We sampled two separate Jettas for this test, a thousand miles apart, and both exhibited the same unusual trait. Our testing director Eric Tingwall, who ran the instrumented testing on the Jetta in Michigan, mistakenly thought the car had a (poorly tuned) dual-clutch automatic transmission with laggy engagement, not a conventional torque-converter automatic, until he looked up the specs himself—that’s how jerky and hesitant-feeling the driveline is around town.

An Agreeable, Basic Cruiser

The rest of the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta’s on-road behavior is generally pleasant, with a nicely tuned suspension striking a good balance between secure handling and good bump absorption. Our SEL-trim test Jetta’s bigger 18-inch wheels and lower-profile tires, however, are something we’d skip. They transmit sharper impacts through the suspension and to your butt, so the smaller-diameter rims and their taller sidewall tires on lower-spec versions will be more comfortable and better match the ride tuning. The larger, wider tires do pay off at the track, where the Jetta stops from 60 mph in a short 112 feet and posts a solid 0.86 g of lateral grip on our skidpad, better than a Civic. But given the overall vibe that says this car is tuned more for comfort than speed—even with its lower limits, the Honda is much more engaging to drive—giving up some of that objective athleticism for more subjective everyday comfort seems like a worthy exchange.

Big wheels and all, on the highway the Jetta cruises nicely, tracking well and driving like a bigger car. As a bonus, the small engine’s fuel economy is stellar. EPA-rated for up to 40 mpg, the Jetta delivers. In our real-world experience, achieving close to that number on a highway commute is remarkably easy.

Similar ease applies to the new touchscreen, which is larger than the old 6.5-inch unit but shares the onscreen graphics and menu layouts with the old one. And even this 8.0-inch screen feels small by today’s standards—when running Apple CarPlay, for example, the display area dedicated to the map doesn’t appear much larger than if you simply mounted your iPhone to the windshield or dashboard. The menus are, at least, easy to navigate, and responses to inputs are snappy—especially so for the new touch-sensitive climate controls lower on the dash. The digital gauge cluster is neat-looking but offers minimal customization—switching up what’s visible on the screen isn’t difficult.

Aside from its weird low-speed transmission behavior, the refreshed 2025 Jetta is a perfectly agreeable compact car. It has affordability, scale, and a sense of German solidity on its side, but this is the same basic recipe Volkswagen’s stirred for years. In the meantime, big-name competitors such as the Honda Civic have moved far ahead with more style, better driving dynamics, and nicer cabin quality. This 2025 Jetta is inexplicably slower than before, and even the 2025 improvements don’t move the needle much or help the VW stand out against or even keep up with the class-leading Civic, or even new competitors like the Kia K4, which also is bigger than usual for a compact.

If you really need a big back seat and trunk, and you’re never in much of a hurry, the decently equipped entry-level Jetta S’ low $23,720 price buys you the same mechanicals as the $30,225, loaded Jetta SEL tested here. If you can give up the SEL’s heated and ventilated seats and other fripperies, those S and SE models are better buys, if only because the less money you spend on a new Jetta, the better deal you’re getting. At this SEL’s price point, you’re getting a lot of features for the money, but the car they’re stuffed into isn’t all that great—it’s presently positioned last in our compact sedan rankings. You’d do better to consider the more fun to drive, more efficient, and more powerful Honda Civic hybrid.

2025 Volkswagen Jetta SEL Specifications
BASE PRICE	$30,225
PRICE AS TESTED	$30,225
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door internal combustion sedan
POWERTRAIN	1.5L turbo direct-injected Miller cycle DOHC 16-valve I-4
POWER	158 hp @ 5,500 rpm
TORQUE	184 lb-ft @ 1,750 rpm
TRANSMISSION	8-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	3,170 lb (59/41%)
WHEELBASE	105.7 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	186.5 x 70.8 x 57.7 in
TIRES	225/45R18 91H M+S
CITY/HWY/COMBINED	29/40/33 mpg
EPA RANGE	436 mi
ON SALE	Now
MotorTrend Test Results
0-60 MPH	8.5 sec
QUARTER MILE	16.5 sec @ 87.2 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	112 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.86 g
FIGURE-EIGHT LAP	27.4 sec @ 0.65 g (avg)