I am a bot whose sole purpose is to improve the timeliness and accuracy of responses in this subreddit. It appears you forgot to include your location in the title or body of your post. Please update the body of your original post to include this information. Do NOT delete this post - Instead, simply edit the post with the requested information. Basically, in as short a summary as I can make, in 2016 as part of an essay I was writing about dieselgate, I explored the ways that VW can come back from such an event. So for my essay, I used this famous layout and came up with 'lemonade'. This time the picture is of the electric Golf. When life gives you lemons (I.e. all the diesel cars being recalled), VW makes lemonade (I.e. a new, and genuinely environmentally friendly VW). Fast forward to today, and this new official ad is almost exactly like mine, even citing that 'even the sourest situation can be turned into something sweet'. Now I know I'm not the first person in the world to think of the 'when life hands you lemons, make lemonade' quote, and I certainly didnt invent the original lemon ad. I'm just blown away by the striking similarity, especially as my ad idea was on both my Twitter and LinkedIn well over a year ago. What do you think I could or should do about this? I'm honestly ecstatic that work of mine has essentially been published for a global brand (regardless of whether it was parallel thought or anything else), but I want to know the best way to go about presenting this.
Finally cresting the summit, I now had 11 miles remaining with 14 miles to go! Fortunately, these numbers rapidly improved on the descent. Rolling in to Santa Cruz, estimated range was back to 20 miles. The next day, driving Highway 17 in with a nearly full charge and light traffic was much more fun pleasant than the night before. On the descent to Los Gatos, I played around more with the D1/D2/D3 regenerative braking modes to match traffic flow, adding juice to the battery while making the ride more entertaining. When I finally rolled off the exit ramp and hit a stop light, throwing it in ‘B’ rather than hitting the brake pedal added an estimated 1 mile range. People who enjoy driving stick would like this car, I thought to myself. The e-Golf’s seats fold down completely flat and provide a generous amount of cargo room. You could easily fit a small dresser or bicycle.
This was a major improvement from the Ford Focus, which had a awkward “battery bump” in its trunk. The 2015 e-Golf’s navigation system feels more like 2012 or 2013 at the latest. The resolution isn’t great, and it’s not very responsive. 125 Sony headunit in my Subaru. I was able to play a podcast off my phone over bluetooth, but this drained the phone’s battery. The good news: VW realized they had a problem and upgraded these on the 2016 models, which also added CarPlay. My first charge had been timed well to walk up to the car just as the ChargePoint app noted the battery full, but got a surprise in that the charger hadn’t automatically unlocked. Instead, I had to unlock the car doors to disconnect the charger. This could be a big problem for someone charging at spots where chargers are shared among multiple parking spaces. I’d always assumed VW changed this behavior in software, but apparently it’s just the way things are for the 2015 models.
The Volkswagen e-Golf is a nice blend of fun meets practicality. My main gripes, the outdated entertainment system, has been resolved in the 2016 models. In addition to dealing with the 83 mile range limitation, the largest factor holding me back would be VW’s reputation for short cuts - choosing style over quality and reliability. While they currently offering zero down / zero financing, I’d still be inclined to lease the e-Golf to limit my risk of being stuck with problems and rapid depreciation down the road. The i3 was the car I’d really been looking forward to having for a full day. After test driving in Monterey last year, I found myself walking away impressed, but concerned about its practically. This was a chance to finally put it to the test. I’ll have to be honest, I did not care for the i3’s appearance when I first spotted one in mid-2015. The two-tone color scheme seemed awkward for a luxury car, and the andesite silver was a pewter-like color that I’m not a fan of.
Additionally, the “pizza pan” wheels that come with the Mega trim are ugly and uninspired; not much better is the mega’s interior of light grey fabric with recycled plastic trim. However, sitting inside an i3 one changes one’s mind pretty quickly. For a small car, the cabin feels gigantic, aided by ultra-thin seats, a tall ceiling, and no center console. Another nice surprise was the roomy rear seats. The i3 offers an optional range extender, or “REx” version, which is essentially a motorcycle engine in the trunk which chargers the battery when low. 4,000 and weighs several hundred pounds,which does take a slight bite in to battery range and acceleration, but gives a huge benefit: unlimited range (provided you give it a couple gallons of premium gas every 80 miles). I was pleasantly surprised that switching to the gas-powered motor was seamless, even on the highway at 75 mph. Noise of the engine was non-existent until I pulled in to a parking lot, then heard a “sewing machine” like hum coming from the back.
