A short tale about the author's quest to find a replacement for her cheating VW. My quest to find a fuel-efficient car. "I knew exactly what I was looking for: The car I’d been driving, minus the cheating on the emissions part....The landscape, as I saw it—bleak and dispiriting—looked like this: If I wanted a car that was pleasant to drive, it would have less than optimal gas mileage."
So she like the Kia Niro because it had traditional stodgy knobs - rather than Prius - looking like a high tech science project. My interpretation. That's why we have options. .
i can see that. it's probably much more vdubbish, including reliability. you wouldn't want to miss that FaceTime with your dealer.
Vermont is one of those states that get white stuff falling from the sky part of the year, and bulky glove use is common. Knobs are better then, and some prefer them over touchscreens for not having to take your eyes off the road. The author would likely agree on the point of options, or she wouldn't be in a hybrid now. I was under the impression that Hyundai/Kai are much improved.
I do suspect that modern Kias will have quite a lot to offer for Volkswagen owners that like the styling of their existing cars (because Kia has Audi's old designer), and that those that don't like the behavior of a power split transmission will get along better with the DCT in the Niro (although for me, I don't like stepped gear automatics, whether they have torque converters or dual clutches - if it has stepped gears, it better have a clutch pedal too).
