A friend of mine had a newer of the Jetta body style a couple years ago and I drove it a few times. It had a good power band for driving around town but ran out of steam at a hair under 5k. The shifter had a good feel and it was a solid cruising car around time. I don't think I would go any bigger than a 17 inch wheel personally but ymmv.
I'm not much of a sedan person but the new redesigned Jetta looks pretty darn good..
