[biotinker]

In the last three years, there have been two times when we traveled, rented a car, and were given a Volkswagon.

Both times, the touchscreen-only controls were such a pain in the butt that we vowed we would never purchase such a car. It was a timesaver, because in that period our family has gotten two new (to us) cars, and our experiences with the rental Volkswagons allowed us to exclude an entire manufacturer from consideration.

If they haven't re-broken their interiors by the next time we look for a new car, I guess we'll have to consider them again.

[pengaru]

What did you go with instead? Mazda?

[biotinker]

No, we wanted full EVs. Mazda doesn't make any, only hybrids. We wound up going with Chevrolet in both instances.

The Equinox EV is one of the better EVs to offer AWD out there right now, matching the range of a Model 3 at a decently better price and obviously massively better UI. Slower charging is the only real downside.

And a used pre-2020s Bolt is a really excellent value, because they are insanely cheap (under $15k) and due to the whole catching-on-fire thing they all had their batteries replaced in the last few years, which means you get a much newer battery than the mileage/age of the car would suggest. The Bolt is replacing a much older Leaf, so bumping the range up to ~200 miles from ~70 is a huge upgrade for us.