Cue the rant:
Do you recall Toyota’s recall woes late last decade? One of the issues was floor mats sliding forward and jamming the brake.1
...Most manufacturers have solved this issue by anchoring floor mats with a hook or two. But if you don’t re-attach it after cleaning, or if it somehow comes loose from its moorings, it could still slide up and jam the brake. Not good. The underside of Volkswagen’s floor mats are a thick, toothy Velcro. Instead of one or two hooks they functionally contain hundreds.
First, the Toyota recall was stupid - not only was there a VERY simple solution if your car did run away (i.e. neutral then brake? turn off the engine (though you'd lose power steering/brakes?), but it was because some tool in California put winter mats from an Lexus RX into a Lexus ES ON TOP of the carpet mats. Stupidity.
Secondly, Lexus also has 4 hooks in each corner to hold the mat in place, and those hooks work very well. Beyond that, each mat I've seen (assuming you buy from the Toyota/Lexus dealer) has 'teeth' spaced a few mm apart along the entire bottom.
You don't need bloody velcro, you don't need to recount the Toyota recall that was just a PR nightmare and not actually a safety concern, and you don't need to highlight it as a 'safety' feature. I bet this velcro doesn't come with the rubberized all-weather mats anyway.
/end rant.
VWs suffer from a complex where they believe they can charge huge premiums over their competing vehicles because they think they're better. This review gives an example of a demonstration that they're not. I cross-shopped the Tiguan when I got the Forester, and they're far from equal in any way. Sure, the Tiguan had nice, German handling...but the Forester beat it in every other way and came in $7,000 cheaper.
When helping my dad choose his Corolla, we wanted to love the Jetta TDI, but at $8k more than the Corolla for a Trendline with no driver's armrest or centre console...it's absurd.
Especially with its cheap interiors, VW needs to rethink its pricing strategy.
I've always, ALWAYS loved the Golf TDI sportwagon as a way better alternative to CUVs...but the price, lack of AWD, and crappy interiors will keep VWs far from the front of my mind until those issues are rectified.