I’m not excellent. I’ll admit that earlier than I drove the 2025 Volkswagen ID Buzz, I used to be fairly skeptical of it primarily based solely on the value. As an auto journalist, this isn’t actually what you’re speculated to do earlier than driving a automobile, however what can I say? I play quick and unfastened. I imply, are you able to blame me? $61,500 to $71,500 for a Volkswagen minivan looks like a hell of a value to pay. Nevertheless, after spending the higher a part of a day with the ID Buzz, I get it, and I get its value… for probably the most half.
The 2025 ID Buzz begs the query, “How a lot would you pay for individuals to love you?” VW’s reincarnated bus makes up for lack of inside high quality and effectivity by being one of the fashionable and well-liked automobiles available on the market, and it’s fairly rattling sensible in addition. Should you’ve bought about $70,000 to spend on a automobile that’ll make you tons of mates — and to hell with every little thing else — the ID Buzz is a compelling bundle
Full Disclosure: Volkswagen flew me out to San Francisco, fed me and put me up in a really good lodge all so I may drive the 2025 ID Buzz.
I do know styling is a subjective factor, but it surely’s laborious to disclaim that the ID Buzz is just not a beautiful piece of design. It’s bought all the good throwback touches you’d count on from a retro-inspired automobile, but it surely additionally has sufficient up to date components to make it really feel completely at house in a contemporary world. Up entrance, you’ve bought the basic snub-nose and large emblem from the unique bus, alongside the edges you’ve bought three strakes within the rear pillar that harken again to the air vents on these authentic VW busses, and a few actually nice wanting 20-inch wheels that function a throwback to the hubcaps you’d discover on the authentic bus. There are some extra modern-looking rims out there, however you need to actually simply skip these. Up high, you’ve bought an unlimited greenhouse that makes the whole van really feel extraordinarily ethereal.
It additionally helps that there are a bunch of various two-tone shade schemes (eight to be actual, with three extra stable grayscale colours) that make this factor seem like nothing else on the street. Should you’re forking over about $70,000, you’re doing it due to how good the ID Buzz appears to be like. It’s very uncommon {that a} idea automobile (albeit, an outdated one at this level) appears to be like so much like the completed product. It’s even a reasonably first rate measurement. At 195.4 inches lengthy, it’s not precisely small, but it surely’s about 9 inches shorter than a Pacifica or Sienna.
My solely actual challenge with how the ID Buzz appears to be like is its headlights. I perceive Volkswagen needed to maintain its company ID face for the bus, and which means it has cat-eye headlights, however I might have actually favored to see a extra round design. Perhaps that will be an excessive amount of. I additionally don’t love how the second-row home windows don’t retract into the door. As an alternative, they’re little sq. cut-outs that slide inwards. I really feel like this was one thing that was acceptable on vans within the Nineties, however we’ve discovered the best way to make a minivan with roll-down home windows at this level. These are each fairly small gripes, however gripes nonetheless.
Sadly, my actual points with the ID Buzz lie on the within, the place it’s laborious to justify the hefty price ticket Volkswagen is asking for its newest mannequin. Loads of the supplies inside the ID Buzz merely will not be adequate for a individuals’s automobile that’s priced like a luxurious automobile. That is very true for the higher door panels, dashboard and a number of the switchgear. It’s a number of the most cost-effective plastic I’ve been capable of finding in a automobile exterior of a rental-spec Chevy Trax. It’s laborious. It’s scratchy. It’s low-rent. It’s unhealthy. It’s particularly unhealthy while you take a look at the $70,540 (together with vacation spot) as-tested value of the ID Buzz I drove. Take into accout, you’ll be able to nonetheless spend much more cash than that, however I’ll get to costs later.
Materials points apart, the remainder of the ID Buzz’s inside is fairly stable. It isn’t practically as retro-inspired as the outside, which is a little bit of a disgrace when you ask me. I really feel like VW’s designers may have had somewhat extra enjoyable. Regardless, Volkswagen clearly spent quite a lot of time fixing its infotainment system. The 12.9-inch heart show and 5.3-inch gauge cluster display, commonplace on all fashions, each work moderately properly. They’re fast to reply and the entire data they maintain is laid out sensibly and legibly. Positive, it might be good to have a bodily quantity knob and HVAC switches, but it surely’s not too annoying to make use of. Each Buzz additionally will get wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wi-fi charger, eight USB-C ports, a 30-color ambient lighting setup, a leather-based heated steering wheel and three-zone local weather management. Not too shabby. There are another niceties you get with the higher-trim Professional S Plus and 1st Version fashions, like a 14-speaker Harman/Kardon stereo (which is wonderful), automated sliding doorways and trunk, massaging seats and a head-up show.
General, there are three inside colours for the U.S., and thank God none of them are black or grey. You may select from Copper (a terracotta shade), Dune (white/cream) and Moonlight (darkish brown). The leatherette on the seats and armrests really feel pretty premium, particularly compared to the plastics and wooden veneer. Sadly, the U.S. doesn’t get the European inside shade schemes that match the varied two-tone paints.
As a result of the ID Buzz is a minivan at its coronary heart, you received’t be too stunned to study it’s bought a metric shit ton of area — that’s an official measurement. Volkswagen says that when you take out the third row of seats and fold the second row down (they don’t fold into the ground due to the battery), the ID Buzz can match 145.5 cubic toes of cargo. With all three rows up, there’s nonetheless 18.6 cubic toes of cargo area behind the third row, and due to VW’s nifty flex board, you’ve bought two ranges to fill together with your stuff. Becoming individuals is simply as spectacular. At 6-foot-1, I used to be capable of match into all three rows extraordinarily comfortably with tons of head- and legroom to spare. I ought to be aware the Buzz comes as both a six- or seven-seater relying on the drivetrain you select. Rear-wheel-drive fashions get seven seats and all-wheel-drive ones get six with two captain’s chairs within the center row.
Because it stands, there are two drivetrain choices you will get in the 2025 ID Buzz. There’s both a rear-motor, rear-wheel-drive setup or a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive configuration. VW says the RWD energy unit places out 282 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque and has an EPA-estimated 234 miles of vary from its 91-kWh battery. In the meantime, the AWD Buzz makes a mixed 335 horsepower. VW isn’t publishing a mixed quantity for torque, but it surely says the entrance motor places out 99 lb-ft, and the rear motor places out an an identical 413 to the RWD mannequin. I can’t converse for the RWD automobile, however the AWD Buzz was fast sufficient (VW doesn’t quote a 0-60 time). It’s not going to set your hair on fireplace, however 335 horsepower is greater than sufficient for what this automobile can be used for. Any greater than that and I really feel it might be a bit too highly effective for the multi-link entrance and rear suspension. The AWD Buzz’s vary is quoted by the EPA at 231 miles from that very same battery. Each variations include an 11-kW AC onboard charger, and the Buzz can DC fast-charge at as much as 200 kW.
I’ll be sincere, I don’t love these vary numbers, particularly out of a automobile that prices this a lot. That’s simply type of the character of Volkswagen’s MEB structure, although. It’s not deeply environment friendly, and that’s taking into consideration that its drag coefficient of 0.29 isn’t half unhealthy. Throughout some admittedly spirited driving, I used to be capable of get about 2.5 miles per kWh. That’s middling at finest. One thing just like the Kia EV9 — the Buzz’s closest competitor when you’re utilizing your head — can crack 3.5 and even 4 miles per kWh when you take it simple.
Middling is the way in which I’d describe the general driving expertise of the ID Buzz. That may sound a bit harsh on its face, however we have now to recollect it is a 5,300-ish-pound minivan in any case. (1,230 kilos come from the battery, alone.) It was by no means going to be a nook carver, but it surely’s not dreadful by any means. You would inform the new dual-motor Buzz I used to be driving was rather more snug cruising round city or driving down the freeway than taking the corners of the Pacific Coast Freeway at velocity. The electrical rack-and-pinion steering system is fairly properly weighted, however like most electrical vehicles, you get zero suggestions. I do know the wheels are up there, however I’ve bought no thought what they’re doing. Additionally barely shocking is the ID Buzz’s penchant for understeer. Even if extra energy comes from the again, this factor likes to push, however when you’re attempting to hustle your ID Buzz down a canyon street, maybe it is advisable reevaluate your self.
Braking was the one really suspect a part of driving the ID Buzz. Up entrance, it has 15-inch vented discs, however the rear is saddled with 13-inch drum brakes. I do know that it isn’t an enormous deal to have drums on an EV, but when I’m not mistaken that is the most costly drum-brake geared up automobile you should buy. Take that nevertheless you want. It has regenerative braking, however there’s just one mode and isn’t very aggressive. It’ll sluggish you right down to about 3 mph, but it surely received’t convey the automobile to a cease. Volkswagen actually doesn’t consider regen braking is the reply, for higher or worse. General, brake really feel is type of poor. It’s very spongy and also you don’t get quite a lot of confidence that this rig goes to return to a cease when you’re driving laborious. Don’t fear, although — you’re not going to drive it laborious.
I’ve alluded to it just a few instances, however I suppose now can be time to convey up the ID Buzz’s value. There are three trim ranges: Professional S, Professional S Plus and 1st Version. The Professional S is RWD solely, and the 2 latter trims have AWD as an choice AWD. The Professional S begins at $61,545, and there are not any choices out there. Subsequent up is the RWD Professional S Plus, which begins at $65,045, and fork over $69,545 and also you’ll get the Professional S Plus AWD. You may add two-tone paint ($995) and an electrochromic panoramic glass roof ($1,495) to both of these. Lastly, you’ve bought the limited-time-only 1st Version that comes with every little thing. RWD variations of that van begin at $67,045, and the AWD 1st Version will set you again $71,545. All of those costs embrace $1,550 for vacation spot.
To be sincere, I don’t hate the pricing of those vehicles, although I do want there was a less expensive technique to get into the AWD mannequin. You may’t get AWD for something lower than as-near-as-makes-no-difference $70,000, and that’s some huge cash. I’m conflicted, although, as a result of I don’t thoughts the ID Buzz being costly in principle. If VW desires to cost $70,000 for a slice of nostalgia with a improbable design, then it ought to go forward. I simply want the inside supplies matched the value.
The ID Buzz asks its consumers two easy questions: how a lot are you keen to spend on fashion, and the way a lot would you like individuals to love you? I don’t thoughts that in any respect, actually. It’s OK to have some vehicles exist purely to make individuals glad, usefulness be damned. You’ve bought to be keen to disregard some fairly sizable points if you wish to be ok with the value. I don’t know if I may do it, however I’m additionally not the target market for this automobile.
Then once more, perhaps I’m. I’ve pushed an entire lot of vehicles in my time at Jalopnik, and none have garnered a lot optimistic consideration. All over the place I went, individuals had been giving me thumbs up and asking in regards to the ID Buzz. It’s the anti-Cybertruck, in a manner. It’s a automobile that instills a large amount of pleasure in individuals by way of the actual fact they can see it. Should you like consideration as a lot as I do, then it is a massive optimistic. I simply don’t know if my should be favored ought to price me $70,000.
