(FORTUNE Small Business) – The Jetta is the American Volkswagen, designed for buyers who'd rather have a trunk in the back than a Euro-style hatch. Last year U.S. customers bought almost 92,000 Jettas, fewer than in previous years but still more than twice as many as the better-known New Beetle.

In typical American fashion the redesigned 2005 Jetta, just arriving in dealerships, has bulked up, adding an inch in height, an inch around the waist, and a full seven inches from head to toe. The extra length expands the rear-seat legroom from cramped to acceptable, and the trunk from spacious to enormous. All that new metal, though, has caused the Jetta to gain a few pounds: 326, to be exact. To haul them around, the car gets a five-cylinder, 150-hp engine to replace the old four-cylinder, 115-hp plant. It isn't quite enough. While the Jetta feels peppy, it takes 9.1 seconds to get to 60 mph--pokey by today's standards.

Supersizing the new Jetta also has lifted its street profile. No longer anonymous, it sports VW's dinner-plate-sized logo and grill attached to a sharply sloping hood, and a high rear deck with integrated spoiler. The combination is appealing and fresh, and the Jetta looks just as good from the inside, where the instrument panel is trimmed with handsomely grained genuine ash, not a plastic look-alike.

Weighing against those good looks are the Jetta's price and worrisome quality. VW finished dead last in J.D. Power's 2004 three-year vehicle-dependability study. The company has responded by creating a special launch team for the Jetta to troubleshoot problems when they occur and by dispatching specialists around the country to take care of complaints. For a model in its fifth iteration, though, you shouldn't have to worry about issues like that. Although a "value" edition of the Jetta starts at $17,900, my tester with an automatic transmission carried a base sticker price of $21,465. A sunroof and premium sound system pushed the sticker up to $24,740.

That's more than a Honda Accord but far less than German makes such as Audi, BMW, and Porsche. VW hopes their glow will help push sales of the Americanized Jetta back over the 100,000 mark, but I'll need to be convinced.