My last 4 cars were Golfs, including 3 generations 5-7. I think they reached their peak with the mk7. Even the mk7.5/facelift was a step down. It gained the LCD dials, but cost cutting was affecting the quality. It was lots of little things that don’t mean much in themselves (e.g. lock removed from glovebox, areas that had felt-style linings were now hard plastic, etc) but just made the car feel lower class.
@Rene it was the steering wheel buttons, more so than the climate sliders (albeit I didn’t realise they weren’t backlit at the time) that made me decide to move away from the brand after 16 years. Have the sliders been relocated? In the present position (i.e. directly next to the bottom of the screen), I’m not sure how it would be able to tell if you were wanting to touch the bottom of the screen or the sliders.
Is your Golf, on order, due to have the physical buttons on steering wheel?
I would certainly be interested in returning to VW and in particular the GTE if those niggles are removed. As much as I love a lot of the aspects of my “fully loaded” Sportage, I can’t fully enjoy it knowing how thirsty it is and how easily the gpf/ppf clogs up.