VW Jetta GLI | The Last VW Manual

The 2026 VW Jetta GLI. This is sadly the only way you can still get a manual gearbox in the entire VW lineup. Yes, that's right. Gone is the manual from both the GTI and Golf R. And their places are dual clutch gearboxes. The Jetta has always been not a track focused fast compact car, but that daily driver that has a little bit of sport, fun, and a lot of usability at a reasonably affordable price point. This car starts at about $35,000 for this model year. It is monospec. The only way to get it, at least here in the US, is as the Autobon trim level, which means essentially fully loaded. Leather interior, heated and cooled seats, adaptive dampers, all the nice things you're looking for at this price point of vehicle. Its nearest competitors really in performance and in price are the Civic SI and the Hyundai Elantre N. The Elantre N if you're looking for a performance car is the much better option. It produces more power. It's genuinely track capable. It's more boy racer and honestly it's a better value from a performance perspective. But if you don't want that image, some of the ride compromises and really that extreme of a car, or if you just don't want a Hyundai, you're really left with a Civic SI and this thing, the GLI. Now, this car is a mix of new and old. It's really an old Mark 7. 5 GTI. Same engine, same platform, a lot of the same interior electronics, which honestly, not necessarily is a bad thing. So, let's talk about the interior space. Physical controls on the steering wheel. the old screen off the old GTI, which means a physical volume knob and tuning knob. However, they have, of course, had to screw some things up and have a haptic control center for your rest of your HVAC. So, your heated and cooled seats, your temp controls are all haptic. They aren't great and they are piano black, which means when you touch them, you're going to get them dirty. You're going to scratch the screen, but you already know that. From a usability side of things, big trunk, that's something the Jetta has always done well. large back seat. The rear seats fold down. A fullsize adult will fit back there or a large dog. You have plenty of storage places in the center console and in the doors. It's just a nice place to be. The seats aren't super bolstered, so they're easy to get in and out of. They're relatively comfortable on a long drive, though they are at least currently on the firmer side that typically VW seats break down and become more comfortable the longer you sit in them. And great visibility. These are all things that VW has done well. The audio system in this car, if you are an audio file, though, is truly dreadful. The Bose and the Civic SI. Really, the premium audio system in the Elantre N are both better. That's definitely a miss in this car. So, that Let's go head into the shop and walk you through what this car is and is not, and then we're going to take you for a drive. I spent more than 25 years in front of a computer screen. First in the corporate grind and now in a creative and technical role. From the beginning, I value trying to do as much as I possibly could on my own. Be it in video projects, building systems, or even colllocating my first server, the aluminum Falcon. I made a ton of mistakes along the way. We've built relationships with people in the automotive and technical industries, many far more talented and knowledgeable than I am. They've pushed me to work harder and think differently. On the creative and engineering side, this year I've partnered with Falcon Northwest, one of the longest standing boutique workstation builders, delivering near servergrade hardware quality and enterprise level support. With our new Talon workstation, we run a fully local engineering and AI computer stack with zero cloud dependency, which means everything's done under my desk. The system can host 70 to 100 billion class large language models locally at FP16 and BF-16 using VLLM, serve OpenAI compatible APIs, and support 32 to 100K plus token contexts for retrieval over large internal document libraries alongside AI accelerated visualization and video generation. By keeping everything deskside, we eliminate cloud cues, avoid hyperscaled data centers, reduce data movement, and dramatically shorten iteration loops, meaning less wasted energy per result, and hopefully higher quality output, including large scale post potential. Instead of relying on remote GPU clusters, we consolidate simulation, AI rendering, and encoding into a single highly utilized workstation with full control over performance, privacy, and resource use. My goal is to keep the human element in every project. But in this space, I have to be realistic and responsible about the place technology occupies in modern engineering. The major limitation is of course my own talent.

in the shop with the 2026 Jetta GLI. As I mentioned in the beginning of this video, this is an interesting mix of old and new. This is a seventh generation Jetta, which makes this an old car. It debuted in the late 201s, which means as far as a suspension platform. It's on the older iteration of MQB, which is VW Group's modular front-wheel drive platform. So, no aluminum front subframe, no changes or updates to the electrome mechanical systems that you see in a GTI or Golf R, and you also don't get all of the improvements to the body structure. However, in turn, this car is more affordable and it is also built in PBLO, Mexico. This car is strut front, multi-link rear. the GLI versus regular Jetta don't have a torsion beam so it should handle a little better. You get the Mark 7. 5 GTI's front brakes and you get the same differential. It is their electronic clutch pack based limited slip diff in the front which does true torque vectoring. However, as a con, if you're going to autocross this car, you can't fully disable stability control. So, in large yaw events, so you get the car to rotate in the back around cones, the brakes will freak out and start to grab front and rear brakes to straighten this car out, which doesn't make it the most dynamic vehicle. This being an autobond trim level, not all generation or not all versions of the GLI of this generation uh have adaptive dampers, but being an autobond, it does. And there's a reasonable range of adjustment there. It can go from firm to soft. Drivetrain wise, this has an EO E EA 8 2 L turbocharged 4-cylinder. It makes 228 horsepower and 258 footpounds of torque. Is a third generation EA 8. Gearbox wise, two options. A dual clutch, which is actually pretty good, but a cost option. Honestly, sort of ruins the point of this being the only manual car you can buy in VW. And a six-speed manual, which is cable operated. The pedal box is good, but the gearbox itself doesn't have the most feel. You can expect 0 to 60 in this car. in the manual will be just over 6 seconds and in the dual clutch just under my real world fuel economy I'm returning just under 30 m per gallon which makes this pretty efficient. So that let's go take this for a quick drive auto mark. Oh god. How do you feel about the performance? — Feel great. Just got to dislocate my shoulder. You've been waiting to do that to me all day. I know. We You want to You've been arg we've been arguing about EVs for the past day. You want to make it up to me now by taking me into a real performance machine. — I just wanted to demonstrate the the front-wheel drive driving style that you've uh you've demonstrated for me over the last several years as we've done these things. So, this is the last manual gearbox available in a VW, Mark. And how does that make you feel? — Well, I talked about it in the long-term Golf R video that I started for your car where I kind of felt ambivalent about it because they just didn't really put a lot of effort into their manual transmission like feel. It's feels very plasticky. Uh there's, again, we talk about this all the time. There's literally sim manual transmissions for sim rigs that feel more natural and more connected than this does. So, I think if this was a better — in the SI or Type R or any of those cars, — I think if it had a little bit more going for it, I would be less disappoint I'd be more disappointed in it. But — I don't know. It's How do you feel about it? — I feel that it's funny. When I first really started driving cars, manual gearboxes in this class of vehicle were really common. — Yeah. I — mean, even in the, let's call them, the regular cars, the base Civic, a base Jetta, you could get a manual gearbox, and now that's all gone. So, this is a novelty at this point, which is sort of weird to say in a vehicle like this, a quick compact car. — Yeah. Um, we did a Jetta versus Civic SI video last year and that car had a dual clutch because by accident we actually wanted it with a manual shift with a dual clutch — and that car was straight up like white bread. It was very boring. You took a not super exciting drivetrain. The AA in this car is fine, but it's not super exciting. And you pair it with a dual clutch, which is fine, but not tremendous. And you're left with sort of a non-memorable driving experience. The only thing that makes this at all fun is having these, you know, having the three pedals and the six manual gears. It's just I don't know. — I think you bring up a good point because this was an argument that we had in the '9s about four cylinder like the fun four-cylinders and you took that four-cylinder equivalent and you put a

four-speed auto or some generic automatic transmission, it instantly felt like 150% shitbox. The reason those cars were fun is because they put a manual transmission in them. It didn't matter if it made like 90 horsepower. It was instantly more engaging to drive. But conversely, the manual transmissions back in the days were far more mechanical than this stuff is. Like they weren't operated by a cable that isolated everything out from the car. So this feels like it's not even a real manual transmission because it's so plasticky. But there is something to be said about the fact that you take a humdrawn vanilla like kind of engaging car like this and you put like a pretty competent automatic in it and it becomes even more mundane. And I think that's the argument for like the enthusiast part of having an fun to drive machine is like the involvement in every generation of car strips out some piece of that. Be it in the steering, brakes, be it in the transmission. I mean I could go on and on. And this is like now there's no manuals left. I mean, — I wish this manual was better like it was in the Civic SI. — Um, and getting past the way the manual gearbox feels as a car though, if you're not looking for something that you're going to autocross, which is sad because to me, this class of fun car, the only way you're really ever going to experience these things flat out is either on an autocross course or on a canyon road, right? You ain't tracking this thing. Like, it wouldn't hold up to it. — The sad part dynamically because this underneath, as I talked about in the shop, is an old GTI. Yeah, — Mark 7. 5. The fact that you can only turn off traction and not stability, I think hurts this car from a fun side of things because as a vehicle, it's while not exciting looking or exciting sounding, it's super competent. You have adaptive dampers standard, at least in this autobond trim level, unlike you get in a Civic SI. So, it rides well. The safety suite works well. I've been driving this thing like an idiot. I'm getting 28 m per gallon. It's fast enough in this class of vehicle not to embarrass yourself with a light. It's just a weird place because the brand that is to me kept the affordable fun car alive that's a sedan is actually Hyundai. — Yeah, you're right. — The Elantre is basically the same price as this car unless you don't like the way it looks, which is valid. — Yeah, — it is a much better car than this all the way around. — This VW is kind of like in 2023 or whenever we did our last car awards was we gave VW the snoozer award for the year and this car kind of embodies that. It's just it's so cookie cutter and white bread that there's not a lot of soul to it. the styling is really plain. The interior is really plain. It's driving character really plain. And like you said, you can't turn off stability control. So, it limits any type of fun. Like you want to be stupid like turning the wheel. It doesn't even let you do that. So, this is like caught in a purgatory of like kind of pandering to the enthusiast, but it's mostly just a regular car with an a manual transmission — and a quick engine. — It like it needs more to stir the soul if you're going to do this, — particularly for $35,000. — Yeah, this is a tough one for me. Like, definitely I could take it or leave it. And that's not really a good thing to say about a car like this. — No, it is not, Mark. So, with that, let's head in the final thoughts, sir. — All right. Final thoughts on the Jet Edge GLI. First off, huge thanks to our title sponsor Bridgestone. Without them, videos like this would not be possible. And look, I'm going to break this down into two points. The philosophical side of things and the objective. Objectively, the Jetta GLI is sort of a generic car in its class. While I think it's a better value than a Civic SI and offers more performance and honestly is a more compelling car, the big issue is the Hyundai Elantre and exists. That car has a long warranty. It essentially offers a class above in performance. It's more like a baby Civic Type R or Golf R than it is a Jetta GLI. That car, if you're looking for track capability, autocrust domination, you're better off with a Hyundai Elantre N. That said, the Jetta GLI is a more grown-up experience, has a nice interior space, the engine returns great fuel economy, it's plenty quick, and honestly, I think it's a better looking car, at least from an exterior side of things. The philosophical part of this equation comes in with the fact that this is the last manual VW that currently exists. And while I fully understand that the dual clutch or a good automatic returns better performance numbers and you can return better track times, to me a fast compact car today isn't about how fast they are. Because honestly, everything is a fast car. Hey, a minivan now can do 0 to 60 in the sixes, which is crazy. EVs all do 0 to 60 in the fours and fives and threes. So, what I'm looking for in a sporty car today is an engaging driving experience, at least in the Jetto class. And having a manual gearbox adds a extra layer of engagement that just is not present with paddles or a dual clutch. And to me, that's also one of the things that hurts things like the GTI and Golf

R in today's market. Everything's fast. So, how do you get more involved with the driving experience? To me, that's having three pedals. So that thanks for watching. Hope to see you again soon.