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BRUTAL article over at TTaC today... echoes my sentiments to a tee....

https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2020/05/mk8-golf-deliveries-suspended-over-software-gremlins/

One gets the feeling that VW is in for a rude awakening. Honda found out the hard way that a wonky digital interface is incredibly bad for business. When it nixed volume knobs for touchable sliders a few years ago, the world cried bloody murder until Honda swapped back. However, Volkswagen is applying this theory to the Golf’s entire cabin — and it sounds like things haven’t worked out as intended. Features are reportedly having issues interfacing with each other, potentially rendering the car a total drag to live with if they’re not sorted quickly.

Again, this could have been avoided by taking all of those connectivity features the industry is so eager to implement and throwing them directly into the trash. But then they’d never be able to sell you in-app purchases and harvest your personal data, diluting long-term business plans. Frankly, we get the feeling VW prioritized this data-driven business model at the expense of its physical product. Software headaches are now fairly normal for the German manufacturer, yet it seems dead set on pushing the technology through as quickly as it can manage.
 
I think everyone will get used to the new tech and appreciate it.

Back in the day I special ordered my 2010 TDI 6 sdp manual from Wolfsburg, Germany, with xenon headlights, dynaudio and navigation with a functional DVD player (when stopped). For 2010 in California that car was high tech. It had more torque than my Corrado, the Xenon Headlights were great and turned with the steering wheel, the Dynaudio was superb and the large touch screen infotainment system/Navigation was great. What I had, had a larger screen than what was later offered on the Golf 6 R. It also had blue tooth so I could easily answer calls while shifting gears.

VW was also one of the first auto manufacturers to implement Apple Car play so widely on its cars and I thought it was great on my 2017 GTI Sport and is great on my 2019 GTI SE.

My old Danish Dynaudio system was much better than the lame Fender system on my 2019 GTI. It’s like night and day, seriously!


BMW shat their pants with the idrive. I had a BMW 3 series diesel rental car on a business trip to Germany and it was a pain to figure out the navigation with the idrive handicap. I had to pull over at a gas station to enter in the address of the hotel. The navigation on my 2010 Golf in comparison was extremely simple and straightforward to operate. BMW recently made customers pay extra for Apple CarPlay and then pay a subscription thereafter. Eventually the public brought this to light and BMW changed this ridiculous practice.

The infotainment system on my 2019 GTI SE is a touch screen. It has no tactile buttons for “Media” “Car” etc. like my 2017 GTI Sport has. I just had to train myself to touch with a certain amount of pressure while looking forward and trusting that my touch was received by the computer. Just because you look at an iPhone while staring at it, doesn’t mean that you should stare at the infotainment/navigation screen in your car while driving, because you shouldn’t. A car is for driving and luckily the VW GTI and Golf R offers a very visceral and engaging driving experience with excellent handling paralleling sport cars from Porsche but with much more practicality. If you want to stare at touch screen the whole time it would better to just ride the train like the Japanese youth do and never drive.

Again you should appreciate that VW is at the forefront for integrating technology for the masses. A while back I saw some guy driving a new Maserati and he was using his smart phone while at the light. For an expensive “luxury car” much more expensive than a GTI or Golf R I found it extremely lame that it didn’t have Apple Car Play or Bluetooth!

If you want lots of buttons, you could buy an old old unreliable Italian car with a headrest that ends where your shoulder blades begin. I prefer the modern performance, technology, reliability, safety and fuel economy that VW offers in the Golf R.

Since the GTI and Golf R won’t come to the US until the end of 2021, they have plenty of time to refine what they put in our cars.
 
Autocar was impressed by the interior

The 10in infotainment touchscreen is the first port of call to activate and adjust most of the Golf’s secondary systems, and there are a few capacitive shortcut ‘buttons’ underneath it to help you get to a particular function quickly, such as changing the air-con distribution or deactivating the parking sensors.

But while it’s not actually a pain to navigate at all, you needn’t go through that central touch-sensitive monolith for absolutely everything. Most importantly, the buttons on the steering wheel spokes give you access to most of the systems and settings you’ll need while driving without taking your hands off the wheel, and you need only look at the instrument binnacle while you’re doing it.

Volkswagen has also cleverly included good-sized heater controls just underneath the touchscreen, on which you can very simply swipe left and right to adjust the temperature of the cabin. There’s an audio volume control that works the same way. These are fixed in place, so you can learn to find them without taking your eyes off the road, and they’re simple enough to work well at arm’s length at the first time of asking. There you go: a genuinely simple and easy-to-use ‘touch-sensitive’ dashboard design has arrived.

This is going to sound very much like I’ve drunk deep of the Volkswagen-brand Kool-Aid, but to get into the Focus and look around after using the Golf for a few days made me genuinely wonder why a car interior needed so many little knobs and switches just to rattle and squeak and gather dust. That was a first, I can tell you. I’ve always liked a button.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/hatch-match-2020-volkswagen-golf-vs-ford-focus
 
A lot of German car reviews I’ve seen talk about how glitchy the infotainment is, no illuminated touch panels for volume and climate. Also a bunch of other issues while driving on narrow roads with incoming traffic and such. It was actually suggested that the new technology in the Golf 8 is flat out dangerous. I bet we will see a bunch of features eliminated for NA since we can sue the living crap outta VW if something bad happens.....


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Golf 8 Dash.

Yeah, My wife had an 07 Passat with the Sport package (18" wheels, 6 Speed w real leather sport seats) we bought brand new. She loved it (especially the sport seats and tan interior) but it was an oil burner from the start and getting tired (160K) plus the fenders had started rusting. I thought about rebuilding or swapping the engine and replacing the fenders but thought it wasn't worth it (big mistake). We traded it in (only $1500) a few years ago and bought her a 2014 Audi A4 with a 6 Speed and Sport seats but because buying used you are limited as far as interior and colors go we were able to get white but chose a Black / Brown interior. While it's nice the darker interior makes the car seem much smaller and the Climate Control sucks ass. The VW Climatronic was so easy and simple to use (3 Dials). She is used to it now but every time I drive it I am glad I didn't buy an Audi. I now have a MK6 2 dorr R that I bought 2 years ago because I didn't want a 4 door. Looking at the MK8 R I may end up getting a used MK7 or 7.5 in a few years because the 8 doesn't do much for me. At least VW hasn't go the way of most other manufacturers and plop the nav screen on top of the dash like a Tom-Tom from days gone by. I love some other brands as far as Exterior looks go (BMW, Mazda) but having to look at that screen every time I get in is a No Go. Even the newer A4s did that but it looks as though the newer ones are starting to go back to having it integrated into the dash. I have to say the biggest one that disappoints me is the Mercedes. It looks almost as bad as a Tesla or the newer EV cars that have a giant tablet sticking out.
 
I bet we will see a bunch of features eliminated for NA since we can sue the living crap outta VW if something bad happens.....


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I highly doubt anyone would be able to sue over the controls being touch. Not to mention Volvo and Tesla have used all touch control systems for a long while now and the majority of owners have no issues. I work at a Volvo dealership and even the older customers have close to no issue getting familiar with the Sensus system. Matter of fact the touch systems are easier to use than the older systems with buttons and dials. As for safety no one has died in SPA car (SPA is the platform name for all the new Volvos). I also don't think this will be an issue for many gen-z drivers.
 
I highly doubt anyone would be able to sue over the controls being touch. Not to mention Volvo and Tesla have used all touch control systems for a long while now and the majority of owners have no issues. I work at a Volvo dealership and even the older customers have close to no issue getting familiar with the Sensus system. Matter of fact the touch systems are easier to use than the older systems with buttons and dials. As for safety no one has died in SPA car (SPA is the platform name for all the new Volvos). I also don't think this will be an issue for many gen-z drivers.
Read my entire post before commenting. I was talking about a lot of the automated driving features being deemed dangerous, and thus will not make it to our market. Our roads are not like in Europe, and if the car on a German test drive decides to almost crash into oncoming traffic, due to the lack of a centerline, you bet your ass off that we will not get that feature here. Why do you think USA VW’s and Audi’s are missing the autonomous parking feature already?


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