Jetta Fuel: VW gives its sedan a few nips and tucks for 2022

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Volkswagen Canada has refreshed its Jetta sedan for the upcoming model year, imbuing it with a tasty engine and some styling tweaks. The hot GLI variant also gets a facelift.

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Its biggest news can be found under the hood. The refreshed Jetta cribs a 1.5L turbocharged direct-injection engine from the recently-launched Taos compact SUV, which is a mill good for 158 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. VW says it’s fettled the engine to include new cylinder linings, variable turbine geometry in the turbocharger, and a higher pressure injection system that does a better job of mixing air and fuel.

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As for the zippy 2022 GLI, it is powered by the 2.0L engine, producing 228 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. Joyously, a six-speed manual is still standard equipment, while a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic transmission is optional for drivers who can’t be arsed to would rather not wield a stickshift for reasons your author cannot comprehend. GLI models continue to offer the VAQ electronically-controlled torque-sensing limited-slip differential, a unit which works in tandem with the car’s active damping to help keep a lid on torque steer

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VW Canada takes care to note Jettas sold in this country will continue to use the European trim levels – Trendline, Comfortline, and Highline – rather than the alphabet soup used south of the border in America, where customers apparently can’t pronounce trim levels with more than one syllable. As for the GLI, it comes one way and one way only: fully loaded.

New front and rear bumpers will advertise to your neighbours that you bought the hawt new 2022 model, making them wish they’d waited six months, since they surely now want to run their 2021 car through an industrial-sized shredder. Two new colours are also on tap, fabulously named Kings Red and Rising Blue. There are unique wheels on each trim, ranging from 16-inch aluminum alloys on the Jetta Trendline to 18-inch alloys as standard on the GLI.

Inside, look for a better set of digital gauges, whose screens grow in size as you move up the trim levels. A heated steering wheel is now standard across the range, as well. VW has also chosen to now install Forward Collision Warning and Autonomous Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Monitor on all Jettas, with even more advanced safety aids available on upper models.

Look for the new Jetta family to appear in Canadian showrooms later this year.