If it ain't broke, don't fix it goes the popular saying, but Volkswagen has gone ahead and tried that anyway with the Jetta that now, also runs on petrol!

Let’s make one thing very clear, the Jetta 1.4 TSI is a good car – extremely good in fact and the strategy is simple. Play the TSI badge and offer better fuel economy above everything else, but there’s just one problem we have with this. The other car from the Volkswagen group (and essentially a Jetta underneath the corporate styling) is the Skoda Laura that costs Rs 14 lakh and comes with a 1.8 TSI engine making 160PS or power and 250Nm of torque. There are no doubts that this will leave the Jetta TSI for dead in a drag race, but as far as fuel efficiency is concerned, it’s not too much off the mark either – 13.8 kmpl according to the ARAI.

In practical terms 1 kmpl isn’t really too much of a deficit and the question to be asked is whether buyers will think the Jetta is still the better bet compared to the Skoda with the meatier engine. In the end it will all boil down to how VW prices the new Jetta and until we figure that out, we’re just going to say that this is a good car once you get over that psychological barrier of it having a 1.4 litre engine. It may not win any ‘mine is bigger than yours’ arguments, but as long as you walk home from the gas station with more change in your wallet than the other guy, it should keep you happy, no?