---
title: 'VW ID Buzz Review - Exceptional Drive, Painful Interface'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=yfeMseFcxc8'
video_id: 'yfeMseFcxc8'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 1573
---

# VW ID Buzz Review - Exceptional Drive, Painful Interface

> Source: [VW ID Buzz Review - Exceptional Drive, Painful Interface](https://youtube.com/watch?v=yfeMseFcxc8)

## Summary

The Volkswagen ID Buzz combines retro-inspired design with modern EV technology, offering massive interior space and a comfortable ride. However, frustrating controls and mediocre range undermine its appeal.

### Key Points

- **Exterior Design Impressions** [00:03] — The ID Buzz draws attention with its adorable retro design; it's tall (over 6 ft) but 3 inches shorter than a Honda Accord, with a 16-inch longer wheelbase for spacious interior.
- **Aerodynamics and Weight** [01:53] — Despite a brick-like shape, drag coefficient is 0.29, but large frontal area hurts range. Vehicle weighs ~6,000 lb (RWD) or ~6,200 lb (AWD), with battery alone at 1,230 lb.
- **Interior Volume** [02:37] — Three rows offer about 40 inches of legroom each; can fit seven adults. The glass roof adds headroom, and the seats are easily removable.
- **EPA Range and Highway Test** [07:46] — EPA range: 234 miles (RWD) / 231 miles (AWD). In 75 mph testing, achieved only 190 miles highway range, which is disappointing for a 2025 vehicle.
- **Charging Performance** [09:38] — Peak charging rate is 200 kW; 10-80% took 26 minutes and 5 seconds as advertised. However, charge curve drops quickly after 35%, and charging infrastructure (Electrify America) had reliability issues.
- **Acceleration** [12:27] — RWD 0-60 in 6.94 seconds; AWD in 5.8 seconds (Car and Driver). Quick for a van but slow for an EV. Power tapers above 50 mph.
- **Frustrating Controls** [13:13] — Many UI issues: car turns off when driver lifts from seat; volume slider is vague; no pause button on steering wheel; rear window requires two-step process; haptic cruise control is finicky; climate controls block access when adjusting temperature.
- **Navigation System Flaws** [18:31] — Wireless Apple CarPlay works well, but onboard nav can't exclusively select Electrify America stations, max charge speed search is limited to 100 kW (car can do 200 kW), and POI data is outdated.
- **Driving Dynamics** [21:04] — Exceptional ride comfort: quiet, smooth, and stable. Traction control is good. Only complaint: no true one-pedal driving (regen only down to 3 mph).
- **Price and Competition** [23:38] — Starts at $60k (RWD) and $70k (AWD). Kia EV9 offers 70+ more miles range for similar price; Tesla Model X qualifies for tax credit and offers better range and charging. Design is the main justification.

### Conclusion

The ID Buzz charms with its looks and comfort but disappoints with its user interface and real-world range. It's a niche vehicle for those who prioritize style over practicality.

## Transcript

isn't it adorable no but seriously isn't it adorable this is the Volkswagen ID buzz and we're going to go over everything inside and out plus I've done plenty of testing so we're going to look at Highway range testing charge testing
0 to 60 testing some of it's going to be surprising let's get into all of it let's start off with the exterior so I don't think there's much debate on the coming up to me and asking hey can I take a picture of it people love the way
that this thing looks I think it looks beautiful but the first thing that I thought when I saw it in person was wow it's huge but it's actually not so yes it is tall it's a little bit over 6 ft tall at the roof line there but in
tall at the roof line there but in length it's actually 3 in shorter than a length it's actually 3 in shorter than a Honda Accord while it is a large vehicle in width and in height same length as a Honda Accord however they've pushed this
wheel all the way to the front they push this rear wheel all the way to the back and as a result it has a 16in longer wheelbase than that identical size Honda Accord so a huge interior space all right some interesting things
up front massive windshield and the wiper blades actually go in opposite directions so you get really good coverage with the wiper blades and they are rain sensing they actually work really well in the rain and all kinds of
different rain I've been driving in and they've been really good at detecting that speaking of of wipers there is no frun however if you do want to fill your wiper fluid that's right there and then you also do have a camera on the very
out the side of the car you've got these they're actually very functional as aerodynamic covers so while this vehicle yes is a brick it has a respectable drag coefficient at just. 29 though again you
do have a large frontal area we'll get into what that means for Highway range later on at the back of the vehicle you can get a hidden retractable tow hitch so you can maintain the aesthetic when you're not Towing and then there is an
absolutely massive door for loading cargo here in the back it is worth mentioning this is a pretty heavy vehicle so the rear wheeel drive version weighs about 6,000 lb the all-wheel drive version weighs about 6,200 lb now
the battery alone weighs 1230 lb so even without a battery there's 5,000 lb of car for the all-wheel drive version all right so let's move on to the interior and the main story here really just has to be interior volume it is a massive
space inside of here thanks to the height and also thanks to this glass roof which really pushes up the ceiling in here and two ways to demonstrate this that are very exciting first of all I can actually stand up in here I don't
mean stand upright but I can fully extend my legs and stand in here like if you needed to if you're thinking about hey maybe I'll convert this into a camper van there's a lot of of space in here to do it but also when it comes to
the three rows of seating there is tremendous leg room in all three rows about 40 in so if I sit up front here plenty of space for my legs if I then go to the next row again I'm 61 I've got long legs plenty of space in front of my
legs here and then finally if I go to the third row and I'll come behind this seat right here even in this back row there's I mean half a foot between me and the seat in front of me so you can genuinely fit seven adults in this
vehicle no problem if they're tall on the subject of electric power a big thanks to today's sponsor sucas for sending their latest NEOS 2 a 2-in-one electric toothbrush and water flosser yep not just an electric toothbrush but
also a powerful water flosser that features an ultra fine6 mm water stream features an ultra fine6 mm water stream with a peak pressure of 124.32607
curious how far that launches water well so was I so I measured it at over 18 ft flossing is important for removing plaque which can Harden into Tartar and eventually cause cavities you can think of this like a pressure washer for your
teeth or even your car if you're into that even with all that power the battery can last a full 30 days and sure the water tank certainly looks small ensuring it's a portable and travel friendly water flosser but it's actually
good for a full 60 seconds of flossing and easy to refill keep your teeth and your ride in Peak condition by regularly cleaning them you'll find a link to the sucas NEOS 2 in the video description all right sitting in the driver's seat
the first thing that you notice is that the windshield is pretty far forward uh which you know is quite a contrast to the original VW bus where you're sitting right up front though today we have crumple zones for safety reasons so that
is to be expected and actually the visibility is pretty good also up front here with the driver's seat have this removable center console and it has these kind of adjustable Sliders in here to make whatever size you want also
functions as an ice scraper and a bottle opener there so kind of some clever touches they've put with storage in the front as far as the controls and the of a beast so we will get into that later however the sound system itself is
phenomenal in the second row you've got heated seats on the outside seats and you have the largest sunroof in Volkswagen group so this is 5 ft long 3 ft wide and it has a polymer dispersed Liquid Crystal layer so when you apply
current to that layer it's transparent you can see through it and when you de energize that layer it then blocks light and that is what we are looking at right here so right now it is off when you turn the vehicle off it will turn off
coming in the cabin all right at the back there's good news so cargo space is decent but you can of course fold these seats flat so once you do that you you've got easy 7 ft of flat storage space if you want to put a bed in here
and lay down you can absolutely do that honestly you can hit 8 ft if you move the front seats up a little bit of flat space so that is quite cool and also these rear seats can be removed and look how easy this is pull pull it's out it's
that simple to take these seats out so that is exciting to me because it's not a complicated task to get them in or out it's very simple to put put these in and then raise them back up and there you go boom your seat is back so very
not going to fold in because you've got a battery but they're easy to remove moving on to the different versions of this car you can get in NE rear wheeel in the back or you can get it with all-wheel drive and that adds an
electric motor up front some of the nonobvious differences between the rear wheel drive and the all-wheel drive version is how many seats you get so if it's rear wheel drive it's seat seven if it's all-wheel drive it's seats six you
don't understand why those are linked to rear wheel drive and all-wheel drive to me that doesn't make sense but that's the choice you get also with the rear wheel drive you have an exceptional turning radius because you don't have
wheels so really good turning radius and then finally with the all-wheel drive version you do get a bit more drive version you do get a bit more Towing 3500 lb versus 2600 lb with rear
wheel drive all right so as far as the battery it could be bigger 91 KW hours is the gross capacity 86 kilowatt hours is what you get access to so what does this mean for range they say 234 miles with rear wheel drive or 231 mil with
with rear wheel drive or 231 mil with all-wheel drive I did a 75 mph range test where I take the vehicle sit on the highway at 75 m per hour I went 20 mi about One Direction came back those same about 20 mi I had cruise control set on
75 it sat there the whole time and I had climate control set at 72 it was about 50° fhe outside so cool but not cold and 50° fhe outside so cool but not cold and so over the course of exactly 38 Mi it
so over the course of exactly 38 Mi it used exactly 20% of the battery so what does that mean a highway range at 75 mph does that mean a highway range at 75 mph of 190 miles for a 2025 vehicle that to
me feels a bit disappointing especially considering the price tag for this thing and also considering that you know it's probably it looks like a great road trip vehicle right but then the range doesn't really match that so that's a bit of a
bummer also checking with Car and Driver they also do a 75 mph test and they did was with the rear wheel drive version they also got exactly 190 Mi for their
range test at 75 mph so that seems to be the highway range now as far as the range that I got with this vehicle while I've been driving it I took it from 100% down to 40% I drove 121 mies so that gives you an indication that with that
acceleration testing and Highway testing and that sort of thing it was getting 202 M of range again I think for this kind of vehicle we only get one electric minivan this is our only option in the United States but I feel like the range
could have been better all right let's move on to charging so Volkswagen says it has a peak charging rate of 100 KW and it can charge from 10 to 80% in 26 minutes I took it down below 10% battery and plugged it into a fast charger
capable of those high speeds it can in fact charge at 200 KW though it starts fact charge at 200 KW though it starts to drop off at about 35% and I measured to drop off at about 35% and I measured 10 to 80% and guess what 26 minutes and
5 Seconds so exactly what Volkswagen says it can do that that's not that fast by today's standards there are cars that can do 10 to 80% in about 8 to 10 minutes faster than that which is pretty significant I will show what that charge
curve looks at as far as the kilowatts versus the battery percentage it does start to drop off pretty quickly once you hit 35% and continues to decline as you go up to fully charge it charging from 10 to 90% taking about 33 minutes
I'll put up a graph of Time Versus percent charge just so you can see exactly how long it takes to go from different Inc increments now as far as the process of charging on Electrify America charging stations the first one
I went to it took three times plugging it in in order to get it to work the second time it did work the first time I plugged it in however it still took a couple minutes before it started charging so as far as using it as a road
trip vehicle and say you're staying between 10 and 80% to optimize that road trip well you're driving 133 Mi assuming you have 190 Mi of range at 75 mph and you're staying in that 70% window and you're charging for 26 minutes every
time that happens so every 133 Mi driven charge for 26 minutes add a couple that station so a half hour stop basically every 2 hours of driving it's
fine it's certainly doable it's just that this is a new car and there are older cars that do a much better job at this also worth mentioning it does not come with a charging cable so if you want to charge at home it is a 350
option to get that charger all right so let's move on to Performance in the back of the rear wheeel drive model is the electric motor much like the old VW bus which had the engine in the back so it has 282 horsepower 413 LBT of torque but
again this thing is quite heavy right now if you go with the all-wheel drive model you get another motor up front and you get about 53 added horsepower to that Peak number so 335 horsepower what's the acceleration like I tested
what's the acceleration like I tested this with battery at 96% climate control off the battery was preheated I had just come off a charger so perfect conditions come off a charger so perfect conditions straight line 0 to 60 took about 7 to
7.3 seconds I did five different tests varying things up as far as with a brake hold without a brake hold I did it with traction control on with traction control off and so my fastest time with the rear wheel drive model was 6.94
seconds now car and driver has tested the all-wheel drive model and they got 5.8 seconds from 0 to 60 with the all-wheel drive so about a full second quicker a little bit over for the all-wheel drive it isn't exactly quick
uh especially for an EV for an e it's kind of slow but for a big van it's got be that disappointed in acceleration now that said you really do start to notice the acceleration taper off at about 50 mph and above that there's not that much
punch to it all right let's move on to interior controls and here is where things get frustrating so to me the question I keep asking myself is who asked for this because so many of these things it just doesn't seem like anyone
actually wants so don't worry I'm going to go through a very specific list of things that are frustrating as far as controls starting with getting in and out of the vehicle so we've just pulled into the garage we've parked we're going
to go inside right we open our door and we're going to get out and oh I left a bag or whatever right here in this seat so I'm going to grab it and as I get over to grab it the car turns off as I sit back down the car turns back on I
rumage over here the car turns back off again I sit back down the car turns back on again I mess with my kids or whatever back here I don't have kids but if I did you know I sit back down the car's back on so every single time you move in this
seat the car turns off the car turns back on now you might think well it has an onoff button right here why not just if it's off push this button and then hey it's on right well what if I get out
hey it's on right well what if I get out of my seat now it turns off again literally right after I just said hey turn the car on if I sit up the car turns off so it's crazy frustrating because if you want this thing to stay
on you have to be sitting in the seat and as you're getting out it just keeps turning on and off constantly all right buckle up cuz that's just number one all right number two you have this slider here for volume control so you don't
turn it one and you know you get an increase of one in volume instead you just have this vague slider so you just put your finger on this and slide left or right and hope it goes up now you can tap there for an increase of one or tap
there for a decrease of one but that of course means you're looking away from you know driving ahead of you and instead focusing on where do I need to touch this thing to make it go down one or up one so the slide not that great to
or up one so the slide not that great to use on the subject of music there is no you have all these buttons on the steering wheel you can change the volume you can skip the song but there's no pause button so the only way I found to
do it is you can either slide all the way left and turn off the volume and that will pause it or you can turn off the sound system entirely by hitting the onoff button and that's a way that you can pause your music but there is no
pause button on the steering wheel so if you want to roll down the rear window well first you have to press the rear button and then you can roll down that rear window now if you then want to put up your driver's side window you can't
just go do that again it's still on rear so you have to push rear and then you can put the driver's side window up so they made a one-step process a two-step process on the steering wheel you have these haptic feedback buttons for most
functions they're okay but I don't like them for cruise control so here you can see the cruise control speed is that at 55 mph if you want to adjust that you 55 mph if you want to adjust that you have this plus and minus so how much you
adjust it depends on how much pressure you apply on that button a little bit goes up by one a lot goes up by five but while you're driving that's a pretty you're getting frustrated because you just want to go up by one and instead
you go up by five also if you press this thing in the middle well then suddenly you're locked out because you're only adjusting that distance so if you want to then adjust your speed wait wait wait okay now I can adjust my speed and if
you accidentally just slide against this you can easily change your speed so I don't like it for controlling your speed with cruise control touch controls for the climate control settings so let me demonstrate here if you want to change
the temperature you have this slider and you know honestly it works just fine you can touch it there or you can hit the temp and you can adjust using that on the screen there either one of these works for adjusting the problem I have
with it is that say you want to change the settings within your climate controls here well if you've just been touching this then it blocks you out so you can't hit that you have to wait and then you can go in so again if that's
down and you're adjusting this or you hit it here either way it's a pretty hit it here either way it's a pretty long pause that you have to
adjust the setting so it blocks you out and it's like it doesn't need to do that right let's say the climate settings were down and you adjust that it could leave that climate button right there cuz all it's changing is that so why
does the climate button go away when you're changing the temperature and then you have to wait for it to come back in order to access it I really do like that that's cool but when you use the reverse camera it is pretty bad quality
especially at night it's hard to tell what you're looking at with the backup camera at night sometimes the screen will actually lock you out and so this is a bit distracting so I was driving down the road and I'm adjusting the
sound settings on the screen okay maybe it's not the greatest idea to adjust the sound settings while you're driving but it allows you to do it I'm sitting there doing it and it says hey you've spent too much time doing this you need to pay
attention to the road so now while you're driving you want to change that but the screen blocked you out so you're looking at the screen and waiting and just move this one little ligher so I can be done looking at it but instead
you're blocked out so it's like choosing when you can and when you can't actually there messing with settings all right let's move on to navigation now good news first if you're just driving around town you've got Wireless Apple carplay
you can just use your phone wirelessly connect and navigate wherever you need to get around town easy peasy Apple carplay works great however if you're going on a road trip well three negative things about this navigation system and
I think it's important to clarify that onboard navigation is useful for road battery state of charge and it knows your battery's temperature so that's important for two reasons first of all it knows where to plan your charging
stops and second of all it can preheat your battery before you arrive at those you're just using Apple carplay so the first one it won't exclusively look for Electrify America stations despite the fact that this comes with a 3-year pass
fact that this comes with a 3-year pass to Electrify America pass plus and it is a system a charging Network built by Volkswagen so you can't just choose to go to Electrify America stations there's an option that lets you select Electrify
America but then it throws in other options regardless along your path even though there's Electrify America stations nearby so I don't understand why you can't exclusively choose the network that they built and the network
that comes with a pass for this car for the first 3 years it's not free charging but it's disc counted second problem with the navigation system the maximum charging speed you can have it searched for is 100 KW this thing charges at 200
KW so when I put in navigate from here to Los Angeles it has me stopping at 120 KW hour station and it's like why can't I search for only stations that can max out this thing's charging capability and there are I looked along the path it can
charge at faster stations along this path and yet it chooses this you know 120 K charging station that doesn't make sense and then finally overall it's just kind of clunky so the first place I punched in when I got in the car was a
Trader Joe's so I was like all right whatever I punched in the address to the Trader Joe's it still couldn't find it so I Googled and said when was this Trader Joe's built six months ago okay so this Trader Joe's has been up for six
months and this navigation system cannot find it of course I can find it in find it of course I can find it in seconds on my phone so it's just clung doesn't let you search for the optimal charging stations overall I don't like
the onboard navigation system all right moving on to what is it like to drive great news it's incredible for the type of vehicle that this is I love the way that it drives it is very comfortable I took even on some really rough roads
even there it was comfortable I tried out you know the traction control on this being rear wheeel drive thinking hey maybe it's going to be sketchy even in the rain twisty roads leaves on the ground really good traction control and
it's just a very easy very comfortable very pleasant thing to drive all of the driver inputs as far as steering braking acceleration they're all very comfortable kind of soft I would like a bit firmer brake pedal feel but for the
kind of vehicle it is it feels great there were only two scenarios with the brake pedal where I could notice the transition from Regen to Mechanical brakes uh there was one where it really did slam over and it just kind of
lurched forward that was a little concerning but most of the time all of concerning but most of the time all of the controls are fantastic and it's just a super simple easy to drive very quiet you hear no powertrain noise so the
motor right with the rear wheel drive you cannot hear it at all it is dead silent in here especially at low speeds so really quiet super comfortable Great Highway Cruiser as far as what it feels like you know not the range but as far
as driving this thing I was pleasantly surprised it is fantastic now my only real complaint on the Driving Experience is that it doesn't have one pedal driving and it gets really close and that's kind of what makes it even more
frustrating because you can have an auto Brak hold right so if you come to a stop you don't have to have your foot on either pedal just like any other electric car uh with one pedal driving and you can put it in B mode and it
decelerates it .13 G's when you let off the accelerator but only down to 3 mph pedal driving because you can take your feet off the pedals and above 3 mph you
effectively have one pedal driving but you can't have it from zero to about 3 m hour and it's like why not just give everyone the option just the option to choose that if they so wish so it has regen breaking up to 0. 25gs with your
foot on the brake pedal above that it Taps into the mechanical almost all of the time except for once or twice you don't notice that blend over occurring at all so Driving Experience excellent I wish it had one pedal driving all right
finally let's talk about price now this rear window is actually really cool so it sits flush with the exterior and then when you open it it pulls in and then slides over anyways we're talking about price and it's kind of disappointing uh
yeah 60,000 for the rear wheel drive version close to 70 for the all-wheel drive version it could be justified I think if it had the range to go along with it but it really doesn't so the closest
competitor to this we don't have an electric minivan in the US but the closest thing would be the Kia ev9 you can get into a rear wheeel drive Kia ev9 can get into a rear wheeel drive Kia ev9 for 61k and that's giving you EPA 304 M
of range so 70 additional miles over the rear wheel drive version of this EPA rating you can also get into an all-wheel drive of that with 280 Mi EPA range at 65k so the Kia beats this really in
price and range styling I think this thing looks fantastic and I think that's really what you're paying for but consider that okay the Tesla Model X which shouldn't be compared to this but regard list it does qualify for the
federal tax credit whereas this does not so for5 ,000 More Than This the all-wheel drive at about 70k you can get into a Tesla Model X that has another 100 m of EPA range it's way quicker and it has a faster and more userfriendly
it has a faster and more userfriendly you know charging experience so I think the price is a bit of a pill to swallow you're really paying for the design here though again the design is really really cool so all right closing out with major
takeaways top three good it is a beautiful design inside ins side and out it has a massive interior space that is a super functional interior and finally
it drives exceptionally it is really fantastic to drive for this segment of vehicle top three bad a lot of the user interface can be frustrating to use the range and charging speed is mediocre by modern standards and the price is a bit
high for what you're getting if it didn't look the way that it looks I didn't look the way that it looks I think it might be completely
it looks and it's excellent to drive so I can understand those who are excited questions or comments feel free to leave them below thanks for watching