VW at the 2023 New York Auto Show

(This blog post originally appeared on my now-defunct Volkswagen Golf 8 blog.)

I went to the New York Auto Show last month for the first time in four years, and even though many brands chose not to display their latest cars (least of all Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac), Volkswagen was there. and unlike its 2022 New York Auto Show display (which I saw on YouTube), this year the VW display actually didn't suck. There was an example of every vehicle Volkswagen sells in the U.S., along with the as-yet-unreleased ID. Buzz minivan.

Above is an example of the Mark 8 Volkswagen Golf GTI, the photograph taken by yours truly.  Finally, I got to not only see a GTI in person, I got to sit in it - in the driver's eat and also the back seat.  I played around with the much-ballyhooed touchscreen controls . . . and I was utterly frustrated at trying to master it.  I can say without fear of contradiction that this touchscreen was a bad idea . . . and the sliders are worse. (This is precisely why, the for the first time in recent memory, Car and Driver did not include the Golf GTI on its annual 10Best list for 2023.) 

A VW product specialist saw me admiring the GTI while in the driver's seat, and he asked me if I was a Volkswagen customer.  I told him that I certainly was, and I had owned a fourth-generation Golf and I currently own a sixth-generation Golf, both base models, and I told him that I was very disappointed with the lack of a base model in the States.  He apologized, but he added that sport utility vehicles are what sells, and 83 percent of VW's sales (five out of six vehicles sold) are now sport utility vehicles.  (And, as noted, that figure was higher - 90 percent in the first quarter of this year.) 

I'm glad that the auto shows are back in New York.  But they won't be the same as they were before the pandemic.  And neither, in North America anyway, will Volkswagen.