We weren’t hot on the ID3 interior either, one of the biggest reasons why we went with a Golf instead.
That said: the interior can be a decent place to be. We didn’t sit in an ID4, but we did sit in the Skoda Enyaq – same platform, similar interior. The Enyaq was a nice place to be. Still rather.. bare, but in a good way. Minimalistic, clean, rather nice.
That all said, after looking at comparisons, the main reason for the “interior feel” of the ID cars is the centre infotainment thing on too big a dashboard. They all have the same thing, a screen with the buttons attached at the bottom – and it looks cheap and nasty – and more importantly, it doesn’t look integrated. It looks like they built the car, and then stuck that screen on top of the dash – it feels like an old tomtom stuck to a vent, if that makes sense.
Interior is important. We sat in a Tesla, and it was just awful. Minimalistic in a cheap way, panel gaps that you can stick your finger into, etc – really rather not impressed. They’re built shoddy, and the technology isn’t market leading either, they were just bolder in adapting it, accepting the inevitable problems that come with it. Lots of it is simply “hype”, gobbled up and parroted by Musk zealots – much like Hyperloop, intercontinental Starship etc. They’re of course advanced, but they don’t do anything other modern EVs couldn’t do – just that other manufacturers decided that the tech isn’t quite there yet, and they’ve been proven right. “Self driving” technology is almost there, but not quite.
The Kona.. Well, we did like it better than the ID3, but it still fell short of what we’d consider “quality”. So did the new Tucson, as a sidenote – while in videos we were very impressed by the floating centre console etc, when we drove to Hyundai to sit in one, we were greeted by a grey centre console – grey from finger prints over the massive gloss pianoblack screen/controls. Looked “okay” after we wiped it down, but seriously.. meh.
We ordered a car now, but we’ll still go and have a sit in the new 308 (again, on video a rather nice interior), as well as the new Sportage (same). Equally the DS4, which has a pleasant interior (and was a choice until the first reviews came out describing how it drives – which isn’t quite what we’re looking for).
I agree entirely with POPS, in fact i’d like to empathise on one particular point. The ambience matters. You can have the nicest quality interior, it can still feel “off” and not quite comfortable. On the other hand, for example the Mercedes GLA, which we thought has an absolutely awful interior (with the screens stuck to the top of the dashboard behind the wheel) judging by pictures was instantly cosy/homely when we got in. Part of that was the interior light i assume, as well as the “hand rest” thing in the centre (gear lever is behind the steering wheel in the GLA, so you only get a leather topped.. thingy in the centre just to rest your hand on).