Test bench | Competition from the Volkswagen Jetta

The Volkswagen Jetta is certainly a German icon. But a South Korean, the Kia Forte, and two Japanese, the Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla, have also established themselves well.

Eric LeFrancois
special collaboration

Kia Forte

Price: from $20,395 (2023)

Renewed last year, the Kia Forte is very popular because of its competitive prices, its long list of standard features and its reassuring basic warranty (5 years/100,000 km). Compared to the Jetta, the Forte allows you to benefit from a faster mechanics (1.6 L supercharged), but this is only offered on the most expensive versions. The standard 2 L engine consumes more and is not as quick as the 1.5 L from Volkswagen. Like its Japanese rivals, the Kia also uses a continuously variable transmission (CVT) with sometimes messy performance compared to the “traditional” box of the Jetta.

Nissan Sentras

Price: from $20,098 (2022)

This eighth generation, as comfortable on the track (Sentra Cup) as on the road, did not have the success it deserved. This is much more refined and pleasant than the version it replaces, this Nissan offers a cabin almost as spacious as that of the Jetta, will say the passengers who will occupy the back seat. The naturally aspirated engine of the Nissan delivers substantially the same performance (pure) as that of the Volkswagen, but does not however prove to be as economical. The guidance of the manual transmission surpasses that of the German, but in the case of the automatic, we prefer that of the Volkswagen to the CVT offered by Nissan. Another point to consider to the advantage of the Sentra, all the active safety devices are standard on the entire range.

Toyota Corolla

Price: from $19,150

The Corolla needs no introduction and remains a safe bet on the compact market. Its reliability, its market value at resale and its robustness have long made people forget the softness of its behavior, the apathy of its mechanics or the monotony of its lines. The current generation, while preserving its intrinsic qualities, is certainly more pleasant to drive (with the exception of the basic version with its 1.8 L engine), but the Jetta does better in this regard. The German is also more spacious, more economical at the pump than the Corolla, with the exception of the hybrid version. Just like the Sentra, we like the Corolla’s manual transmission, but much less the automatic (CVT) with its artificial ratios.