2025 VW Jetta GLI Keeps Manual! + 2025 Golf R, 2025 BMW M5 + More! Weekly Update

News Topics:
0:00 Intro
0:13 2025 VW Jetta + Jetta GLI
3:56 2025 VW Golf R
5:09 2025 BMW M5
9:22 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed
12:41 2025 Audi RS Q8 Performance
14:01 2025 Audi RS3 sets new record
15:03 Genesis X Gran Racer VGT
15:51 Aston Martin Valiant
17:14 Dodge Charger Daytona reportedly delayed
18:38 Volvo EX30 delayed to 2025
20:23 BMW i1 and i2 rumor
21:19 Volkswagen invests 5 billion in Rivian
22:32 Rivian hints at 5 new models
23:57 Rimac’s new Verne robo-taxis
25:40 Member shoutout

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what’s up everybody Matt Moran here for another weekly updates there’s lots of exciting news to go over here this week before I get into the news I first want to mention I’ll be doing my usual weekly live stream here on Sunday night at 900 p.m. join if you can it’s always a great time but uh Volkswagen has revealed the 2025 refresh for the Jena this week and the best news it’s a nice refresh but the best news is the fact that they’re continuing to offer a manual transmission in the GL which is amazing and you know it’s going away in the GTI and the Golf R I think this might be the last Volkswagen to offer a manual that I know of at least here in the states um and I wasn’t expecting it I’m very happy to be surprised by the fact that they’re continuing the manual here it’s so so good uh there’s also some really nice changes here though but uh you know starting with the basic Jetta for its refresh as you can see they get all new front ends and back ends and I think it’s actually a really nicely done refresh with Slimmer longer lights in the front there and a nearly full width light bar in the back that looks really good too inside the changes are a little more subtle with the digital gauge cluster carrying over from before and the screen staying at a relatively small 8 in screen compared to the larger screens competitors and even Volkswagen are rolling out in other models but it should still be fine and it still does have wireless apple carplay and wireless Android auto Unfortunately they got rid of the climate control knobs though and replace them with capacitive buttons like we’ve seen in other Volkswagen but they are illuminated at least so that’s good and then mechanically it’s mostly carryover here with the regular Jetta continuing with the 1.5t motor that does 158 horsepower and 184 lb of torque and the GLI continues to use the 2 L turbo that still does 228 horsepower and 258 lb feet of torque and yes manual and seven-speed dual clutch are both still available here although unfortunately the manual has been dropped from the base Jetta uh which I’m sure is due to lack of interest but combined with uh the loss in the Civic this year uh the empreza last year and the Corolla a couple of years ago I believe this leaves the Mazda 3 as the last regular compact sedan to offer a manual it’s not even in the S and only the hatch with the Mazza 3 there um so this means basically yeah it’s they’ve completely gotten rid of the option and I mean it makes more sense to keep it for the sporty models anyway but for those who didn’t need the extra power it was nice to have the manual and from what I’ve heard the base Jetta with the manual is actually a fun little combo I’ve never gotten a chance to try it myself but um it’s sad that that’s going away but again I guess just very few people are interested and if they are wanting a manual they’re probably going to go for a G anyway so I mean it makes sense but not to add on on a sad note though here the last bit of good news is that when you compare last year’s base automatic to the 2025 it’s amazingly gotten cheaper uh even if by only $165 uh but it starts at $23,280 including destination and there’s no pricing for the GLI or any of the other higher models yet but I’d expect them to be similar as well um which is great with these days of you know Rising prices and the fact that this not only retains its price point but gets cheaper is just fantastic and I think Volkswagen is being a aggressive with the price point here um because they say the Jetta sales have more than doubled this year I think they say they’re up by 25% H and I believe they’re kind of chalking that up to its lower starting price compared to again you can’t get a decent Civic you know in the low 20s anymore really you can’t get you know all these are just so expensive with all these cars and so the fact that the Jetta comes in nice and cheap um I think also combined with the fact that like the Kia Forte is also to towards the end of its life so it’s a little bit on the weaker side until the K4 comes and so yeah I’m just really happy to see the Jetta doing well and yeah so they say the 202s will begin arriving at dealers in the third quarter of this year and maybe this spike in Jetta sales is making them reconsider whether they should have gotten rid of the pat maybe they will bring over the new Pats here to the states uh I believe it’s only Wagon in Europe now maybe they could hack the wagon and off and just make it into a quick little sedan and uh bring that back I don’t know but anyway moving on here some other Volkswagen news the Mark 8 and a half Golf R refresh was fully revealed here this week in Germany and like I covered two weeks ago it gets bumped from 3155 horsepower to 328 horsepower with torque remaining at 310 pound feet we’ll see if the US gets the same increase because these again are just European specific numbers for now and there’s no manual on site either here sadly uh but again it was always you know it had been not around in Europe for a little while now but you know the the consensus was that it’s not going to return here for the states and uh that’s most likely still going to happen but all the Mechanicals carry over uh there is a new loud start mode though that revs to 2500 rpm on Startup and the race mode now keeps boost levels Higher by leaving the throttle open on overrun uh the main changes are to The Styling here with new headlights tail lights front bumper there’s also a black edition now that uh you know obviously gives everything a darker look there’s also forged wheels available now that weigh only 17.6 lbs each which is probably the biggest Improvement of all here that’s pretty cool inside it gets the larger 12.6 in touchscreen and bigger paddle shifters there and pre-orders open this summer in Europe and we’ll get it at some point here later this year but there’s no specific us info here so far but still a really nice Improvement there and BMW has finally fully revealed the 2025 M5 and uh it puts up some big numbers both in good and bad ways as you’ve probably heard this week this has been like one of the top topics this week um so first the good news here is that gets the s68 4.4 L twin turbo V8 still combined with a plug-in hybrid system that gives the new M5 717 horsepower and 738 lb feet of torque but despite all that power the official and probably conservative 0 to 60 time is only 3.4 seconds which I believe is actually slower than the last generation version It’s 3.4 seconds it’s still very fast but these days I feel like that’s a little underwhelming for stuff like this but anyway uh the top speed is 190 M hour and it runs through an 8speed automatic still and has all whe Drive systems still that can go to rear wheel drive as well the electrified component is a a 14.8 KW hour battery that somehow only does 25 M of range and also confusingly adds nearly 1, 100 lb to the car compared to the old one um with these now weighing 5,390 lb so those crazy rumors were right it is insanely heavy to put that into perspective here the fully electric I5 m60i actually weighs about 150 lbs less with a big battery pack and actually does A.1 second faster zero to 60 despite having 124 less horsepower so you know it’s uh just the instant punch of the electric motors and um they’re you know more efficient packaging uh you know I’m sure for some that doesn’t matter cuz as long as the V8 is present All Is Forgiven it could have a 10 seconds Z to 60 and as long as it’s got a V8 people are going to be happy but this is just wild and not in a good way in my opinion I mean it’s not the only massively heavy super sedan out there the Porsche paname Turbo e hybrid ALS o is similar with its weight but uh yeah it still just feels kind of crazy to me um and it’s also insane to think that an Audi RS6 or RS7 which are like over 400 lb lighter are now the lightweight Options under 5,000 lb here but uh that is uh you know the world we’re living in with these things but anyway there’s a new boost control feature that gives you max power by pulling and holding the left paddle and then flooring it and as far as handling goes it gets am adaptive dampers and some lightweight suspension components compared to a regular 5 series and there’s six piston front calipers and just single piston rear calipers too which also seems like a lot less than IID expect from something this heavy uh and something it’s supposed to be track ready single piston calipers I mean I’m sure they’re big still but uh you know usually you see at least two piston rears in anything that has any kind of sportier aspirations as far as trackability and stuff but anyway uh tires are 285 in the front and 295 in the rear and well again 29 5es in the back aren’t small that also is less than I feel like you’d expect for something with 717 horsepower even with the all wheeel drive system inside it gets the new 5 series interior of course uh with unique seats wheel trim all the usual stuff I think the only good surprise about the M5 here is the price tag in my opinion so it starts at a relatively low I mean again relatively low $2,675 including destination which is only about $33,000 more than the old competition version um despite all the extra Tech of you know all the extra punch and all that I mean it’s whenever you look at it in a vacuum of that they actually priced it really well it is also $70,000 cheaper than that Porsche Panamera turbo e hybrid that I mentioned which is slightly faster for its 0 to 60 but uh does less horsepower than this does so you know in that context it’s a good value um but that doesn’t mean that it’s appealing you know if you’re someone who factors weight in into your uh considerations of a vehicle but it goes on sale this fall and we will see how this plays out whether this will be another repeat of like Mercedes with the C63 uh e performance that very few people actually want um we’ll have to see if this is appealing to people or or not um but anyway yeah very interesting to hear that and let me know your thoughts on that in the comments below Bentley has revealed their new Continental GT speed which debuts Bentley’s plug-in hybrid uh twin turbo V8 combo here and I’m sure Bentley is thankful that nobody cares about curb weights in their vehicles but hilariously this Bentley a Bentley yes it’s a twoo but a Bentley weighs just 31 lbs more than that M5 um with tons of sound deadening tons of luxury stuff Bentley already revealed the info on the engine a few weeks ago uh it runs the 4 L twin turbo V8 combined with an electric motor in between the engine and the transmission to provide a total of 771 horsepower 738 PB feet of torque and a 3.1 1 second Z to 60 time so it’s also faster than the M5 in addition to being basically the same weight plus the Bentley is running a much bigger 25.9 Kow hour battery that can do basically double the range of the M5 with 50 miles claimed on the easier wtp test cycle in Europe and also Bentley says that weight distribution has been improved now from going from 55 in the front 45 rear previously to Now 49 in the front 51 in the rear so the balance of this thing should actually be really good you know it also still has a very Advanced all wheeel drive system four-wheel steering elsd with torque vectoring and the Bentley Dynamic RI system with airs Springs as far as this being a new Continental GT it clearly isn’t all new with lots of carryover and even Bentley saying only 65% of the parts are new but at least they’re being honest this is something you know other companies want to say you the new Mustang is all new and it’s not and Ford won’t be honest about that and I’ve gone on about that long enough in the past but I actually love that Bentley a company that you think would really be fluffing things up is yeah 68% or yeah 68% is new the rest isn’t so refreshing whoever is writing the uh you know press releases for Bentley I love them for it um and uh so anyway up front the big change here is the headlights which moved to a single light for the first time since the 1950s they’ve always had a double light even with the most recent one you know it was a tiny little accent light but it still had the appearance of double headlights and that has gone away now the tail lights also get a new look but a similar shape out back they’ve also gotten rid of the activ ver spoiler and redesigned the deck lid and comb With The Changes up front uh it does add 1.8 in to the length of the vehicle which is notable so this will you know probably look a little more different in person than a dozen pictures here but on the convertible there’s also an extra crossbow now in the roof to make the top a little slieker for its profile inside it’s basically identical with only the digital gaug is being revised and there is a new electrical architecture that enables the car to connect with an app to remotely charge the vehicle and you know since it does have the plugin hybrid thing now and also you can change the climate control and even pull the car out of a park paring space now uh but I don’t think anyone’s going to really complain about the interior cuz the current Bentley interior is gorgeous beautiful and also came out really Hightech with that rotating screen you know it was 12.3 in even many years ago and that still is you know pretty much like you know part for the course uh on the upper end of the spectrum for the uh you know industry in general these days so I think that’s pretty good um and uh so I don’t mind them not changing that I’m sure people are happy to keep the knobs and all that and not go into some futuristic you know screen filled thing so um that’s great and uh yeah it’ll start production um and deliveries both in the third quarter of this year and there’s no pricing revealed for these yet but uh again I’m sure it’ll be something a little bit more expensive than the current Continental GT for some other Volkswagen group news here Audi has revealed the refresh rsq8 which now gets a performance trim it is now the most powerful SUV Audi has ever done doing 631 horsepower and 627 lb feet of torque which is 10 more than even the RS6 and RS7 and 40 more horsepower and 36 more pound feet of torque than the old rsq8 it’s thanks to a free or flowing exhaust they say that also sounds better and an RS sport exhaust can even make it louder if you’d like but it also adds up to A2 second red reduction and the uh 0 to 62 mph times dropping to 3.6 seconds now and has broken the Record for fastest SUV at the Nur ring as well which was held by the old rsq8 but is U huge it’s been a nearly 16-second Improvement now down to 7 Minutes 36. 698 seconds it also gets new 23in forged wheels that drop 44 lbs of unsprung mass and the trim uh that used to be gloss black is now matte gray here on these performance ones with matte carbon being optional you can still get the regular rsq8 as well and it gets a carryover Powertrain but does get the other updates here that all the q8s get including the new grill bumpers headlights and tail lights the interior is unchanged other than a few new trim options and there’s no info on pricing or when it’ll r in the US but I think these are some really great improvements and so great to see that Audi has also set another n ring record here this one in the refreshed RS3 uh this debuting in August so it beat the BMW m2’s Nur Ring Time by over 5 Seconds doing a 7 minute 33.2 three uh one two three uh time uh and is now claiming the title of fastest non-f front-wheel drive compact car they haven’t given too many details on the new RS3 yet but they say that improvements to the rear diff and new vehicle Dynamics uh controller are uh what’s partially to blame for the faster time there and Audi’s uh driver Frank stippler said the new RS3 turns in more willingly at corner entry thanks to fine tuning including brake torque vectoring which allows the vehicle to be positioned earlier and better for Corner exit from the Apex at the latest the result is a lower steering angle from Apex to Corner exit which leads to less friction and earlier acceleration allowing you to carry more momentum and speed onto each subsequent straight so there you have it uh spoken by the pros so looking forward to the full reveal and trying out those changes for myself hopefully sometime in the future as far as non-real track vehicles goes Genesis has reveal the X Grand Razer vgt concept for the Gran Turismo video game and it takes the X Grand Berlinetta and amps it up with more aggressive Arrow body reinforcements and a built-in roll cage it uses the same front mid-mounted supercharged V6 with an electric motor further forward that combines to do a theoretical 1,540 horsepower and 1,50 1 pound feet of torque which is 469 more horsepower and 65 more pound feet of torque uh than uh you know the past one there and they didn’t say when it’ll be in the game but you know we’ll see if we get any of these X models in real life at any point in time uh hopefully they do make the leap to production for these x1s it sounds like they’re wanting to so hopefully that does actually happen but very interesting to see that and continuing on with this theme of faster track prepped vehicles um Aston Martin has revealed the Valiant this week which is a rarer faster and more hardcor version of The Valor um which was already rare and fast this new Valiant gets 30 more horsepower from the 5.2 L twin turbo V12 for 735 horsepower but torque is the same at 555 PB feet and it all still runs through the beautiful manual transmission um with exposed components now which looks so nice on the handling side it gets new multimatic adaptive spool valve dampers and does have some lighter components although total weight savings weren’t revealed um there’s more aggressive Arrow up front down the sides and out to the big rear wing it now has and that change has meant that the trunk liet is gone and now the only cargo space is in the tiny lift up rear window there not like it matters since this is a very track focused car but inside it also gets a unique and smaller steering wheel that loses all the buttons and looks great and the seats are more aggressive and the other niceties have been stripped out as well and so if 110 cars of The Valor sounded like too many to you uh you’ll be happy to hear that they’re making just 38 of these Valiants um with deliveries beginning near the end of this year and um you know it’s cool to see just again this kind of stuff is so unrelatable but um you know cool to see Aston doing more of these one-off things if it helps them be a more profitable company I’m all for it and getting back to some more normal car news here Mopar insiders is claiming uh to have its dealer sources telling them that they were told that the new Dodge Charger Daytona has been delayed by 90 days supposedly due to several electrical issues this surface during testing which sadly sounds on brand for stellantis uh with my recent experiences and others um and this also isn’t unusual for pre-production vehicles they often get delayed and you know they have bugs that need to be worked out that’s the whole point of the development process um and so I’m glad that they’re delaying it you know I want them to get this thing as fully baked as possible so they have a good launch that isn’t plagued with issues like we’ve seen from other you know new EVs and stuff and um so to me this is good news delay it as long as you need to to get it right um and this will mean at least currently with the current plans if these are actually true plans um this means production will start probably sometime in the fall for these but there’s no public production start date or anything like that yet um but considering they called this a 2024 I’ll be curious to see if they’re not building them until the fall that they might want to carry it over to 2025 you know for The Branding of it I mean maybe they want to have this thing of like oh we never went a year without a muscle car and if you have a model year gap of you know 2024 then that could I don’t know be bad for the history books or something I don’t know but I think it makes sense to call it a 25 at this point we’ll see what uh Dodge does but another vehicle getting delayed here is the Volvo ex30 um so like I suspected when the trade tariffs were announced um with them saying you know anything that’s built in China That’s electric gets a 100% tariff the ex30 is built in China is electric it’s going to get 100% tariff if they try and bring it over here um they have said tada we’re delaying it until the factory in Belgium that was always planned that’s going to start ramping up E3 ex30 production um sometime next year they say they didn’t get any more specific than that um but yeah it’s funny cuz other outlets were more surprised by this and there was like discussion among dealers like hm I wonder why they delayed it and all this stuff and it’s like uh is no one watching the news what’s going on here so it gets the tarff that’s why it’s that simple um and even Volvo is kind of beating around the bush a little bit it’s like why not just call us spade a spade but anyway um it’s uh yeah it’s that’s entirely the reason why cuz they’re not going to be able they claimed this thing was going to be what 3540 Grand you’re going to try and sell it for 70 grand with this tariff like no way so um anyway for those that placed a pre-order for an ex30 this year Volvo told Auto blog that um they will offer these customers several options to drive a new Volvo until their ex30 arrives but they didn’t get any details on that just yet but I think this will you know benefit American buyers as well because you know while these are starting to go on sale already in Europe and elsewhere in the world um you know those customers can you know work out the bugs and then hopefully in its basically second M of year when it comes next year hopefully a lot of the early teething issues if they are if there are any you know those will all be worked out and we’ll have some more solid Vehicles once they actually come to the states so U I think it’s you know nice that uh it’s kind of played out that way honestly although I’m sure it’s inconvenient for many people who wanted these sooner but in some other small and affordable uh European EV news here autocars Anonymous BMW insiders claim that BMW is working on two entry-level EVS an i1 coming in 2027 and an I2 coming in 2028 they’ll supposedly be based on the new class platform um and won’t share a platform with the gas powerered one and two series that are over in Europe there and for these electric ones they say that the one will be a sedan and a hatchback with the two being either a crossover or a coupe um I guess maybe they haven’t decided on that one yet I don’t know but uh they will both offer either front-wheel drive or rear wheel drive so don’t expect an I2 to be like the two series actual Coupe that we have with rear wheel drive it sounds like it’ll be more like the two series Grand coup that we have here with the front wheeel drive thing so yeah we’ll just have to see if BMW decides to sell these here or not um but I mean I think a lot of companies now want to go into the entry level thing so I think this has a pretty good chance of actually coming to the States but we’ll have to wait and see rivan and Volkswagen also had some big news here this week uh with Volkswagen announcing that they will invest up to $5 billion in rivan uh for a joint V to share an EV architecture and software so their vehicles uh coming from this partnership will arrive before 2030 they say with both companies uh continue to do their own stuff as well but I guess this is kind of like you know the other Partnerships we’ve seen with other car companies of teaming up to build a car um I’m suspecting this could have something to do with Scout but I could be wrong um we’ll see but they didn’t say anything about the details of what the vehicles would actually be um and so yeah I think this is certainly very helpful for rivan everyone was worried that they might not have enough money to continue long enough for the R2 and R3 and I think this solidly puts rivion in a healthy place now um for their R2 and R3 debuts in 2026 and help them go you know beyond that as they continue to gain momentum and steam here so Volkswagen group CEO said our customers benefit from the targeted partnership with rivan to create a leading technology architecture and that through our cooperation we will bring the best solutions to our vehicles faster and at a lower cost we’re also acting in the best interest of our strong Brands which will inspire with their iconic products in an investor presentation that rivon put together they also revealed plans for five new models beyond the R2 and the R3 including something that looks like it may potentially come before the R2 and R3 in 2026 uh based on that timeline there but that one’s a mystery as far as you know what might be under the sheet there seems like another SUV but I don’t know around the same time as the R2 and R3 though in 2026 it looks like rivan has plans for something else it appears to be another SUV that one has me stumped as well and then further down we also see the affordable Mass Market phase um which should be pretty cheap considering the R2 was already planned to be starting at around $45,000 and the R3 even less than that so we’re talking stuff most likely in the $30,000 price range or less we’ll see uh with especially that smallest one at the top there looking like that could be a nice little 25 Grand car or something we’ll see uh but what’s strangely missing there was another truck I mean rivan I mean it seems like the r1t is really well liked by people you would think the obvious thing would be to do a midsize electric truck and even a compact truck uh you know beat Ford to an electric Maverick kind of deal especially if you have these small platforms and stuff it seems like it’d be perfect but um doesn’t seem like any of those Silhouettes are suggesting a truck I mean maybe the Silhouettes don’t mean anything um maybe you know plans are still in flux we’ll see but anyway you know hope it all goes well for rivon and I hope they finally add Apple carplay and Android auto at some point uh so that these can be truly competitive with everything else out there and for the last news here rimac has announced a new brand called Vern that will supposedly uh produce autonomous Robo taxis and they revealed what they’ll look like here and how they’ll work so as you can see there’s no controls in the vehicle outside of a stop start button that the rider can hit at any time if they feel uncomfortable and want to get out um which they hope will help with Comfort levels we’ll see but it has cameras radar and lar all to help it adapt to weather different types of roads and even adapt to different driving Styles based on the places where it’s being used it’s only a two-seater which they say is because according to their data 90% of rides only involve one or two people uh so that makes sense and the whole experience will be controlled with an app where you can customize things like the temperature and ambient lighting before the car even picks you up there’s a 17 speaker stereo reclining seats a panoramic roof and a 43in screen at the end of each day they’ll return to what’s called a mother ship where they’ll be inspected maintained cleaned and charged because they’re electric of course and uh they won’t be for sale to the public and we start rolling out supposedly in 2026 in Croatia followed by Europe in the Middle East uh and they have agreements with 11 cities so far they say and are in talks with over 30 more cities around the world but they didn’t say where the others could be and my big question for this still comes down to insurance and liability um you know are they going to accept full liability if this thing hurts somebody damages someone else’s car um whatever the case might be um I mean that’s the biggest thing I think everyone’s been trying to figure out these Robo attacks uh and most have failed we’ll see if remx team can crack this and I wish them all the luck in the world but um yeah others haven’t been able to do it yet we’ll see if uh they can get there but anyway interesting to see that and lastly I want to thank all of you that are members of the mataran motoring Club so we didn’t have any new members joined this past week we did have a bunch of people that were able to rejoin thanks to the uh membership gifts very generously given by Kyle during last week’s live stream so huge thanks to you Kyle for your continued generosity every week I’m sure all of those members that continue to be able to be members thanks to your generosity really appreciate it as well but I appreciate it the most I think I means a lot and so um for anyone else like to join become a member and get all the membership perks like that party answering the Discord server and all the other stuff there’s always join buttons here on the video page the channel page and a link in the description but anyway thank you all very much for watching let me know your thoughts and all this stuff in the comments below please leave a like And subscribe to keep these videos coming and I’ll see you guys on the next one take care