VW's Bringing a New Jetta to Detroit; Still Won't Outsell the Honda Civic

The standard Volkswagen Jetta rarely sets any hearts aflutter, given its sensible and sober styling and insomnia-curing interior. However, it is the marque’s bread-and-butter — its best-selling nameplate by many orders of magnitude, so mention of a redesign deserves notice.

Set to be shown at the Detroit show in January, it’ll likely launch as a 2019 model with new sheetmetal riding on the company’s MQB platform. Images that have surfaced around the ‘net seem to suggest a machine that’s sleeker and more expressive than today’s Jetta.

The above image was secured by Motor1 from the content of a presentation given by VW North America’s chief engineering officer, Matthias Erb, prior to a media event. It shows a sleeker-looking Jetta than the current model, along with a more bulbous nose and a set of rims that totally won’t make production.

Like the Grinch’s heart, the new Jetta will probably grow a couple of pant sizes, as that’s what replacements tend to do (except for the Miata, of course; the Miata is pure, the Miata is life; all hail the Miata). Rumours suggest the next Jetta will have a manual transmission at launch, with other trim variants such as a GLI showing up in due course. There may even be a Jetta R in the works.

This will be the seventh iteration of the Jetta, a car that was once the sedan version of the Golf but now shares precisely zero body panels with the hatchback. A turbocharged 1.4-liter four-cylinder should reappear under the hood of the new car

On VW’s site in the Great White North, a countdown timer is shown alongside a shady image of the 2019 Jetta. The counter shows a date of approximately 38 days from now, placing the reveal smack dab in the middle of the next North American International Auto Show.

Precisely, however, 38 days from now is January 18th. Media days are January 14th to 16th, so we’ll have to wait and see what VW has up its sleeve. In any event, a whole cadre of TTAC writers will be at the show to bring you the news.

The current generation, on sale since the 2011 model year, has seen its sales dip with each 12-month cycle since its introduction. During its first full calendar year on sale, VW moved over 177,000 of the compact sedans in the United States. Last year, VW sold a shade over 121,000; the model is on track to fall short of that number in 2017 with 108,575 Jetta sedans sold through the end of November.

The fact that most American consumers are shunning sedans like an especially virulent leper is not helping the matter. Even the venerable Corolla is unlikely to best last year’s performance of 360,483 sales. In the segment, only the mighty Honda Civic seems poised to significantly build on last year’s numbers; having sold 345,880 year-to-date, there’s a solid chance the Civic will crest the 375,000 mark by December 31st, making it the best sales year in nearly two decades.

[Image: Motor1]