The New Audi Q4 Loses Buttons And Adds A Passenger Screen

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moonRekt@reddit

How’s my wife supposed to put her legs up on the dash now

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Ok_Field_5701@reddit

Another day, another r/cars post where they think they know better than a car manufacturer who is appealing to the masses.

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OprahFtwphrey@reddit

Every day I love my new passport more and more

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CompetitionPlane1848@reddit

I know screens are making it worse, but what are those bezels on the driver's display 😑?

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FourEyesAndThighs@reddit

They used the cheaper and smaller display from the new Q3 interior. It's just as awful in there.

The cheapening and enshittification of Audi interiors continues.

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india2wallst@reddit

Is the range better now ? We looked at it but it was rated at just 400kms.

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FourEyesAndThighs@reddit

No one likes the new Audi interiors, and those that are saying they do are lying to cope.

We still have leftover 2025 Q5’s at my local dealership. A Q5 usually sells in 20 days or less here, especially being the only Audi dealership within 100 miles.

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Velocister@reddit

Passenger screens are such an awful trend now. Passengers do have screens, it's called their phone. What is even the point?

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ShiftF14@reddit

Everyone says this for every bad car trend, but Chinese cars look way better design wise than western ones

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MattDaaaaaaaaamon@reddit

Sure they may look great, but how is the quality and reliability? We all know China's reputation for poor quality and cheap goods.

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MisterDoctor___@reddit

Acting like American cars are known for quality lmao.

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MattDaaaaaaaaamon@reddit

Nope, I will never buy another American car. I stick with Honda pr Toyota.

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TangerineBroad4604@reddit

Yeah poor quality and cheap goods like the iPhone

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ShiftF14@reddit

I’m not speaking on their quality, just that the “cars look bad now because China” argument doesn’t really hold up imo

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tsar73@reddit

Just one data point, but in non-US markets Chinese-built Teslas are usually sought after over the US-built ones because of perceived higher quality.

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sinkrate@reddit

They're excellent these days. People used to say the same about Japanese goods

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My issue with Chinese cars is every single interior looks exactly the same. It’s a Tesla style screen in the middle, with maybe a small screen in front of the passenger. Rinse and repeat, for every single car.

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cat_prophecy@reddit

Because it's dirt cheap. It's not ever meant to be a luxury offering. It's so they can avoid the cost of designing a decent center stack and the buttons, and switches that go in it.

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imightgetdownvoted@reddit

Yes but even their luxury cars use it.

I think it’s actually a good way to implement infotainment, it’s just boring seeing every single car use the same layout.

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NCSUGrad2012@reddit

Any proof of this?

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V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit

Many Chinese cars are coming with large screens and advanced features, their cars are really like smart phones.

In sales, more people are buying their own domestic models, so their sales can prove that.

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fzrox@reddit

China makes it big and actually usable. Not this tiny compliance screen .

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Nigricincto@reddit

It's the stupid gimmick that proves your car is premium. Every generation has one.

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Hustletron@reddit

Oooh this is a fun post idea

Stupid gimmicks to demonstrate a car is premium through the ages

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Godvater@reddit

I remember turn signals on mirrors was exclusive to more expensive cars at some point.

Then a bit later came the turn signals with animations.

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kryx@reddit

Piano black is one that just won't die.

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JournalistExpress292@reddit

I use gesture control all the time

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Clover-kun@reddit

BMW finally killed off gesture controls, but this also meant removing the sensors that enabled actual useful features like switching between a QWERTY keyboard and the circle dial depending on where your hand is, and lighting up the passenger side lights when reaching over to grab something

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cat_prophecy@reddit

Piano black immediately made the leap form "premium" to "fucking everywhere". It always looked like shit and always will.

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bse50@reddit

Cheap black plastic vs root wood/burl... Piano black has never felt premium, in my opinion. Stitched leather or wood ftw.

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KSoMA@reddit

BMW finally killed gestures with the knob in iDrive 10.

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itsnottommy@reddit

I wonder what the next one will be after passenger screens go away. Hopefully not AI chatbots, although it looks like that’s where the industry might be going.

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e136@reddit

Ok, here my go:

50's: wings

70's: vinyl roofs

90's: pop up headlights

10's: gesture control

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sequentious@reddit

Pop-up headlights were not a luxury thing as much as a mostly sports-car thing as a concession to the combination of sealed-beam and headlight height requirements.

If you want needless luxury, hide-away headlights would probably fit that bill.

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cat_prophecy@reddit

10s: gesture control

I honestly forgot that existed for a minute.

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icecream_specialist@reddit

Except popup headlights were sweet. When they worked.

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DeTomato_@reddit

Headlight wipers!

Backup camera washer. For this one, it might be useful if it snows a lot where you live.

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TheLewJD@reddit

Was it Ferrari who started it? Was dumb in those

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TheReaperSovereign@reddit

Looking down at your phone while riding in the car is uncomfortable and commonly causes car sickness. Being able to sit up, recline and scroll is more comfortable...luxurious even.

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JC-Dude@reddit

Have you ever tried to use one? You sit far away from it, you have to lean forward to use it unless you sit insanely close to the dash.

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imlost19@reddit

you're gonna hold your arm out 90 degrees in front of you for hours to scroll on a table 10 inches from your face?

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Multifaceted-Simp@reddit

Is it as the car bobs up and down?

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hharrie2@reddit

Looks like they wanted to come up with something new, and this was the only thing they could think of. BMW and Mercedes are doing the same thing slightly different, but the core idea is the same: that driver display... It's just as questionable as removing the speedometer in the new BMW 3 and stretching it across the entire windshield

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Loopdyloop2098@reddit

Remember when cars used to have the DVD players in back for the kids? This is basically front seat entertainment

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simeddit@reddit

Soon we’re gonna have A-pillar screens that look like those corny AIO monitors in people’s PCs

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Dan_E26@reddit

I guess VW hasn't learned their lesson after all

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DeepAsparagus6763@reddit

This refresh was most likely in development before they announced switching back to buttons, ofc they won’t just scrap a finished product. It’s just a bland crossover people lease for a couple years and then get the new one, most either don’t care or even look forward to the latest gimmicks

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Hustletron@reddit

I think people do care.

And even if they buy this one they get turned off and try a new brand by the end of the lease.

Bad news for Audi loyal, IMO.

My Q6 has me at my wits’ end.

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Suck_My_Thick@reddit

My Q6 has me at my wits’ end.

LOL, did you buy the car sight unseen? Not sure if you're trying to pass the blame to someone other than yourself.

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DaggumTarHeels@reddit

Given that all of the auto journos claim the Q6's interior is more than livable, they probably assumed they'd get used to it.

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RAMBIGHORNY@reddit

Auto journos are basically affiliate marketing, if they badmouth a car the press car gravy train ends

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Beeblebrox237@reddit

That may be true but I don't think it's a secret that the PPE and PPC cars are a software nightmare.

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lkhsnvslkvgcla@reddit

I was looking at the new BMW X3... test drove it and realised that i couldn't deal with using a touchscreen for everything, and promptly bought a used one from the previous generation.

If that one doesn't last long enough, I'll probably look at a Mazda or Genesis.

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diethyl2o@reddit

CX-5 also switching to all touch screen :(

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TheLewJD@reddit

I wonder what’s going to happen in 10 years with these throwaway cars we have today. Will they be dirt cheap or just thrown in a scrapyard? Especially say EV’s with issues, will someone buy it dirt cheap and replace the battery like say an Rx8? Or just let it rot

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DaggumTarHeels@reddit

Most EV battery replacements are straightforward. EV issues are wildly overblown. I honestly think the current EV depreciation curve is a function of people not being aware of how easily the vehicles fit into most people's lifestyles.

And to the random commenters who feel a powerful urge to bring up your contrived edge case; don't. This is a generalization for a reason.

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tiagojpg@reddit

So you’re saying most people don’t need a 1000km range and a 3 minute charge to 100%? If we could read, we’d be really upset.

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RFK_Cum_Regimen@reddit

What? Most people don't own property and have convenient access to charging.

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DaggumTarHeels@reddit

Most people do. ~65% of households own their home in the US, which is the locale I’m speaking to

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TheLewJD@reddit

I was anti EV until I actually experienced a few and yes for most people they’re the best thing really. I hope lots of them don’t just end up scrapped though as they are good even if they do feel a bit white goods.

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Moth92@reddit

hope lots of them don’t just end up scrapped though as they are good even if they do feel a bit white goods

Most will though. EVs right now are like smartphones, every year a new better one comes out. Until the time when battery packs and motors don't change as often as their ICE counterparts, then things will be different.

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flGovEmployee@reddit

The depreciation curves on EVs are representative of low demand for used EVs (relative to supply). Why that's the case is a more nuanced question, but I'd personally throw the following into the mix for an explanation: much better new EVs and the prices they sell for, undesireable interiors, high insurance costs, genuine lack of interest among buyers (which is its own can of worms I'm not going to open here).

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DeusFerreus@reddit

Batteries of even remotely modern EVs (ones with liquid cooled with decent capacity, aka. anything but old LEAFs and few other early and/or compliance vehicles) last for a very long time (well into hundreds of thousands of miles). Really it's all the rest of the cars that I expect to fail first, especially all the electronics.

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TheLewJD@reddit

Yeah good point, my cousins a mechanic and has said most of the things they come in for are electric faults and some either fully brick the car or are a real pain and expensive to fix.

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MRDR1NL@reddit

I agree. Even if the battery doesn't need to be replaced. Cars have gotten so complex that maintenance will be unaffordable. You can't break parts that aren't there.

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Tricky-Ad7897@reddit

I see people buying cheap Leafs to replace the batteries and have little city chore doers. Seems like a great car for college cause you don't need more than 50 miles of range to do your once a week grocery run.

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nerdpox@reddit

This refresh was most likely in development before they announced switching back to buttons, ofc they won’t just scrap a finished product.

correct. more than likely they'll give it the tactile button steering wheel that the a6 etron got as a 2026 change with no full refresh.

I used to work for an automotive supplier back in 2017 and we were producing stuff slated for 2020

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oralabora@reddit

It doesnt materrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. All excuses.

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mr_lab_rat@reddit

Their back to buttons initiative seems to be mostly a publicity stunt.

As far as I can tell they only fixed the idiotic touch buttons on steering wheels (which was easy to do) and added a row of buttons for mostly useless features on some new models. AC controls are still touch.

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triguy616@reddit

Cars take many years to develop. We're talking 3-5 years, sometimes more. Even if they can change the direction, it will be a while before the correction.

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AutomaticAccount6832@reddit

It seems that Audi will not go this way if you followed recent developments. Seems fine for VW overall. Majority of their brands does buttons again but then they also have one for people who like no buttons.

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Low-Umpire236@reddit

Teach them with your wallet!

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Fiveby21@reddit

The current audi generation is fucked but they've indicated they're returning to physiacl in the next design generation.

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Imtherealwaffle@reddit

too late in the dev cycle to change this one. If you look at the id.3 neo the interior is a return to form imo and hopefully audi and the rest of vag will follow suit

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whiteghetto@reddit

This SUCKS.

We really like our Q3 and our next car was likely going to be a Q4. Not like this tho... I will not purchase a vehicle without AC and volume controls or one with a glovebox screen.

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AlrightAlbatross@reddit

VWAG is cooked. It's fine to have a model cycle where you make mistakes or misunderstand customer demand. But this is just willfully doubling down on things that are known to be a bad user experience. Coming from a 20-year Audi/VW customer who currently has an ID4 in the family, I would not buy another and have stopped recommending them to friends.

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tiagojpg@reddit

It’s an internal fight for so many of us. We want to like new cars but they’re just… making it impossible.

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V8-Turbo-Hybrid@reddit

They don’t care their loyal customer bases from most world, they still listen Chinese car market because they’re biggest car in the world.

Chinese car market decide automakers going, not you.

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half_regard@reddit

VWAG is cooked.

your 'VAG is cooked,' really now?!

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Dachshand@reddit

You don’t understand how this works. They just recently changed their strategy. This refresh uses a lot of already developed parts which are manufactured by suppliers. They simply can’t change a development years in the making.

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Alive_Internet@reddit

Everyone’s focused on the screens and loss of buttons, but I’m confused about the existence of the Q4. Is there really a demographic out there that is served by the Q4 but not the Q3 or Q5?

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mintz41@reddit

Yeah its a cheap EV lease with an Audi badge. They're actually quite popular

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cat_prophecy@reddit

The Q4 has a lower roofline than the Q3 or Q5. It's more akin to a wagon than a crossover/suv like the 3/5.

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KSoMA@reddit

Q3 and Q5 are gas, Q4 is EV. Specifically Q4 is a rebadge of the VW ID4 (similar to the Q3 being a variant of the SWB Tiguan).

Audi also sells the Q6, which is effectively an EV version of the Q5 and a mechanical twin of the Porsche Macan EV.

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a_berdeen@reddit

I think the sweetspot for cars was that 2008-2020 window. I despise current market trends in this industry truly.

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SauthEfrican@reddit

Yep, between the plastic era and the screens era, the average quality of car interiors was actually quite decent.

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TFiPW@reddit

These Q4s rotting on the lot. This will surely turn the tides.

One more screen bro pls bro

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Lyxess@reddit

Damn Audi going the Mercedes route trash interior man.

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JustThall@reddit

I’m afraid MB interiors don’t look as bad now, yikes

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AssistantFar8275@reddit

What is up with these passenger screens? No one is going to use them

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aprtur@reddit

To make you realize how outdated it is when the lease is up, to tantalize you into the next one, just like cell phones.

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JCarterPeanutFarmer@reddit

STOP ADDING SCREENS

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emp_mei_is_bae@reddit

Idk why anyone would ever consider an audi tbh

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Dachshand@reddit

The A6 Etron and Etron GT are some of the best (looking) EVs out there.

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oralabora@reddit

The A6 etron is disgusting

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OldRed91@reddit

For real, isn't Audi already struggling at the moment?

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turb0_encapsulator@reddit

One of the factors that made Audi rise to prominence was the tactility of their high quality interiors. It's like they forget everything that made Audi what it is.

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Pumpfrance@reddit

il est tellement beau !!!!

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AFWorkUsernameYeet@reddit

"Great!" - No One, ever.

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5GCovidInjection@reddit

Man. I think the enthusiasts are losing this battle. People want their screens and they’re getting them.

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mrspaznout@reddit

That looks terrible.

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Jabjab345@reddit

Is the passenger screen still locked behind the prestige trim, which is a very small percentage of total vehicles? It was ridiculous when they did that for the other cars that have it, ensuring the vast majority of the cars have a lame poverty plastic piece. Either have it or don't.

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dayvieee@reddit

My first experience with a passenger screen was a panamera loaner and it felt like a gimmick to me. I didn’t get to try it much as my wife gets dizzy looking at screens in the passenger seat and I was too busy having fun with the night vision camera

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D_E_A_D_P_O_O_L_@reddit

VAG fumbled so hard in the past few years. They should've kept their traditional Audi/VW branding for premium/economy ICE vehicle without all the stupid innovation. And create another sub brand just for BEV.

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Th1rt13n@reddit

Technologia!

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Jlx_27@reddit

Another nail in the coffin.

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Eespinoza10@reddit

I know its a broken record here but even if most of the r/cars community dislikes the big screens and the no physical buttons the everyday buyers loves that kind of thing, my aunt just bough the new cx-5 and one of the key reasons was the big screen, so yeah this shit aint going away

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OkDirection8015@reddit

Yay 🙄

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Calibrumm@reddit

🤮

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thefanciestcat@reddit

Ew.

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MisterDoctor___@reddit

As someone who road trips a lot, a passenger screen is only useful if the passenger can watch movies while driving. Otherwise take the damn thing off.

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Dachshand@reddit

They can.

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MisterDoctor___@reddit

Oh, then I don’t mind this. My gf would appreciate it a lot actually, lol. She gets carsick looking down at her phone or laptop, but she can watch a dash-mounted screen all day.

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Dachshand@reddit

These screens have a special coating so they can’t be watched from the driver seat, so it should work I think.

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MisterDoctor___@reddit

Yea that’s good to me. Would solve a long-standing road trip issue of her being able to watch shit while I drive without attracting the attention of police officers seeing a laptop duct taped to the dash, lol.

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CoolNinja10@reddit

You still need some buttons.

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B00marangTrotter@reddit

Thanks, I hate it.

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IDoragon@reddit

Its just the same design as the A5/A6 or all the new Audis. Meanwhile VW itself is doing it right

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Boundish91@reddit

By the looks of it this just the previous design philosophy coming through. Probably didn't have the time to make the new button-oriented changes before the design was locked for protection.

Got to remember the that suppliers and the production/engineering can turn on a dime and implement changes.

I expect the facelift to implement more of the new revised and more button-oriented layout.

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Does it at least come with a lifetime supply of polishing cloths?

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