2009 VW Jetta Mileage Revised to 38/44 MPG. Price? $21,990
2009 Jetta TDI Clean Diesel Sedan
VW announced the pricing of the 2009 Jetta and SportWagen yesterday, along with a new fuel economy certification from the third-party certifier AMCI. It seems that VW wasn’t particularly impressed with the EPA’s 29 mpg city / 40 mpg hwy estimation, and wanted a second opinion.
There has been some general confusion circulating about fuel economy estimates for the new Jetta (which will be available in August) ever since VW’s Director of Powertrain Development announced the car could get up to 60 mpg.
With the right driving style, I’m sure it could, but AMCI came up with what seems like a more reasonable estimate of fuel economy under “real world driving conditions:” 38 mpg city and 44 mpg hwy.
I can tell you after driving the new Jetta last week that it has more power than any car I’ve driven that even approaches a 30 mpg city rating. If you can afford the $21,990 sticker price you might give this car some serious consideration.
Amendment: While it probably won’t assuage all concerns over VW reliability, this is certainly a perk:
Also standard for 2009 is Volkswagen’s carefree maintenance program, with this program there are no charges for the scheduled maintenance described in the vehicle’s maintenance booklet for the length of the New Vehicle Limited Warranty—three years or 36,000 miles, whichever occurs first.
More Posts on the 2009 Jetta TDI Sedan / SportWagen:
- VW Debuts Tiguan HyMotion Fuel-Cell Vehicle and 2009 Clean Diesel Jetta
- 2009 Jetta BlueTDI Comes to US This Summer, Sports 60 MPG and Cleaner Emissions
- Clean Diesel Cars Coming to US This Fall: 2008-2010 Timeline
See VW’s press release on the 2009 Jetta.
Ok first I have driven the new diesel jetta. I have connections and have been driving the model that the dealers received to show off the upcoming cars.
Here are some of the facts that I have been experiencing.
1. The car already has over 1000 miles on it. It just arrived so you can see how popular it is. Ok a lot of it has been me and the dealer employees using it after hours. Not suppose to do this but it’s being done
2. I have driven it quite a bit on the highway. Using it to do a commute to the city and back (50 miles each way. about 35 highway and 15 urban driving). The car has been averaging 32-46.5 on the highway. (I can hear people screaming already. I will just say that at 75-85mph the car does not achive the best milage. But at 60-70 it can achieve better then listed. I have not seen the claimed 50-60 that people have been mentioning but the car is not broken in yet so who knows.
3.The worst milage I have seen is 26mpg and I will not admit to the poor conditions I was driving at to achive that. The best was 47 mpg on mostly flat highway cruising and not at an absurd low speed like 55.
I also have two friends who have the Prius vehicle and here are a few facts on those.
2. Same commute to the city and back (50 miles each way. about 35 highway and 15 urban driving). The cars have been averaging 26-64 on the highway. (I can hear the other people screaming now. I will just say that at 75-85mph the Prius really cries and does not achieve mileage not to mention I feel like it is ready to fall apart(not really). But at 45-65 it can achieve better then listed I have seen as high as 64. I have not seen the claimed 100mpg that people have mentioned on other sites but hea I wouldn’t be that fanatical about doing everything possible to achieve it either.
3.The worst mileage I have seen is 26 mpg and it wasn’t all that bad driving just going fast with no care to MPG watching to achive that. The best was 64 mpg on mostly flat highway cruising at a low 60 mph. Well actually there was the one trip going 65 behind a truck, where the car averaged 72 mpg but she stayed behind the truck the whole way as was only about 50 feet behind it which feels really close.
Ok further things that I have noticed. There are tricks that can be used to seriously increase the Prius’ milage like inflating the tires to 40psi and other hints/tricks. People have attained outrageous mileage with these tips and there are a lot of stories that repeatedly list 60 plus MPG trips. I don’t know if there are ones that can be used for the diesel car, but if there are they probably wouldn’t be that dramatic. The Prius uses regular fuel which is way cheaper right now, at least in my area New England. My area 3.95 for Gas 4.90 diesel. Also you can’t beat the quite factor of the Prius, I mean when you need a back up alarm to warn people because the car makes no noise when moving slow how can you beat it. They also are still fairly quite at highway speed so they are well put together cars. So the edge goes to the Prius.
But now for real world in my opinion. I have ridden in both and the VW feels like a much more substantial vehicle. I felt like it was a step above it’s price range. Where as the prius felt like it was an economy car the whole time. People who love the Prius may not agree but I have driven both cars a lot and that is the way they feel to me. I have also found that both cars have adequate power but I was most surprised with the VW’s get up and I liked the auto transmission with the manual shift mode way better then the Prius’. I can not even compare the engine noise at low speed since the Prius is silent and the VW is running but the new diesels are so quite if you weren’t told it was a diesel you might not know. At highway speed it is much quieter then the Toyota so real world goes to the VW. Lastly I know that the VW will still be running until you decide to get rid of it whether that is at 100k or 500k miles. The diesel engine will run forever if taken care of and while Toyotas are very reliable I can’t help but wonder what the battery life will be on them and what the cost to replace it will be.
I think when you compare the real world conditions that you drive in you can find the best mileage for you. Speeds that rarely go above 60 like rural roads and city driving then the Toyota will probably average way more then listed and will be the champ. If you do a lot of highway driving where lets face it speeds easily average 70 or more (yes I know that is speeding) then the VW will still probably average what is listed and maybe more when broken in compared to the Toyota at 30 mpg for those higher then normal highway speeds. Then you want the VW. For me I lean to the VW because it looks a lot nicer and has a way nicer interior. With my limited driving of both vehicles I have felt much more comfortable in the VW and it felt like a more substantial car. So for me the VW is the champ and I think overall even with the higher diesel gas prices it will still cost less to operate over the life of the car and more importantly head us in the right direction of using less oil. Which we all know is a big plus considering where a lot of our oil comes from.
As a former owner of a 1985 (Ford)Mercury Lynx (Diesel), I wonder when America will warm up to this fuel source. This was my college car and I averaged 45-50 mpg. Did you notice the year? Since 1985 the U.S. has produced few if any diesel compact cars. The car I owned was a four cylinder and had well over 200,000 on the motor before the body,struts,tie rod ends,(etc), gave out. Imagine with today’s diesel technology what the mpg would be on a three cylinder diesel in a Ford Focus or a Chevy Malibu. 60-70 mpg easy. Even if diesel is 10% more than gasoloine, (which I still can’t figure out why ???) the longevity of a diesel outweigh a hybrid hands down. Are you willing to spend big $$$ on batteries for your hybrid when it has 100,000 miles on it?
I bought a 2005 Prius in October of 2004. The EPA ratings were 51 city 60 highway. My per tank average was between 43 mpg and 45 mpg for the 3 years that I had it. I drove it for 60,000 miles before I sold it this last May. I’m not so patiently waiting for the 2009 diesel Jetta so that I can buy one. I believe that my per tank average will the be same or better with the Jetta.
The oil co. sure make a fool out of america W/it cost less to make diesel 7 THEY CHARGE MORE,GIVE ME ELECTRIC IN A SAIN PRICE RANGE & GET RICH SELLING THEM IN GTEAT VOLUME. WHY DREAM,BILL CRAVER- PGH. PA.
It’s not all about fuel economy. From what I can see this Volkswagon, when compared to the Prius, has more power, more room for passengers and luggage, and looks a whole heck of alot better. And at the end of the day I am willing to bet fuel economy is right up there with the Prius too.
Hi,
I drive a 2003 4speed automatic wagon, and my mileage is 36city 42 highway, mainly because you run higher RPM with that transmission. The first new TDI sold here in Lakeland, FL is getting nearly 60MPG. A friend of mine know the woman who purchased the car. She also qualifies for a $1500 tax rebate from the government. The Toyota Prius is fine if you don’t drive it like a car. I drove one last year when I was thinking about a change and was very unimpressed with the ride and noise levels, despite the electic engine. BMW tested its new 5 Series Diesel against a Pruis in real world highway driving in Germany. Prius: 40MPG. BMW 5: 41.5 MPG….and the 5 series goes to 60 in a tad over 6 seconds.
I own a 2002 VW Jetta TDI and I get around 43mpg highway. I do speed like a madman though so odds are I would get much better mileage than that. The VW website was originally listing the 2009 TDI at over 50mpg which I can believe.