VW!

2011 Jetta SportWagen

We've done it. We traded in our Prius for a Volkswagen. We'll be selling the van, too, as soon as we get a chance to get it cleaned up a bit.

2011 Jetta SportWagen

It's a Jetta here, but in Canada and Europe, this model is sold as a Golf Wagon. This color is called "Tempest Blue Metallic."

Mirror

Turn indicators are integrated into the side mirrors.

Enormous Sunroof

It's tinted quite dark and I'm told it does not turn the car into a giant greenhouse in the summer.

17 inch Alloy Wheels

These are VW's "Porto" wheels. I'm not sure we would have paid extra for them on their own, but the Nav system and iPod interface come only in a package with these wheels and the panoramic sunroof.

Back End

TDI Badge

That means it's a diesel.

Ah...

It's good to be behind the wheel of a Volkswagen again.

Understated

MFD Settings

There are tons of little customizations available in the "Multi Function Display" (MFD). I was happy to discover that changing the language setting changes not only the text shown in this little display, but also the language used for voice control. Jawohl!

Range

I hear it's not unusual to get 600 miles out of a tank in highway driving. We'll see.

10K

The TDI diesel engine has a 10,000 mile service interval. Nice.

Bluetooth

The Jetta has great Bluetooth support (especially compared to the Prius). You can pair up to four phones and it will automatically reconnect to whichever phone is available, with preference to the most recently used phone. In the Prius, we had to manually choose which phone we wanted using a labyrinth of confusing menus. Address books, recent calls, and missed calls are all synced to the car automagically. It also supports A2DP music streaming.

Browsing the Phone Book

You can browse the phone book here on the MFD or over on the radio/GPS screen.

Nav Display on MFD

GPS information is echoed on the MFD, so you get GPS information even if the radio/GPS is on another screen.

RNS-315

I've been quite impressed by the RNS-315 nav unit. It's got a smaller screen than the RNS-510 they used to use but (in my opinion) a much nicer interface.

FM Presets

You get 12 presets for AM and FM (and 18 for Sirius), arranged in a circle. Turn the dial below the center of the screen to rotate through. It works pretty well.

FM List

In addition to presets, scanning, and manual tuning, the radio features this "FM List" mode. I think this will be great when traveling. It lists all the FM stations it's currently receiving, complete with RDS text. From this screen, you can tune to a station or save to a preset. Any stations that are already stored in presets will show the preset number in the circle next to the frequency. The red arc on the left edge of the screen is a scroll bar that works just like a computer scroll bar: you can touch above or below the thumb to scroll a page at a time or drag the thumb to scroll faster. You can also scroll through the list with the center knob.

Sirius? Seriously?

Our Odyssey has XM Satellite radio, which we liked, but not enough to keep paying for it. The Jetta has Sirius. I doubt we'll sign up when the free service period ends, but you never know.

RNS-315 Media: SD Card, CD, Aux

The RNS-315 can read music from a bunch of different media. First up, there's an SD card slot just to the left of the screen. The RNS-315 can read music off the SD card in MP3, WMA, or AAC formats. You can browse up and down the file hierarchy and play a single folder full or everything (or shuffle). Of course, there's a CD player, too, which works with music CDs or data CDs containing MP3, WMA, or AAC files. Oh, and an Aux-in jack on the front of the radio.

RNS-315 Media: MDI

MDI is VW's "Media Device Interface." There's a connector in the center console that can be used with various cables to connect to an iPod (or iPad or iPhone) or a USB device. The car came with the iPod version of the cable and it works flawlessly. Even browsing our big 120GB iPod was pretty snappy.

Media-In

The MDI box in the center console has a cable connector and a little cubby to store your device. Here it's connected to my iPhone.