Hey look what we have here! Finally, after much delay in teasing, the Volkswagen ID
Buzz has arrived. The rebirth of the bus. And yes, Volkswagen calls this a bus. It even says
so on their website, but the EPA and I agree it's really a minivan. An all-electric minivan
but still a minivan. But regardless of titles, I finally get to drive it. And not only that
I'm gonna have it for two weeks over the holiday season and as you can see by the salt on the ground and the salt on the bus and some salt on me
It's winter. So I'm also gonna get to be one of the first to do a proper cold weather test
So before we hit the road, let's quickly go over the exterior of the new Buzz
it really does look like a modern take on the classic Volkswagen Type 2 or Samba bus or micro
bus or whatever you want to call it. I've even had non-car people comment on that how it looks like
the old Volkswagen but modern. They've done their best job to try to give it a flat nose but it can't
be completely flat like the old model due to crash regulations and safety standards but still playing
with this giant front windshield that sits way up on the dash and just the way the nose is overall
done it definitely gives a look of what it's supposed to be and that's the old bus. You can
start to count how many times I say bus in this video. Of course what micro bus Samba bus type 2
would be complete without a giant Volkswagen logo on the front and unlike the chrome ones that came
on the original vehicles this one is plastic but it lights up at night and that looks really cool
and there's a light bar that goes across like all modern Volkswagens and it has the ID lights here
If you look at it from the side, you can see it has a massive wheelbase, over 127 inches long
which is several inches longer than a Chevrolet Tahoe. But when it comes to overall length
it's quite a few inches shorter than an Atlas. So it has a very sort of stretched out to the
corners wheelbase, which I'll get to later. But height wise, it is very tall and you sit very
high in the vehicle. It's a very commanding view and you see over a lot of other SUVs roofs
but some passengers have maybe given it not the best compliment and saying they feel like they're
driving in a modern cargo van and I mean if you look at sort of the front section
it's a very similar shape. But back to the actual vehicle. This is the first edition because that's
all that's on sale right now in either all-wheel drive which they call 4Motion or rear-wheel drive
and you get the first edition badges back here and it comes with these cool 20-inch wheels that
Volkswagen calls disc wheels and they're clearly retro inspired and I can't wait to see some people
take these off buses and put them on other products down the road but for now it looks fantastic on
the vehicle. Flipping the vehicle around, it's once again a mix of classic and new design. There
is the light bar that runs across the entire rear hatch, which has become sort of a Volkswagen
trademark lately. There's this cool integrated spoiler, and of course there's a giant VW badge
and it says IDBUZZ in big letters in case anyone mistakes what this giant bus is rolling down the
road. So as I've mentioned before, this is the first edition of the BUZZ, which means a special
exclusive version to start the model off, and it has those 20-inch disc wheels and that first
edition badging I showed. It comes standard with the electrochromatic glass roof, although in Canada
that's still an extra cost option. It has the Harman Kardon 14-speaker audio system, 360-degree
cameras, the easy open power sliding doors and rear lift gate. There's this flexible storage bin
captain's chairs in the 4Motion, which I have, and the Heritage Premium floor mats, which is super
important. So the Buzz can come as a six or seven seater, and when you have the captain's chairs like
I do. Obviously, it's a six seater because the third row only seats two people. But that isn't
a reflection on the amount of space in here. This could possibly be the biggest, most spacious three
row anything on the market right now. So in the front row, I have 42 inches of headroom and 37
and a half inches of legroom. And that number is kind of deceiving as I've all the legroom I
possibly need. Then you go to the middle row and things actually increase as there's now 42.3 inches
of headroom and almost 40 inches of legroom. So then you go to the third row and things now have
to get much smaller, right? Well, headroom does shrink to 38.7 inches, but there's 42.4 inches
of legroom. That's ridiculous. I can sit in the third row without issue. In fact, I can sit in any
of the rows. This is a true six adult vehicle and all the space isn't just taken up by people
There's a lot of cargo here. I mean, 18.6 cubic feet behind the third row may not sound like a lot
but that's better than a lot of SUVs, maybe not quite as good as minivans. Now, this one does have
the extra sort of cargo floor that will make everything flat when you fold the third and
second row. And when you fold those rows, you go up to 75 and a half cubic feet behind the second
row. And if you fold the second row, you now have 145.5 cubic feet. That just shows how big this
vehicle is with its width and height. And most EVs kind of lose some of the floor space due to the
battery, but that's not the case here. Volkswagen just kept building it up higher and 145 cubic feet
Plus, that's a lot you can carry. But if you do have six adults and you wanna tow
well, it can tow 3,500 pounds as well. So what else do I have in here? Well, these are leatherette seatings
and in the front they're heated and ventilated. In the second row they're heated
They're power operated in the front. I have a 14-way adjustable and there's a massage feature, which is great
The captain's chairs don't have the power or the ventilation or the massage though but they still good enough There four zone climate control in this vehicle I got two up front two in the middle row There a 12 inch touchscreen here which is the usual Volkswagen system which is good and bad I mean the actual software is
nice and it's pretty quick to react, but again, no buttons. That means volume slider that has the
temperature control sliders. I just want a couple of buttons, like maybe give me a volume knob and a
couple of temperature control switches, dials, knobs. I don't care. Just a couple. And then in
front of the driver there is a 5.3 inch digital display screen and it can be customized a bit and
has all the necessary information but the first edition also includes the head-up display like I
mentioned and that is actually quite large and it's cool because it can go between regular head-up
display coloring or you can do snow mode that turns the speed a light blue color so you can
differentiate it between it and maybe a snowy road in front of you and that just shows that this ID
buzz was meant for more than just warm weather driving. A couple other quick call-outs before we
get on the road. There's the removable Volkswagen buzz box in the middle here that allows front and
middle road passengers to access and you can just take it out all together if you want. There's wireless charging, wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto, all the usual safety
systems. You know, everything you expect in a modern car, especially one that costs this much
And we'll get to price a little bit later because I want to just go through the vehicle first
so you know what it's like and then you can decide if it's worth the price. So the first thing you notice when you get behind the wheel is the driving position is very unfamiliar
to regular drivers. The front windshield, as I mentioned, is way up there and there's a massive
dash. You could like eat a meal on it or put your laptop there. There's just so much dash
Now to help with sight lines, there's big side windows here that you'll actually use more than
you think when turning or parking. It's just a little maybe disorientating for a couple minutes
until you get used to it but I would say within 10 minutes I didn't even notice anymore and after
two weeks of driving it just seemed second nature. In fact I get in a regular car and I feel
almost cramped in because there's just so much space here in the driver's seat. All six seats
feel like front seats. After two hours on the road when I had multiple passengers in the vehicle
none of us felt uncomfortable or fatigued. We all felt like we were just riding in a, ready for it
a bus. As I mentioned, this is not a minivan according to Volkswagen, but according to the
rest of the world it is. So being one, or not being one, there's tons of storage. There's this
removable buzz box, there's shelves on the passenger side, there's flip-down cup holders
It being an electric vehicle has flat floors, so that means you can put stuff all over the place
between seats. It's just really nice and handy. There's no sort of compromise in this vehicle just
because it has an electric powertrain. So yes, let's get to that powertrain. The Buzz is available
in two configurations, rear wheel drive or four motion all wheel drive. So rear wheel drive get a
single motor that powers the rear wheels and it makes 282 horsepower and 413 pound feet of torque
All wheel drive versions like I'm in don't really up the power too much. It goes up to 335 as there's
now a motor up front but although it makes its own torque maximum torque remains at 413 pound
feet. Now that may not sound like a lot of power for a vehicle this size and in the world of EVs it
is on the lower power side which is crazy to say a minivan with over 400 pound feet of torque
might be underpowered but in reality it's not. This vehicle actually weighs just a bit over 6,000
pounds which again is heavy in isolation but compared to a lot of EVs that's pretty good
considering its size. Around town there's all the power you'd ever need because that's just the
nature of VVs. All that instant torque magnifies how much power there actually is in a vehicle at
low speeds. I had six full-grown people in here and I could still accelerate quicker than I had
any business doing so. So you watch. Just fly away from the stop and I'm already almost breaking the
speed limit so I gotta stop. But anyway, back to power and other situations. So the only time I
really ever feel maybe a bit of lack of power is on the freeway and even then it's at the upper
allowable speeds where acceleration is just normal as opposed to quick. It's more than adequate for
anybody's needs. Now there are drive modes which include comfort and eco and sport and whatnot and
There's a custom to adjust how you want various levels like steering feel, throttle response, exterior engine noise and whatnot
I mean, Volkswagen usually has these drive modes and usually allow a customizable one. So how do they perform
Well, Sport really does give far better throttle response and allows all the power available at any time and increases the regen braking
Now, I took a road trip on Eco and I'll get to that in a second as to why
So eco is all about saving the amount of energy used and it reduces things like the accelerator
response and the climate control and things like that. And on the freeway even if I put the
accelerator all the way to the floor it only gives me so much power and at certain speeds it doesn't
necessarily limit you but you can feel the power getting reduced more and more as the car saying
you're kind of using too much power slow it down. Now why was I using eco? Well I was on a bit of a
road trip and the range in the ID Buzz is probably its weakest point With a 91 kilowatt hour battery that 86 kilowatt hour net
For a vehicle this size, that's not a lot of storage. Officially, it's rated at 234 miles or 377 kilometers on a single charge for rear-wheel drive models
or if you're driving the 4Motion like I am, that drops to 231 miles or 372 kilometers
Now, as I said at the beginning, this is winter and in fact, it's starting to snow
and I'll talk about snow driving in a little bit. But winter obviously reduces battery capabilities
just like it reduces the efficiency of a gasoline engine. In the buzz, it's actually not too bad
On a full charge, I'm in the Canadian kilometers here, I went from the quoted 372 to getting up around anywhere from 330 to 345
which is a good amount for crossing cities and maybe seeing nearby relatives
But if you plan to do a multi-hour drive in a day, you need to plan out charge points
because in less than three hours, I can have this battery depleted. And that's sort of what happened on my drive
I put an eco and it actually did save me enough and I was fine. but for being a big family vehicle regardless of whatever title you want to give it it should be a
bit of a road trip vehicle and with this range that's kind of hard to do without planning charging
now the good news is when it comes to charging the buzz is quite good it can charge a 200 kilowatt
max at a dc fast charger which recharges its battery from 20 to 80 in well under half an hour
I don't currently have a stage two at home. I just have a regular old plug into the wall
but the onboard charger of the Buzz is so powerful. It was drawing a lot of power out of that outlet
and I was amazed to come back to the Buzz overnight after maybe eight to nine hours of charging and
I'd gained 13% back. Most EVs when they plug them into the wall with similar size batteries I'm lucky
to have five or six percent. So if you had a stage two at home and you didn't regularly need to go
over three hours of driving, the Buzz would always be fully ready to go at any moment
So back to that winter driving. With 4Motion and winter tires, this thing is fully capable in the snow
In fact, it's actually surprisingly good. And some of that has to do with this long wheelbase
With the wheels tucked to the corners on the freeway like I am now, it's just so smooth
It takes no effort to keep it going straight and it just eats up mile after mile
and it smooths out even with winter tires, rough road surfaces, and when the snow does start to accumulate
it's heavy weight and long wheelbase makes changing lanes through sort of slush ruts
and truck ruts simple. There was no pull, there was no point where I felt
like the vehicle was gonna start to get out of control or slide, it's just really reassuring
The downside though in winter weather has to do with sensors, specifically the one up front
that has a lot to do with adaptive cruise control, forward collision mitigation, lane keep
all those sort of things. So it's mounted really low in the bumper
and that's partially due to styling of the buzz and also just the sheer size of the vehicle
The problem is on the highway in slushy, snowy conditions, all the mucks getting thrown up onto it
and it took maybe 20, 30 minutes of driving before I got a warning that all my safety systems
were disabled that had to do with the things I described like forward collision and lane keep and all those sort of things. I mean it still had
abs and it still drove fine it was just all the active safety systems were disabled because it
couldn't get an accurate reading. Now the next day I drove it on a sunny sunny day like it's suddenly
become because the snow's already stopped and I still got that warning and that's because I hadn't
cleaned the sensor. So after cleaning it everything was fine and only once during the week did that
happen again and that time I didn't actually have to clean it myself and it went away. Now this isn't
just a side effect of the buzz, it's a side effect of any car, electric or gas, and I've had it
happen before, but this sensor seems extra susceptible just in its placement. So back to
actually driving the buzz. Well like I said, it tracks so straight on the road and this high
wide open seating position with glass everywhere just gives great sight lines and a commanding
view. It does feel like you're driving a mini bus. I mean not in the sense of you're driving this big
unwieldy truck-like vehicle. You just sit up here with all your passengers behind and you feel in
command of where you're going. Despite the wheels being pushed out to the corners handling isn't
exactly amazing and it shouldn't be expected in this vehicle but it corners well enough and it
has a surprisingly small turning circle when you consider its wheelbase. Now as smooth as I
describe the vehicle being on the highway and even in city streets on rough surfaces it isn't so good
when it comes to broken pavement and other bumps in the road. Now it absorbs them well enough but
you can audibly hear it kind of crash over these surfaces and when you get on some really rough
frosty broken side roads then you start to feel and hear it Now I know there a delicate balance the engineers have to walk when trying to spring and dampen this between the vehicle weight and ride comfort and handling
I just hope maybe down the road there'll be a few little tweaks just to refine it a bit because honestly that's the only negative when it comes to drivability
This is just a really good vehicle to get behind the wheel and drive
It's not a performance vehicle but it's not meant to be. It's meant to be something that just huddles a lot of people or a lot of gear easily and that's what it does
And it feels more refined than a lot of big SUVs or other minivans and that's partially due to its all-electric architecture and also due to just the platform it's built on
I feel like I'm in something more premium than just say an Odyssey or a Sienna or even an Atlas
And for the price, it better. But we'll get to that a little bit later
I still am not quite ready to let you know how much this costs
Okay, so maybe I lied. There's one more little nuance about the way the buzz drives
and I'm not a huge fan of, and that has to do with braking. It's weird
Sometimes it feels like you press the brake pedal, and there's like almost a dead zone where there's no bite and no real reaction
and then all of a sudden it comes on real hard and real fast. It takes a while to learn to modulate
but it's not always linear depending on speeds. and after two weeks, I've pretty much perfected it
But when Kyle first drove it, he had the same impression. And it's just one of those things that you have to get used to if you buy the vehicle
So I guess the best way to sum up the driving experience is this. I am someone who loves sporty vehicles
I like the noise of a great engine, manual transmissions, rear wheel drive or performance
all wheel drive, all those great things. But if I need to drive a family vehicle, especially a big family vehicle
this is what I want to drive. this is it. My results may be a little skewed compared to others, but this is the most mundane
under-the-radar two-tone color with the gray and the white. I mean, solid gray would be a little
less obvious. If I had blue, yellow, or green, I'd probably be causing accidents with the amount of
heads turning. But sitting in my driveway, every neighbor that's walked by wanted to know something
about it how it drove it's worth the money what's it like inside all sorts of things and then others
wanted some tech numbers but it created a lot of conversation and when we went places that were
populated like malls niagara falls and other things that end in alls i would leave the vehicle
and people would be checking it out i would come back to the vehicle and people would be checking
it out. I would be driving in and out of these densely congested areas and you guessed it people
would be checking it out. The best thing for Volkswagen is no one can really copy this style
either because it's a true reflection to their heritage and anyone who copies it
it would be so obvious because no one else had a bus back in the day quite like this
okay time to talk price the id buzz is only available initially as the first edition and
that's a fully loaded version of course with some exclusive extras so in the u.s for rear wheel drive
models it starts at just over 67 000 including destination charges and in canada it's nearly 80
thousand. Go to the 4Motion and in the US you are now over $71,000 and in Canada you are over $86,000
Again these all include destination charges. So there is a price to pay for the bus and it is a
lot of vehicle and like I said I really enjoy driving. In fact it's easily one of my top vehicles
of the year to operate. But the question is going to be is the limited range worth the money and
And inside, some people may really hone in on quality of materials for the money
Because you're talking some serious luxury machinery at that price. And I personally like the interior
Like, it's not the highest of qualities or the richest of materials
Like, maybe some Mercedes and BMWs. But it's really pleasing to the eye
And there's nice contrast and a cool use of different materials. And I'm fine with the interior for the price
I'm fine with everything for the price except for the range is a bit low because they do feel
buyers would want this to maybe go a little further. So after two weeks of driving the bus there's a couple things I can conclude
First the ID Buzz is not perfect. There are a couple issues most notably the range but I can
also definitely conclude that this is one of the most enjoyable vehicles I've had all year
Now, a lot of people are going to complain that the range is too low and the price is too high
and I totally get it and agree to a sense. But for me, currently how it is, this would suit 99% of what I do in a year
and for that other 1%, my family owns a small SUV. So I guess that puts me in the demographic
but still, electric vehicle pricing as a whole still needs to come down before I'm ready to make the leap
But if or when that does, this is something that will definitely be on the shortlist