If there’s one piece of the Volkswagen Jetta GLI’s history we all recall, it’s the little sports sedan’s Blue Lagoon hue from the mid-2000s. Wait a minute? You don’t remember this short-lived GLI color? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even so, VW has introduced this Blue Lagoon Jetta GLI concept as a nod to a past it believes the wider enthusiast community fondly recalls.
That said, the Blue Lagoon Jetta GLI concept is an attractive take on the sportiest Jetta trim. Credit the color, as well as exterior bits such as a front lip spoiler, side skirts, and a trunk-mounted lip spoiler. A set of 20-inch BBS C-HR wheels pop nicely against the blue hue, while a set of Continental ExtremeContact Sport rubber and a coil-over suspension kit from H&R Springs surely improve dynamics.
Inside, Volkswagen added a pair of Recaro Ergomed ES front seats and a Black Forest Industries golf ball shifter head to the GLI’s six-speed stick, and we’d like to see the brand offer this package of interior upgrades on the production GLI. The brand mentions no powertrain mods to the GLI’s 228-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine.
Still, it’s the color of this concept that’s the star of the show. But we’ve got a little secret for you: the Blue Lagoon Jetta GLI is actually painted black. That’s right, this GLI’s blue exterior bits come courtesy of a wrap, which extends to the car’s door jams and inner body pieces to further fool Volkswagen fans. Even more shocking? The wrap isn’t actually done up in the exact same blue used on the Blue Lagoon fourth-gen Jetta. It’s actually a color Orafol—the company responsible for supplying the vinyl wrap—calls Midnight Blue Metallic.
Nevertheless, it’s damn close in color to the original Blue Lagoon. The team responsible for this concept even sourced a Blue Lagoon fuel-filler door from a 2004 Jetta GLI to ensure the vinyl wrap was a near-perfect match for the original color. It looks like a dead ringer to the more than 15-year-old paint option if you ask us. Then again, we might not be the best lot to judge the success of this concept’s color match given we barely remember it was a thing in the first place.
