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2023 ID.4 - 2 years and 37,500 miles of smiles

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48K views 254 replies 34 participants last post by  Rocky  
#1 · (Edited)
I picked up my Christmas miracle on 12/21, a '23 red Pro S AWD ID.4. It wasn't the blue ID.4 that I had ordered 8 months ago, but it all worked out fine. I'm very happy with the red color and even happier that I don't have the white interior. The dealer sold it to me for MSRP and I traded in my 2017 CRV for $17K which was about $3K less than I was expecting. I added the YuriK rear plate holder at the dealership and then installed the front plate at home using a kit to install it over the grill. Looks great. If everything goes right I should get $4K back from Illinois and $7.5K returned from taxes. Out of pocket should be around $28K when it's all said and done. Not too bad.

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It was apparently the worst possible time to buy an electric car, with holiday travel, sub-zero temperatures, high winds, snow and unknown charging at the destinations. I ended up missing a visit with my partner in life and she is still reminding of that. The car sat in the garage for several days except for short trips to the store.

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After that weekend I discovered preconditioning the battery and the weather because more normal (around freezing). I was able to make the 150 mile trip to visit my mom. The car performed perfectly. It was quiet and passing was a breeze. I mostly stuck to 73 MPH on the interstate. I stopped at an EA facility on the way there to top off the battery because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to use my portable L1/L2 charger at her house. Fortunately a spot opened up for me after a Tesla that was occupying a spot but not charging left. Also charging there were a Ionic 5, an F-150, and a Mach-E, and of course one of the four charging station was down. After arriving at my Mom's I did L1 charging overnight and then ended up plugging into her 240 volt dryer outlet and running the cable from inside the house out into the garage. Thank goodness for long cables! She loved the car and said the interface looked easier to navigate then their Subaru Outback's interface. My Mom says she will get a 240 outlet installed in her garage, now that all of her kids will be driving electric cars. I charged to 93% and decided to take the back way home, which involved many turns and rural highways but cuts 30 miles off the trip. The car did great and I got home with plenty of juice to spare.

At home, my JuiceBox refilled the battery while I got ready to head out to my second destination, this one was only 100 miles away but also with a possibility of a multi-day L1 recharge. This trip also went great and I was able to get an old 240 outlet in a shed to work at my destination after some messing about with ancient screw-in fuses.

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This week I was back to work with a 50 mile commute each way. This is a perfect commuter car for me!
 
#98 · (Edited)
After 9 months and 14500 miles, the car is still fine and feels new. My employer is pushing RTO (return to office) so I'm putting 100 miles onto the car 3 days a week now. That plus vacations and visits to parents really add up the miles. Fortunately, the ID.4 just eats up the miles!

I have been on the ComEd hourly billing program for 6 months now and they say I have saved $423 so far. 😀

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#99 ·
It's been cooler and I have shut the AC off for the past couple days. You'd think it wouldn't be running if it wasn't needed but I have seen some of the highest miles per kwh ever during my rural highway commute. 3.9 mi/kwh on the way home today!
 
#100 ·
It's been cooler and I have shut the AC off for the past couple days. You'd think it wouldn't be running if it wasn't needed but I have seen some of the highest miles per kwh ever during my rural highway commute. 3.9 mi/kwh on the way home today!
The Clima system in Auto may still run the A/C for dehumidification even if cooling is not required. After all, we're "ugly bags of mostly water." ;)

And also periodic running just to keep the seals lubricated. This is a good reason to run the A/C occasionally even in Winter on any vehicle (often needed for window defogging anyway).

So, I just leave such in Auto all the time on any of my vehicles. But for some reason I can't convince my wife to do same. But then too she still doesn't grasp that the home thermostat only needs to be adjusted by one degree from ambient to activate and therefore prefers adjusting by many degrees "to be quicker." 🤦‍♂️ :ROFLMAO:
 
#101 ·
The AC is still needed frequently so the seals should be fine. I'm not sure why it feels like it needs to run at all on the cooler morning but obviously if it's enabled it runs.

Shutting the AC off on days when that's possible continues to enable some significant mi/kwh improvements for me. Today's hour long 48 mile commute to work claimed 3.7 mi/kwh as opposed to the normal 3.4 mi/kwh. 17% of 77kw battery = 13.09 kw. 48 miles / 13.09 = 3.66 mi/kw which agrees with what the car is saying. 48 / 3.4 = 14.11 kw with AC enabled. I saved a whole kilowatt!
 
#102 · (Edited)
It's been 10 months and 16,000 miles with my red jelly bean! It's been raining a lot and it needs a bath. I'm still happy with it but I'm hoping that VW starts the 3.5 software upgrade before my 20,000 mile checkup happens sometimes around February. Fingers crossed!

I had been plugging into a 120v outlet in the parking area at work. I'd get about 15% charge after a day at work. Last week we got the site-wide email saying don't plug your electric car into their outlets. Ugh, busted.

I tried to fit silicone wiper inserts into the existing wiper arms but couldn't figure out how to get the end caps off the wiper arms without destroying them. I'll try again later...
 
#103 ·
I bought a bought a Rove R2-4k dashcam during the last Amazon sale. The Rove seems like a good camera from a US based company. Then I waited on some parts to install it to come from China. After looking at the documentation in the dashcam thread, I was able to run the power wire under the trim pretty easily using the tool that came with the camera. I wired it into the fuse box using a power tap and a 12v USB adapter.

Here's the USB adapter box wire tired to some existing holes.

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I attached the ground wire to a screw through another existing hole.

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Wrapped up the excess wires with more wire ties to keep them from rattling.

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Plugged in the wire tap.

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Mounted the camera below the IPass box. It turns on when the car starts by pressing the brake pedal.

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#105 · (Edited)
I have owned the ID.4 for 11 months now and am at 17,700 miles. I have been blasting about 1500 miles on the car every month. That translates to about 25 hours of seat time a month, bleh. Fortunately the ID.4 makes that painless. I still like the car and my S.O. still says she dislikes it even more than my previous car, the 2017 CR-V. Most of her dislike is because of the wacky door locks and the obtuse infotainment interface, but also she hasn't figured out where the button is to open the hatch from the outside and that frustrates her.
 
#106 · (Edited)
I've had some wacky software issues lately. Last week the reverse camera was flashing while I backed out of the driveway.

I also got these messages:

"A new login is required"
"Mobile network connection was interrupted"

Later in the day the mobile network message disappeared and I re-logged into Car-Net.

This morning the ambient lights were reset to white and the car claimed I had no subscription to Sirius XM, even though it was playing. It wouldn't let me change stations, even to FM through the screen or the up/down buttons. I finally reset the infotainment system and then it was fine.
 
#107 ·
I installed the new RainX Silicone Endura wipers today. With tax they were $60 from Amazon. The Bosch OEM ones were about the same price. They were the most expensive wipers I have ever purchased, also my first set of silicone wipers. They were easy to install, using the B adapters that were included.
 
#108 · (Edited)
Today is the one year anniversary of purchasing my ID.4 In that year I put on 19,000 miles, and have had no issues. The car says average consumption since new is 3.0 miles/kw, not horrible for Northern Illinois. It's been in the the dealership once for the 10,000 mile inspection and door recall and that only took a few hours. Other than the infotainment annoyances it's been a perfectly reliable and fun to drive spaceship. I'll be taking it in for the 20,000 mile inspection in January.

I ordered a replacement cabin air filter from Amazon (a 2 pack). When it arrived I thought surely this must be the wrong filter as it was HUGE compared to the cabin filter my other cars have had. Nope, it's the right one. 14" x 6.8"!

 
#109 ·
I have been noticing that the rear wiper hasn't been working well. I had some of the silicone blade inserts left over from when I tried to use them for the front wipers. The back wiper came off easily and I was able to pry the end cap off without destroying it so the rubber blade replacement went pretty easily.

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#110 ·
It has been very cold in Northern Illinois, -15F for the past several days. We took the 'ole Highlander gasomobile to Iowa over the weekend. The ID.4 probably could have made it there but I figured the driveway to the barn with 220V outlet for L2 charging there was drifted over and indeed it was.

Had MLK day off, so I got some things done that I have been putting off. Checked and filled the tires to 42lbs, they were all down to 35 in the 4O degree garage. Installed the new cabin air filter. It was easy but I did have to remove the frunk and one of the frunk brackets.

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Tomorrow it's back to work. I'm charging to 90% tonight because the 100 mile round trip will be pushing it in subzero temps. Thankfully I have access to the heated garage at work.
 
#111 · (Edited)
Idea: Heated drive in charging stations with convenience stores and amenities inside. Doors open and close to let in patrons. Sort of like the drive in garages at the larger dealerships, except with circuses. 🎪Electronics stay warm in cold weather for optimal charging. No worries about patrons breathing exhaust. Too utopian?
 
#116 · (Edited)
I have been thinking about some kind of lights down low in the front of the car, like traditional driving lights. I really like the Euro ID.4 GTX lights but can't find that vent panel with lights for sale anywhere reasonable. I'm thinking about eagle eye lights mounted in the faux grill down low, and while replacing my air filter I noticed that area is pretty easy to access from inside the hood. Now I just need to find some small lights that will fit in the diamond shaped spaces.

These lights are 18mm diameter and the small ID of the diamond pattern of the "grill" is 10mm. I'll see if I can modify them to fit once they arrive.

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#117 ·
After 13 months, I have driven almost exactly 20,000 miles. My 20,000 mile "maintenance" is scheduled for Wednesday morning at Fox Valley VW and they said it would only take an hour. They didn't say anything about the shade recall but I suspect that will get taken care of too.

I had some weirdness with the locking/unlocking during the snowstorm a couple weeks ago, and I though it may have been because the battery in the key fob was low, so I replaced it (very easy to do!). The old battery was still over 3V after a year, so that probably wasn't the problem.

Costs for charging the car at home have been averaging around $50/month and I have been driving about 1600 miles per month, which is about 3 cents per mile. Not bad.
 
#118 · (Edited)
Some photochops exploring light placement.

Option1 - 3 lights in the vent panel above the parking sensor
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Option2: 4 lights
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Option3: Vertical, carefully avoiding the parking sensor
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I tried a mockup of lights in the lower grill and some other stuff. I think I like the four in a row tightly packed in the middle of the vents the best. The lights are more floodlight than anything so I don't think having them angled slightly to the side will be an issue. They are very low power so I will just run them off of fuse 52 so they turn on when the car turns on. The biggest issue now is, do I want to drill holes in the car? :oops:
 
#119 ·
This morning was my ID.4s 20,000 mile checkup. I also asked them to look at fixing the door badge that rubs when it's in the hot sun and I open the door, and to see if they can fix the passenger seat that randomly leans back.

They filled the fluids and checked the pressures and performed the spraying of the sun shade and were done in an hour. They have ordered the side badge so I will probably have to go back for them to replace that in a minimally new position. Of course they were not able to reproduce the seat issue.
 
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#120 · (Edited)
The parking garage at work has two L2 chargers, legacy of my employers previous owners. They have been turned off at the breaker panel since the most recent owner took over. :rolleyes:

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I see now that the company does have an EV charging program and will wade through the corporate quagmire to see if I can get them to allow charging.
 
#121 ·
I read about the ID.4 "poor weather lights the other day and used them on a couple pea soup fog commutes. Apparently it just turns on the side lights that light up when you are turning, but every bit helps in those conditions. I'm still contemplating the add-on driving lights...