The upgraded steering wheel had improved Mk7 style on-wheel controls and much more aggressive shaping. To start, while the interior of the Mk6 never matched the Mk5, in 2015 it received a “Mk7-ish” refresh that improved things greatly. While VW had already fixed some of the Mk6 generation’s drawbacks here and there leading up to the 2015 model year, the 2015 changes really made the Jetta more of a Mk6+ than just a fixed Mk6.

The Mk5 made that a bit better, but the Mk6 really put the Jetta on the map as an option to carry 4 adults. The Mk4 rear seat was a fraction of the size of the Mk3 it replaced. The Mk6 also made the rear seat a place that real sized adults could occupy comfortably. The Mk6 Jetta was also a remarkably aerodynamic car, resulting in great highway fuel efficiency regardless of the engine installed. The early generation Jettas were famous for their, somewhat ridiculously, huge trunks. The Mk4 and Mk5 Jettas might have looked better, but they had much smaller trunks. True to the Jetta heritage, the Mk6 trunk was ENORMOUS. The rear seat is second only to the NMS Passat, itself a stretched Jetta. One thing that the Mk6 Jetta design had in spade was space.

By 2014 most of the cost-cutting mistakes had been corrected, but, the car still wasn’t a market leader.

For example, the “TDI” trim returned 4-wheel disc brakes soft-touch dashboards reappeared in SE and SEL trims Independent rear suspension (IRS) returned in 2013, to TDI trims at least. However, many of these errors were corrected as the years went on. The Mk6 Jetta doesn’t never gained the following that the Mk4 did, nor the respect that the Mk5 had from the start. This checkered beginning did permanent damage. Bland styling didn’t help the Jetta catch anyone’s eye… It seemed that the Jetta was no longer the “premium European” compact sedan. Soft tough surfaces were replaced by hard-plastic dashboards and really low-level instrument clusters. The Mk5 had independent rear suspension, where the Mk6 reintroduced the beam axle. The Mk5 had 4 wheel disc brakes, where the Mk6 had rear drums. What made this even more jarring was the gap between the new Mk6 model and the outgoing Mk5 model – which was universally praised for its above-market build quality. VW’s goal was to make a sub-$17k car, and the level of cost cutting was drastic. Unfortunately the Mk6 Jetta, which launched in 2011, started off on the wrong foot. If you are in the market for a TDI, don’t sleep on the 2015 Jetta TDI, which we think is the best TDI ever made… The 2015 Mk7 Golf Sportwagen TDI understandably gets all the attention – for good reason.

Mk4 jetta suspension parts