{"id":1845334,"date":"2026-03-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1845334"},"modified":"2026-03-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T21:00:00","slug":"volkswagen-boss-proper-door-handles-and-buttons-are-a-non-negotiable-for-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1845334","title":{"rendered":"Volkswagen boss: \u201cproper door handles and buttons are a non-negotiable for me\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cIt was clear we were losing our core.\u201d Volkswagen CEO Thomas Sch\u00e4fer is not mincing his words.<\/p>\n

\u201cVW has always been about cars that became part of people\u2019s lives: reliable, easy to understand. Yes, geopolitics, supply chains and competition [had an effect], but we also had to change our own mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Speaking at a VW event in Hamburg, he\u2019s explaining to TopGear.com what Volkswagen has learned from its ID. models \u2013 and its downright bad decision to ditch buttons in the Mk8 Golf.<\/p>\n

Sch\u00e4fer, who became VW top dog in mid-2022, says the company has totally reapproached how it designs cars. \u201cIn the \u2018old\u2019 days we made a long list of requirements and features, but people didn\u2019t feel comfortable using [the end product]. Now we think about people. Who is the car for? Who is driving it?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Next job: sketch attractive cars with a family look that projects quality once again \u2013 something lacking from the plasticky IDs.<\/p>\n

Sch\u00e4fer explains his design team, lead by Andreas Mindt, stuck to three principles: \u201cstable, likeable, and secret sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Come again?<\/p>\n

\u201cA VW should have a friendly face. A door handle must be intuitive \u2013 easy to use when you arrive at the car with hands full of shopping. And we will bring back real buttons and real names, for cars you can understand immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve seen inside the new ID. Polo: it\u2019s going in the right direction. Yes, there\u2019s a big touchscreen in the middle. But proper buttons replace touch-sensitive garbage on the steering wheel. There are toggles to work the heating. A volume knob. Heck, you even get four \u2013 yes, four \u2013 electric window switches! Wonders shall never cease.<\/p>\n

\"VW<\/p>\n

TG asked Thomas Sch\u00e4fer why he thought the previous regime had made so many reputation-staining interior cock-ups. R&D stretched too thin by Dieselgate? EV go-fever? He disagrees\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere was a spirit of iPhone-ish kind of design and utilisation that you could see coming through in many companies,” he said. “It was a little bit difficult to get the designers off that idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018listen, there’s two things that are absolutely non-negotiable for me: door handles and buttons’. I don’t understand why anybody would have [touch-sensitive] sliders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volkswagen\u2019s technical development boss Kai Gr\u00fcnitz adds: \u201cI’ve worked for Volkswagen for roughly 30 years now. Every Volkswagen has been made for the board, and especially for the CEO. Luckily Piech and [Martin] Winterkorn had a feeling for what the customer wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanging the CEO means that everyone follows the new one. And if he says, ‘hey, we need sliders…\u2019 they argued a little bit, but they’d style [it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Not the greatest endorsement for erstwhile CEO Herbert Diess then, we detect. Back to current boss Sch\u00e4fer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing customer clinics a lot, asking \u2018what do we need a button for?\u2019 We are testing with data, using cameras inside the car to see what the customer uses and where they are looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sch\u00e4fer also agrees Volkswagen is learning to listen more \u2013 to feedback, to reviews, to customers. Turns out we don\u2019t want to drive around in giant iPhones after all \u2013 which bodes well for the Golf Mk9…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt was clear we were losing our core.\u201d Volkswagen CEO Thomas Sch\u00e4fer is not mincing his words. \u201cVW has always been about cars that became part of people\u2019s lives: reliable, easy to understand. Yes, geopolitics, supply chains and competition [had an effect], but we also had to change our own mindset.\u201d Speaking at a VW […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,237],"class_list":["post-1845334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-topgear-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1845334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1845334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1845334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1845334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1845334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}