2014 Volkswagen Jetta SE: First Drive

Volkswagen has followed up on a stop-sale order from earlier this month, announcing a voluntarily recall of 26,400 vehicles that are powered by the brand's 1.8-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder engine. The new mill replaced the despised 2.5-liter five-cylinder in the Jetta, Passat, Beetle and Beetle Convertible last year. Weirdly, though, of the 26,452 units covered in the recall, only 1,655 are customer vehicles.

Volkswagen has issued a stop sale on several models in the US while the automaker waits for parts to repair a transmission fluid leak. About 25,000 cars with the EA888 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine and automatic transmission are covered under the stoppage, which includes models of the Jetta, Passat, Beetle and Beetle Convertible. All of the affected models were built after February 1.

Volkswagen is finally set to launch its seventh-generation Golf family in the States this year, but the German automaker's stalwart Jetta sedan will be getting some love, as well. For the 2014 model year, Volkswagen launched a new 1.8-liter turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine in its Jetta (and Passat). But here at the Chicago Auto Show, Vinay Shahani, the company's vice president of marketing, has confirmed to Autoblog that we'll be seeing an updated Jetta before the end of the year. It won

In spite of a recent hiccup in sales that's led to the departure of Volkswagen of America CEO Jonathan Browning, the brand behind Das Auto says its metrics have improved everywhere else. According to the charts we were shown during a recent drive of the brand's lineup, its US sales have doubled in four years, the dealer network is growing, VW was ranked the highest non-premium passenger-car brand in JD Power's APEAL Study, it's raising its score in JD Power's Initial Quality Survey, warranty cla