Thank you so much for the write-up, much appreciated.
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Test drove an ID.4 today.
I just got back from the test drive tour. The event was pretty well set up, they had 4 cars that could be driven. They also let you drive the ID.4 solo with no VW person in the car (I guess that's because of covid). They wanted me to follow a pre-set route they had configured on an iPhone, but I missed a turn and that whole plan was out the window. I had about 20 minutes in the car, so I couldn't check everything, but I did get to drive it and accelerate on a few empty stretches. I'm coming from a RAV4 EV, so with that in mind, here's a few impressions :
-- Solid, solid build. The car felt very substantial. You could sense the mass as you drove. Felt hefty rather than sporty.
-- Very quiet while driving.
-- Acceleration was fine. If you mashed the pedal, it would pick up speed pretty quickly. Felt about the same as my RAV4 in normal mode. It is totally acceptable for LA Freeway driving. You might not win a drag race, but it'll more than keep up.
-- Screens didn't feel too laggy. Totally useable. The VW rep said it was 2.0, so if there's an update, it'll hopefully get better.
-- Turning circle is tight. I did a U-Turn and was not expecting to make it, but the steering wheel just kept turning.
-- Brake pedal feels too close to the accelerator. It's a minor thing and I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I could feel the brake pedal against the side of my foot. I was worried I'd accidentally hit the brake.
-- Rear view mirror is rather puny. Made checking traffic a bit tough. I'll go with a wider Homelink mirror if I can.
-- Infotainment system will take some time to understand. It's fairly intuitive, but there's a lot of stuff in there. When I get the car, I'll have to sit in the driveway for a while and go through all the menus.
-- Rear cargo area is narrower than expected. My RAV4 and my wife's Subaru use most of the body width for cargo. The ID.4 seems to have a lot of room between the outside fender and the inside wall. I've also noticed this narrowness in both in the Model Y and the Mach E, so maybe it's an EV thing.
That's about it off the top of my head. If you have questions, I might be able to answer, but again, I only had 20 minutes.
-- Solid, solid build. The car felt very substantial. You could sense the mass as you drove. Felt hefty rather than sporty.
-- Very quiet while driving.
-- Acceleration was fine. If you mashed the pedal, it would pick up speed pretty quickly. Felt about the same as my RAV4 in normal mode. It is totally acceptable for LA Freeway driving. You might not win a drag race, but it'll more than keep up.
-- Screens didn't feel too laggy. Totally useable. The VW rep said it was 2.0, so if there's an update, it'll hopefully get better.
-- Turning circle is tight. I did a U-Turn and was not expecting to make it, but the steering wheel just kept turning.
-- Brake pedal feels too close to the accelerator. It's a minor thing and I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I could feel the brake pedal against the side of my foot. I was worried I'd accidentally hit the brake.
-- Rear view mirror is rather puny. Made checking traffic a bit tough. I'll go with a wider Homelink mirror if I can.
-- Infotainment system will take some time to understand. It's fairly intuitive, but there's a lot of stuff in there. When I get the car, I'll have to sit in the driveway for a while and go through all the menus.
-- Rear cargo area is narrower than expected. My RAV4 and my wife's Subaru use most of the body width for cargo. The ID.4 seems to have a lot of room between the outside fender and the inside wall. I've also noticed this narrowness in both in the Model Y and the Mach E, so maybe it's an EV thing.
That's about it off the top of my head. If you have questions, I might be able to answer, but again, I only had 20 minutes.
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What did you think of the capacitive buttons for the controls?That's about it off the top of my head. If you have questions, I might be able to answer, but again, I only had 20 minutes.
I also had a drive. My first thought regarding acceleration were that it was just fine, not head snapping of course, but all I would need. Even 50-70 was OK. Then I made the mistake of stopping at the Ford dealer on the way home and test drove a Mach-e. Oh my gosh what a difference, and it wasn't even the all wheel drive model. It doesn't change my mind about all of the things about the Mach-e that I don't like, but it sure demonstrated to me different
As for the event, I was disappointed. Following a preprogrammed route that was running on Car Play and not on the native navigation, I missed being able to check out a lot of things. I agree with most of the things that @Geo had to say. It is remarkably quiet at 70 mph. The Mach-e had a fair amount of wind noise at speed, apparently it's coming for the panoramic roof. However at parking lot speed, the pedestrian warning noise was much more pronounced, a bit irritating I found.
Nice car, but it will take a much more involved drive for me to be sold.
As for the event, I was disappointed. Following a preprogrammed route that was running on Car Play and not on the native navigation, I missed being able to check out a lot of things. I agree with most of the things that @Geo had to say. It is remarkably quiet at 70 mph. The Mach-e had a fair amount of wind noise at speed, apparently it's coming for the panoramic roof. However at parking lot speed, the pedestrian warning noise was much more pronounced, a bit irritating I found.
Nice car, but it will take a much more involved drive for me to be sold.
Great write-up Geo!
I also went to the test drive event in Corte Madera today. The car was setup to Apple CarPlay to show the route on the map while a pre-recorded voice talks about the car.
I am very also very curious now about the Audi Q4 E-tron and ID5/ID4 Coupe. Hope we'll see both soon state side.
Bonus: There's a demo booth of an $18,000 three wheeled EV (the Electra Meccanica) in the mall you don't want to miss. Seriously. It's wacky. It's fun. It only fits one person (the driver) and a small bag, that's it. No passenger, no dog. But you do get state EV incentives. We're now considering it as a second car.
I also went to the test drive event in Corte Madera today. The car was setup to Apple CarPlay to show the route on the map while a pre-recorded voice talks about the car.
- The guessometer estimated the range at 310+ miles(!!) at around 95% charge. Everyone I saw was pretty much flooring it and the route included a small stretch of freeway, so I'm really curious now what kind of real range you can get in California.
- It's agile. It drives pretty much like a heavier and bigger BMW i3, which is great. It feels easier to drive than a Model Y (even though the VW is much heavier).
- The ID4 is/feels more compact than the Model Y, while the interior space seems similar.
- It's super quiet. It feels like a more expensive car.
- Build quality is top notch (I could be mistaken but the test cars seem slightly better made than the model that went on the dealer tour last year).
- Acceleration is decent. It's fun. It would have been more fun if it accelerated a bit faster though.
- The infotainment system is really slow and the UX mediocre. For everyone going to the Corte Madera event: the mall has both a Polestar and Tesla store. The Polestar uses Google Android, Tesla hired Apple engineers for their system. Volkswagen did neither and boy, it's embarrassing. I do hope they at least fix the lags. It would be nice if they would hire some UX experts too, but I'm not holding my breath.
- I'm not a fan of the dozen steering wheel buttons. It is super confusing to activate VW's version of AutoPilot. I wasn't able to. It's ridiculously complicated compared to Tesla (just double tap the drive stalk. That's it.). What was VW thinking?
- I told the VW people it's a shame the ID.3 isn't available in the US. They laughed and said they've heard that A LOT. I personally would love to have a Golf-sized EV.
I am very also very curious now about the Audi Q4 E-tron and ID5/ID4 Coupe. Hope we'll see both soon state side.
Bonus: There's a demo booth of an $18,000 three wheeled EV (the Electra Meccanica) in the mall you don't want to miss. Seriously. It's wacky. It's fun. It only fits one person (the driver) and a small bag, that's it. No passenger, no dog. But you do get state EV incentives. We're now considering it as a second car.
I think you might be able to get used to the buttons themselves (like hard press vs soft press) but I will never get used to having half a dozen of buttons just to enable Autopilot. The amount of buttons on the steering wheel is completely ridiculous.What did you think of the capacitive buttons for the controls?
Some of the sliders (volume, temperature) were snappy and worked surprisingly well, but the slider for opening and closing the panoramic roof shade was slow. As if it didn't register my touch right away.
@Geo, @Kitt, @aircooled...During your test drives was your car in creep mode or did you find/test Auto Hold at stops? Thanks for the reviews. Very helpful.
Mine crept. Especially after what felt (to me, 1st time EV test driver) like strong enough regen, I was hoping/thinking it would also be nice to have it hold at the traffic light, but it didn't.@Geo, @Kitt, @aircooled...During your test drives was your car in creep mode or did you find/test Auto Hold at stops? Thanks for the reviews. Very helpful.
I didn't get to dig through menus and settings before driving, though.
Yes, it crept. There was one weird thing I forgot to mention. I was at a stop and it started to creep, so I instinctively hit the brake. There was this weird shudder/clunk. I thought I broke something, but the car behaved like normal after that. Hope it's not a harbinger of future clunking.@Geo, @Kitt, @aircooled...During your test drives was your car in creep mode or did you find/test Auto Hold at stops? Thanks for the reviews. Very helpful.
Oh and the capacitive buttons - they work, but I'm used to regular buttons, so they felt odd. After I get used to them, probably not a huge issue.
Same as mmcbtx, the car crept and didn't check if there was an option. I do hope so, and I honestly think hold should be the default.@Geo, @Kitt, @aircooled...During your test drives was your car in creep mode or did you find/test Auto Hold at stops? Thanks for the reviews. Very helpful.
I liked B mode. It's less abrupt than the BMW i3 and Tesla regeneration I'm familiar with.
I think I somewhere read that in D mode (but not in B mode for whatever reason) the car does generate/break if there's traffic ahead of you. Some kind of smart breaking. I didn't try that though.
The break pedal itself had a "weird feeling" to it. Not sure how to describe it. I'm sure you'll get used to it.
I thought enabling Travel Assist was as simple as pressing the lower right button on the left spoke of the steering wheel (circled in red in the attached pic)? Do you have to turn on cruise control first, maybe? If the ID.4 is like other VW’s, you can leave cruise control on but inactive all the time, so it’s just a matter of hitting the set button when you want to use it. Not sure about Travel Assist. Adjusting the follow distance of the ACC is separate, but I would be surprised if you have to do that just to use Travel Assist.
![1659]()
In my case, it was exactly that easy. One push and it was engaged. Perhaps there’s a minimum speed requirement? Or it only works in D but not in B?I thought enabling Travel Assist was as simple as pressing the lower right button on the left spoke of the steering wheel (circled in red in the attached pic)? Do you have to turn on cruise control first, maybe? If the ID.4 is like other VW’s, you can leave cruise control on but inactive all the time, so it’s just a matter of hitting the set button when you want to use it. Not sure about Travel Assist. Adjusting the follow distance of the ACC is separate, but I would be surprised if you have to do that just to use Travel Assist.
View attachment 1659
Do you know which driving mode it was in? Eco, Comfort, or Sport?
I checked and mine was in comfort mode.Do you know which driving mode it was in? Eco, Comfort, or Sport?
Again, so nice to read all of your impressions, thanks!
One small nitpick:
"It feels easier to drive than a Model Y (even though the VW is much heavier)."
The ID4 is 4665 lbs, the Y is 4,416 lbs. I doubt the 5.6 % difference matters much above and beyond the quite different driving dynamics.
One small nitpick:
"It feels easier to drive than a Model Y (even though the VW is much heavier)."
The ID4 is 4665 lbs, the Y is 4,416 lbs. I doubt the 5.6 % difference matters much above and beyond the quite different driving dynamics.
Lucky! How was the setup for testing driving an ID.4? Did you have to sign up, or reserve a slot to be able to test drive? Might had up there tomorrow or Saturday.
Great write-up Geo!
I also went to the test drive event in Corte Madera today. The car was setup to Apple CarPlay to show the route on the map while a pre-recorded voice talks about the car.
- The guessometer estimated the range at 310+ miles(!!) at around 95% charge. Everyone I saw was pretty much flooring it and the route included a small stretch of freeway, so I'm really curious now what kind of real range you can get in California.
- It's agile. It drives pretty much like a heavier and bigger BMW i3, which is great. It feels easier to drive than a Model Y (even though the VW is much heavier).
- The ID4 is/feels more compact than the Model Y, while the interior space seems similar.
- It's super quiet. It feels like a more expensive car.
- Build quality is top notch (I could be mistaken but the test cars seem slightly better made than the model that went on the dealer tour last year).
- Acceleration is decent. It's fun. It would have been more fun if it accelerated a bit faster though.
- The infotainment system is really slow and the UX mediocre. For everyone going to the Corte Madera event: the mall has both a Polestar and Tesla store. The Polestar uses Google Android, Tesla hired Apple engineers for their system. Volkswagen did neither and boy, it's embarrassing. I do hope they at least fix the lags. It would be nice if they would hire some UX experts too, but I'm not holding my breath.
- I'm not a fan of the dozen steering wheel buttons. It is super confusing to activate VW's version of AutoPilot. I wasn't able to. It's ridiculously complicated compared to Tesla (just double tap the drive stalk. That's it.). What was VW thinking?
- I told the VW people it's a shame the ID.3 isn't available in the US. They laughed and said they've heard that A LOT. I personally would love to have a Golf-sized EV.
I am very also very curious now about the Audi Q4 E-tron and ID5/ID4 Coupe. Hope we'll see both soon state side.
Bonus: There's a demo booth of an $18,000 three wheeled EV (the Electra Meccanica) in the mall you don't want to miss. Seriously. It's wacky. It's fun. It only fits one person (the driver) and a small bag, that's it. No passenger, no dog. But you do get state EV incentives. We're now considering it as a second car.
I tried hitting that button (and all the other ones on the left side) but the screen kept saying "ACC disengaged."I thought enabling Travel Assist was as simple as pressing the lower right button on the left spoke of the steering wheel (circled in red in the attached pic)? Do you have to turn on cruise control first, maybe? If the ID.4 is like other VW’s, you can leave cruise control on but inactive all the time, so it’s just a matter of hitting the set button when you want to use it. Not sure about Travel Assist. Adjusting the follow distance of the ACC is separate, but I would be surprised if you have to do that just to use Travel Assist.
View attachment 1659
There's a website to register that was shared somewhere on the forum a few weeks ago. For reasons only known to Volkswagen, there's no link from the vw.com's ID4 page.Lucky! How was the setup for testing driving an ID.4? Did you have to sign up, or reserve a slot to be able to test drive? Might had up there tomorrow or Saturday.
It was well-organized and the cars were almost constantly driven by people. The team was super relaxed. If you haven't registered, I assume they can fit you in.
Even if you registered on the website, you still have to register and sign a waiver on an iPad. And after the drive they'll ask you to fill out a questionnaire. The last question is which car you're most interested in. And guess what? There's no ID.4 or even e-Golf on the list, only gas cars 😂
I wonder if they were giving different surveys to people. Someone else commented they could only give a model of car currently owned if it was a VW, and now you're saying you weren't given the option to say you were interested in an ID.4. I had different experiences for both of those questions.There's a website to register that was shared somewhere on the forum a few weeks ago. For reasons only known to Volkswagen, there's no link from the vw.com's ID4 page.
It was well-organized and the cars were almost constantly driven by people. The team was super relaxed. If you haven't registered, I assume they can fit you in.
Even if you registered on the website, you still have to register and sign a waiver on an iPad. And after the drive they'll ask you to fill out a questionnaire. The last question is which car you're most interested in. And guess what? There's no ID.4 or even e-Golf on the list, only gas cars 😂
When we were checking in, I noticed some empty slots later in the day (of course, would be less crowded on Thursday then Friday-Sunday). You can go on-line to see if there are any openings - VW ID.4 Roadshow. There were 4 cars at the event with 4 appointments every 15 minutes.Lucky! How was the setup for testing driving an ID.4? Did you have to sign up, or reserve a slot to be able to test drive? Might had up there tomorrow or Saturday.
When we checked in, I noticed our names were written by hand on their check-in sheet - you would think they would be able to print that out.
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