Speaking of which, it was not until a move from London to the countryside that I realised what a bonus VW Group’s Night Vision system is, picking out pedestrians and deer in the dark before you do, pinging a warning onto you dash and flashing its lights in the direction of the detected object. It genuinely saved me from hitting a deer, which are rife on the lanes round our house at this time of year. The thermal imaging camera and pre-conditioning brakes is a £1,520 option – worth it if you’re rural.
Another whizz-bang feature on our test car were the groovy headlights, or LED matrix “IQ Light” set-up, a 31,420 option. When you select full beam, they spread out like curtains being drawn, an effect we never grew tired of watching. They also, cleverly, and usefully, block the section of beam pointing at an on-coming car, rather than forcing you to dip the beam, or dip the beam entirely. The system was quick enough to react to oncoming cars to make it more than a gimmick.
Another genuinely useful feature is the all-wheel steering. We wondered why we kept over-estimating the angle needed to reverse park into a carpark space, then realised that the active rear-wheel steer means you don’t need to heave the wheel so much.
The driving-aid systems are legion, as you’d expect from a state-of-the-art SUV: adaptive cruise control, intersection (ie blind exits) assist, park assist, traffic jam assist… Then there’s the “guaranteed” access to the internet via the car’s SIM card, and Car-Net, which will lead the news out to you as you’re driving, adapt the route to live traffic updates, guide you to a free parking spot and more.