2021 VW ID.4 check in - 3 years/~46k miles.

[pezzy84]

Just shy of 3 years with my 2021 ID.4 and right at 46k miles. Purchased with ~15.8k on the clock when it was 11 months old. Manufactured 10/2021 so it is just shy of 4 years old total.

Pros:

- Comfort. VW has always done seats and ergonomics well all the way back to my MKIV 2003 Golf TDI. I would rank long distance comfort and ergonomics up there with Volvo.

- Running costs. After having Mercedes and BMW's in the stable I have to say you get 90% of the German luxury brand experience with much cheaper running costs, I won't go back to MB or BMW just because they are not worth it IMO. Maintenance costs I am running ~$58/month - bulk of this cost was due to the Michelin tires I installed around 17k miles.

- Power, efficiency and cost. AWD dual motor provides all the power I need and the efficiency after the initial 3.1 update is superb, even before update the efficiency was ok. I am averaging 96-99 MPGe (2.84-2.93 mi/kwh) in my super commuting and my ~15k mile long term average is 101 MPGe. With the free charging at work and my TOU charging plan at home I am paying roughly $40-45/month to drive ~2.3k miles per month.

- Travel Assist. VW Travel Assist is one of the best L2 drivers assistants I have experienced, even on the cheap gasser Taos we got rid of it just worked very well. Doesn't try to yank you off the freeway at exit ramps, capacitive steering wheel is nice as it doesn't yell at you really at all if you have your hands on the wheel, it overall just works extremely well compared to other systems I have used.

Problems/Cons:

- Effing NAV and VW blaming Verizon. Have been dealing with this for 1.5 years now. Fortunately on my vehicle it does not affect the other map programs (Apple, Google or ABRP). I am beyond frustrated though that VW has not figured this out and keeps blaming Verizon, I bring it up every single service appointment though so it is very much notated on my vehicle record.

- Front strut upper mounts do give a haunted house/creaky wooden ship sound on occasion mostly when it is hot outside, they go silent once ambient temps cool though. Going to bring this up on my "50k" service this upcoming Thursday and hopefully they can reproduce, if not I am going to just let it be and motor on.

- Other than the NAV and the occasionally haunted house upper strut mounts I have had no other issues. I don't count the various recalls in this as I never really had any problems related to the recalls and just have the dealer handle them when in for service.

Plans:

I'm driving my '21 until the wheels fall off or the battery degrades too much. My ultimate goal is 250,000 miles but would be very happy with 200,000. Fortunately being down south don't have to worry about rust like y'all folks up north so any problems will be strictly from routine wear and not corrosion.

Overall:

Still pleased as punch with it and it has quickly become probably my favorite vehicle I have ever owned. 2nd favorite being my 2010 Mazda 3 and 3rd favorite being the 2016 VW eGolf I traded in for the ID. My ID.4 is a perfect commute companion and it is holding up extremely well (knock on wood), still looks and drives like it is brand new.

 

[LowMilesLesabre]

Really appreciate you posting this. It’s nice to see a review of something other than just when cars are brand new and being “critiqued“ by lots of the channels online. Some of those channels do an OK job, but there’s a big difference between spending an afternoon with a vehicle and spending three years as you have. We are planning to “hybridize“ our fleet of 2 DALY driver vehicles by owning one gasoline powered vehicle and one full EV.

I’ve never been a fast driver, but I am a bit of a torque freak and love the torque that EV motors provide and so your impressions on the performance aspects are very helpful. The other thing that I struggle with in deciding on a new car purchase or any car purchase for that matter is comfort levels and because I am 6‘5“ tall, things like seat design and comfort are pretty darn important. I’ve noticed, at least with some brands, that German and Swedish cars typically have seats that are more friendly towards taller or larger framed folks than some of the other brands. Curious to know if this has been your experience as well, but then I don’t know where you fall on the height spectrum and whether that was a factor in your finding the ID 4 comfortable, but it is encouraging nonetheless. Thanks again for your impressions.

 

[pezzy84]

VW's are generally very good for tall drivers - the amount of seat and steering wheel adjustment is far beyond the average. I am 5'10" - my partner is 6'0" and the seat is not fully extended when partner drives. Just as a comparison my ex from some years ago was 6'4" with 38" inseam and didn't even have the seat of my 2003 VW Golf or 2006 VW Jetta all the way back - it's kind of comical how far back the seats go but guess they need to cater to those tall ass viking folks.

The Honda's and Toyota's I have ridden in or driven don't have seats that go low enough so you feel like you are sitting on a perch, then the steering wheel doesn't extend far enough so you end up feeling like you are driving a bus. Nissan gassers (Altima, Maxima and Sentra) were mostly immune to this but my MIL has an Ariya and it has the sitting on a perch driving a bus feel because the seats don't lower to my liking.

YMMV but venture down to a VW lot and see if the seat adjusts to your size, like you said the Germans and Swedes do this part extremely well.

 

[andrew_j]

I am tempting to get one as they are so cheap! Free charging at work and 1000 commuting miles/month every other week.

 

[pezzy84]

I am tempting to get one as they are so cheap! Free charging at work and 1000 commuting miles/month every other week.

They are a steal right now. The 2022 in my sig was picked up for $20.9k before TTL thanks to the $4k used EV tax credit, lease return with ~33k on the clock - MSRP per window sticker when new was pushing $57k. Is a VW CPO example which pushes the bumper to bumper warranty to 7 years 86k miles.

 

[jghall00]

I've been cross shopping the ID.4 and Ariya for my daughter. She's eligible for the 4k credit so trying to pull the trigger before that goes away. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[pezzy84]

I've been cross shopping the ID.4 and Ariya for my daughter. She's eligible for the 4k credit so trying to pull the trigger before that goes away. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Just a quick review as my other half has been driving his mom's 2023 Ariya Evolve+ (FWD) for a little over a week now in our super commute. It's a very nice ride, very comfortable and the interior is very nice and I find it to be quite handsome. ID.4 is quite a bit firmer ride and I find the interior quality on the Ariya better than the ID.4. Power delivery in the Ariya is a bit less immediate and it ramps up the power from a standstill so you aren't doing FWD burnouts, it will still whip your head back if you pin it when you are already rolling.

Unfortunately the ProPilot 1.0 (higher trims have ProPilot 2.0 which is allegedly better) is truly awful for highway lane centering, the steering wheel requires far to much movement to keep it happy - enough movement to actually move the car not just a slight turn. Definitely test that out on any examples you test drive, may be a calibration issue on MIL's Ariya but also reading online forums it seems to be a common complaint so think it's just how it works. Also the highway efficiency at 80 MPH is probably equal if not a little worse than our AWD ID.4's despite being the single motor FWD version.

Don't get me wrong it is a very very fine vehicle, just not the best effort from Nissan considering it is technically newer than the VW MEB 1.0 platform cars that are now 5+ years old.

 

[jghall00]

Power delivery in the Ariya is a bit less immediate and it ramps up the power from a standstill so you aren't doing FWD burnouts, it will still whip your head back if you pin it when you are already rolling.

I think the power ramp is a common thing on EVs, especially FWD. My Focus Electric had it, and I'm fairly certain my Blazer EV has it, despite being RWD. Even the Lucid Grand Touring I test drove had a noticeable lag in power delivery. The acceleration rate increased noticeably when the car was already in motion, as compared with starting from a standstill. These things would just murder tires if they delivered all the power they're capable of. But I think the manufacturers should really give the customer the choice.

Unfortunately the ProPilot 1.0 (higher trims have ProPilot 2.0 which is allegedly better) is truly awful for highway lane centering, the steering wheel requires far to much movement to keep it happy - enough movement to actually move the car not just a slight turn.

Sounds like my Blazer. It doesn't really offer lane centering...it offers lane pong. It doesn't even make an effort to stay in the middle of the lane. I think GM wanted to reserve that capability for Supercruise equipped vehicles, desptite that not being an option for 2024 on my trim.

Also the highway efficiency at 80 MPH is probably equal if not a little worse than our AWD ID.4's despite being the single motor FWD version.

Expected. Aero drag and frontal area are very important at high speeds. I'm looking at the "+" trims with the larger battery, so not overly concerned. My daughter better not be traveling that fast anyway, because she doesn't have the money to pay for tickets.

 

[pezzy84]

Sounds like my Blazer. It doesn't really offer lane centering...it offers lane pong. It doesn't even make an effort to stay in the middle of the lane. I think GM wanted to reserve that capability for Supercruise equipped vehicles, desptite that not being an option for 2024 on my trim.

Nissan ProPilot 1.0 and VW Travel Assist are like neutered GM Super Cruise, basically hands on version of Super Cruise. They can pretty much drive you down the freeway as long as you stay active with the system every 10-15 seconds (12-13 seconds in the VW). VW ID.4 and Taos only require you put a firm grip on the wheel (touch capacitive steering wheels) to keep the nanny happy, silly Nissan Ariya system you are making the car jerk in the lane to satisfy the nanny. I believe you are talking about Lane Departure Warning which while dubbed a drivers assist system is not an active drivers assistant, sure it will steer you back into your lane but that is not what it is meant for.

 

[jghall00]

I believe you are talking about Lane Departure Warning which while dubbed a drivers assist system is not an active drivers assistant, sure it will steer you back into your lane but that is not what it is meant for.

Correct, it's lane departure warning. The Blazer just steers you back into the lane with a warning if you hit the white lines without the indicator on. I wish it had lane centering and I suspect GM could offer it as a software upgrade. I would probably pay for it because I think the alignment is poor. The vehicle really doesn't track straight at all. When I swap tires I'm going to look into altering the alignment for straighter tracking. We don't have many curvy roads in the Houston region.

 

[Brons2]

These are pleasant enough cars - my parents have one. They are roomy, which is a good sell for a tall guy like me. But the lack of strong regenerative braking is a big negative for me and I would probably not buy one for that reason alone.

The other thing is the software is super buggy. If you haven't had issues you should be thankful. My parents' have been back to the dealer multiple times for software bugs. I'm sure the software is better on the European cars but they don't want to go through the hassle of US homulgation.

They also had to have a battery heat exchanger changed out at 30K in Las Vegas on vacation. They had to rent an ICE car to drive home and fly back to get their ID.4.

Check out the ID.4 forum if you don't believe me.

Don't really recommend these.

 

[UncleDave]

These are pleasant enough cars - my parents have one. They are roomy, which is a good sell for a tall guy like me. But the lack of strong regenerative braking is a big negative for me and I would probably not buy one for that reason alone.

The other thing is the software is super buggy. If you haven't had issues you should be thankful. My parents' have been back to the dealer multiple times for software bugs. I'm sure the software is better on the European cars but they don't want to go through the hassle of US homulgation.

They also had to have a battery heat exchanger changed out at 30K in Las Vegas on vacation. They had to rent an ICE car to drive home and fly back to get their ID.4.

Check out the ID.4 forum if you don't believe me.

Don't really recommend these.

It's a CARIAD car correct?

 

[jghall00]

It's a CARIAD car correct?

Yes. Its failures got Herbert Diess canned.

 

[pezzy84]

These are pleasant enough cars - my parents have one. They are roomy, which is a good sell for a tall guy like me. But the lack of strong regenerative braking is a big negative for me and I would probably not buy one for that reason alone.

The other thing is the software is super buggy. If you haven't had issues you should be thankful. My parents' have been back to the dealer multiple times for software bugs. I'm sure the software is better on the European cars but they don't want to go through the hassle of US homulgation.

They also had to have a battery heat exchanger changed out at 30K in Las Vegas on vacation. They had to rent an ICE car to drive home and fly back to get their ID.4.

Check out the ID.4 forum if you don't believe me.

Don't really recommend these.

I'm on the ID.4 Talk forum so I completely understand the problem cars, fortunately I got one of the good ones I suppose. The 2022 has been a bit of a basket case from the get go (bought as a CPO used vehicle) but those issues seem to have been resolved courtesy of a competent VW dealership and we are looking forward to motoring on with it.

Please elaborate on the software bugs your parents have had - I'm very curious.

 

[Brons2]

I'm on the ID.4 Talk forum so I completely understand the problem cars, fortunately I got one of the good ones I suppose. The 2022 has been a bit of a basket case from the get go (bought as a CPO used vehicle) but those issues seem to have been resolved courtesy of a competent VW dealership and we are looking forward to motoring on with it.

Please elaborate on the software bugs your parents have had - I'm very curious.

I'm working off memory here but:
-almost constant MIL/check engine, been back to the dealer 5-6 times.
-infotainment powers off driving down the road intermittently, had it happen to me once while driving it. The entire interior went down except the speedometer, and this was at night, so it was a little stark.
-occasional charging problems
-AC occasionally blows hot for no reason

The latter three problems are fixable by stopping and turning the car off and back on, of course with these cars "turning it off" requires walking away out of distance from the smart key to talk to the car.

Additionally:
-Battery heat exchanger broke on a long trip from the Austin area to Las Vegas. They had to leave the car and fly back and get it.

-I would say our local dealer is not that competent at handling these electric cars. My folks said the dealer in Las Vegas was much better to deal with.

Nevertheless, my parents love their car! Go figure. It is very comfortable for tall people, and my dad is tall like me, with less mobility due to being in his 70s, so that's probably part of it.