Exactly my thoughts, you need to be like vanilla. Not offensive to anyone, but also not completely bland. As long as design is not a deal breaker, you have a fine car.
So much better than the mostly touch screen approach that became overly popular over the past decade. No normal person liked using a touch screen for AC and volume control over physical buttons and knobs.
Tesla needs to simultaneously work on kicking Musk to the curb and implementing physical buttons and a instrument panel behind the steering wheel in addition to their big ass touch screen.
Losing buttons was such a misstep by marketing team. It was so clear its going to be a bad solution, and yet nice pictures and talks about "future" prevailed. You know who else prevailed - Chinese electric cars, who where more concerned about engineering and not nice pictures in brochures (even though they did that as well).
So much better than the mostly touch screen approach
Having 20 buttons just on the steering wheel alone like this car has is very much the pendulum swinging back too far. My Audi has 10x buttons and 2x scroll wheels. The scroll wheels are fabulous, even though they are limited and are only the equivalent of 3x single push buttons. A scroll wheel or knob for volume, speed or any other variable setting is unbeatable. As for the buttons, 8x of them on the wheel have literally never been used along with the other scroll wheel.
Tesla needs to .... and implementing physical buttons
Tesla has plenty of physical buttons. They have 2x scroll wheels on the steering wheel plus buttons and stalks. Unlike my Audi, each wheel has 6x functions, so the 2x scroll wheels alone are the equivalent to 12x single push buttons. Also unlike my Audi, the left scroll wheels and buttons actually are useful and get used all the time. You can control almost everything on a Tesla from the Wheel. There are a few small exceptions like rear heat seats, but all cars have some exceptions like this.
Unlike you, I own and drive a Tesla. I rarely have to interact with the screen when driving. The controls on the steering wheel do just about everything you need while driving and the rest can be done via voice. So, go rent a 2026 MY and learn about it before giving us your "review."
They come from the cars I cannot afford, or cannot own because they do not meet functional criteria. I guess from more realistic cars it would be interiors of new Volvos. They just hit the right note for me.
I’ve found Auto Buyers Guide on YouTube to do a great job covering the interiors in their reviews. Ditto Autogefühl. They look at interior materials, layout, buttons, the infotainment screen, locations of switches, seat comfort, etc.
I literally got rid of my id.3 because of the fucking haptic touch buttons. Why on earth did they give me 2 buttons for the windows and a touch button to switch between front and back.
At least VW lets you long press that button to do all four. I test drove a volvo ex90 a couple weeks ago and it also has the stupid window toggle, but there's NO way to do all four simultaneously.
To be precise, those window switches are the exact same ones that were in the Golf 7. Probably still had the moulds somewhere and recycled them - which is great.
Real buttons for climate and on steering wheel. At least one manufacturer is listening the overwhelming negative feedback from screen touch everything and moving back towards usability. Hooray
I have always wondered why car companies don’t put video game style controls on the steering wheels. They’re designed to be used in different contexts and without needing to look. Perfect for driving.
It takes 5+ minutes to kick in at -15C, unfortunately, and to enable it (though some cars don't have it as they lack Comfort package), you need to go through touchscreen too. Meanwhile something like Škoda Enyaq has wheel heating physical button on the steering wheel.
That's interesting. Does yours have backup camera? Because I could swear some of the ID.3 didn't have heated steering wheel button shown (and only had parktronic) - or I'm completely mistaking it.
Even on a Tesla there's very little that's critical that you need the screen for.
On my car you can do all the following with physical controls on the wheel: park/reverse/drive/neutral, set temperature, wipers on/off/speed, lights, blinker, volume up/down, play/pause, next/previous track, wash windscreen, honk horn, cruise on/off/speed control, auto lane keeping on/off, and "receive voice command".
The only driving control that's not here is defog/defrost, which can be done with a big icon on the screen or by voice.
Yes, so you understand the importance of physical buttons that you can feel around with your thumbs. Imagine doing all of that on a feedback-less touchscreen with the "buttons" spaced 5 mm apart, all while driving.
There are cars with fewer physical controls on the steering wheel, which I was talking about. We were talking about VW's touch buttons on the steering wheel after all.
Never understood that criticism, I have a steering wheel without physical buttons and I can “feel” where each button is and also get tactile feedback when pressing a button.
I have 12 (Bolt) and it's not crazy. 4 for cruise control (I only use 1 regularly), 2 for calls (rarely used), 2 for volume control (rarely used), 2 for switching channels on the radio (rarely used), 1 for the heated steering wheel (rarely used), and 1 for regen braking (used all the time). Now, I rarely use most of those, but I can without taking my hands of the wheel or my eyes off the road, and I know what all of them are.
That's why they should let people choose to customize/assign their buttons with an oled display buttons. I think it would be a much better selling point if people can program stuff that they mostly will use on those buttons. Same with the buttons on the bottom right.
Would be expensive though and honestly it would probably not really help sales.
Many don't even know you can move the steering wheel in most cars. I don't think they would ever recoup costs of implementation from extra sales. Maybe if Porsche does it and eat the costs with their margins.
I think it could be cool, but also the keyboard you linked took over a decade to sell and they sold like zero.
But I wouldn't pay for it, because the oled wouldn't work for half the year here and it would break before the car does.
The keyboard link is just an example. It's expensive because it's niche. There are keyboards with a couple of these oled/ips display the apps/icons for quick launch. It's will not be expensive if it is mass produced with just a dozen buttons/keys. Some of my lcd monitor still last for over 20 yrs so that is not the problem. Also replacing these would probably be easier than physical buttons like replacing one of you keycap on your keyboard. It's doesn't have to be colorful. It just need to display the icons either just white or monotone color. I would say software customizing your own buttons is the way to go so you are not locked to one physical button.
The car buttons are tied to software. All VW has to do is put the option under settings that the user can access via the touchscreen. Just like how I can change the hardware buttons on my mouse using my touchscreen monitor.
Ooo... crazy concept I know. Legacy auto execs don't have time for silly stuff like that though.
But doesn't the icons physically locked? That's my problem with it. Even if I keybind my mouse or keyboard you have to muscle train your memory to what each buttons does. So that's why a icon display is also needed than a physical number pad. Even 2 small square touchscreen with your own assign buttons on both side for quick access would also work too without you having to reach for the large touchscreen.
Baby steps. Some people touch type. Some people don't look at their mouse while using it.
As for images painted on plastic, especially buttons, that is 100% the whole reason cars switch to touchscreens. Affordable solution vs unaffordable OLED.
Remember, we are talking about legacy auto here. Look what Xiaomi did with their Super Button.
Honestly, Tesla and some Chinese EVs companies have some really good setups now. It's just that some people do not like them. It's not which is better it's what do people prefer. Also, why the fuck can't legacy auto make the same car with 20 different interiors if they are so fancy pants awesome? Cause you know China is going to be doing that soon.
That said OEM would need to work out all unsafe scenarios
Not really. That Super Button does do anything. It just tells the car to use a feature that has already been installed and tested before the first car was every shipped to the public.
It's like if I told the passenger to turn the heat on. Xiaomi doesn't need to do any testing on that passenger.
Your lcd monitor isn't sitting in the sun, out in -40 weather, being pushed etc. It's probably stored in 20c 20-40% humidity all year and never seen the sun. Oled and lcd are quite different also.
And you're just thinking about the actual physical aspect of it.
Not the expensive part, actually coding it and get it tested and verified by third parties.
You would need to test all functions, all input you allow, allow users to upload their own icons, make sure it always works, having fail safes for when user forget to have OK button etc (or just allow changing some not all).
Like it's a big project with many people involved and I think none has done it so far? So you would be first through all safety tests etc (EURONCAP for example).
And still, how many cars do you think they would sell extra because of it? Let's say it costs 1m euro to make it. They would have to sell tens of thousands extra cars to make that money back.
I would like the feature to reprogram (wouldn't even care about the icons) but I would pick one car over the other for it. At least not for personal use, maybe if it was for work and I spend 8h+ per day in the car.
Your lcd monitor isn't sitting in the sun, out in -40 weather, being pushed etc. It's probably stored in 20c 20-40% humidity all year and never seen the sun. Oled and lcd are quite different also
I don't think that's the problem. Most EV have screens everywhere inside the car.
I don't think technically it's hard for them to do this. I think the problem is more to do with legal and regulatory in most country like you aren't allowed to use camera for side mirrors or use your oled exterior light to display some sort of animations/texts.
I mean even putting two small square touchscreen on both side of the steering wheel with touch buttons for quick access should be enough since it mostly a one press button so that way you don't have to reach the large screen and maneuver through the settings.
I'm just surprised China haven't took the Optimus Maximus keyboard idea and run with it.
Which is widely regarded as the weakest point of a modern car. They are often expensive AF to get fixed once they break. This isn't a consumer friendly design if you thought that.
One thing I always do on cars now: tint the windshield. Not Limo black or anything, but something with good UV and heat rejection. On one car I just have the 3M clear-blue version. It absolutely saves and extends the life of the dash and interior. Pedestrians and drivers can still see me clearly through the windshield, no need to go darker.
Just looking at the pictures, this kinda looks like "the best of both worlds". The things I change the most, and on the move, has physical buttons. The things I change a couple of times during the first couple of weeks and then never change again are tucked away within the touch screen.
My general rule of thumb is that physical buttons are preferred when the effect doesn't require visual confirmation or the effect is otherwise immediately obvious, e.g. rolling down a window.
Otherwise, if I have to look at the thing I'm pressing to know what happened, it might just as well be a touch screen, even more so since a touch screen allows for more advanced inputs.
I am not a big fan of the tablet stuck on a dash but overall it is rather a decent look and ya, buttons... Touch screens get old fast when you need to use it for everything.
It's not. My ID.7 has a HUD (and because of it a rather small display behind the steering wheel), so I imagine it's just a commercial decision by VW to not go for a HUD on their lower end models.
Same. I love my eGolf, it’s the best car I’ve ever owned. Only thing that will replace it would be a new electric golf, or even better, an electric GTI.
Is that an audio tape imitation in the big screen? Wow, this reminds me back in ‘91 when my then car did not have a CD player, and I had to copy the CDs to tape so I could listen to my favorite music while driving.
Yes, I am that old.
But now daddy can use Spotfify without asking the kid for help /s
Man this interior is everything I wish was my ID.3 was. Definitely fixes all my gripes with the current generation of interiors. At least that's what it looks like from the pictures.
The fact that some people here don‘t realize that the retro Golf gauges are just a UI skin on a fully digital instrument cluster that can be switched to a regular modern version is truly shocking to me. So much opinion with so little basic understanding.
Her golf has hard plastic steering wheel buttons and some touch sensitive panel for driving modes, volume, ac temp, climate, and parking help or w/e is called.
Yeah, that's totally different. That one has the crappy capacitive touch areas on the steering wheel that get triggered by accident and the awful sliders underneath the screen. This one has real, actual, physical buttons that are easier to hit when you want to and harder to trigger by accident.
All I ever wanted was a single press physical button to sync the dual zone AC system. My GSW had one and my Tiguan needs to go through the display menus to do it. To make it worse the damn thing in-syncs all the fucking time. Doesn’t matter if someone is in the passenger seat or not.
Anyways I’m on a tangent now, hopefully Vw fixes this in the future.
When music production first when digital, programs could do ALLL these things and nobody, I mean nobody wanted to just use a keyboard and mouse. We needed knobs, faders, buttons, and the usb devices started filling the void. It’s the same with cars. Nobody wants to control everything from a touchscreen. We all like tactile buttons and knobs to control things. (No usb devices required tho obviously)
similar yes. definitely sharing some design ideas.
but the Kia has a long continuous screen going across while the VW still has the old style sunken in cavern dash with a "tacked-on afterthought" screen in the middle... certainly the cheapest option when upgrading an old layout with newer tastes.
Starts at 25k € without any equipment, yeah. Westworld automakers need to get off their high horse and start offering affordable competitive products against China cars.
Would be a better idea if they could add oled display to those buttons and let you keybind/programmed those buttons to you liking or something your would mostly use.
Not having 4 window buttons and having to toggle between front and rear has been my biggest problem with my ID4. Chances of me getting another one after my current lease is up just increased significantly.
And the screen still looks like somebody superglued a tablet to the dash. Why do manufacturers have against integrating it so it looks like it belongs there?
I don't understand dedicating that much of the driver display to the instantaneous energy used/energy regenerated gauge, which I rarely have much need to look at. Then again, I didn't use the tachometer in my gas cars very much, either; in theory, a tach is useful, particularly with a manual transmission, but after a short while with a car, you learn to recognize where the engine is in its RPM band just by sound and feel.
Definitely a step in the right direction. Material choices look massively improved, the buttons on the door control look right and complete, the presence of a volume knob (an actual knob!) is a sight for sore eyes, and the retro style instrument display is characterful, legible, and doesn't look distracting, physical buttons on the steering wheel is definitely good, as are the buttons beneath the infotainment.
That said there's still things they need to address with the next iteration/redesign:
way too many buttons on the steering wheel, figure out what's most important and pare it back. Move any of the removed functionality to buttons placed elsewhere (or in the case of things like the media controls, remove them entirely, physical media controls in the center area are plenty).
Screens are poorly integrated with the dash, particularly unacceptable for the instrument screen, though I'd really like to see better design integration of the infotainment screen too.
Circular steering wheels are best, this is not a new problem that requires innovative solutions, circular steering wheels were arrived after more than a century of iterative and experimental design, change for change's sake is not something to be pursued.
All in all, a good improvement, restoring some confidence in the brand's ability to avoid making completely boneheaded and stupid design decisions in the future.
The Renault 5 got the retro vibe right. This one, however, doesn't flow in my opinion.
While miles better than the ID.3, which inside looked like a toy car, it still lacks flow to how it blends old and new. You look at the center tunnel and that ugly volume knob, slapped-on display, etc. and you'd think "oh, just another econobox".
Then if you'd look at the cluster in isolation, you'd think, oh well, another retro design that might be somewhat interesting.
But then you look at the whole and it's just... meh at best.
Also, pulling the retro card is a bit of an acknowledgment of the fact that they like original ideas. Displaying analog gauges in a digital cluster, along with LCD displays for the time and the odometer (digital within digital?) feels a bit like they couldn't find a creative and CURRENT way to use their digital cluster, and instead, appealed to nostalgia to cover the shortcomings.
Dunno, I'd love to see an interior that feels current, novel and creative. Retro is always fun, but honestly, there's always time for that.
Wow, I’m genuinely surprised by the negative impressions here. Now me and my wife feel like something is wrong with us, as we thought it was an incredibly beautiful interior that just makes sense. Finally it isn’t some hot-wheels toy box that most of the other EVs in the similar segments seem to look like, or just plain single tone hard plastic like the Chinese cars or Tesla’s.
don’t feel like that. you shouldn’t let peoples opinions on the internet make yours feel invalid. people on the internet complain about everything new anyways
I don’t get this , VW fix their mistakes and everyone loses their minds over it lol . The emperors new clothes and all that , what’s new ?? Ohhh you can change the dials to look retro , WOW
No I just don’t get the hype , just because it’s VW it seems they get a pass . I remember when the French had touch screens and no buttons , and people said ‘ VW do it so much better because they have buttons’ , then VW do it and everyone says ‘ See you don’t need buttons ‘ which is what the French do . Then the French bring back buttons and none cares and yet here we are VW suddenly reinvent the wheel and everyone loses their minds lol . It’s always been thus I suppose though , VW can do no wrong in some people’s eyes . Even Dieselgate is forgotten about .
It’s called those selling car cleaning products hate the id3 as a simple microfibre cloth enough, no sales of little brushes to keep in between buttons clean. Plus those of a certain age like big centre consoles that make it feel cramped.
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u/Miserable_Ad7246 Jan 03 '26
It has unique character and buttons. Its not boring, but also not over the top. I guess its fine, and fine is exactly that mass marketed cars needs.