![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/08\/26\/PDTN\/6febe2ba-3cd8-4b89-97fd-6a16c8d013ee-jetta_road-trip.JPG?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>The 2019 VW Jetta GLI on the long, flat, 300-mile trip to Indy from Detroit. The seats were comfortable, the Apple CarPlay nav unflappable, and the turbo-4 sippy.\u00a0(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n You could hear the teeth gnashing this summer when Chevy introduced the eighth-generation Corvette without a manual transmission option.<\/p>\n Heresy! Off with their heads! God save the manual!<\/em><\/p>\n But to paraphrase Mr. Twain, the death of the manual has been greatly exaggerated.<\/p>\n For those willing to pay less than half the price of a new Corvette, the next-generation Volkswagen Jetta GLI is not only the most powerful GLI ever \u2014 it also comes with a stick.<\/p>\n Not that I don\u2019t understand the concerns of the Corvette faithful. Super sports-cars with manuals are surely on their last legs. There is something deeply satisfying about being able to slowly unleash 500 horsepower at a stoplight, the rear wheels smoking as you work throttle and clutch together like bow and strings. WAAAWWHHRRGH!<\/p>\n Or the satisfaction of a buttery, 4-to-2 downshift into a 90-degree turn after a perfect heel-and-toe downshift. AWROOOMYEAHHH!<\/p>\n But high-end dual-clutch automatic boxes do it all so much better that it\u2019s pointless to resist. The faithful want 2.9-second zero-60 runs? Gotta have a dual-clutch automatic tranny. Want a car that stops on a dime with lightning quick downshifts? Same answer. Want a $70,000 ‘Vette that can compete with a $190,000\u00a0Porsche on track day? Once you\u2019ve gone dual-clutch auto there is no going back.<\/p>\n But in Budgetville where most car enthusiasts still live, dual-clutch automatics are unaffordable and sticks are still where it\u2019s at for the enthusiast.<\/p>\n The new Mazda 3 is offering the manual as a premium option, the Mazda Miata is a manual icon, and VW\u2019s Jetta may be the best bargain this side of \u2014 well, its sibling\u00a0Golf GTI.<\/p>\n The Jetta has always been the more affordable, sedan version of Golf. It’s the nerd to Golf\u2019s party boy, the vanilla to Golf\u2019s Rocky Road, the Teller to Golf\u2019s Penn. Jetta never got a GTI performance equivalent.<\/p>\n That changed in 2011 with the first Jetta GLI stuffed with GTI goodies. For its seventh generation, Jetta has brought back the GLI again. I took the manual version on a road trip to Indianapolis Motor Speedway where I was racing my (manual, of course) Lola sports racer.<\/p>\n I expected the trip to measure Jetta GLI\u2019s relevance compared to the GTI \u2014 and to automatic transmissions\u00a0in general.<\/p>\n From the first press of the Jetta GLI\u2019s clutch pedal, it was a different barrel of monkeys. Forget to press the clutch pedal\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0brake pedal, and the car won\u2019t start at all (automatics require only pressing the brake to start). With a whopping 258 pound-feet of torque from its 2.0-liter turbo-4 and a tidy six-speed box, the\u00a0GLI rekindles the joy of manuals.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same torquey\u00a0228-horse engine found in the Golf GTI. Torque comes on strong at 3,000 rpms, and with the Sport mode engaged (is there any other?) the turbo-4 makes a satisfying grunt when flogged. Unlike high-horsepower manuals (the Camaro ZL1) that require the strength of Zeus to shift, the VW six-speed is light to the touch for quick shifts.<\/p>\n Mrs. Payne was my co-driver. Though she prefers automatics (especially on long trips to, um, Indy, where an automatic transmission and adaptive cruise-control is particularly handy) she was content with the GLI stick, especially the hill-assist feature which makes first-gear hill starts a cinch.<\/p>\n Only the second to third\u00a0shift is mushy (careful, or you\u2019ll grab fifth by\u00a0mistake and bog the engine). Rush a corner, and the gas and brake pedals are nicely aligned for heel-and-toe downshifts. The Jetta rotates\u00a0nicely on it its award-wining MQB chassis screwed down with a stiffer suspension than the\u00a0base\u00a0Jetta.<\/p>\n The recipe is all GTI including multi-link rear suspension, flat-bottom steering wheel, limited-slip differential (perfect for autocrossing) \u2014 even big 13.4-inch brakes borrowed from the top-of-the-line, all-wheel drive, smokin\u2019 hot-hatch Golf R.<\/p>\n Whew! You can see the vanilla melting. Especially as my GLI tester was wrapped in a very GTI-ish red coat with red war-paint\u00a0grille. Twin pipes in the rear also signal competitors to keep their distance.<\/p>\n All this… and less.<\/p>\n True to Jetta\u2019s entry-level spot in V-dub\u2019s lineup, VW offers this manual treat at just $26,890,\u00a0a significant $1,600 discount over the 2019 GTI. Trade up to the loaded, GTI Autobahn edition, and the delta between GLI and GTI grows to a yawning $5,000.<\/p>\n So is the GLI worth it?<\/p>\n On my 600-mile round trip to Indy, the differences reveal themselves. In between the handsome silver-rimmed gauges, the GLI gets away with a cheaper, pixelated digital display. The cloth seats never chafed, but they aren\u2019t the bolstered, plaid thrones of the GTI. That means less body grip on high-G turns.<\/p>\n But the big differences are body style, and here\u2019s where the GTI earns its premium. The Jetta is a big car with the same cargo and rear leg room as the\u00a0mid-size Passat of just two generations ago. But while its cavernous\u00a014.1 cubic feet of trunk space made for excellent airport runs (to pick up my sons and a friend), it paled in dexterity to the GTI\u2019s 22-cubic-feet\u00a0hatchback.<\/p>\n