[casioqv]

I've driven a bunch of recent VW models as dealer loaners while my TDI is fixed. I feel like VW has really lost it's way with the newer models... they are completely missing the aesthetic sense, quality, and driver feel of the Piëch era VWs. For example, the Atlas has fake exhaust tips on the back, and massive fake intercooler grills on the front. Interiors made from 100% brittle thin plastic, that look like wood, leather, and stainless steel from 20 feet away, but couldn't fool anybody that actually sat inside one. It's hard to pinpoint what is missing but most of them, most notably the Taos, don't "feel" like sporty german cars anymore, but have the overall driver feel I'd expect from the lowest end Japanese economy cars.

The Piëch era VWs were cool, and made for people that loved cars, and loved driving. They were what BMW was trying to be, but doing it better, for less money. Most of the current VWs feel like just cheap appliances for transporting people. Those type of vehicles serve a purpose and are okay, if (and only if) the design and marketing own this purpose honestly, and they are a simple looking utilitarian vehicle. The fake visual elements, and marketing gimmicks of the new VWs are insulting. It's like they've decided the consumers are too dumb to tell the difference, and that you're actually still getting what you used to get from a VW.

Ultimately, most american consumers aren't as dumb as they seem to think. I predict VW will exit the North American market entirely by the end of the decade, unless they get some new leadership, and start making good cars again.

 

[casioqv]

I leased a 2016 Egolf for a few years. It was a year old slow charge model they couldn’t get off the lot, so they basically gave me a new car for free. I want to say the lease payments were about $60 a month after rebates, a tiny fraction of what I spend on parts for my Touareg. It was a good car, I regret not taking the $10k lease buyout option. Plenty of range for city use, coupled with also owning a TDI for road trips, it was perfect. A virtually zero maintenance car- even the brake pads would probably last 400k miles due to regen.

 

[casioqv]

The e-Golf is very underrated, an excellent car you can still find for under $15k used, and it will still only have about 20k miles because you can't drive too much with only 80 miles range, lol. People don't seem to even notice they exist, nearly every article I've seen on the ID.4 mentions it as VW's first EV. In fact VW has almost always made a small number of EV versions of the Golf/Rabbit platform, starting with an electric MK1 Golf in the 70s, as well as electric versions of the MK2 and MK3.

I spend about $4k/year on diesel fuel, plus another $1k/year on parts for maintenance of my TDI Touareg. So a used e-Golf charging free from the solar panels I already have on my house would pay for itself outright in about 3 years, assuming it effectively displaced all of the mileage of the Touareg.

Of course, that wouldn't really be the case because the Touareg would probably still need about as much maintenance if not more if it sat around getting driven less, and I'd still spend at least $1k/year on fuel for it on road trips... so in reality I'd guess the e-Golf would pay for itself in 5 years by saving me $3k/year in fuel. Only problem is I already have three cars and nowhere to park another one, lol.

 

[casioqv]

insufficient sun at night when I would be plugged in even if solar was there....

A continual problem, except in the arctic I suppose. Here the electric utility will buy my solar for $$$ in the daytime, and sell it back to me much cheaper at night when people aren't using as much electricity.

by then, the battery on it will be poo.....

I doubt that, if the battery charge is managed properly. The awful VW Car-Net software, if you mess with it enough, can manage charge levels to basically make a lithium car battery last forever. If used mostly in the 40-60% charge range, and never fully charged or discharged, the battery will probably last a million miles. The problem is most used ones probably already had battery abuse.