[Digi02]

My FE arrived at the dealer this morning and I took delivery this evening. Overall great experience! Couple things I noticed driving home at night.
1. Backup camera poor night quality
2. I found there a significant difference between sport and comfort mode
3. The HVAC and volume sliders are not illuminated at night.
4. the pedestrian noise it’s emitting at low speeds is incredibly loud! Sounds like a space ship mixed with an orchestra tuning up.

 

[Swimrwo]

Congratulations! You commented on some things others have not, adding nicely to our entire picture.

I'd really like it if you could expand upon "a significant difference between sport and comfort mode" since many other reviewers have not been able to tell any difference. Did you find differences in acceleration? braking? handling? others?

Thanks for your time and insights.

 

[Digi02]

Congratulations! You commented on some things others have not, adding nicely to our entire picture.

I'd really like it if you could expand upon "a significant difference between sport and comfort mode" since many other reviewers have not been able to tell any difference. Did you find differences in acceleration? braking? handling? others?

Thanks for your time and insights.

Yes, and sorry for the sideways pics using chrome to upload from my phone.

Anyways, i'm coming from an e-golf experience to give you a little background. I had the vehicle set to "comfort" mode with a mix of highway / city (approximately 30 mile drive) 71 miles total on the guessometer when I started home from the dealer for reference. I transitioned onto a section I-83 from downtown Baltimore City which is very twisty, and switched over to "sport" mode. Immediately I felt the steering tighten up and more confidence in acceleration. I was feeling confident keeping up with the GTI and the M series; really in terms of handling. It was exciting, because when I test drove on Saturday this was not at all what I experienced. This was just purely enjoyable, and it can switch back over to a CR-V blah blah plain vanilla CUV with a click of a button to "Comfort"

 

[M.B]

the pedestrian noise it’s emitting at low speeds is incredibly loud! Sounds like a space ship mixed with an orchestra tuning up.

I am a researcher professionally investigating health effects of noise. While I am all for a low level sound that warns people of the car close by, a sound that is too loud is of concern to me. I do not want to wake up the neighbors when I leave early in the morning.

I found this on Wikipedia for the European Union: “The vehicle must make a continuous noise level of at least 56 dBA (within 2 meters) if the car is going 20 km/h (12 mph) or slower, and a maximum of 75 dBA.” I guess 56 dBA would be okay, but 75 dBA is definitely too loud (it is actually perceived ~4 times as loud than 56 dBA).

I did not hear anything in the Tesla Model Y I drove last week. When I test drove the ID.4, the sound was kind of weird but okay on the inside. I will check this out from the outside again when I pick up my car tomorrow or Thursday.
I do get the argument for the artificial sounds. Then again, as a noise-effects researcher, I am a little frustrated that we have to add noise just after we got rid of it...

 

[Digi02]

The Tesla has “stealth” mode so it can be disabled. I posted a video I captured of the sound from outside:

 

[KB57]

My FE arrived at the dealer this morning and I took delivery this evening. Overall great experience! Couple things I noticed driving home at night.
1. Backup camera poor night quality
2. I found there a significant difference between sport and comfort mode
3. The HVAC and volume sliders are not illuminated at night.
4. the pedestrian noise it’s emitting at low speeds is incredibly loud! Sounds like a space ship mixed with an orchestra tuning up.

We didn’t hear any noise on our test drive.

 

[eb2143]

The Tesla has “stealth” mode so it can be disabled. I posted a video I captured of the sound from outside:

Wow, that is quite loud! Seems a bit too much. At the speeds you approached it seemed there was plenty of tire noise to alert visually impaired of your approach, just like a regular car coasting would have at moderate speed

maybe id.4 will have world’s lowest deer strike rate or maybe they will stand in road transfixed by ufo approach

 

[salant76]

@Digi02,

On comfort mode did the suspension seem different at all? I didn’t have enough time last week on my test drive to play with the settings and left everything in sport.

You would think with all the additional ambient lighting there would be lighting on the volume and tempature sliders. Maybe there is a setting some where to turn it on and off.

How are the headlight?

BTW here is your picture with the correct orientation.

 

[Digi02]

Wow, that is quite loud! Seems a bit too much. At the speeds you approached it seemed there was plenty of tire noise to alert visually impaired of your approach, just like a regular car coasting would have at moderate speed

maybe id.4 will have world’s lowest deer strike rate or maybe they will stand in road transfixed by ufo approach

Funny, my wife said she scared some deer away on the approach.

 

[Huey52]

Considering a few years ago my wife was literally T-boned by a deer charging right into her passenger door probably a good thing.

 

[sethpo]

@Digi02,

You would think with all the additional ambient lighting there would be lighting on the volume and tempature sliders. Maybe there is a setting some where to turn it on and off.

I read somewhere recently - sorry I can't find the source - where a journalist asked VW about this and they admitted they "forgot about it until it was too late". That specific quote sent me into a tailspin of thinking I should wait on this car and not buy the 1st year model.

Between this and some FOMO around the Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Nissan Ariya coming later this year (and then a tangent into thinking about the ID Buzz in 2023) I'm basically bouncing between being super excited about my 1st Ed showing up this week and having thoughts that I should wait. I've already test driven the demo ID 4 my dealer has but have decided I'm going to do a longer and more thorough drive once mine comes in and then look at the numbers and...I dunno....flip a coin? ugh.

 

[Trunkenbold]

That was the top gear review where the mentioned that it was forgotten about, although I wonder if that Rep misspoke. I've seen pictures on the forum where they are illuminated, as well as pictures where the camera picks up IR LED in the sliders, so I suspect they had trouble getting the systems to work together. I dunno.

Back to the sound, My wife likes it, but I agree with M.B that adding sounds to electric cars just seems like a step in the wrong direction. Heck, plenty of ice vehicles are near silent these days, so if we really need the sounds it should be all cars, not just EV, but I think people would get used to quiet cars with time.

It is exciting to see people finally getting cars!

 

[sethpo]

That's right, thanks. Here's the quote:

At the screen’s base are inconsistent and untactile volume and temperature sliders. ‘Why aren’t these illuminated?’ we asked VW’s head of engineering. ‘Because we didn’t think of that until too late,’ he said.

- Top Gear (link)

This alone isn't a big deal to me but indicative of the things that normally get either fixed or improved in the 2nd model year.

As for the artificial sound - I'm a fan. I didn't notice it on my test drive and thought the car was very quiet even compared to our other EV (Kia Soul). And as a cyclist and frequent pedestrian I appreciate these features.

 

[sparkyr]

Wow, that is quite loud! Seems a bit too much. At the speeds you approached it seemed there was plenty of tire noise to alert visually impaired of your approach, just like a regular car coasting would have at moderate speed

maybe id.4 will have world’s lowest deer strike rate or maybe they will stand in road transfixed by ufo approach

If one found the sound too loud for comfort, it might be possible to locate the speaker/source and attach something to it to slightly muffle the sound to a level that's not obnoxious but still can be heard and woud provide sufficient warning to animals and pedestrians. Also, there might be a software adjust for volume coming later that would allow lowering the DB to the legal minimum.

 

[ericy]

If one found the sound too loud for comfort, it might be possible to locate the speaker/source and attach something to it to slightly muffle the sound to a level that's not obnoxious but still can be heard and woud provide sufficient warning to animals and pedestrians. Also, there might be a software adjust for volume coming later that would allow lowering the DB to the legal minimum.

In the Kona world, the sound (called VESS on those cars) bugged enough people that they actually disconnected the thing. On that car, having it disconnected didn't cause any faults, but the connector was buried behind enough stuff that it wasn't exactly easy to reach around and pull it.

 

[Digi02]

@Digi02,

On comfort mode did the suspension seem different at all? I didn’t have enough time last week on my test drive to play with the settings and left everything in sport.

You would think with all the additional ambient lighting there would be lighting on the volume and tempature sliders. Maybe there is a setting some where to turn it on and off.

How are the headlight?

BTW here is your picture with the correct orientation.

View attachment 1891

Thanks for rotating my photo!

My EV Specialist drove the ID to my house 35 min drive, and took me back to the dealership to sign the paperwork. I drove comfort with travel assist all the way back to the dealer, and gosh it was amazing. In comfort mode on the the highway you can just melt the miles away in your own cushy cocoon. I didn't turn on sport mode on the highway until I had some twisty turns and didn't get to aggressive before switching back to comfort mode. I'll need more time to really compare, but my immediate feeling was definitely a difference.

I looked through all the menus when I got home and couldn't find anywhere to enabled the lighting. I'll have to dive into the owners manual and further investigate.

The headlights are awesome! There's fog lights built into the housing that work really well, and when you turn the wheel hard left / right cornering lights illuminate out toward the fenders.

One more thing: I have always been disappointed with Car Net, but this version is faster at responding. One note there are a lot of subscription options like al a carte services you can add on: Enhanced Navigation with route planning, Enhanced internet connected Voice Control , and some other things. I don't think there's a 30 day trial for any of these options which kinda stinks. But i'm thinking about just getting the premium ABRT subscription; now it's available on carplay.

 

[ericy]

One more thing: I have always been disappointed with Car Net, but this version is faster at responding.

At some point in the not too recent past, they must have switched from 3G to 4G modems for CarNet - I am wondering when this happened, and if some of the bad feelings about CarNet are just becuase of the relative slowness of 3G cell technology.

 

[dfox]

At some point in the not too recent past, they must have switched from 3G to 4G modems for CarNet - I am wondering when this happened, and if some of the bad feelings about CarNet are just becuase of the relative slowness of 3G cell technology.

The demo I drove yesterday definitely showed 4G signal.

 

[jakerob]

Between this and some FOMO around the Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Nissan Ariya coming later this year (and then a tangent into thinking about the ID Buzz in 2023) I'm basically bouncing between being super excited about my 1st Ed showing up this week and having thoughts that I should wait. I've already test driven the demo ID 4 my dealer has but have decided I'm going to do a longer and more thorough drive once mine comes in and then look at the numbers and...I dunno....flip a coin? ugh.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

My specific problem is that we sold our Tesla once it became clear that we wouldn't need a second car until I returned to the office. That's likely to happen after my ID.4 arrives, but well before the Ioniq 5 or Ariya become available. I've been casting about for a way to get a "bridge" car without throwing away a bunch of money, but I haven't found a good option yet. So I just remind myself the ID.4's cons vs. upcoming cars pale in comparison to the advantages that it has (for me) over currently-available EVs.

 

[ericy]

The demo I drove yesterday definitely showed 4G signal.

VW Rolling Out Second Generation Car-Net Telematics Service

The American unit of the German automaker lowers pricing for its telematics service, and adds insurance and car-sharing features.

www.wardsauto.com