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"       FINAL REPORT - March 2010    As much as we&amp;#039;ve praised the Jetta&amp;#039;s torquey and fuel-efficient diesel powertrain, it was the smart touches inside that made the commutes and road trips a breeze. On one getaway weekend from L.A. to San Diego, we found the trunk cavernous enough to haul our baggage\u2014and all our SeaWorld trinkets\u2014home. Today&amp;#039;s vehicles have added more and more techy gadgets, so it&amp;#039;s refreshing to see some simplicity. We dug the clean design of the Jetta&amp;#039;s dash, with just two basic knobs to control the radio. Some luxury cars have thinly padded center armrests. Not this Jetta. Its pleasant elbow perch is not only exceedingly cushy but also height-adjustable, so all drivers can find a comfortable spot. During our year with the Jetta, we had two tire punctures. Because the TPMS told us, we took the sedan in right away to get patched up. We&amp;#039;ll miss the Jetta&amp;#039;s practicality, efficiency and, of course, all those little things that make this car so easy to live with. \u2014 Cari Nelson      DRIVERS&amp;#039; NOTEBOOK   \u2022 There&amp;#039;s no guarantee you&amp;#039;ll get hybrid-like fuel economy on every tankful. But with careful throttle application on the highway, you&amp;#039;ll see 40 mpg. \u2022 It&amp;#039;s still sometimes difficult to find diesel with any consistency. Good thing this car can travel close to 600 miles on a tankful.       END DATA    THIRD REPORT - November 2009   For the past 2100 miles the Jetta has served as our L.A. runabout\u2014 crossing from the east side of town to the west almost daily. And like many Angelenos, we&amp;#039;ve avoided the freeways. That means our fuel economy has suffered somewhat. But salvation came in the form of our annual pilgrimage to the Pebble Beach Concours d&amp;#039;Elegance, the most prestigious and highfalutin car show weekend in the country. What better car to take to this showcase of million-dollar metal than our snow white Jetta diesel? Our colleague arrived at the posh hotel on the Monterey peninsula in a bold, snorting sports coupe. The valet ignored him and instead asked us what kind of mileage our Jetta delivered.  The trip from L.A. to Monterey returned 40 mpg, we said. He nodded in approval. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s got a lot of torque too, right?&amp;quot; Yep. Amongst these exquisite, finely tuned four-wheeled stallions, sometimes the efficient workhorse is the most impressive pony in the barn. \u2014 B.S.      DRIVERS&amp;#039; NOTEBOOK   \u2022 On Highway 1, we decided the Jetta TDI needed the sportier suspension tune. \u2022 The Jetta could use more eco cred\u2014some aero tweaks to distinguish it from pedestrian Jettas?      SECOND REPORT - August 2009   One look at the odometer and you know we&amp;#039;re digging our diesel. The Jetta has logged just over 7000 miles so far, and they haven&amp;#039;t been easy miles. Yes, we&amp;#039;ve tried to maximize our fuel economy on a few trips. But L.A.&amp;#039;s stop-and-go traffic, combined with a few blasts to far-flung Southwest towns at, ahem, supra-legal speeds, means our fuel economy has yo-yoed from the mid-20s to the high 30s. On one of those trips, we may have filled up with a rotten tank of fuel, too\u2014a station outside El Centro comes to mind. When we returned late that night, a fairly innocuous Check Engine light lit up. The next morning our engine went into limp-home mode, and we drove right to Santa Monica VW. The dealer techs found that the fuel system had been contaminated with either water or bad diesel. So the entire fuel system was replaced, along with the fuel tank itself\u2014all under warranty. Since then, the TDI has been just as bulletproof as it was before. It has incredible range: Our best tank lasted nearly 500 miles. And from now on, we only stop where we know there&amp;#039;s quality fuel. \u2014Ben Stewart       DRIVERS&amp;#039; NOTEBOOK   \u2022 Torque-rich TDI motor gets the jump on some much sportier cars. \u2022 The soft suspension means it&amp;#039;s no sports sedan in the canyons, but the Jetta eats potholes like a luxury sedan. \u2022 Our VW drives small, yet the commodious 16-cubic-foot trunk rivals a full-size sedan&amp;#039;s.       DATA SO FAR    FIRST REPORT - May 2009   Fuel-efficient transportation doesn&amp;#039;t necessarily have to mean boredom behind the wheel. Hybrids may grab the headlines, but we&amp;#039;re smitten with clean diesel. This alt fuel has reinvented itself recently, providing an excellent compromise between fuel economy and performance. And when it comes to maximum diesel fuel economy, the new Jetta TDI is the reigning champ. In a PM comparison test earlier this year, we pitted a Jetta TDI against a 2008 Prius. On our highway fuel-economy run, the TDI actually beat the Prius by a small margin, topping 45 mpg. That sealed it\u2014we just had to add a Campanella White VW Jetta TDI to the PM long-term test fleet.  One cool trait of the TDI is that it doesn&amp;#039;t look like it&amp;#039;s trying to be green. Only a small TDI badge on the trunk gives it away. Our Loyal Edition came with just one option\u2014VW&amp;#039;s smart-shifting Direct Shift Gearbox (DSG), a twin-clutch automated manual transmission. As much as we enjoy a good manual transmission, the DSG is far more pleasant than rowing through the gears in city traffic.  Our TDI has already been on quite a number of road trips so far\u2014the longest from L.A. to San Francisco. The fuel economy has been all over the map too. When we&amp;#039;re trying to maximize efficiency, we&amp;#039;ve covered over 500 miles on one tank and seen north of 40 mpg. However, around town, when using the diesel&amp;#039;s deep torque reserves at every stoplight, we&amp;#039;ve seen fuel economy dip as low as 25 mpg. But we&amp;#039;ve got a full year to play the fuel-efficiency game with our Jetta TDI. This could be the perfect candidate for an L.A.-to-NYC mileage marathon. Any takers? \u2014Ben Stewart      VITAL STATISTICS   EPA fuel economy: 29 city/40 hwy  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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