2008 VW City Golf and Jetta First Impressions

These VWs we love to hate

When your name is Volkswagen, getting old is never easy. Booed for their lack of reliability, VW cars still managed to become popular, particularly because of their incomparable fun factor and their fuel-efficient diesel engines.

The 2008 City Golf is easy to recognize thanks to a whole new face.

But recently, technology and emissions became a chief concern, and the automaker had no other choice but to suspend for one year the sale of its TDI-powered models, despite the fact that they represented a solid core. Fortunately, the executives at Volkswagen's Canadian division reacted promptly and smartly by introducing the City lineup. These Golfs and Jettas are more affordable since they rely on the technologies and features of the old generation.

Yet, the old stuff proved to be good enough to sell no less than 16,000 units in just one year. Not bad for a manufacturer whose total sales figures in Canada amounted to 37,500 vehicles in 2006.

That's why the company refused to abandon these popular offerings, especially since they made people forget about reliability issues. Now, the question is: how do you update such entry-level cars? The answer, quite simply, is to freshen up the styling and the list of amenities in order to make these little urban cars as inexpensive as ever yet more modern-looking.

Not yesterday's news
The thing you have to understand is that the City program, exclusive to Canada, is not yesterday's news. On the contrary, these cars are still built and sold in Brazil (Golf) and Mexico (Jetta) as part of both countries' current VW lineup.

Up here, the arrival of the new generations has cast a shadow over the models, but the City charm allowed VW to keep them alive and well. And since development costs are shared between the countries, it becomes easier to upgrade the whole fleet while maintaining the prices remarkably low.

The front grille of the 2008 City Jetta is reminiscent of the Passat's.