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With many of us scheduled to experience the ID.4 in a personal test drive over the coming weeks, I thought I'd start this new thread to collect and compare our impressions. Earlier today, I got a chance to get behind the wheel and found out that this is, indeed, day 1 of test drives across all their customer campaigns in the country.
Overall, my impressions are positive. This was the first time I laid eyes on the car in person and the exterior design struck me as great. It's a well-proportioned SUV that wears its heft with surprising grace. The 20-inch wheels worked well but I'm sure 19-inch rims would also look appropriate. The special wrap for test drive events actually looked surprisingly neat. Inside, it's a nice and airy cabin, as many have reported. Being on the tall side (well above 6 feet), I had no trouble adjusting the seat and steering wheel to a comfortable position. At that point, a child or small adult would still sit comfortably behind me, but a rear-facing car seat would not. The massage function was cool, by the way.
The drive itself was a tad underwhelming but that's only partly the car's fault. Because of the pandemic, VW lets you go out on your own, with route guidance set to take you on a short round trip, while Tanner Foust's voice tells you about the car. Before I go into the driving itself, here are some pointers that, hopefully, may help future test drivers make the most of their time with the car.
1. Ignore Foust and turn the sound off. Regulars on this forum already know everything he has to say and will gain more insights by listening to the car rather than Foust's commentary.
2. Get lost. No, seriously, lose your way, ideally, to end up on a highway that forces you to drive a couple of extra miles before you can turn around. Otherwise you will end up taking a way-too-short and utterly boring trip around the mall where the event is organized. If you're lucky, speed limits might go as high as 40mph. I did not do this and, as a result, my test drive left key questions unanswered, including the highway feel, wind noise at speed, etc.
Now back to the car: I was pleasantly surprised to see the range guessometer show more than 250 miles of remaining range, even with the battery charge at app. 80%. When I asked one of the techs if there had been any gamesmanship involved, he assured me that the 250-mile EPA range was "conservative." The driving experience itself felt fairly detached. On our third EV now, I was less than impressed with the acceleration and immediacy of torque (and I'm not comparing to Tesla here). That said, it's perfectly adequate. The electric motor's whine is more noticeable than in other EVs. Ride quality seemed ok but not quite as supple as I had expected based on some video reviews. And roads were not bad.
A few more random thoughts, in no particular order:
I'll update if I can think of more. Happy to answer any questions.
Hope this helps and, of course, looking forward to the impressions of others!
Overall, my impressions are positive. This was the first time I laid eyes on the car in person and the exterior design struck me as great. It's a well-proportioned SUV that wears its heft with surprising grace. The 20-inch wheels worked well but I'm sure 19-inch rims would also look appropriate. The special wrap for test drive events actually looked surprisingly neat. Inside, it's a nice and airy cabin, as many have reported. Being on the tall side (well above 6 feet), I had no trouble adjusting the seat and steering wheel to a comfortable position. At that point, a child or small adult would still sit comfortably behind me, but a rear-facing car seat would not. The massage function was cool, by the way.
The drive itself was a tad underwhelming but that's only partly the car's fault. Because of the pandemic, VW lets you go out on your own, with route guidance set to take you on a short round trip, while Tanner Foust's voice tells you about the car. Before I go into the driving itself, here are some pointers that, hopefully, may help future test drivers make the most of their time with the car.
1. Ignore Foust and turn the sound off. Regulars on this forum already know everything he has to say and will gain more insights by listening to the car rather than Foust's commentary.
2. Get lost. No, seriously, lose your way, ideally, to end up on a highway that forces you to drive a couple of extra miles before you can turn around. Otherwise you will end up taking a way-too-short and utterly boring trip around the mall where the event is organized. If you're lucky, speed limits might go as high as 40mph. I did not do this and, as a result, my test drive left key questions unanswered, including the highway feel, wind noise at speed, etc.
Now back to the car: I was pleasantly surprised to see the range guessometer show more than 250 miles of remaining range, even with the battery charge at app. 80%. When I asked one of the techs if there had been any gamesmanship involved, he assured me that the 250-mile EPA range was "conservative." The driving experience itself felt fairly detached. On our third EV now, I was less than impressed with the acceleration and immediacy of torque (and I'm not comparing to Tesla here). That said, it's perfectly adequate. The electric motor's whine is more noticeable than in other EVs. Ride quality seemed ok but not quite as supple as I had expected based on some video reviews. And roads were not bad.
A few more random thoughts, in no particular order:
- the sound system seemed solid but basic. Don't look for any sharp base or crisp trebles. That said, the center speaker on the dash helps create some semblance of surround sound. Yes, I would consider myself to be an audiophile so feel free to discount these observations.
- the UI is nice and loaded with information / features. I especially enjoyed the gesture swipes to switch among the three main screens. The way you adjust temperature via taps or, more quickly, swipes is also cool. I liked the fact that some physical buttons below the screen allow you to access key menus more quickly. There was some lag on certain screens – not terrible, but noticeable. When I inquired, they couldn't tell me if cars had software 2.0 or 2.1. Let's just say that I'd hope it wasn't 2.1.
- these drives offer minimal opportunity to test TravelIQ. What I can report is that the lane-keeping functionality was quite good. No ping-pong effect as observed on some other vehicles.
I'll update if I can think of more. Happy to answer any questions.
Hope this helps and, of course, looking forward to the impressions of others!
I also didn't have a choice.
