the car's floorboards, simpler window regulars and doors in general, more use of stamped steel instead of cast aluminum on suspension pieces, fewer modules throughout the car (a good thing, IMHO), less complex steering column assembly, fewer pieces in the bumper cover structures, less steel in the inner fender portions of the body, fewer pieces in general all over the car, and other things. If you work on enough of these cars, you start to see these differences. The revamped Beetle is much the same way, but in that instance they really actually improved on the feel of the interior over the previous version.

Underneath, the NCS reminds me of an Altima or Corolla, or anything that Subaru makes. Although not quite that "cheap", not nearly, but more cheap for a modern Volkswagen. I still feel that in base trim with the base engine, and especially with a manual transmission, the NCS Jetta represents the best value to roll through a Volkswagen showroom in a VERY long time.

I just swapped the glove box on my '99.5 Golf for an '02 box with a working latch. I was amazed at the additional fasteners and bracing in the '99.5 dash. And those are just "improvements" during a model cycle.

A co-worker says that the best cars were built in the '90s, when manufacturers seemed to be less concerned about cost cutting. I think he's right.

So the factory tires are rated at max load at 51psi. Door sticker says 36psi front and rear. My tires are all around the 32psi range. I'm thinking I should jack that up to about 42psi for an MPG improvement.

FordGuy100 said:

So the factory tires are rated at max load at 51psi. Door sticker says 36psi front and rear. My tires are all around the 32psi range. I'm thinking I should jack that up to about 42psi for an MPG improvement.

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I have the Bridgestone Ecopia on mine. After rotating them yesterday,checked them,and 3 were at 36 psi and 1 was at 40 psi-TPMS didn't come on for that,but it came on this morning on my way to work. I put 40psi in all....As far as the felt liner wheelwell,I had no idea this was common practice,as this is the newest vehicle I've owned-last new vehicle purchase was back in 1994,and it was an Isuzu pickup.....

IndigoBlueWagon said:

I just swapped the glove box on my '99.5 Golf for an '02 box with a working latch. I was amazed at the additional fasteners and bracing in the '99.5 dash. And those are just "improvements" during a model cycle.

A co-worker says that the best cars were built in the '90s, when manufacturers seemed to be less concerned about cost cutting. I think he's right.

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The difference in the dash of the early vs. late A4 cars may have to do with the SRS, as they made a lot of changes to the rest of the car due to this. I read VoA's selft study guide on the second gen stuff, and that was one of the things they mentioned. Even things like the A-pillars changed, the actual steel stamping. Not sure what (if any) crash standards changed during the A4's tenure, but given it was available here from '99 through 2006 and in other markets even longer (starting in '98) it would stand to reason that some of those standards were changed or at least the car was tweaked to improve upon itself to beat the same standards.

oilhammer said:

The difference in the dash of the early vs. late A4 cars may have to do with the SRS, as they made a lot of changes to the rest of the car due to this. I read VoA's selft study guide on the second gen stuff, and that was one of the things they mentioned. Even things like the A-pillars changed, the actual steel stamping. Not sure what (if any) crash standards changed during the A4's tenure, but given it was available here from '99 through 2006 and in other markets even longer (starting in '98) it would stand to reason that some of those standards were changed or at least the car was tweaked to improve upon itself to beat the same standards.

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A4s were available in Canada up to 2009 for the Jetta, and 2010 for the Golf, as the Jetta City and the Golf City. Both with the good old N. A. 2.0. No other engine choices, either 5 sp. manual or 6 sp. auto in the later years. Both started in the 2007 m.y.

Pretty sure I test drove one of these 1.4L's before buying my TDI in '14. I wasn't impressed then (in comparison to TDI), but I may have to give it another chance especially if I can get a deal like OP.

1.4's didn't show up until the 16 model year. Driving a TDI back and back makes this little TSI seem pretty bland. But its a commuter car seeing 600+ miles a week right now, so it doesn't need that much power for me. Otherwise I would have sprung for a GTI!

FordGuy100 said:

1.4's didn't show up until the 16 model year. Driving a TDI back and back makes this little TSI seem pretty bland. But its a commuter car seeing 600+ miles a week right now, so it doesn't need that much power for me. Otherwise I would have sprung for a GTI!

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gotcha, just remember it being a TSI and the salesman saying it was a new engine for '14 and I might like it as much as a TDI. I'm going to check out the 1.4l though, dealer has one manual on the lot. I've taken a hit financially over the past few years so price matters a lot, this might be a good fit.

Jetta SS said:

gotcha, just remember it being a TSI and the salesman saying it was a new engine for '14 and I might like it as much as a TDI. I'm going to check out the 1.4l though, dealer has one manual on the lot. I've taken a hit financially over the past few years so price matters a lot, this might be a good fit.

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Depending on the trim level, in '14 the Jetta could be had with the old 2.0L (Trendline and Trendline+ in Canada, not sure in the US), or the 1.8 TSI in the Comfortline and up, plus the TDI. At some point the TDI could be had in the Trendline+, not sure if that was '14 or '15.

This carried on into '15. For '16, all Jettas up to and including Comfortline get the 1.4 TSI. The Highline gets the 1.8 TSI. So a downgrade (though not much, 20 less hp but nearly the same torque in the manual tranny versions). And of course we all know what happened to the TDI in '16

Most likely then it was the 1.8 TSI in the car you tried, which is what I have in my Golf, and I really like the engine.

I saw a lease deal this weekend for a Jetta S with tech - $59/month. Almost went to take a look.



However, this morning I remembered why I didn't go. The temp dropped into the low 60s. Taking my freshman son to 6:00 am basketball, he requested we take the Jetta with the heated seats.

Sent from mTalk

LA? October? Heated seats? Really?

PlaneCrazy said:

Depending on the trim level, in '14 the Jetta could be had with the old 2.0L (Trendline and Trendline+ in Canada, not sure in the US), or the 1.8 TSI in the Comfortline and up, plus the TDI. At some point the TDI could be had in the Trendline+, not sure if that was '14 or '15.

This carried on into '15. For '16, all Jettas up to and including Comfortline get the 1.4 TSI. The Highline gets the 1.8 TSI. So a downgrade (though not much, 20 less hp but nearly the same torque in the manual tranny versions). And of course we all know what happened to the TDI in '16

Most likely then it was the 1.8 TSI in the car you tried, which is what I have in my Golf, and I really like the engine.

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In Canada for MY2016,
Manual transmission Comfortlines have 1.4 TSI.
Automatic transmission Comfortlines have 1.8 TSI.

For MY2017, the Comfortline trim is now called Wolfsburg, and both manual and automatic transmissions have 1.4 TSI.

Test drove a 2017 Jetta S with the 1.4 today. It was better than I expected. It's at the top of my list for now.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

LA? October? Heated seats? Really?

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They're spoiled. Roof is down on my cabrio if it's 18 C or above

My average MPG over ~9200 miles is 39.6 with a 70/30 split highway/city. Pretty happy with it. Last few tanks have all been in the 42 MPG range.

Canadian 2016 Jetta trims
Canadian 2017 Jetta trims

FordGuy100 said:

Just an update. Stop and go seems to average below city driving MPG claims. This is probably the case for a lot of the smaller GTDI's out there. Luckily, I dont do much of that. Suburban driving seems to be around the low 30 MPG point.

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Motor Trend is also finding that the Jetta 1.4 TSI is not as efficient as their compact competitors in their city testing.

Compared to the stronger competition, in their city testing, the Jetta 1.4 TSI:
-burns 20.3% more fuel (+0.72 gal/100 mi)
-Gets 16.9% less specific range (-4.8 MPG)

The stronger competition average (which excludes the Jetta and Sentra) is 3.55 gal / 100 mi or 28.2 MPG. (averaging is done on gal/100mi)
The Jetta burns 4.27 gal / 100 mi or 23.4 MPG.

http://www.motortrend.com/cars/chevrolet/cruze/2016/2016-2017-big-test-compact-sedans/

I dont know how you could get much worse than what I did. Average MPH was in the low teens for the tank, full AC use, and I still got roughly 27mpg on the tank that consisted of 100% city. On another note, I'm still sitting around $.06 a mile, which by my calculations would make the break even point of a similarly equipped TDI version of my car around the 250-500K mile mark (+$2500 TDI option, $.01 to $.005 less per mile, same maintenance cost).

Filled up with premium today to see what it will do. I have about 6 tanks on my normal commute now so I will compare against that average.

FordGuy100 said:

I dont know how you could get much worse than what I did. Average MPH was in the low teens for the tank, full AC use, and I still got roughly 27mpg on the tank that consisted of 100% city. On another note, I'm still sitting around $.06 a mile, which by my calculations would make the break even point of a similarly equipped TDI version of my car around the 250-500K mile mark (+$2500 TDI option, $.01 to $.005 less per mile, same maintenance cost).

Filled up with premium today to see what it will do. I have about 6 tanks on my normal commute now so I will compare against that average.

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On my 1.8 TSI, I did notice that premium lowered the fuel consumption slightly, maybe 0.1 or 0.2 L/100 km max. But that still wasn't enough to make it worthwhile to buy premium on a regular basis. I suspect a good part of the improvement comes from the lack of ethanol in premium gasoline. Ethanol has less energy content than the hydrocarbons it replaces. I wouldn't even have put premium in, but I had no choice, I was at the only station in town, they'd run out of RUG, and I was running on fumes...

I have ran premium for roughly half of the tanks. The performance gain (or loss when switching to RUG) is noticeable. My Top 5 MPG tanks were all premium as well, but now I have a baseline to compare against. Costco generally has very cheap gas compared to those around it, you just have to wait in line for 15 minutes. I paid $.07 more a gallon for premium than the RUG I was paying for at one of the cheapest places I know of.

What I really liked about this car was the typical VW stuff, steering, clutch, and shifter feel were great. The 1.4 had enough power to be fun, pulled good. The salesman had to point out the back up camera to me, I probably wouldn't of noticed. I spend 98% of my driving on the freeway running with the flow of traffic. 75 -85 mph. During my test drive, I didn't see good numbers on the display, was running it hard. FordGuy - any guess on what I might see mpg wise with my commute?

Was your test drive mostly consist of stop and go driving? City fuel economy is the 1.4 TSI Jetta's weakness, as tested my Motor Trend.

The Jetta landed 2nd place in their highway fuel economy test in the same comparison.

FordGuy100 said:

I have ran premium for roughly half of the tanks. The performance gain (or loss when switching to RUG) is noticeable. My Top 5 MPG tanks were all premium as well, but now I have a baseline to compare against. Costco generally has very cheap gas compared to those around it, you just have to wait in line for 15 minutes. I paid $.07 more a gallon for premium than the RUG I was paying for at one of the cheapest places I know of.

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Where I'm living, premium is about 13 cents per litre more than RUG. So it would take a heck of a fuel economy gain to make it worthwhile for me. It was interesting to note that yes, it got slightly better consumption, but not enough to make me pass up on the 97.9 cents/L RUG I can find around here. Ironically, that cheap station, which is near the US border, was the one that ran out of RUG when I wanted to fill up a few weeks ago (taxes are lowered near the US border as a disincentive to fuelling on cheaper US gas, which would be detrimental to Canadian businesses), but that discount does not apply, as far as I can see, to PUG nor diesel.

I do shop at Costco, but the nearest one is about 100 km away so necessarily, I don't fuel there often. We make big Costco runs every 4-6 weeks or so and we usually combine it with other activities in Montreal.