Volkswagen Jetta

Originally made as an adaptation of the Volkswagen Golf hatchback by adding a conventional boot to the rear, the Jetta has been made by the German car giant since 1979. The car has been marketed since then with many generations of design - each of which has been given a particular name. Since the original version was launched, the Jetta has become larger and offered more power with each successive redesign. By the time the car had reached the ripe old age of 21, almost 10 million models had been sold all over the globe, with many sales being made in the US market.

In January 2001, Volkswagen launched an estate version of the Jetta at the Los Angeles Auto Show which they called a station wagon, aiming it at the family market in the United States. This was a variant of the fourth generation of the car which began production in the summer of 1999. In much Europe and other parts of the world, this fourth generation Jetta was marketed as a Bora. The fourth generation of the Jetta proved to be a very popular model and, even when Volkswagen launched the next version in 2009, they continued to offer the older version in some markets.

Other than Volkswagen’s famous Beetle, the fifth generation Jetta was the only car made by the manufacturer to make its world debut at an American car show. Indeed, that version of the Jetta went on sale in the United States before being available in any other country. This, perhaps more than anything else, reflects the importance of the sedan in that market for the company.