Vw moving to a direct sales model

The only problem I see with that is insurers pricing such older cars off the roads or refusing to quote for them in the first place, coupled with motor tax changes designed to make them unviable to most people.

This is all part of the Green agenda to push us into disposable but expensive and overly computerised electric vehicles. I can see independent dealers and mechanics being similarly pushed out as they won't have the access to the software in the car.

That, and we Irish are obsessed with the age of a car/reg plate. This is all why otherwise perfectly good cars became worthless overnight when they started messing with the tax rates in 2008, and why insuring anything over 10 years old (especially anything unusual or nice) becomes increasingly difficult.

The automated systems are taking the piss now.

Radar cruise that used to be great at following car in front now has got smarter and rigidly follows speed limits at every sign post so.if you decided to cruise at 90 in an 80, that's OK but as soon as you hit a 50, it slows down and then goes back to 80, not 90. It's tiresome .

Add to that lane assist that is on at each startup and stop start doing likewise and it's getting quite annoying.

I will be making some adjustments!

the first part is a good feature, its helping you keep to the limit……

Oh, I think form 2025 you won't be able to turn it off on new cars, + I think 2025 is the year they introduce mandatory speed limiting and speed warnings, more bings and bonds, you won't be able to turn off the warnings as far as I am aware but you will be able to turn off the cars ability to slow you down automatically, but how long before it can't be turned off in future models ?

Volkswagen tried to copy Tesla's "modern" minimalist interiors and made sh1t of it, although, I wouldn't buy a tesla because of all this screen nonsense too, people love it and that's great, happy for them but it shouldn't be forced down our throats.

People bought Volkswagens because they made good cars, good ergonomic interiors, they went from traditional to future and if people wanted a big screen they bought a tesla others expect proper ergonomic interiors from VW not some glitchy software and screens that look like it was designed by screen addicted teenagers !

Don't get me wrong, it's not all bad news because features like travel assist are excellent for the motorway and good roads with good markings, it really keeps you in lane and it's good on commutes with lots of motorway but the lane assist which is not travel assist is just a very irritating feature that has to be turned off via menu in a menu and I really detest it.

Common to all these systems is that they can't prevent accidents and people are putting too much trust in them and taking out the phone for a youtube or tiktok session. On the N7 commuter grid lock traffic the system is actually dangerous because it can't handle the 100-0 and 80-50 in a second type of driving and it will crash if you don't intervene, it makes me wonder how many accidents are caused by such systems and people having too much faith in their abilities ?

Another highly irritating feature is the auto speed limiting, this nearly drove me nuts, on the N7 heading south parallel to the kill road there is a 60 Km/hr sign and every single time I passed it the id3 would hit the anchors and it was incredibly dangerous, thankfully it can be turned off but this option is buried in even more menus but what about when it can't be turned off ?

Yes, there's more, the emergency brake assist lights up the whole dash from passenger to driver side, a bright red light the width of the dash would come on and it would scream at you to brake when it thought you were going to hit something, that can't be turned off.

Between all this and infotainment crashes causing me to loose climate, no heat, no AC, no radio, no sat nav no speedometer it's no wonder I gave the car back under the half rule and this is before you get to all the electric car issues. Range, recharge times and queues at public chargers are very real issues but as 2nd cars where there is an ICE at home electric are worth a shot but I would never have one as my main car.

VW in the beginning promised to fix many issues with the id cars but it never happened, promised OTA updates, never happened and now the issue is that major software updates are impossible due to older hardware causing cars to be stuck on older software, so, basically, from an update perspective after 2.5 years old the car is already outdated !

I'd ride around on a 125 cc motorbike before I'd put myself in another high tech electric car again or pretty much any modern car with all this software and screens, no thanks.

I'm in a much simpler petrol car now and I couldn't begin to describe how good it is, honestly !

I think from 2025 you won't be able to turn off the speed limit warnings but you will be able to turn of the car automatically slowing down and speeding up again, but for how long ?

In the id3 it used to brake if it detected a speed limit sign on a parallel road, it was super dangerous but lucky it could be turned off completely.

Not a good feature. There is such a thing as keeping with the flow of traffic and as I said the radar cruise used to be useful but this brings you right down to bang on the limit which someone said is very likely well under the limit creating a mobile road block.

Perhaps the radar cruise can be used without this part by disabling travel assist. Must play around with it.

you can keep up with the flow of traffic without going over the speed limit

and the 'mobile road block' as you call it isnt caused by the type of slowing down being talking about here

if you want to break the speed limit fine, thats up to you. but dont complain about a safety feature not allowing you to do so

I'm sure vcds will be able to adjust the requirement to hit those buttons every time you start up.

Manufacturers normally claim with this model that you will be getting lowest possible price so that would suggest price cuts . Think its terrible idea and no incentive for dealers to develope premises . Aherns BMW in kerry will only be able to sell new cars in kerry from 2026 ridiculous

Yes I agree 100% and to think NCAP have penalised Dacia for not having these systems in their car giving them 1 star rating for otherwise pretty good cars is an absolute disgrace.

These systems are to be mandatory come 2025 and you won't be able to turn them off but you will for now still have the option to turn off the auto speed control when it reads a speed limit sign.

This is the E.U again and interfering, creating problems that never existed, there should be a focus instead on making drivers safer, more aware and putting them on proper driving courses and there should be more guards on the road catching people on phones and there should be consequence for drivers caught on phones such as 6 points or a ban but if they can play with their cars infotainment and instrument cluster like they're in a car simulator then Insurance companies need to take action and greatly increase premiums on these cars, I believe the increased amount of road deaths the last couple of years is as a result of all this in car entertainment and lets just admit that all these screens and menus are playgrounds for tech and screen addicted people, it's like giving alcohol to alcoholics and in actual fact, cars that actively encourage screen use, going through digital instrument cluster menus is as bad or probably worse than drink driving, having your eyes off the road at 120 Km/h is a lot of road not seen by the driver or at 80 km/h on a back road with endless bends is enough to cross the line and potentially kill someone.

As I said, the likes of travel assist has real benefits on the motorway especially but it encourages people to become complacent and encourages them to use their phones.

I remember being on shift back around 2020 and driving home I used to meet one lad that worked in the same building, he drove a Nissal Leaf 40 Kwh with pro pilot and he'd be driving around 100 Km/h and every time I passed him he'd have his head down and I remember looking in and he'd have his eyes off the road for a long time while just tapping the steering now and then to keep the system happy, I said it to him next time I saw him and he said " is it that obvious" I said yes it is and I told him to cop on that he could kill someone, not to mention that if the car in front braked too hard his car won't be able to stop in time and he was actually surprised " it won't stop" ? he asked. People are nuts.

The problem is how many accidents are these cars causing ?

Oh they might give a few k off the cost of very overpriced cars. The cost of them the last few years is absolutely ridiculous.

But you're correct, this move is only to make more money for VW.

Yeah so the answer is fight back and don't buy new VW cars.

Skoda dealer in munster was saying that trade-in's will be valued by VAG centrally and then they are available to the dealer network to buy at an internal auction- so Skoda offer you 10k for your 4 year old Octavia, then the dealer goes into an auction to buy it - maybe bidding say 12k and giving VW group a bonus markup of 2k on that trade-in's.

He thinks they will auction off non VW group cars in a more open trade auction. All new cars will be delivered by your local specified dealer - and the dealer will get a fixed fee for handling the handover and doing the PDI etc.

I have seen massive delta in trade-in offers from VW dealers- trading a two yr old VW I got trade in offers between 36k and 43k - I'm guessing with he new model the trade-in price you get will be rock bottom and of course no room to play dealers off each other.

I'm sure savy dealers will find a way to make money but the real benefit seems to be for VW group. Cant see a single advantage for the punter