VW ID Buzz GTX review: If you're a motoring aficionado, look away now. This one's for the parents
If you are a motoring aficionado, this review of the Volkswagen I.D. Buzz is probably not for you. Move along. Nothing to see here.
This one is for the forty-something mums and dads who hate pulling a trailer, can’t reach the roof bars, have had enough of trapping fingers in the roofbox or have simply lost the will to live when it comes to filling up the car for trips out with the kids.
This one’s for you, parents (you don’t have to be forty-something). You are seen, I appreciate everything you do for your children, even if they do not, and I know precisely how it feels each time the question ‘are we there, yet?’ stabs you in the ear from behind.
Because, more often than not, motoring reviews are written by experts, and that’s as it should be. Cars these days are expensive, complicated things that require knowledge and passion to fully and properly understand. But all too often, at least to a layperson, these reviews can feel like they’re by experts, for experts.
I am no expert. At least not when it comes to understanding how many Nms of torque is best at an optimum horse power of x + y when the rpms peak at a million and you disengage the lateral flow choke. See. No expert.
What I have become quite good at is dadding. I’ve been at it for 12 years, now. That, I think, means my apprenticeship is over as a dad; I’m off the factory floor and promoted up into the office of proper dads. Fully qualified to dad alone, but not so qualified as to offer counsel to anyone else just yet. Steady on. I’m on my first wife, my second dog and I’m two little boys deep. That’s at least two papa-pips on my shoulder, right?
And yet, very often I find myself failing. Failing to get into the car everything that is required in order to enjoy a family day out. Because once you’ve safely tethered your golden retriever and buckled in all four humans, the chances of a couple of bikes, a scooter or two or even just everything that goes with watching your kids play cricket, that’s that. You’re full. And that means sulks, whines and whinges before you even turn a wheel in anger.
Not with an I.D. Buzz. Nevermind a golden retriever, you can get 101 Dalmatians in the back of the long-wheel-base version, and still manage to seat Cruella de Vil (that’s not a reference to my wife) in comfort alongside them. Let me start from the beginning: from the moment you look down at the pedals, you sense that front-of-mind in the conception of the Volkswagen I.D.Buzz was a sense of fun; the accelerator and brake pedals are adorned with ‘play’ and ‘pause’ symbols respectively. That’s intentional. The Buzz is an EV for the digital age, yet one that harks back to its much-loved camper van predecessor. You pause and play, now, not stop and go. But when you do want to go, go it bally-well does. Like the clappers. Some 340bhp and power to all four corners sees to it that you can hit 60mph in 6.4s - bear in mind this thing is 5m long and weighs the equivalent of all of the animals residing at London Zoo put together - and can nip past dawdlers with confidence, especially in the GTX version that I tested on our week away to North Wales, where, incidentally, they absolutely hate motorists.
‘ARAF’ the roads scream at you at every, single, bend. 20mph zones where there’s nought to worry about but a rabbit hutch and stray sheep. ARAF! Near schools and through small hamlets, I get it, but come on. Thankfully, the Buzz is as charming at 20mph - as you witness mums with prams overtake you on the pavement - as it is quiet and comfortable at 70mph. You’ve a Harman Kardon stereo to please your ears - Baba O’ Riley never sounded so good - and a captain’s armchair to survey the roads ahead, or, through the panoramic glass roof in a traffic jam, the skies overhead.
In the back, behind the boys, who each had their own captain’s chair equipped with ample usb ports to power their infotainment, and an aeroplane-style seat tray in front of them, we stowed away the dog, two 25KG suitcases, two e-scooters (don’t judge me), a fan … oh, the fan! … bodyboards, beach games, groceries, two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree and I’m pretty sure we could have got all of that in twice having removed the rear parcel shelf and back two seats - this seating configuration seats six - to create the additional space.
And, of course, it isn’t all ARAF, ARAF, ARAF around North Wales. Some of the 60mph roads pass through majestic, rolling green hills, punctuated by jagged rock formations and yawning valleys. I lost count of the number of times, without another human nor vehicle in sight, we pulled up, opened the electronically-powered side doors and tailgate, pulled out the flask of tea and simply sat staring at beautiful Denbighshire.
Listen, you’ll read and hear that the Buzz isn’t sporty. How can it be, they’ll say. It’s a van, with all the aerodynamics and chassis stability of a blancmanche, but trust me, stick the thing in sport mode and with the more responsive acceleration, the meatier feel to the steering and the magic that occurs down below with tightening of its underpants, driving the Buzz GTX enthusiastically, frankly, is as much fun as you can have on the road with a nervous passenger, two giddy little lads, and the family pooch in tow, and that’s that.
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VW ID Buzz GTX 4-Motion
Six-seater, Long Wheel Base
OTR price as tested: £73,000