to get back OT:
I think about a hybrid VW from an historical perspective. Yes, Dr. Porsche pretty much invented the technology (Mixt Drive, 122 years ago) but you will notice he had the good sense to abandon such nonsense by the time he had matured to the point of making his signature design and later his own cars. All through the air cooled era, Porsche and VW vehicles featured super simple and reliable electrical components - mostly from Robert Bosch gmbh.
Fast forward to 1969 when der kleineautogesellschaft went vasserpumpen with the acquisition and merger of Auto Union and NSU. The first Audi (1973 Fox) to reach these shores had a pretty neat inline 4, but was characterized by some of the most mickey-mouse (sorry Walt) electrical devices known to man. The first A platform cars, starting with the Scriocco, sported the same junk that routinely failed.
Now, just to clearly show this bifurcated company, the introduction of Bosch (really Bendix) D Jetronic into air cooled cars was quite successful, with even the failure of a computer (actually an extremely rare event) so simple that as mechanics (that's what they called us then) we would simply open it up and find the fried component and run down to Radio Shack and buy a new one to solder in place. It was seldom a problem to HAVE, never mind need to fix and electrical problem in an air cooled VW. Most were caused by inept mechanics screwing up terminations - especially to ground points.
Not so true for the "new direction" with the arrival of the AutoUnion based cars.
So here we are in an era where EVERYTHING at VW is pretty much Audi-like and electrical/electronic stuff still is about as poorly designed and built as the first C platform 5000s - that were reliability disasters. Think of the already overloaded fuse/relay box of an A1 Golf overloaded further with at least double the current load from slapped on devices, almost perfectly mounted in every car directly below the water leak path from the antenna hole. VW/Audi seems to have a very difficult time moving much beyond that way of doing things in the digital era.
The only thing to ever make VW/Audi an alternative to anything was their excellent diesel engine development - until of course their arrogance to so flagrantly violate rules and lie about it.
And you think I would buy a whole car that relied on VW making a successful electrical or electronic device? (BTW: my new-to-me ultra low mile Q7 TDI just locked on the rear view camera for my wife while I am out on the road for an extended project out of country - thrilled I am).
Dream on. I have just bought my last ever VW product after 52 years of loyal ownership.
