Volkswagen Jetta

The Volkswagen Jetta is one of the Volkswagen entries the open record knows by name and by date — in 1979, and by little else. That is not nothing: a name in the catalogue is where a car's story starts to be recoverable.

How it came about

The Volkswagen Jetta () is a compact car/small family car manufactured and marketed by Volkswagen since 1979. Positioned to fill a sedan niche slightly above the Golf hatchback, it has been marketed over seven generations, variously as the Atlantic, Vento, Bora, City Jetta, Jetta City, GLI, Jetta, Clasico, and Sagitar (in China). The Jetta has been offered in two- and four-door saloon/sedan and sometimes as five-door wagon/estate versions.

Since the original 1980 version, the car has grown in size and power with each generation. By mid-2011, almost 10 million Jettas had been produced and sold around the world. As of April 2014, Volkswagen marketed over 14 million Jettas, becoming its top-selling model.

Family and rivals

Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the Lancia Delta, the Dodge Ram — show what else the money bought that year. Its Volkswagen stablemates include the Volkswagen Apollo and the Volkswagen Routan.

What it costs now

The money question first: $6,300–$30,700 is the typical asking range today, and running it — fuel and maintenance at its age — costs about $2,567–$7,036 a year. Insurance sits around $960–$2,150 a year. The figures are class-level estimates from the federal record, with the formula on the methodology page; the model-year pages carry complaints, recalls and repair costs year by year.