As an auto journalist in India I am generally nonplussed. Reason? How a car is going to fare in the Indian market is largely unpredictable, given the structural changes the country’s automobile industry is undergoing. Well, that makes my job difficult and thus interesting. Similar is the case for the car makers. The very fact that a particular model does well globally doesn’t mean it will do so in India too. An example of this is the Volkswagen cars in general, and the Volkswagen Jetta in particular. VW at the time of entry in India got a great reception. But, alas that waned, with the limited number of options VW offered.
So, to increase its list of models, the Jetta was launched in 2011 in India. It had its share of the market, which didn’t match its sales in other countries. To be specific, VW has sold just 9300 units of Jetta in India since its launch. But, the manufacturer which takes pride in being the largest carmaker by volume in Europe doesn’t want to let go of the Indian market. But plummeting sales figures and the recent closure of its sales offices in Delhi and Bengaluru haven’t deterred the company from launching the new Jetta 2015 model.
The new Jetta is not about merely bringing in cosmetic changes. Rather, it offers some cool new features while missing out on some others. The engineers at VW have redesigned the front bumper along with a new grille which is quite Passat like. But clearly, the design highlights of the new model are the daytime running LEDs and the bi-xenon headlamps which give a refreshing executive look to the car.
Talking of interiors, this model too, like other VW models, gets a trademark flat-bottomed three-spoke steering wheel. There is a new integrated touchscreen infotainment system and a piano black theme in this mid-sized sedan. But the new Jetta does not have a keyless start button and sunroof or rear camera for parking assistance, which are common features in most new cars in this segment.
For safety, the new Jetta has quite a few add-ons, such as six airbags and a new fatigue detection feature in all the variants. Fatigue detection is based on sensing driver behaviour.
The petrol version of the car is powered by the same 1.4-litre turbocharged engine as before, that develops 122PS of power and 200Nm of peak-torque. The engine comes mated to a 6-speed manual transmission.
The 2.0-litre TDI diesel produces a power/torque output of 140PS/320Nm. Unlike the petrol version, the diesel variants of the new Jetta are offered in a choice of either a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed DSG (dual shift gearbox) automatic gearbox.
All in all, considering experts believe India will emerge as one of the world’s largest automobile markets by the end of this decade, the Volkswagen group obviously wishes to capitalise on this expansion for its global growth strategy. And eyeing a bigger share, they are making inroads in India through the refreshed Jetta with a price tag starting at Rs.13.87 lakh for petrol and Rs.15.08 lakh for diesel variants (both prices are ex-showroom, Mumbai).
Still, how it fares remains to be seen. Oh! The Indian auto market.
