2025 VW Jetta GLI Review: Stick Shift Fun But Has Civic Si Stolen The Glory?

Believe the commercials, and everyone is just a lease payment away from sweeping through mountain curves in a wildly-powerful luxury sports car. The reality is that, though the average purchase price of a new vehicle has ticked up considerably over the past few years, most shoppers hoping for a little fun with their functionality aren't splashing out big money on sports sedans from BMW, Mercedes, and their cohort.

That's not to say entertaining options aren't out there, just that your expectations need to be set correctly. In the case of the 2025 Volkswagen Jetta GLI, it means giving up on — arguably unusable — extremes of power, with a focus more on aggressive pricing and the engagement of changing gears yourself.

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Like most automakers in North America, Volkswagen has been steadily trimming the number of non-SUV models in its line-up. With the demise of the Passat, the Jetta is currently VW's only sedan on offer in the U.S. (though the all-electric ID.7 will change that when it arrives). It's available in regular and GLI flavors, the former actually being the cheapest new car VW sells in the country. That $21,995 (plus $1,225 destination) price tag gets a bump to $32,715 (plus destination) for the Jetta GLI Autobahn, the single GLI trim Volkswagen now offers.

It's a reasonably handsome looking four-door, though not especially memorable. A new lower front fascia distinguishes the standard Jetta from the GLI, and there are unique 18-inch wheels, chrome-tipped dual exhausts, and LED lights front and rear. The grille-spanning light bar is a nice touch, while the red contrast trim and matching painted brake calipers look good.

VW also gets credit for offering at least one brighter color. Sure, you can have your Jetta GLI in sober pearlescent black or blue, or solid gray or white, but there's a nice metallic red available, and several of the finishes can be paired with a black contrast roof.

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Under the hood, there's Volkswagen's familiar 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gas engine, here tuned for 228 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. Now, that's a decent uptick from the 158 horses that the 1.5-liter turbo-four in the non-GLI Jetta will get you, and more than Honda's 2025 Civic Si (which brings 200 hp and 192 lb-ft to the party), but it still falls short of VW's feistier competition.

The Civic Type R, for instance, squeezes 315 horsepower and 310 lb-ft from its 2.0-liter turbo-four. A 2025 GR Corolla isn't quite so potent as the Honda, at 300 horsepower and 295 lb-ft, but the fact that Toyota wrings that out of a mere 1.6-liter, three-cylinder turbocharged engine remains an engineering astonishment.

VW's car is cheaper than both, mind, by several thousand dollars (and about $3k more expensive than the less-powerful Civic Si), and frankly, at the risk of repeating myself (again), raw numbers are only really good for bragging rights out in the real world. The important boxes — like still offering enthusiasts a manual transmission, though the Jetta GLI does have a no-cost 7-speed DGS automatic option you should almost certainly ignore — VW does a solid job of checking off.

Perhaps it's churlish, given the state of the stick shift market in the U.S. right now, to dare complain about what options we still have. Certainly, the Jetta GLI's manual is slick and easy to use; the clutch is relatively light in its weighting, making it easy to live with in stop-go traffic.

All the same, you can't avoid comparisons with some of the row-it-yourself luminaries the Jetta GLI faces down, and there the competition is strong. The Honda Civic Type R and Toyota GR Corolla both have the edge on shift-feel, a little more weighted than in the VW, but still smooth and a delight to throw. Then, of course, there's the six-speed in Mazda's MX-5 Miata, a perennial favorite among those who prefer three pedals, and with excellent reason.

Compared to that trio, the Jetta GLI's transmission just doesn't feel so special, or engaging, at least to my hand. Ergonomics play a role, too: the chunky plastic grip feels bulky and a little cheap, and while it serves its purpose, it lacks the tactile charm of the Type R's smooth metal, or the palm-filling heft of the Miata's ball.

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Sure, the price delta would leave plenty of budget for a replacement knob, but then you have the new Civic Si to consider. At $29,950 (plus destination) you sacrifice some power, but its six-speed feels darn close to the glee provided by its Type R sibling.

Out on the road, the Jetta GLI is fun and approachable. No, it's not the most powerful nor the fastest of the set, but its smooth gearbox and perky throttle response mean enjoyment is easily within reach. As in Mazda's little roadster, you're encouraged to work away at the gears and keep things in the powerband, rather than relying on excesses of grunt to yank you out of corners or take advantage of the straights.

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While VW's transmission may not have the same crispness of, say, that in the Type R, it's a more forgiving stick. Maybe that's not so big a deal when you're focused on making the most of backroads, but it's always nice to avoid crunches when your insufficiently-caffeinated body is trying to manage the clutch on the morning commute.

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VW pairs its turbo-four with a front differential lock, adaptive chassis control, and a choice of four drive modes — Eco, Comfort, Normal, and Sport — plus a driver-customizable fifth setting. They affect things like the suspension damping and the throttle response; honestly, Sport mode is perfectly fine for living in day to day, it's not all that firm. There's a fun little Performance Monitor gauge display for the fairly small 8-inch infotainment screen, that shows G-force, boost pressure, and engine power in real-time.

Beyond grins, the Jetta GLI shares its practicality with the regular version, both updated for 2025 to be a little less bulky on the top of the dashboard. The cabin remains a fairly dark place, with styling that'll be broadly familiar to anybody who has been in a VW internal combustion model within the past decade. Gray and black seat trim, with matching dashboard and door panels, all feels sturdy and dependable, but the minor splashes of red and silver plastic aren't enough to deliver actual delight.

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VW clearly decided to spend its budget on standard equipment, and the Autobahn trim is well-equipped for the cash. Leather seats with heating, ventilation, and power adjustment in the front; a heated, leather-wrapped steering wheel; dual-zone climate control with a new touch-sensitive control panel; and a 10.25-inch digital cluster are all in there by default. Wireless charging, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and three USB-C ports (two in the front, one in the rear) cover the gadget bases, together with a reasonable-sounding Beats Audio system.

Things in the back feel a little more spartan, and though officially a five-seater, anyone relegated to the middle spot will have to contend with a hugely-protruding center console that looks like it ought to have HVAC vents, but doesn't. The trunk has 14.1 cu-ft with the 60/40 split rear bench up.

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There's an economy penalty to pay, transmission depending, though it's not the one we're used to seeing. Typically, you burn more fuel when you change gears yourself, but that's not the case with the manual Jetta GLI. It's rated for 26 mpg city, 36 mpg highway, and 30 mpg combined, whereas the dual-clutch automatic is expected to get 25 mpg city, 35 mpg highway, and 29 mpg combined.

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Adaptive cruise control is standard, as are blind spot warnings with rear traffic alerts, forward collision warning and emergency front brake assistance, lane assistance and lane-centering assistance, and front pedestrian monitoring. VW supplies a four year/50,000 mile limited warranty, covers the first two years/20,000 miles of scheduled servicing, and there's also 24 hour roadside assistance for three years/36,000 miles.

The demise of the 40th Anniversary trim means the Jetta GLI isn't quite the bargain it briefly was. While not as healthily-equipped as the sole remaining Autobahn trim, it did bring the fun sedan under the $30k mark. At that point, it was a lot easier to justify over, say, a Civic Si.

Now, the 2025 Jetta GLI falls somewhere in the midst of the attainable sporty-four-door-with-a-stick set. The Civic Type R and GR Corolla are undoubtedly more expensive, but they're also undoubtedly more fun. On the other side, the 2025 Civic Si is cheaper and down on power, but it's slightly more frugal and has a nicer transmission; that means it's simply more entertaining to wring out the best of it, than in the Volkswagen.

Honestly, the options in this segment are so slim these days, any automaker which still participates deserves some gratitude. The Jetta GLI is easy to live with, has a decent warranty, and is a solid starting point if you're of a mind to get into car modifications. Here's hoping VW's EV future doesn't leave behind driver-pleasing options like the GLI.