The most irritating things about the ID. 5 can bring out the grumpy old man in anyone.
The older I become, the more infuriated and downright shouty I get about very small and insignificant things. Tourniquet-tight jeans. The ratio of air to crisps in a bag of Walkers.
Concrete-and-steel car parks patently designed by someone who has never driven a car. Celebrity luvvies. What passes for music today. Suella Braverman’s humanity bypass. Tattoos.
I could go on, believe me. And to this more or less endless list I can now add the ID. 5’s driver controls and interface.
Much has been written about the ID’s woeful user interface, and I now know why. Software updates have reduced the laggy nature of the screen when you enter the car, but it still takes longer than you expect to get going – and that’s me going in to the experience with pretty low expectations, having been warned that the initially overhyped upgrades to the infotainment didn’t really go far enough.
While the clarity, iconography and navigation are all decent enough, the way you access many of the controls verges on lunacy. The volume slider is not backlit but the front armrests are. You can adjust the cabin temperature using similarly slidey unilluminated buttons, but all other climate controls must be accessed through the touchscreen, which gives you a choice of Smart Climate, Classic Climate and Air Car. However, if you want to demist either front or rear screen, you then have to use the cluster of buttons on the right of the steering wheel. Madness.
Compared to the size and clarity of the central screen, the instrument screen behind the steering wheel is cramped, making key on-the-go data squinty-small. Deactivating the int
