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BRIAN WONG: We've had this 2021 Volkswagen ID.4
in our long term fleet for about nine months to 6,000 miles
now, which means that it'll still be a few months until we
finalize our opinions and our overall efficiency numbers
for this vehicle.
But in that time there's plenty we've learned about the ID.4
and we can't wait to share it with you, so here we are.
Now unlike most of the other electric vehicles
in our long term fleet, we didn't purchase the ID.4.
It was actually loaned to us by Volkswagen
so that we could perform a more detailed evaluation
and live with it day to day.
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The ID.4 goes up against a very crowded field of contenders,
from the Tesla Model Y, to the Ford Mustang Mach-E,
and the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and they're all similarly sized.
But our ID.4 as tested price of just over $41 grand
gives it an interesting value proposition
that its competitors can't really match.
Part of the reason the assessed price is so low
is that we purposely chose the cheapest ID.4 that you can get.
This is a single electric motor pro model and this is actually
the trim that we recommended in our review,
because for a base model it's really well equipped.
It comes with plenty of standard features
and driving aids such as lane keep
assist, adaptive cruise control that works down
to a stop, this 10 inch touchscreen, wireless Android
Auto and Apple CarPlay, dual zone climate control,
and advanced keyless entry.
That's a lot of kit for not a lot of money.
And what it's like to live with is a bit of a roller coaster.
Our editors have found plenty of things to love about it,
but several things that we definitely hate passionately.
Most of the positive comments that we've
gotten from our editors about the ID.4 center around how
it drives.
So even though we opted for the single motor version, which
does have less power than the all wheel drive version,
we're big fans of how that power is delivered.
So even though the ID.4 doesn't have that really snappy,
electric acceleration that you'll
get in vehicles like the Model Y,
or the Mustang Mach-E, both also members of our long term fleet,
we do like how the power builds.
It almost feels a bit like you're
driving a traditional gas car again
and that you get off the line and the power kind of builds
very naturally, and that's to us a positive association.
The ID.4 will feel much more familiar to folks, especially
those who don't have a lot of experience
driving electric vehicles.
But don't worry, the ID.4 still has
plenty of power for highway merges and passes
so you never feel like you're falling behind.
The other things that we like about the ID.4, the brake blend
is very good.
There's no weird transitions between regenerative and
physical brakes.
We're also big fans of the suspension tuning.
It provides a comfortable ride without feeling floaty
or disconnected.
We also like the ID.4's very tight turning radius.
It's about 31 feet and that's much better than the Model Wise
which is about 40 feet, and that makes
it a lot easier to do u-turns, to get around the city,
and to park the ID.4.
One of my personal favorite features of the ID.4
is this gauge cluster.
Now it's not that big.
It's a lot smaller than the really big, kind
of digital gauge clusters that we're
seeing in a lot of other vehicles, but I don't mind it.
I think those larger screens can actually
be quite distracting, while this one is the exact opposite.
It only shows you exactly what you need.
It has maybe two or three views that are all really simple.
And it's also mounted to the steering column, which I like,
because that means no matter where
you set the steering wheel you're
able to see the whole screen.
But this screen, this is where a lot of the problems start.
The common thread among the problems
that we've had with the ID.4 come down
to what I would call usability issues, things that should be
simple, that should really take no time or thought at all,
end up being unnecessarily complicated.
For example, the windows.
This vehicle has four windows that you can roll up and down,
but as you'll notice, there are only two buttons.
So if I want to roll down the rear windows
I actually have to press this button
and then roll down the rears.
And then if I want to go back to the fronts
I have to hit that button again.
It would kind of make sense to have four window buttons.
Everyone else has for window buttons, but not the ID.4.
The climate controls are also similarly hard to use.
You actually have to hit this button
and then the controls pop up in the screen.
There isn't even an easy way to really change the temperature.
It's these kind of touch sensitive buttons
here below the screen, but they don't even work all the time.
This is sort of symbolic of a bigger, sort
of Volkswagen design problem, where
they've taken a lot of buttons out of the cabin.
In fact, the only physical controls
that we can really find are for the windows and here
to put the vehicle back in park.
Everything else is kind of touch sensitive, even
on the steering wheel, and we've discovered
that these buttons, again, they don't always work
and they're a bit hard to find, especially when you're driving.
We really like the ID.4's simplicity
in its driving experience and its pricing,
and it's just too bad that philosophy didn't
extend to the interior as well.
The ID.4's multimedia system has also
given us problems, as seen in one
of our previous comparisons.
RYAN ZUMMALLEN: The control system for the ID.4
is just bad.
B-A-D, bad.
There's no way around it.
BRIAN WONG: Multiple testers have
had lots of problems connecting their smartphones
to the ID.4, both Apple and Android users alike.
The wireless connectivity can be spotty
and sometimes cuts in and out.
There was one time where I connected my phone
and it actually locked up the entire system,
and I had to stop and restart the vehicle.
Now the ID.4, it isn't a static thing.
It does get over-the-air updates from Volkswagen
that should, in theory, fix some of these issues.
And for me, when I had the ID.4 again
to prepare for this video, I actually
thought the Android Auto connectivity
had been fixed until I got into the vehicle this morning
and the audio wouldn't play.
The ID.4's multimedia system has gotten better in some ways.
It does actually boot up quicker now,
thanks to one of those updates, but by no means is it fixed.
Some of our other testers have also
noted that some important switches don't get illuminated
at night, which is kind of ironic considering
that the car does come with ambient lighting
that you can change to many different colors.
So this volume slider here and these temperature controls
don't light up at night.
And if you're driving after dark they
can be very difficult to find.
We asked a few of our other editors
to also chime in with their experiences in the ID.4,
including one that unfortunately took place
during a rare LA rainstorm.
RYAN ZUMMALLEN: So there were lots of things
that I liked about the Volkswagen ID.4,
but recently I had an experience that was hard to believe.
So I took the ID.4 home and parked it in my driveway.
A few hours later, I came back out
and all the windows were rolled down.
I definitely didn't do that on purpose,
but I found out later that it's a common thing with Volkswagons
if you hold down the unlock button on the key fob all
the windows were rolled down.
Now I must have done that on accident from inside the house,
but I definitely didn't do it on purpose
because it was raining that night.
So for hours water just poured inside the car
and the entire interior was soaked.
And thank goodness I didn't have any valuables
in the car at the Time
CAMERON ROGERS: During the length
of our year long test of the Volkswagon ID.4
I spent about a month in the car.
And there are plenty of things to like
and a few things to dislike about it.
One of the things that I found personally really annoying
was the distance to empty indicator.
We have the ID.4 set at 80% charge limit.
For just doing normal daily tasks
you're not really supposed to charge to 100%
unless you are doing like, a long road trip.
And even charged to 80%, usually upon unplugging the car,
it would say I had a distance to empty about 250,
240 miles of range, which is just way too much.
It should be less than that.
And usually upon unplugging and driving for like 10 miles
it would just go down to like, 190 or 200,
or something like that.
So it just wasn't very accurate.
And it was one of the things that
would bug me about the ID.4 if I owned it
and live with it on a daily basis.
BRENT ROMANS: It's an interesting car to talk about
and really, it's because I'm sure in this video,
we're discussing the touchscreen interface
and it was just so buggy and annoying that it
soured very often the entire driving experience.
Although, as I'm actually shooting this video today we do
have the updated software.
And it is better, but you kind of have to set that aside.
And if you do when talking about this car, then the rest of it's
pretty nice as an EV.
It's comfortable, it's quiet, I always
enjoyed driving it around town.
The turning radius in particular always impressed me
how easy it was to make u-turns.
So overall, I like the ID.4, just the touch screen interface
was a big bummer.
BRIAN WONG: Once again, we'll have
to wait for those final efficiency numbers,
but what I can tell you is that the ID.4 did
very well on our Edmunds Real World EV range test.
The EPA estimated range for this vehicle is only 260 miles,
but we were able to get 288 miles in real world conditions.
The only maintenance we've had to do on the ID.4
is its 10,000 mile service, because it came to us
with 5,000 miles already on it.
EVs don't really go through fluids and things
like a gas vehicle might, so it was really
just a glorified inspection.
But thankfully, Volkswagen covered it
as they pay for the first two service visits.
We haven't had any accidents or recalls either,
so those have been smooth.
And our only expense so far has been
$20 to replace this rear wiper, not too shabby.
The ID.4's strengths of its value and driving experience
have held up over it's time with us.
But then again, our problems with it have as well.
The multimedia interface is still hard to use
and the user experience is lacking.
This ID.4 will be taking a field trip later this month
to Volkswagen's facility in Southern California, where
it's going to get an inspection and an extensive software
update that they say should fix some of the issues
that we've been having, but who knows.
If you want to find out if they were successful,
keep an eye out for our wrap up video
and our long term blog for the latest updates.
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