Ravishing Cars |

The stylish cabin is dominated by the jetplane like dashboard that not only makes the Jetta’s dash look boring but also makes every other car in its class look plain outdated. But the seats are pretty low compared to most other cars. These low set seats means that front visibility is sometimes limited, more so for short drivers. Inspite of the fact that the driver’s seat is height adjustable, there is no getting away from the fact that you sit low and closer to the ground. The driver’s seat has a range of adjustments this along with adjustable steering should make it easy for most people to find a comfy driving position. All controls work with a light, slick action, but the tiny AC switches are a bit fiddly to operate. The uniquely shaped handbrake is placed too close to the driver and fouls occasionally with the driver’s leg.

The Jetta is available with two engine options 1.9 litre diesel and the 1.6 litre petrol. Both engines have two variants Trendline and Comfortline. The base Trendline is fairly loaded with six airbags, ABS, traction control, keyless entry apart from the standard power windows, power steering, defogger etc. The Comfortline gets an additional transmission, leather seats, ESP, 8 airbags, cruise control, 6 CD MP3 changer, electric lumbar adjust, rear centre armrest. Parking sensors and climate control would have been nice. Front centre armrest opens for storage, but not much space. Rear passengers get dedicated AC vents. Bottle opener is part of standard equipment. Jetta’s steering is well weighted and offers plenty of feedback. Passat like tail lights make it look like bigger brother. Road noise is intrusive, especially at the rear. Road manners are excellent and most bumps are kept out. The engine is the weakest link through. The well engineered Jetta feels more solid than the Civic and rides well over most surfaces.

Volkswagen has developed a car that can park itself even when the driver is not on board. Park Vision assist neatly reverses the car into the kind of space found in a typical supermarket or underground car park. It is seen as the ideal answer to the problems people face when getting ever wider cars in and out of narrow parking bays. All the driver has to do to initiate the system is choose an available space on the sat-nav monitor, put the gearlever into the ‘P’ position, then get out.The car then parks itself using cameras in the door mirrors, which send video signals to the steering and drive systems. Once parked, the engine automatically switches off the car locks itself. The driver can interrupt the process at any time. The system was tested in public on a Passat estate at the recent Hanover Fair. Further trails with the system are in progress, but VW hopes to put it into production.