The Rental Car Test: What a Volkswagen Jetta Taught Me About Comfort, Control and the Safety Features That Actually Matter

There is probably no better time to evaluate a vehicle than immediately after surviving an accident that fundamentally changes the way you think about driving.

A week ago, I was driving my 2016 BMW 428i xDrive Gran Coupe westbound on I-24 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, when I encountered a large metal object in the roadway. With traffic surrounding me and nowhere safe to swerve, I hit it.

The impact destroyed the front driver's-side tire and wheel and caused extensive mechanical damage. The braking system was compromised. The suspension and undercarriage suffered major damage. Yet I maintained control of the BMW and made it safely out of active interstate traffic.

No one was injured.

That experience changed the way I evaluate cars.

I am no longer particularly interested in whether a feature looks impressive on a showroom floor. I want to know what contributes to control, situational awareness, reduced fatigue and the driver's ability to respond when something unexpected happens.

Which brings me, somewhat unexpectedly, to a Volkswagen Jetta.

From Chattanooga to Dallas

After several days in a Mitsubishi Mirage rental that left me profoundly uncomfortable with its highway performance, Enterprise agreed to move me into a Volkswagen Jetta.

Thank you, Enterprise.

The difference was immediate.

I am driving the Jetta from Chattanooga back to Dallas, with stops through Nashville and Little Rock. That means I'm not evaluating it after a ten-minute test drive around a dealership. I'm spending hours in it, through changing traffic conditions and across hundreds of miles of interstate.

I also have some history with Volkswagen. Years ago, I owned a Jetta TDI.

So climbing into another Jetta felt vaguely familiar.

And after what happened on I-24, I am paying attention to things I might once have considered insignificant.

First: Give Me Real Tires

One of the first things I noticed was the Jetta's wheel and tire setup.

This sounds ridiculously basic until you've spent several days driving a very small economy car with narrow tires and a ride that transmits seemingly every imperfection in the pavement.

The Jetta feels substantially planted.

The ride is smoother and quieter, and I don't consider either characteristic merely a matter of comfort.

Over hundreds of highway miles, constant vibration and road harshness become physically exhausting. For me, an excessively rough ride can contribute to headaches. Fatigue matters when you're driving long distances.

Noise matters, too.

A quieter, smoother vehicle makes it easier to hear what's happening around you. Unusual vehicle noises, emergency vehicles, horns and other auditory information aren't competing as aggressively with tire and road noise.

Tires also become particularly important when weather deteriorates.

I have not yet driven this particular Jetta in heavy rain, snow or ice, so I can't responsibly evaluate its wet- or winter-weather performance. I have, however, driven my BMW extensively in all of those conditions and was consistently confident in its traction, stability and handling.

Based on the Jetta's planted feel on dry pavement, I would be interested to see how confidently it performs in adverse weather, particularly in standing water and conditions where hydroplaning becomes a concern. That is something I would want to evaluate before making any claims about its all-weather capability.

Comfort and safety aren't always separate categories.

Sometimes they're the same engineering problem viewed from different perspectives.

Acceleration Is a Safety Feature Too

We tend to associate safety with stopping.

Brakes. ABS. Collision avoidance.

But sometimes the safest way out of a developing situation is forward.

The Jetta's acceleration has impressed me.

When I press the accelerator, the vehicle responds with enough authority that I feel confident merging into interstate traffic, passing when appropriate or moving away from a developing hazard.

After driving a vehicle in which I did not have that same confidence, the difference is striking.

This isn't about wanting a race car.

It's about predictability.

If I see trouble developing and determine that acceleration is the safest response, I want to know that the vehicle will actually move when I ask it to move.

The Jetta does.

Its braking performance has been equally confidence-inspiring. The brakes feel responsive and predictable, and the steering is smooth while maintaining enough weight and resistance to provide a reassuring sense of control.

Those three things matter enormously to me now:

Go. Stop. Steer.

Everything else is secondary if a vehicle cannot execute those three commands confidently.

Driver Assistance: Assistance Should Still Let Me Drive

The Jetta I'm driving is equipped with a substantial collection of driver-assistance technology, including adaptive cruise control and lane assistance.

I appreciate the technology.

I'm less enthusiastic about some of the intervention.

Adaptive cruise control can be extremely useful on a long interstate drive, automatically responding to traffic ahead rather than requiring constant manual speed adjustments.

Lane assistance is where my preference differs.

I prefer a system that warns me when I begin leaving my lane rather than one that physically intervenes through the steering.

My BMW's lane-departure warning vibrated the steering wheel. It essentially told me, "Pay attention. You're moving out of your lane."

Message received.

The Jetta's active steering intervention feels more intrusive to me. I understand exactly why the technology exists, and some drivers will undoubtedly prefer it. Personally, I want the vehicle to alert me and allow me to make the correction.

That distinction matters because driver-assistance technology should increase confidence, not create a moment in which the driver and vehicle seem to disagree about who is steering.

Fortunately, these systems are generally configurable, and I would consider the ability to tailor the level of intervention an important part of good vehicle design.

The Steering Wheel Gets Most of It Right

The steering itself is one of the Jetta's strengths.

It's smooth and controlled, with enough weight to avoid feeling disconnected from the road.

The steering wheel is comfortable overall, although I find it slightly larger than I would prefer. The leather also feels somewhat hard and slick in my hands. I would prefer a softer, more tactile surface that provides a more naturally secure grip.

But Volkswagen gets something else very right: adjustability.

The tilt-and-telescoping steering column allows the wheel to move vertically as well as toward or away from the driver.

That is more important than it sounds.

Drivers aren't built to standardized dimensions. Arm length, leg length, torso height and seating position vary considerably. Being able to position the steering wheel correctly allows the driver to maintain a comfortable bend in the arms while remaining properly positioned relative to the pedals and controls.

Combined with adjustable seat height, fore-and-aft movement and seatback position, the Jetta allows the driver to construct a much better driving position.

That's ergonomics.

It's also control.

The Seats Could Be Better

The seats themselves are adequate, but this is one area where I think Volkswagen could improve the experience.

They're relatively flat.

I would prefer more contouring that follows the natural curvature of the body and better lateral support to hold the driver comfortably in position.

I do want to give the Jetta credit for something important here: this particular vehicle does have lumbar support, and it helps. That additional support makes a meaningful difference during hours behind the wheel.

Where the seat falls short for me is in the precision of its height adjustment.

The seat can be raised and lowered as a whole, but I cannot independently adjust the height or angle of the front and rear portions of the seat cushion. For a smaller, shorter driver, that distinction can be significant. The relationship between the hips, thighs, knees and pedals affects not only comfort and driving position but also pressure beneath the legs during hours of sitting.

Being able to alter the cushion angle can help a driver find a position that supports the legs without creating unnecessary pressure behind the thighs or knees. On a long-distance drive, those seemingly small ergonomic differences become much more noticeable.

After several hours on the highway, seat design becomes far more important than it seems during a dealership test drive.

The Jetta does offer heated seats, which I appreciate, but better sculpting, lateral support and more precise seat-cushion adjustment would elevate the long-distance experience considerably.

This is an area where my BMW set a particularly high standard. Adjustable side bolsters allowed the seat to effectively hug the driver, while lumbar and multidirectional adjustments made it possible to create an extremely supportive driving position.

The Jetta doesn't need to become a BMW.

But a little more attention to seat contouring and adjustment would make an already capable long-distance car considerably better.

Something Else the Jetta Has: Space

One thing that's easy to underestimate from outside the car is just how spacious the Jetta feels.

There is substantial headroom in the front, but what impressed me is that the rear doesn't feel like an afterthought. Rear-seat passengers have meaningful headroom and legroom as well.

The same is true up front.

There is enough space to establish a comfortable driving position without making the cabin feel unnecessarily oversized. Combined with the steering-wheel and seat adjustments, that roominess gives drivers of very different proportions more opportunity to position themselves comfortably.

For a sedan that also delivers remarkable fuel economy, the amount of usable passenger space is impressive.

Volkswagen, Please Move the Cupholders

And then we arrive at something that sounds trivial.

The cupholders.

I don't like them.

Their placement toward the rear of the center console requires an awkward reach, particularly while maintaining attention on the road. More importantly, their fixed dimensions don't secure different-sized containers particularly well.

That becomes more than an inconvenience when you're carrying a tall water bottle.

A poorly secured bottle can tip over. If an object falls into the driver's footwell and migrates toward the pedals, an irritating design choice has suddenly become a potential safety problem.

This is exactly the kind of mundane ergonomic detail that deserves attention during vehicle development.

Drivers interact with cupholders thousands of times.

Put them where we can reach them naturally, and make them capable of securely holding different container sizes.

Grazie.

CarPlay Is Excellent. The Screen Placement Isn't.

The Jetta's connectivity is another major positive.

Apple CarPlay brings navigation, calls, music and other essential phone functions into the vehicle's interface, while voice operation and steering-wheel controls reduce the need to physically interact with the phone.

That's good design.

But the central display exposes one of my larger criticisms.

It remains positioned toward the center of the vehicle and low enough that interacting with it requires the driver to redirect attention away from the roadway.

Even momentarily, your eyes have left the road.

I would like to see the display positioned higher and angled more toward the driver.

Better yet, I would love to see a Head-Up Display.

My BMW projected information such as speed, navigation instructions and other critical information directly into my forward field of vision. Once you've driven extensively with a well-designed Head-Up Display, its value becomes difficult to ignore.

The goal shouldn't simply be giving drivers more information.

It should be delivering information without unnecessarily competing with the road for their attention.

Keyless Access Is More Than Convenience

Another feature I'm happy to have back is keyless access.

The key can remain secured in my pocket or bag while I unlock and access the vehicle.

Yes, that's convenient.

But as someone who thinks considerably about situational awareness, I see another advantage.

I don't have to stand beside a vehicle searching through a bag for a key. I can approach, access the car and get inside efficiently while remaining more attentive to my surroundings.

Small feature.

Real-world value.

And Then There's the Fuel Economy

The Jetta's fuel economy has been remarkable.

On a multi-state drive, that becomes immediately noticeable.

A vehicle that combines strong highway performance and confident acceleration with excellent fuel economy occupies an appealing middle ground. I don't feel as though I'm sacrificing the ability to respond decisively simply to stretch the distance between fuel stops.

For travelers and rental-car customers, that matters financially.

It also means fewer stops during a long-distance journey.

Add the Jetta's genuinely enormous trunk, surprisingly generous passenger space and substantial front- and rear-seat headroom and legroom, and Volkswagen has created a sedan that makes considerable sense as a road-trip vehicle.

The sound system is good, too. Not extraordinary, but certainly good enough to make several hundred miles of interstate considerably more pleasant.

What I'm Learning About Cars After an Accident

This isn't intended to be a comparison between a Volkswagen Jetta and a BMW 4 Series.

They're different vehicles occupying different places in the automotive market.

What interests me now is something broader.

After surviving a major highway impact, I've started examining vehicles through a different lens.

How tired am I after four hours?

Can I position my body correctly?

Can I adjust the seat sufficiently for my height and proportions?

Can I reach important controls without looking for them?

Can I hear what's happening around me?

If I need acceleration immediately, is it there?

If I need to brake hard, do I trust the vehicle?

Does the steering communicate what's happening beneath me?

How will the tires and vehicle respond when the pavement is wet and traction becomes less predictable?

Does technology increase my situational awareness or compete for my attention?

Does the vehicle assist me, or does it occasionally fight me?

Those questions tell me considerably more about a car than the number of screens on the dashboard.

The Jetta Is Getting a Lot Right

I still have miles ahead of me before I reach Dallas, but my impression of the Volkswagen Jetta is overwhelmingly positive.

It's comfortable enough for serious highway travel, impressively fuel-efficient, spacious, responsive under acceleration, confident under braking and reassuring through the steering wheel.

It offers useful safety and connectivity technology. Its steering-wheel and seat adjustments allow drivers of different proportions to establish a good driving position, and the lumbar support is genuinely useful during extended time behind the wheel. The trunk is enormous. Passenger space is impressive. The ride is smooth and composed.

There are things I would change.

Give the seats more contour and lateral support.

Give drivers more precise control over the seat-cushion angle.

Reconsider the cupholders.

Move the center display higher and orient it more toward the driver.

Give me the option of warning-only lane-departure assistance rather than steering intervention.

And Volkswagen, if you're listening, a Head-Up Display would be lovely.

I would also like the opportunity to see what the Jetta does when the weather turns ugly. Dry-pavement confidence is one thing. Heavy rain, standing water, snow and ice reveal another dimension of a vehicle entirely, and I won't pretend to evaluate something I haven't experienced in this car.

But here's perhaps the most important thing I can say about this vehicle:

After an accident that profoundly affected how I feel behind the wheel, I feel comfortable driving the Jetta from Chattanooga to Dallas.

That's not something I'm taking for granted anymore.

A good road-trip vehicle shouldn't merely transport you across hundreds of miles.

It should allow you to arrive with your body comfortable, your attention intact and your confidence in the vehicle exactly where it was when you started.

So far, the Volkswagen Jetta is doing precisely that.