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Yesterday I popped by South Centre Fine Cars as I was out and about and took one of their 2.0T Jettas for a boot. The design of the car has grown on me the more I see it, and the Metallic Red car I drove had some pretty tasty looking 17's that look a whole hell of a lot better than the standard 16's. (although you really need to stuff at least 18's in those huge wheel wells and drop the suspension down a bit).
I was extremely interesting in driving this car after hearing so many good things about this engine on the vortex and from Blair's posts about the Passat he had for the week. However, I was left a little unimpressed by the performance. I realize that my car is not ridiculously fast, but I thought that the 2.0T's power delivery has become a bit too refined; lending a detached feeling while accelerating rather than an 'explosive' shove.
I'm sure that on paper the Jetta is quicker than my car, and indeed, the 1.8T's it replaces, but to my bum-ometer the performance was fairly uninspired. That isn't to say that it doesn't pull eagerly and that it doesn't get along at a decent lick, but rather than being 'fast' it seemed simply 'quick'.
The ride of the car felt nicely planted and firm while driving at moderate speeds - the rigidity of the car is lightyears ahead of mine (6mm of flex anyone?) - but it was only so-so on a particularly quick exit ramp off of the deerfoot. I noticed quite a bit of understeer and it felt very light, although it must be noted that the speeds were above 100km/h. All in all, though, not too bad.
The biggest disappointment to me was the brakes. Hauling the car down from 160 km/h seemed to be quite taxing on the car. The pedal felt quite mushy and there was already fade. The 6-speed felt fine, but I thought the clutch was much too light - then again, that's in comparison to my car which has a decidedly heavy clutch.
Another thing that dissapointed me was the lack of audible 'drama' from the engine note. I had read that the 2.0T sounded fantastic, but it was very hushed inside the car and, again, uninspiring. You don't really hear the turbo spooling that much, either, but I suppose that's a personal preference as to whether or not you like that.
I wonder if it will sound any better inside the cabin of the GTi when it makes it here.
So I give it a rating of 6.5 / 10. I liked the build quality and the chassis' rigidity, but disliked the braking performance and felt the handling could have been a little more dialed in. Again, I'm sure that on paper the engine's performance is all there, but to the seat of my pants it seemed 'ok'. I suppose I was expecting a much more bum-puckering acceleration experience. I wonder what a chip will do....
I was extremely interesting in driving this car after hearing so many good things about this engine on the vortex and from Blair's posts about the Passat he had for the week. However, I was left a little unimpressed by the performance. I realize that my car is not ridiculously fast, but I thought that the 2.0T's power delivery has become a bit too refined; lending a detached feeling while accelerating rather than an 'explosive' shove.
I'm sure that on paper the Jetta is quicker than my car, and indeed, the 1.8T's it replaces, but to my bum-ometer the performance was fairly uninspired. That isn't to say that it doesn't pull eagerly and that it doesn't get along at a decent lick, but rather than being 'fast' it seemed simply 'quick'.
The ride of the car felt nicely planted and firm while driving at moderate speeds - the rigidity of the car is lightyears ahead of mine (6mm of flex anyone?) - but it was only so-so on a particularly quick exit ramp off of the deerfoot. I noticed quite a bit of understeer and it felt very light, although it must be noted that the speeds were above 100km/h. All in all, though, not too bad.
The biggest disappointment to me was the brakes. Hauling the car down from 160 km/h seemed to be quite taxing on the car. The pedal felt quite mushy and there was already fade. The 6-speed felt fine, but I thought the clutch was much too light - then again, that's in comparison to my car which has a decidedly heavy clutch.
Another thing that dissapointed me was the lack of audible 'drama' from the engine note. I had read that the 2.0T sounded fantastic, but it was very hushed inside the car and, again, uninspiring. You don't really hear the turbo spooling that much, either, but I suppose that's a personal preference as to whether or not you like that.
I wonder if it will sound any better inside the cabin of the GTi when it makes it here.
So I give it a rating of 6.5 / 10. I liked the build quality and the chassis' rigidity, but disliked the braking performance and felt the handling could have been a little more dialed in. Again, I'm sure that on paper the engine's performance is all there, but to the seat of my pants it seemed 'ok'. I suppose I was expecting a much more bum-puckering acceleration experience. I wonder what a chip will do....
Didn't the sales person cry ?? 
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