2025 Volkswagen Jetta Keeps Affordability and Manual Transmission Option (Barely)

The 2025 Volkswagen Jetta is here, and as we suspected the automaker took care not to fix anything that wasn’t broken. In other words, the 2025 Jetta sedan is much the same as it was in 2024. Volkswagen's mid-cycle update on its compact four-door focuses on quality-of-life features, tech, comfort, and value rather than outright performance improvements, and that's okay—because the Jetta hangs on to its best attribute: Its affordability.

Goodbye Manual Transmission

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Let’s get this out of the way first. Mechanically speaking, the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta and the sportier Jetta GLI are virtually identical to their 2024 counterparts. The Jetta S, Sport, SE, and SEL trims will have the same 158-hp engine as last year, and the 228-hp EA888 engine returns for the GTI-with-a-trunk Jetta GLI. We would have liked to see the regular and GLI Jettas get a bump in power, but Volkswagen elected to keep the same engines, a move that's likely a boon for the sedans holding the line on pricing.

One major mechanical difference is that in 2025 the Jetta GLI will be the only version that will have the option of a manual transmission. No more rowing your own gears in the lower trims, which are now all automatic-only. We’re sure this isn’t great news for many of you, but if you’ve been paying attention this is hardly shocking. Most of the compact car competition has been moving away from stick shifts, with the 2025 Honda Civic being the latest to abandon the manual (at least on its mainstream variants; the sportier Civic Si and Type R models are still sold only with standard transmissions). Frankly, it’s almost surprising that the GLI keeps its manual transmission, given VW's abandonment of the type in the Golf GTI and Golf R hot hatchbacks.

New Outfit new shoes

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So, what does change on the new Jettas? The 2025 Volkswagen Jetta’s biggest change is its exterior styling. It has a completely redesigned front with new headlights, a subtle upper front grille tweak, and trapezoidal lower air intakes. The Jetta’s rear is mostly the same, with the exception of the trunk, which adopts new reflector elements bridging the taillights that create the illusion of a full-width taillight bar. Though keen eyes will notice that at the corners the taillights carry over from the previous model.

When it comes to exterior colors, Pure White and Deep Black Pearl return along with two new colors: Monterey Blue Pearl and Monument Grey. The SE gets new 17-inch wheels while the SEL and GLI trims get new 18-inch wheel designs. The GLI also gets the option to black out the wheels and side mirror caps.

Interior Upgrades Mean New Tech

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The 2025 Volkswagen Jetta will come standard with an 8.0-inch “floating” touchscreen display which sits front and center in between the driver and passenger. If you’re not a fan of the “tablet floating in the middle of the dashboard” trend, then you may not be thrilled to see the Jetta go this route, but it brings it in line with the Golf family, which has the same setup.

This new infotainment system offers the staples of what most buyers might want: wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite radio, and voice command. New for 2025, the Jetta SE will come with a 15-watt wireless smartphone charging pad which integrated cooling, which will keep your battery juiced without overheating your phone.

What Else is New?

If you want a quick change log covering everything new for the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta, here you go:

• The dual-zone climate controls switch to capacitive touch controls on all trims
• New 8.0-inch central display (all trims)
• Light bar in grille (Sport, SEL, and GLI)
• “Molekular” cloth seats (Sport)
• 17-inch wheels with new design (SE)
• “Microcloud” seat covers (SE)
• 15-watt wireless charging pad (SE, SEL, and GLI)
• Wireless App-Connect (SE, SEL, and GLI)
• 18-inch wheels with new design (SEL and GLI)
• Black wheel package (SEL and GLI)
• Heated steering wheel (GLI)

Price and Release Date

The 2025 Volkswagen Jetta will start at $23,295 which the automaker was quick to point out is a cheaper starting price than the equivalent 2024 model, the Jetta S automatic. Technically, the Jetta overall is slightly pricier, since you can no longer buy the cheaper manual transmission variant—with that factored in, it’s going to cost you about $635 more to get into a Jetta in 2025 (even though that Jetta now comes with an automatic standard) than it would have in 2024.

We don’t have prices for the higher trims or GLI yet, but we imagine those will come in closer to the release of the new model. We expect pricing to be within a small margin of the 2024 model, possibly even slightly lower.

This takes us back to Volkswagen’s decision not to give the Jetta a bump in horsepower. The automaker told us to add more power would mean more money on the window sticker, and so even though the Golf GTI and R get more ponies this year, VW wanted to keep the Jetta's MSRP as low as possible against the new “content” in the 2025 model. That’s fair. 158 horsepower to start and 228 hp for the GLI is nothing to sneeze at. And any affordable sedan is an almost surefire winner in today's market, given the shrinking options in the space as more automakers abandon lower price segments in favor of SUVs and more luxurious offerings.

Expect the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta and Jetta GLI to reach dealerships sometime in September 2024.