By AARON COLE
Managing Editor, MediaOne of Utah
Somewhere, someone is snickering at the idea of a diesel-powered sports car. It rings in the pantheon of “cold sweat,” “agree to disagree,” or my favorite oxymoron of all: “bipartisan cooperation.”
Some phrases will never find common ground.
Sure, there are lots of cars that have plenty of asphalt-chewing potential and happen to be oil-burning European machines — BMW has the 335d, Volkswagen has the TDI Golf and so on — but none have attempted to wear the uniform of “honest-to-goodness speed machine.”
Hats off to you, Volkswagen. The 2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Edition is a wonderfully harmonious discord of speed and practicality, amusement and wet-blanket reasoning, entertainment and … oh, you get the idea. VW can parcel something savory and something sweet into the same sheet metal in a way few automakers have ever been able to. Remember the Scirocco?
For years Volkswagen has been building the green-gas-pump Jetta machines for American audiences. Although far more popular in Europe, Volkswagen’s diesels finally gained traction stateside when: gas prices went nuttier than Mel Gibson; and Volkswagen’s clean diesel nerds found a way to pass muster in all 50 states.
After those turns of events we’re blessed with everything diesel from Golfs to Touraegs with a smattering of Audis in between, but the Jetta TDI Cup Edition is the queen mother of VW performance and sensibility. Have your cake and eat it.
Prospective diesel buyers aren’t stuck anymore with green leaf cars that resemble Birkenstocks and circulate Patchouli oil through the vents. How about buying a diesel with a menacing front fascia that eats red meat and tarmac? Finding courage to flog tight corners sunk into sport seats paired with sway bars stiffer than a Manhattan? Massive 18-inch, low profile Charleston wheels that grip the road and squeal louder than court-ordered ankle bracelet?
And still, it’s a Jetta. It just looks adorable too.
The current Jetta body style, its fifth generation, is getting long in the tooth and will be replaced in 2011. It has been Volkswagen’s MO in the past to release a handful of special editions before phasing out a body style. So it’s possible the Jetta TDI Cup Edition is truly a special edition car that won’t be produced again for several years. And it’s plain to see they’re targeting a small number of devoted Jetta fans by offering the Cup Edition at a $2,000 premium over the plain ol’ Jetta TDI.
The TDI Cup Edition definitely looks different next to its lower-priced cousins — although it borrows heavily from the Jetta Wolfsburg — but it won’t light a road flare and announce its presence like other special edition cars on the road. Perhaps that’s the right mix for a slightly more demure, more sophisticated diesel audience.
What you get for your $2,000 is the aforementioned body kit, sport interior, sway bars, bigger wheels, bigger brakes, sport-tuned suspension and some stickers on the outside. It may be a hard sell for someone just interested in getting better gas mileage — which it certainly does at 40-plus mpg in combined city and highway driving. But the enthusiast, the person who knows that the TDI Cup league has been racing for more than two years and perhaps watched the racing when it visited Miller Motorsports Park in June, would know this thing has serious racing chops and the two large was money well spent.
After a week with the car that starts around $25,000, and only having a superficial knowledge of what racecar driving actually means, I’m drawing my own conclusions:
The TDI Cup Edition is the real deal.
What is it like to drive? Imagine riding shotgun in a torpedo. Sound deadened to near sense deprivation; the diesel makes less noise than a chipmunk dry heaving. That being said, the sense of speed isn’t overwhelming due to the diesel’s slow-building torque curve, but it’s possible to row your way from first into fourth gear and suddenly realize you’re doing 90 mph. The first two-thirds of that journey, 0 to 60 mph takes a hair under 8 seconds, respectable for a race-branded car and downright good for any other car.
It’s easy to forget that you’re driving a Jetta after testing all the track-tuned goodies, and then realize that you’ve got a good trunk, four doors, air conditioning and easy seating for five adults. You’ll truly be shocked when trips between refills last around 500 miles.
To recap: Diesel, racing, practical, fun.
The end result in the Jetta TDI Cup Edition is civilized warfare.
Aaron Cole is a syndicated auto columnist and managing editor of MediaOne of Utah, and has driven hundreds of new cars — but only briefly. By most accounts he is wrong and has proudly been banned on Internet message boards. Send complaints, compliments or supplemental income to aaron.m.cole@gmail.com
