Thanks for posting and congrats on what sounds like a fun first road trip! Would love to hear your thoughts on road noise and wind noise, also based on different road surfaces! Thanks in advance.After picking up our ID 4 this morning from the dealer the fam wanted to go "somewhere" so the youngest girl suggested outlet mall shopping for summer clothes and everyone else agreed. We ended up going to two different shopping centers (because of course we did) and totaled 102 miles of highway driving averaging around 65 mph / 105 kph in some very lovely 55 f / 13 c weather. Some thoughts:
- We started with 98% charge and finished with 57% with 170 miles / 273 km of remaining range showing. That well exceeded the EPA rating in pretty normal driving conditions. VERY impressed with that. I imagine a lot of folks will beat 300 miles / 480 km in warmer weather.
- I saw someone refer to this as a "clown car". Small on the outside and big inside and that certainly proved true for our family of five. In the back seat we had my two full grown girls and my extra-long (6'4" / 193cm) son. They fit just fine! The boy's head didn't hit the roof and he had plenty of leg room. The girls are more normal sized peoples and fit great as well. The older girl had minor foot surgery recently so we tossed grandma's old wheelchair in the cargo area it was swallowed up like a tool box in an F-150.
- As I get more familiar w/ the screens and set up some customizations the more I like the design. It's much more geared towards being used while driving than the tablets on the Ford and Tesla (imo).
- Once you figure out the control knob for the side mirrors they are super easy and functional. I can quickly fold the mirrors in before entering our garage which is fantastic. Love this.
- Using Google Maps via Android Auto still provided the nav display cues on the center cockpit screen and I think even the blue ID light turn thingie worked. I was not expecting that! Very cool. We also used the car nav it was great too but of course it's a TON easier to search for destinations in Google.
- The travel assist is brilliant. It handled everything much better than the ACC w/ lane keep in our previous Honda. It just works and with it on the miles just faded away. This is going to be a great road trip car.
- The parking assist is great as well. Our garage spot is pretty tight so this is really helpful. You can even see the rear camera as you creep forward so you know if you've pulled in far enough so the garage door will close w/o hitting your precious.
- The pano roof w/ shade is a huge hit w/ the family. It was great to be able to close it while parked in the sun to help keep the car from getting too warm. I would gladly take that shade in exchange for some hard plastics on the dash or door panels in areas I'll never actually touch. Thank you, VW!
Things I don't like
- It's pretty hard to find the battery percent which is on the charing menu which is under the vehicle menu. They really need to fix this and display that info more prominently. The GOM is only as good as your recent driving and only you know what your future driving will be like. To manage range on a longer trip you need to have that info available.
- The Hello ID voice system is crap. I remember our 2005 Prius had "voice control" and it was useless. This isn't much better. Even the things it can do and doesn't require any outside connection like adjust temps is painfully slow. In a world were Google can understand almost anything you say to it this is just bad. Fortunately, unlike my 2005 Prius, they can improve it over time.
- Car-net is a hot mess. It's a lot worse than the UVO app for our Kia Soul EV. You don't really know if the charge and range info is correct since you can't force a refresh of the connection. You can't lock/unlock the car. There's no way to search for destinations on the app and send them to the car (Kia can do this). And I paid the $9/yr each for internet radio and "plus speech" and as far as I can tell they don't do anything. Internet radio doesn't work at all. We'll see if this just needs some time to update from the account of something. On the plus side, I was able to log in to the app and set the climate to 72f / 22 c while we were shopping. It wasn't all that warm today but it's good to know that option exists for more extreme weather.
- The "Beef Jerky Outlet" was very expensive. Not outlet prices at all. What a shame.
And here's a classic American SUV party. I'll take the blue one every day and twice on Saturday!
View attachment 1986
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Add Yours: VW ID. Buzz Owner's Registry
First short road trip impressions
After picking up our ID 4 this morning from the dealer the fam wanted to go "somewhere" so the youngest girl suggested outlet mall shopping for summer clothes and everyone else agreed. We ended up going to two different shopping centers (because of course we did) and totaled 102 miles / 164 km of highway driving averaging around 65 mph / 105 kph in some very lovely 55 f / 13 c weather. Some thoughts:
Things I don't like
UPDATED: Night driving
And here's a classic American SUV party. I'll take the blue one every day and twice on Saturday!
![1986]()
- We started with 98% charge and finished with 57% with 170 miles / 273 km of remaining range showing. That well exceeded the EPA rating in pretty normal driving conditions. VERY impressed with that. I imagine a lot of folks will beat 300 miles / 480 km in warmer weather.
- I saw someone refer to this as a "clown car". Small on the outside and big inside and that certainly proved true for our family of five. In the back seat we had my two full grown girls and my extra-long (6'4" / 193cm) son. They fit just fine! The boy's head didn't hit the roof and he had plenty of leg room. The girls are more normal sized peoples and fit great as well. The older girl had minor foot surgery recently so we tossed grandma's old wheelchair in the cargo area it was swallowed up like a tool box in an F-150.
- As I get more familiar w/ the screens and set up some customizations the more I like the design. It's much more geared towards being used while driving than the tablets on the Ford and Tesla (imo).
- Once you figure out the control knob for the side mirrors they are super easy and functional. I can quickly fold the mirrors in before entering our garage which is fantastic. Love this.
- Using Google Maps via Android Auto still provided the nav display cues on the center cockpit screen and I think even the blue ID light turn thingie worked. I was not expecting that! Very cool. We also used the car nav it was great too but of course it's a TON easier to search for destinations in Google.
- The travel assist is brilliant. It handled everything much better than the ACC w/ lane keep in our previous Honda. It just works and with it on the miles just faded away. This is going to be a great road trip car.
- The parking assist is great as well. Our garage spot is pretty tight so this is really helpful. You can even see the rear camera as you creep forward so you know if you've pulled in far enough so the garage door will close w/o hitting your precious.
- The pano roof w/ shade is a huge hit w/ the family. It was great to be able to close it while parked in the sun to help keep the car from getting too warm. I would gladly take that shade in exchange for some hard plastics on the dash or door panels in areas I'll never actually touch. Thank you, VW!
Things I don't like
- It's pretty hard to find the battery percent which is on the charing menu which is under the vehicle menu. They really need to fix this and display that info more prominently. The GOM is only as good as your recent driving and only you know what your future driving will be like. To manage range on a longer trip you need to have that info available.
- The Hello ID voice system is crap. I remember our 2005 Prius had "voice control" and it was useless. This isn't much better. Even the things it can do and doesn't require any outside connection like adjust temps is painfully slow. In a world were Google can understand almost anything you say to it this is just bad. Fortunately, unlike my 2005 Prius, they can improve it over time.
- Car-net is a hot mess. It's a lot worse than the UVO app for our Kia Soul EV. You don't really know if the charge and range info is correct since you can't force a refresh of the connection. You can't lock/unlock the car. There's no way to search for destinations on the app and send them to the car (Kia can do this). And I paid the $9/yr each for internet radio and "plus speech" and as far as I can tell they don't do anything. Internet radio doesn't work at all. We'll see if this just needs some time to update from the account of something. On the plus side, I was able to log in to the app and set the climate to 72f / 22 c while we were shopping. It wasn't all that warm today but it's good to know that option exists for more extreme weather.
- The "Beef Jerky Outlet" was very expensive. Not outlet prices at all. What a shame.
UPDATED: Night driving
- I went out on my fav short, hilly, hard country 10-mile bike loop and WOW the LED lights are great. The dynamic turning things is super cool and helpful on those kinds of roads.
- The auto brights worked perfectly. They recognized on-coming or rear lights and if anything we tuned to shut off a tad early and conservatively so it errs on turning them off to soon then leaving them on too long. Loved this feature.
- And of course interior, ambient lights, puddle lights, and door handle lights are all fantastic.
- The lack of illumination on the temp and audio sliders is a real fail. You can access the climate in a variety of ways and volume controls are on the steering wheel and I'm guessing your finger will learn where to go but it really should be lit up.
And here's a classic American SUV party. I'll take the blue one every day and twice on Saturday!
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I can’t imagine how you’d be doing anything wrong. I mean, for my Jetta I just added the vehicle and everything appeared. Does the ID.4 screen in the app look different than this?
Yeah, quite different
![2004]()
I can scroll down, and it also shows nearby L2 chargers. But I don't see a way to unlock the car or send any directions to the car. I haven't bought any add-ons to CarNet yet - this is essentially the "default" state.
It honestly doesn't bug me that much - my experience with the Kona was that the majority of the BlueLink usage was to check charge level and precondition climate before leaving. And I seem to have that ability with what I have.
I can scroll down, and it also shows nearby L2 chargers. But I don't see a way to unlock the car or send any directions to the car. I haven't bought any add-ons to CarNet yet - this is essentially the "default" state.
It honestly doesn't bug me that much - my experience with the Kona was that the majority of the BlueLink usage was to check charge level and precondition climate before leaving. And I seem to have that ability with what I have.
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