[RahulNagaraj]

Speaking in an interview, Volkswagen's design chief, Christian Schreiber, stated that the carmaker is working on removing the cheap plastic materials in its cars, replacing them with fabrics, and improving the quality of the cabin.

The design boss stated that when customers open the doors of a Volkswagen, it needs to be simple, usable, and not overly decorated. He mentioned, "When you open the door on a Bentley, it’s big and bold architecture, very strong luxury. When you open the door of a Volkswagen, it needs to be simple and usable and not overly decorated." He further added, "This should be the same once you use the car; it’s meant to work with you and not make things more complicated. It needs to also play with all the touchpoints you have in life."



Volkswagen's head of design, Andy Mindt, also part of the interview, mentioned how the brand will no longer use cheap piano black trim, horrid capacitive buttons, and hard scratchy plastics in its car interiors.

Mindt stated, "We’re going to try and kick out cheap plastic materials and put the money instead into fabrics and improving quality, which helps save money and means we can use it elsewhere. An example could be a door card that’s made of three pieces. We’ll try instead to design it using one island in the middle. There’ll still be a door handle and armrest as before, but it’ll all be built from one piece. It also makes the whole process more sustainable."

The design head also believes that switching to nicer fabric interiors and simpler door cards will benefit both the carmaker and customers - contributing to a "friendlier vibe in the cabin."

Source: TopGear

Link to Team-BHP news

[TheStoryweaver]

I hope we can expect next iteration of Virtus to have these new design elements in the cabin.

The major drawback of that car is the rough, bland interior space with hard plastics (reminded me of 1st gen swift dzire when i went for a test ride)

[Turbanator]

Earth is round and fashion comes back I remember nice cloth door trims on earlier Maruti- Zen/ Esteem models, if my memory is right.

Recently saw a new Mini- 3 door and it looks very nice with all that cloth interior. This can work in premium cars certainly but am sure there was a reason to switch to plastics at that time. Hope there are improvements in cloth processing (liquids/ dust stain etc comes to my mind)

[Lalvaz]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

There’ll still be a door handle and armrest as before, but it’ll all be built from one piece. It also makes the whole process more sustainable."

Oh no, that means that if the door handle needs to be replaced, we need to change the whole door pad, and armrest too. And if the whole thing is made of fabric, the longevity will definitely be negatively impacted. Doesn't sound as if they're simplifying things using this approach.

[Sids85]

Start with the India 2.0 cars please ��

[SithDefender]

Originally Posted by RahulNagaraj

Speaking in an interview, Volkswagen's design chief, Christian Schreiber, stated that the carmaker is working on removing the cheap plastic materials in its cars, replacing them with fabrics, and improving the quality of the cabin.

Volkswagen's head of design, Andy Mindt, also part of the interview, mentioned how the brand will no longer use cheap piano black trim, horrid

A step in the right direction indeed! It's shocking to see the quality of a new Virtus/Taigun vs the old Polo/Vento, as numerous BHPians have attested to. Good interiors lift up the whole ambience of the car as well as the halo around the badge. I hope this trickles down to VW's plans for India as well.

[Sid94]

Not just VW, all brands downgraded the quality of their plastics/ interior elements. All cars now feel like they are built to last just 5 years.

I know many complained about the quality of plastics in the Taigun & Virtus, but they are relatively alright and the cars feel like they are well put together compared to the rest. The interiors' color choices on the other hand are a big letdown. All of those dull greys make the cars seem down-market. While having well-cushioned/ soft touch points is a great place to start, some textured plastics in interesting colours, in the rest of the places, should do the trick to keep costs low.

[sachin_cs]

Sit in a Jetta, Laura, Old Superb and the writing is on the wall, the quality used in earlier car was superior to the ones sold now. It’s great to see that VW is acknowledging their shortcomings. I’m all up for fabric interior, they suit well in our hot climate. I for one would choose a fabric upholstery over leather. I own an Ambition variant of the Rapid and it has fabric trims on door/armrest. It has been almost 6 years and the fabric is holding very well, it’s comfortable to rest your elbows, doesn’t get hot easily and since it’s dark in colour, it’s easy to clean. I also had fabric seats and I loved it, great support and no sweating, however my parents forced me to get nappa leather seats, it’s supple and comfortable to sit but I still miss the OE fabric seats more.

One suggestion to VW- be smart with the choice of fabric and it’s colour, don’t use light shades considering our dusty environment.

[PreludeSH]

Wonder why they cannot stick some quality synthetic fabric/leather over the plastic parts ? It will add premium-ness and also be soft to touch. The complete plastic part itself need not be premium looking or feel.

[vinit.merchant]

Question here is, is this decision going to make its way to the Indian variants? That remains to be seen.

[dingolphie]

I will wait to see it for real. It is heartening to note that someone has acknowledged it. The gradual degradation of interior quality over the years has been simply terrible. Especially at VW - it took away the core of what people pay for. The visible perception of a higher level of quality.

[McLaren Rulez]

Like everyone else, they're simply looking to cut costs and moving to fabrics is cheaper than plastics. They're just trying to give it some good marketing.