In the unnaturally buff commune known as Santa Monica, California, it is not unusual to see many types of hip/innovative/bizarre means of transportation. Segways, Vespas, electric buses, hybrids, and others all scatter about like roaches that run as the lights come on. They apparently are all viable options, some functioning better than others.

But now it’s time to add to the mix. Diesels have long been out of favor in California due to the amount of pollutants that they emitted, deemed excessive by state legislators. The exception is, of course, those big rigs that are a part of life throughout America. That has changed as a result of the federal standards for diesels and the introduction of low-sulfur diesel fuel. Credit also goes to two automakers that introduced 50-State compliant diesels into the marketing mix.

One of those manufacturers, Volkswagen, chose Santa Monica as the spot to launch the new diesel-powered 2009 Jetta TDI.

What is it?
A four-door sedan (and an available, new for 2009 Sportwagen), the Jetta TDI borrows the body of the current Jetta sedan and stuffs it with a TDI Clean Diesel engine. The result is a higher-end econobox that’s good looking and fun to drive, not to mention quite efficient.

What’s it up against?
Strictly from an engine and pricing standpoint, absolutely nothing. For fuel misers, the TDI would compete against the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid. Size-wise, the Jetta also competes against the Mazda Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, among others.

Any breakthroughs?
The major breakthrough is under the hood with the new fifty-state compliant TDI four-cylinder engine. Another would be a breakthrough to your wallet by way an Internal Revenue Service $1,300 Advanced Lean Burn Technology Motor Vehicle income tax credit.

How does it look?
Like a tidy three-box sedan arrangement. It’s not a groundbreaking design, especially since it’s been out for four years, but it has been tweaked here and there to keep up with the styling of other vehicles within the family.

And inside?
The Jetta has a clean, if conservative, look about its interior, displaying high-quality materials throughout. A pebble-grained dash is accented with an aluminum-looking plastic band in front, while a curved binnacle offers shading over what looks to be an LCD info screen right out of corporate sister Audi’s parts bin. Housing info such as radio station settings and mileage/trip computer, it is useful in helping owners get the most out of a tank full of diesel.

The center-stack houses the ubiquitous controls for audio and climate control systems. In this case, the TDI is equipped with a six-cd changer head unit that can handle MP3 CDs as well as Sirius Satellite radio. The clean look and operation of the audio controls is a vast improvement over those found in Touareg and Tiguan. A nice touch in the Jetta is the inclusion of two powerports in the interior of the car, along with a 115-volt household plug. There is another power port located in the roomy trunk.

The seats in our test Jetta offered good support for long enough travels up Pacific Coast Highway and along Mulholland Highway as well. Eight-way manual seats offer various adjustments for good driving positions, and are combined with a tilt and telescoping steering wheel. The rear bench seat offers ample legroom and could hold three passengers in a pinch, but appears to be happier with two. Covered in V-Tex Leatherette (pleather?), it should stand up to many spilled juice boxes. In VW’s efforts to keep the Jetta at a low price point, leather seats are no longer offered on anything but the top-end Jetta GLI – which isn’t available with an oil-burner under the hood.

But does it go?
Equipping the Jetta with Volkswagen’s new 50-state TDI Clean Diesel puts it in extremely rare company. Currently, the TDI and Mercedes-Benz BlueTec diesel are the only engines certified for 50-state compliance under today’s pollution rules. Using different means to skin the proverbial cat, the TDI opts away from urea treatments in favor of efficiency in fuel consumption and capturing pollutants in a filtering system that will need to be changed approximately once every 100,000 miles.

The heart of the TDI is a turbocharged direct injection 2.0 liter, 140-horsepower inline four-cylinder oil-burner that puts out 236 lb-ft of torque. Using common rail direct injection has, according to Volkswagen, improved the breed. We had a chance to put both the six-speed manual gear box, and the DSG automatic six-speed with Tiptronic through its paces and felt that the manual lacked a secure feel that bordered on “rubbery” if one were to put it to a word. It did a good job in masking the engine’s torque, as well. Switching to the DSG had us smiling once again, as the Tiptronic enables auto-sticking and the ability to remap shift points via the sport mode, which really saw the car come alive. It was with this combination that you could really appreciate the torque that the TDI brings to the table.

The Jetta TDI’s electrically assisted rack and pinion steering offered some of the best feedback we have experienced while groping a leather-wrapped steering wheel. The unibody construction with McPherson struts, springs and shocks up front and multilink kit in the rear offered a comfortable ride with no sporting pretensions. We would have appreciated a firmer feel while slicing and dicing up and down Mulholland Drive, but we remind ourselves this car is not VW’s R32. The quietness of the interior as well as the new format diesel did help to keep road noise to a minimum. Curb weight for the Jetta TDI tipped the scales at 3,230 lbs for the manual gearbox and 3,285 for the automatic.

The bonus of all this is that while the EPA found fuel economy at 29 mpg in the city and 40 mpg on the highway, the Volks folks were touting test results that were higher. Members of our tour were showing mixed city and back road averages as high as 44 mile-per-gallon range, as Leftlane reviewer Gary Anderson discovered (see his separate article here).

Why you would buy it:
You would like to out-scoot the pompous Prius owner who lives down the block from you, and the idea of free scheduled maintenance for 3-years or 36,000 miles is appealing to you.

Why you wouldn’t:
You still think diesel fuel can only be found in truck stops

2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI base price, $21,990; as tested, $23,090.
DSG Tiptronic, $1,100; Destination, $650.

Words and photos by Mark Elias.

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