First Drive Review: 2025 Volkswagen Jetta and Jetta GLI

While some automakers have been quick to turn away from the small car market, favoring higher-margin trucks and SUVs, Volkswagen has stood by its market entrants, the Golf and Jetta. It’s a good thing, too; if things continue the way they’re going, with EV sales plateauing and consumers reining in their spending to ease the pain of inflated prices, the small car market might come to take on greater importance shortly.

Perhaps that’s why sales of the Volkswagen Jetta are up 26% year-to-date, even though a refreshed version was right around the corner.

That car is now here: the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta. AutoGuide.com just had a go in the newly tweaked Jetta on some of Michigan’s best rural driving roads, and we’re here to offer our honest, unfiltered thoughts.

Exterior Style:

The biggest aesthetic changes for 2025 come in the form of a massaged front fascia, which looks fine – sharp, even – but leaves the Volkswagen Jetta looking more anonymous than its pre-facelift counterpart. Volkswagen says the more aggressive style was meant to bring the Jetta’s face more in line with the Golf, but you would be forgiven for mistaking the 2025 model for a Corolla on the road. Gone is the classic sprawling, almost brawny-looking horizontally slatted grille that used to identify the Jetta at a glance, replaced with something slenderer and decidedly more contemporary. A front light bar, available on the Sport trim and higher, is a highlight on an otherwise safe front-end restyle.

The story is better at the rear. Volkswagen has graced all Jetta models with a standard light bar spanning between the taillights and otherwise retained some distinctly VW graphics. This is firmly a step in the right direction, conveying the Jetta’s upmarket, budget-premium bona fides.

The Jetta GLI gets the same front- and rear-end treatments as the standard model, but with the addition of the standard red lipstick treatment around the front grille. The red highlights are less prominent than on the outgoing model, which suits it well.

There are new wheel designs for 2025, as well. The SE gets a brand-new set of 17” wheels, while the SEL and GLI get new 18-inch wheels, and both the SE and GLI offer a new optional black-wheel package.

Powertrain and Fuel Economy:

The standard 2025 Volkswagen Jetta powertrain pairs the same perfectly adequate, competent 1.5L turbo-four as the old model with a disappointingly indecisive eight-speed automatic transmission. Supposedly, the regular Jetta can hit 60 mph from a standstill in just a hair over 7 seconds, but driving the car, it’s not readily obvious how; the considerable 184 lb-ft of torque feels like it’s never quite on-call, and the transmission seems determined to keep you in a much taller gear than you’d prefer. Sport mode doesn’t seem to do anything apart from maybe a small placebo effect in some drivers.

From a drivability perspective, then, the 8-speed automatic is a bit of a pain point. The thing is, when you look at the Jetta’s real-world fuel economy, it’s astonishingly good. Small, turbocharged engines in particular are notorious for posting superb EPA-tested numbers and disappointing real-world results, but in highway driving, we saw fuel economy not far off from the advertised 40 mpg. Suddenly, it looks like there’s a point to the 8-speed’s perplexing calibration after all. City driving is rated at 29 mpg, for a combined rating of 33 mpg city/highway.

For 2025, the Jetta GLI is the lone remaining holdout with an available manual transmission, but as much as we love to row our own gears, you’d be better off with the seven-speed dual-clutch for the simple reason that the six-speed stick is less-than-excellent to handle. We found the shifter a bit rubbery and vague, and the clutch pedal feel wasn’t quite where it needed to be.

That said, the GLI’s 2.0L turbo-four is a peach. Turbo lag is a bit more prominent than in other comparable powertrains, but when the powerplant does wake up, you’re greeted by a very satisfying surge of torque – 258 lb-ft at its peak, good for a zero-to-sixty sprint in the low-six-seconds range. Power output is a similarly stout 228 horsepower, and on top of the nice four-cylinder growl, you get a nifty little hiss from the relief valve on every lift-off. EPA-rated fuel economy in the DCT-equipped car is just 3 mpg behind the standard Jetta all around at 30 mpg combined, from 26 city and 37 highway. The manual GLI fares worse by 2 mpg in the combined test cycle.

Handling and Drivability:

Lively handling has never quite been the Jetta’s swim lane, and that continues into the 2025 model year. The Sport, SE, and SEL trims all get a lowered, “sportier” suspension setup than the base model, Volkswagen says, but even still, the Jetta remains looser and less confident in the corners than other competing compact cars. Granted, that’s not necessarily the point of the Jetta, and there has long been a sort of division of responsibilities between the Jetta and the Golf wherein the latter brought the sportiness while the former brought the quiet comfort. Yet now that the standard Golf is no longer sold in the US market, it could be argued that there’s room now for the Jetta to get a little more athletic.

Drivability with the standard 8-speed automatic is, as we’ve said, not the greatest. The powertrain manages some truly impressive real-world fuel economy, but in a world where the Mazda 3 and Honda Civic also exist, we’ve come to expect better. It’s a vexing transmission, which lets down what looks like a very promising powertrain package on paper.

As for the 2025 VW Jetta GLI, we have no notes. It drives and handles exactly the way that it should. The GLI is not as sharp or lively as, say, the Honda Civic Si or Hyundai Elantra N, but that’s not its job: leave those cars to the Golf GTI and Golf R, which are still sold in the North American market. Instead, the 2025 Jetta GLI manages to deliver just enough confidence, balance, and finesse to be satisfying, but with the same smooth and supple ride as the regular Jetta model. Toss in that gem of a turbocharged 2.0L four-cylinder, which packs exactly as much grunt as a guy or gal can make full use of on a regular basis, and you have a truly great combination, tailor-made for the budget-minded commuter who values performance and plushness in equal measure.

Ride Quality and Comfort:

Here, both the standard Jetta and the Jetta GLI really shine. If you’re accustomed to “inexpensive compact car” being shorthand for “cramped and uncomfortable penalty box,” the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta is here to set the record straight. There are a lot of factors behind why the Volkswagen Jetta’s sales figures have soared over the last year, but one of them is undoubtedly that as cash-strapped and budget-conscious customers look to downsize, the Jetta delivers the elevated build quality and smooth, comfy ride of a premium car at a decidedly un-premium price. Even on Southeast Michigan’s notoriously rough, pothole-stricken roads, the 2025 Jetta glides quietly over bumps without inconveniencing its driver, and “NVH” isn’t in its vocabulary.

Our hats are off to the Volkswagen Jetta GLI in particular, which leverages VW’s adaptive Dynamic Chassis Control suspension and a multilink rear design to great effect, managing to package the same cushy, low-fatigue ride quality as the standard car together with superior handling. The steering is arguably a tad too light and vague for the standard Jetta, and even more so for the GLI’s sporting aspirations, but heavily filtered feedback isn’t necessarily the worst thing for a daily driver.

Interior Style and Quality:

Like the pre-facelift model, the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta maintains the same high standard for style and quality in a compact car, while upping the ante with VW’s Digital Cockpit LCD gauge cluster and touchscreen Climatronic HVAC now standard across the lineup. Unfortunately, the SEL model we tested had the same high-gloss “piano black” plastic that seems to be ubiquitous these days. It looks fabulous, but only for about five minutes after its most recent cleaning. The problem is that it’s a material seemingly engineered to attract fingerprints and dust, and since Climatronic is now in every new Jetta for 2025, you’ll be smudging it a lot.

Still, the cabin of the 2025 VW Jetta is an all-around great place to be, especially for the money, with a clean, simple, easy-to-navigate layout, a decent mix of materials, and a solid, sturdy German-engineered feel. A leather steering wheel wrap is also fitted as standard, and the seats are firmly supportive and well-padded.

Tech and Safety:

As mentioned, VW’s Climatronic touchscreen-based automatic climate control system is now standard on the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta, as is VW’s Digital Cockpit instrument panel. The Digital Cockpit is highly customizable with options to display a speedometer, tachometer, fuel economy, compass, navigation, safety features, altimeter, and more. Like the Jetta’s standard 8-inch infotainment screen, it’s impressively low-latency and easy to navigate, letting you keep your eyes on the road more of the time. You’ll hear no complaints from us.

More importantly, VW’s IQ.DRIVE is now standard across the Jetta and GLI, utilizing a collection of radar sensors, cameras, and ultrasonic sensors to package together Forward Collision Warning with Automatic Emergency Braking and Pedestrian Detection; Rear Traffic Alert; Active Blind Spot Monitoring; Lane Assist; Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop and Go; Emergency Assist; and Travel Assist, which is a semi-automated driving assistance program. That’s a hefty smorgasbord of features for an affordable compact car, and it’s likely to be a major draw for a lot of customers.

On the GLI, you get a standard VAQ electronically-controlled torque-sensing limited-slip differential and XDS electronic differential lock, plus the aforementioned Dynamic Chassis Control (DCC) adaptive suspension.

Value Dollars and Sense:

Perhaps the best news about the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta is the price tag; the base S model (“Trendline” in Canada) now carries a starting MSRP of $21,995 in the U.S. with an 8-speed automatic as standard, which is lower than the 2024 automatic car’s base price. (The 2024 manual-transmission car started lower still, but VW has axed the stick in all but the GLI for 2025.) A flat $1225 destination charge bumps the total up to $23,220. That said, if you’re shopping at that price point, we would recommend spending just a bit more to step up to the Sport model, if only to get the upgraded lower suspension. Moving up to the Sport trim also unlocks a front anti-roll bar, XDS brake-based limited-slip diff, heated front seats, 60/40 split folding rear seat, and 17-inch alloy wheels, all at a price of $24,500 USD including destination.

The SE (“Comfortline”) adds to the equipment list with voice control, wireless App-Connect, wireless charging, satellite radio, power seats, and 18-inch wheels, albeit at a starting price of $26,200 USD with destination. The top-of-the-line Jetta SEL (“Highline”) tosses in ventilated leather seats, front and rear seat heaters, a sunroof, navigation, and a premium sound system. But at its price point of $30,225 USD, the SEL is the hardest of all to justify given the availability of other, more compelling alternatives.

Finally, there’s the GLI, which starts at $33,940 in the States including destination fee, whether optioned with the six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch. Volkswagen says that’s the only way they can continue to offer a manual transmission, because the market share is too small to justify its existence otherwise, but it’s a whopping $4,630 more expensive than the 2024 Jetta GLI. 

Final Thoughts:

Newly updated, the Volkswagen Jetta is battling back some surprisingly stiff competition in the compact car segment with its aggressive new looks and high-tech standard features. Volkswagen has to tread a fine line here; the automaker seems to have found a winning formula with the Jetta, and changing it up too much with the refresh threatens to push customers away. Yet it could be argued that the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta doesn’t go quite far enough, given the strength of other small car contenders. Customers are sure to like the lower starting price of the eight-speed automatic Jetta, not to mention its standard Digital Cockpit and Climatronic climate control. We just wish it were a tad more engaging to drive.