The little bits about poor design choices (lack of auto headlights) and the questionable build quality coming from Mexico really scares me away from this. The price is the nail in the coffin.
What could otherwise be a stellar car is simply held back by reputation for poor quality - moving to Mexico really wasn't a great choice.
Haven't Jettas been built in Mexico for 20+ years now? I don't think we can keep blaming the country. Also, I've never heard of this generation of Jetta having a poor rep.
My issue with Mexico is in relation to the need to pay off Cartel as ransom for parts en route to the factory. How nobody else sees that as a problem is beyond me. I don't need the Jetta to be built in Germany, but it should be conflict-free, much like people tend to care about "blood" diamonds or "fair-trade" coffee.
Second, I will mention it at every opportunity because I think it's downright wrong to move production to the 'cheapest place' because of lower wages, especially if some costs are allocated to paying off ransom. I, personally, wouldn't start paying ISIS to build cars because they're willing to do it at a discount...
Typical Noto: Can't back up his claims so he changes his story. The post I replied to talked only about quality in regards to Mexico and nothing more.
Can you share links about these ransoms that are being paid? I can't find anything when I search for Mexico, Volkswagen, and cartel/drugs/ransom.
And why don't you ever b*tch and moan about the other companies that have Mexican plants? Seems like only VW and Honda get that hate around here.
If Hyundai can move the Elantra without the name behind it, why can't VW? Price/Feature Content. Gotta give a little to get a little...
What does this mean? 
Premise 1: Hyundai sells more Elantras than VW sells Jettas
Premise 2: Hyundai sells Elantra on the value equation (a lot of features for less money than the competition)
Premise 3: VW sells the Jetta at a price premium over its competition when competitively equipped
Conclusion: It stands to reason that if VW dropped the price of the Jetta, or included more options as standard, more vehicles would be sold on the same basis as Hyundai has sold Elantras.
I assure you it wasn't the driving dynamics of the Elantra that sold everyone on a relatively unknown brand with a poor reputation for reliability.
I'm not sure what your point is. I don't think Volkswagen is targeting the exact same customer base as Hyundai is, nor are they chasing the ultimate sales crown. Your oft repeated "conclusion" is a joke. Like I've said before, you can say that about
literally every car on the market. "If brand X dropped the price of model Y, or included more options as standard, they would sell more of them." Well, duh. But this industry is not that simple.
You're talking as if the Jetta is some sort of failure. Far from it. In Canada, Volkswagen has easily doubled Jetta sales since 2010 and have enjoyed seven consecutive years of growth. On a per capita basis, the Jetta is nearly twice as popular in Canada as it is in the U.S. The Jetta is in sixth place in its segment, outselling compacts like the Focus and Sentra last year. Volkswagen is certainly punching above its weight with the Jetta considering it has less dealers than its competitors and is the 11th most popular brand in the country. They're also not piling on incentives to do that.
Volkswagen gets a lot more value out of the Jetta by tweaking it and freshening the product than it would by simply lowering prices to NoTo's ridiculous standards. The Jetta has always been positioned a 1/2 step above the other compacts. That's not going to change – at least not by Volkswagen moving the Jetta down half a rung price-wise.
