I've been on here a while taking it all in, but not posted much, got a bee in my bonnet on this one though!
Had a Mk5 GTi Edition 30, Mk6 R and now a Mk7 R. Needless to say I'm quite interested in the facelift.
All my cars have been 3 door, just me and the other half, so no need for 5 and I prefer the look.
My 7R has the keyless, but they made this option available on the 5 door only afterwards, which hasn't changed for the FL. No idea why. Audi manage it quite well on the 3 door A3/S3. Same with Seat and the Leon.
Now on the FL, lane assist, side scan assist (existing tech available on 3 door), traffic sign recognition, traffic assist, and rear traffic alert (new tech available for the FL) are only available on 5 door.
Why?? At first I thought there might have been some unexplained reason like with the keyless, but no, it's available on 3 door cars on the continent. Just not in the UK. VW customer services replied to my enquiry by simply stating that VW UK only import them, it's VW AG who decide the specs for each market.
Am I right in saying this is mostly software/coding as the hardware is already in for the adaptive cruise etc? Either way why would you go to the trouble and complexity of building cars with this tech only to arbitrarily keep it from arguably one of your most important markets.
I realise everyone has a view on how useful/pointless some of these options are, but for me it's about 3 door buyers not being afforded the same ownership experience as those who choose 5 doors.
I do a lot of miles and really like tech, so I'm an options ticker when I buy cars. Lots of chat about how the FL looks, but for me, in some respects at least, it's a step back from the car it replaces.