The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition

[A Former User]

Some of you may remember from the old Kinja about three years ago I leased two VW e-Golfs. They were three year leases, and it was all part of a grand plan. I knew VW would come out with some sort of longer range, bespoke EV in a few years. Based on the news at the time it was expected around 2020 or 2021. But there was nothing concrete. But, having followed the industry I took some guesses.

I figured the e-Golf replacement would be out around 2021.
I was right

I figured that the car, whatever it was, would cost around $40,000 before incentives.
I was right

I figured the range would be around 250 miles with sufficient recharging speeds.
Son of a bitch, I'm three for three

Now here's where my plans are changing.

Because I was right about the price, but not what kind of car they would come out with (fucking US and their demand for SUVs), I've decided I don't want to replace my e-Golf with the ID4, I will only replace my mom's e-Golf with the ID4. But part of that is that I absolutely LOVE my e-Golf, and I plan to make it better by putting real wheels and real tires on it after the lease is up. I also don't need 250 miles of range. And I don't want an SUV as my daily driver. The ID4 isn't huge, but it's still taller than the Golf, and I don't need to spend another $30,000 on a car.

But I am finding myself chuckle more and more about on point I was. Especially since I have family members who have partaken in the Tesla kool-aid and are shitting on the ID4.

"It's not was I expecting them to come out with. The range is too low and the charging speed too low."

Says the guy who needed a new bumper from the factory on his Model Y because Tesla still can't make a car.

But whatever. I was right about the car, and it's all I need. I can also be smug about my other siblings say I should never lease a car. But first off, unlike my siblings, I don't have a tax burden big enough to actually take advantage of the $7,500 non-refundable tax credit so of course I'm going to lease the car. Also, my mom's e-Golf currently has about $7,000 in equity. And mine isn't far behind. So yeah, just because I'm their little brother doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. They seem to forget until they need my help I'm an automotive professional and I do know things.

But I can't wait to get the ID4 and show it off. I think it's going to be a great car and it will be cool having a completely new type of car.

[CarsOfFortLangley]

I can't wait to see it IRL. While I did get a Sportwagen, I still don't wholly trust VW as a brand. But I'd be open to buying another if everything goes well in the future

[Qaaaaa]

I really like the e-Golf. If I were about five years older than I am now three years ago (figure that one out) I would have leased one. Easily the best EV on the market at that point and it's not even close.

[A Former User]

@carsoffortlangley

I can't wait to see it IRL. While I did get a Sportwagen, I still don't wholly trust VW as a brand. But I'd be open to buying another if everything goes well in the future

There's a reason I'm weird and only want German built VWs. Although I didn't work at VW for long, what I saw was enough to have me shy away from ever getting a VW built in North America. I spent most of my time performing stupid service campaigns on all the NA cars, whereas the Golf (at the time the MKVI was German made, the MKVII switched to Mexico) never had any issues.

And knock on wood I haven't had any issues with my MKVI or MKVIIs. But I still think VW has gotten better and is aware of their reputation so I don't hesitate to recommend their cars over the boring competition. I've driven the Atlas and would absolutely recommend it to anyone in that market. And I would probably say the same about the new Tiguan.

[Longtime Lurker]

I was looking at used e-Golfs but all the ones for sale here are California models, and I don't believe the US got the special order paint options, that Canada did.

[Stef Schrader]

Man, now I want to drive an e-Golf. I almost never hear anyone talk about those, but most things based on a Golf are pretty good, so...

[A Former User]

@stef-schrader said in The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition:

Man, now I want to drive an e-Golf. I almost never hear anyone talk about those, but most things based on a Golf are pretty good, so...

I'm going to make a bold claim and say it's best Golf for driving around town. It's got the lowest CG of any Golf. And the rest is a normal Golf. That's a recipe for a fantastic handling car.

And the idea for new wheels and tires came from a horrible influence: Jason Cammisa. He put 4Ss on his and pulled over 1.10 G on the skidpad. And his range wasn't affected too much by the new rubber. I only ever keep my e-Golf around town, so I don't need to worry about the lost range. So I'm excited about the face ripping potential of my car with real rubber on it.

[KITT222]

@his_stigness I've enjoyed watching Camissa's process with his E-Golf. It's been great seeing how far he can push his little electric hatchback, and how many others he can get into them. I also appreciate how he has done some of his tests, including his rather exhaustive range test featuring several E-Golfs at the same time.

[spacekraken]

@Stef-Schrader I literally got my license on one so much bias, but it is SO DANG GOOD. My buddy's MK6 Golf R kind of felt like a disappointment in handling, if way faster.

@His_Stigness Sounds like a fantastic plan. My dad keeps debating swapping our e-golf for an ID4... looks like the E is staying which I kind of prefer, but will keep a close eye on ID happenings since I'm betting there will be one in my driveway at some point.

[Stef Schrader]

Noice. 10/10 would hoon.

[spacekraken]

@stef-schrader Part of the fun is you kind of can hoon it everywhere-it's silent and very torquey but not super fast. Corners way too well for something that weighs more than any other golf 7.

[sn4cktimes]

@carsoffortlangley We've had a pretty lemony VW Golf here in Canada, and some of or friends and family haven't had much better luck either. Which wouldn't be such a problem if the dealer network here didn't actively fight against warranty work so hard. If they smiled, said something along the lines of "oh yeah, that does seem messed up" and then just fixed it. No biggie. I beat the hell out of my Wrangler and Jeep was always more than happy to be reasonable with me. One example: I ripped the ABS lines off 3 corners, they went halfsies with me, even when it was clearly my bad. But that doesn't seem to be the running scenario with VW here. They come off more "PROVE IT!, yeah, maybe it it could be wrong. Oh, that's not warrantied... etc" I LOVE the look of VWs/Audis, but don't think I'd go there again.

[A Former User]

@kitt222 said in The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition:

@his_stigness I've enjoyed watching Camissa's process with his E-Golf. It's been great seeing how far he can push his little electric hatchback, and how many others he can get into them. I also appreciate how he has done some of his tests, including his rather exhaustive range test featuring several E-Golfs at the same time.

I appreciate his testing and adventures with it, but my wallet doesn't. I started falling him on IG and he made a post about putting in HID bulbs into the stock housing. So I ordered what he got and put them in my mom's e-Golf. And I had already had projector housings for mine I got from aliexpress but thought were wrong so I got my money back. Turns out they were right, so I ordered bulbs for those too and put them in my car.

Now he's got 034 Motorsports enabling him and they're probably going to figure out how to lower it next. I guess one of the guys at 034 took their own e-Golf and put a Golf R kit on it and it did not work, which is hilarious. But hopefully they figure it out.

[Cé hé sin]

@his_stigness
Sounds like you could do with an ID3, were it available to you.

[A Former User]

@cé-hé-sin said in The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition:

@his_stigness
Sounds like you could do with an ID3, were it available to you.

I would get an ID3 in a heartbeat here. But NOOO, the US wants "SUVs"

[A Former User]

@spacekraken

VW is supposed to release a cheaper ID4 here in a few years once they get the Chattanooga plant up and running. I hope they also keep the same battery option, because the current talk has it being a smaller battery which would probably mean an EPA rating of 200, and I won't be able tolerate all the idiots shit talking that because they don't understand EVs or VW's rating of their own range.

I'm already confident my ID4 will go 300 miles easily on a charge here in SoCal. VAG has been very conservative with their EPA rating.

[TheDutchTexan]

@his_stigness said in The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition:

non-refundable tax credit

Now if it was actually refundable it would get WAY more people in an electric car. But then again, prices of those cars will suddenly be magically inflated by the tax credit so there is that... Either people who have a huge tax burden use it as a vehicle to write off their taxes or the prices of the vehicles go up exponentially. No win for the regular man.

[spacekraken]

@his_stigness smaller battery would be silly indeed. But I 100% agree with you on the range on all counts. Especially as a second car (my dad has the E-golf, I have a MK7 wagon), the shorter range basically never comes up. As an only car, sure, more range=better.

[A Former User]

@thedutchtexan said in The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition:

Now if it was actually refundable it would get WAY more people in an electric car. But then again, prices of those cars will suddenly be magically inflated by the tax credit so there is that... Either people who have a huge tax burden use it as a vehicle to write off their taxes or the prices of the vehicles go up exponentially. No win for the regular man.

It already is inflated by that $7500. The ID4 isn't a $40,000 car other than the battery. As soon as most automakers lose the tax credit you'll see prices of the cars drop accordingly.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@sn4cktimes said in The VW ID.4 is here, and my plan hatched three years is coming to fruition:

@carsoffortlangley We've had a pretty lemony VW Golf here in Canada, and some of or friends and family haven't had much better luck either. Which wouldn't be such a problem if the dealer network here didn't actively fight against warranty work so hard. If they smiled, said something along the lines of "oh yeah, that does seem messed up" and then just fixed it. No biggie. I beat the hell out of my Wrangler and Jeep was always more than happy to be reasonable with me. One example: I ripped the ABS lines off 3 corners, they went halfsies with me, even when it was clearly my bad. But that doesn't seem to be the running scenario with VW here. They come off more "PROVE IT!, yeah, maybe it it could be wrong. Oh, that's not warrantied... etc" I LOVE the look of VWs/Audis, but don't think I'd go there again.

This is the experience anybody I've known with a more recent VW has had with their VW product, sadly....a lot of reliability and quality issues....hopefully just flukes, but a lot of the people I know with newer VWs are not happy with their experience

[spacekraken]

@sn4cktimes @RallyDarkstrike
I think it might be a regional thing? Then again, can't say I've ever had a good experience with any dealer LOL. With the MK7s, one (GSW) had repeated safety tech issues that turned out to be "dealer mounted the plate blocking the front radar" and has been good since, and the other two (E, Alltrack) have been very good (crosses fingers). Nothing major, vs a slew of problems with other makes. I sort of have started to think it's totally luck of the draw with any modern complex car...

[BritsnSwedes was MINIGTI]

@his_stigness
Haha sadly my German made mkVI was the worst car I’ve ever had and soured me on the brand a bit. Sounds like mkVii are much better though.
I wanted to replace it with a Model 3 but it was just too much coin at the moment.

[sn4cktimes]

@spacekraken The thing is I want to like them. VW cars are just so nice looking, comfortable, nice to drive, and not overly gimmicky or flashy. But our turbo golf had cooling system, oil pump, and terrible transmission issues, buttons fell into the door panel, and the windows all fell into their doors one winter; our friend’s Audi had the same oil and transmission issues, cousin-in-law’s Jetta TDI wagon’s driver side mirror just fell off, the HVAC controls stopped working, buttons and knobs fell off, rear view mirror fell off, inner door latch snapped off; another friend’s Touareg‘s HVAC system just went squirrely and took months to get sorted and it kept going into limp mode.

Most of the negative dealership experiences were here in Calgary, but the cousins’ were in BC. But I’ve been in all those vehicles. And they are VERY nice when working properly. And that’s the catch 22 right there for me. With a nice NEW vehicle I expect a certain rapport with the dealership and vehicular issues. Pretty much all new vehicles have some problem or two to iron out. That’s understandable. I get that. They have thousands of parts.

But, I shouldn’t have to argue with the service manager for 20 min each time just to get it looked at, and then again when I pick it up because it was never looked at, or put paint marker on things to prove they were never looked at, or take them to a third party VW certified shop with 20% higher shop rate to ensure a warranty claim gets made on a transmission before said warranty lapses leaving us with an unsafe car. Or ever bring up, and look into getting a lawyer involved with warranty claims only to find that I would be FAR from the first person to do so against VW in Calgary and that they will fight every claim tooth and nail... that’s just a bad experience.

We’ve had the odd small maintenance issue with the wife’s Juke and they MAKE time to get it right again. And her car is well off warranty being a 2012. Jeep didn’t go that far with me, but they never batted an eye and kept it honest with me. If I broke it, which was most of the time, they let me know, but if it was their end, they’d let me know. And like the ABS lines, that should have been longer as my Jeep wasn’t lifted at that point, they paid for the work and parts, and I paid for them to make the harnesses longer at the same time to future proof for the lift I had on order. Which was quite a bit of labour at the time with JK’s being brand new to the market. When I plugged my alternator up with mud they even covered it. Which surprised the hell out of me.

TLDR Version: I like VW’s. I would never own another ICE VW

[spacekraken]

@sn4cktimes Whoa that's really really bad. Yeah can't blame you in the slightest. Our old Passat had some HVAC and powertrain issues but only after about 8 years of zero hassle.

[sn4cktimes]

@spacekraken And there lies my problem. Because I want to like them. But that’s just such a personal was of vehicular prejudice to get over. Had a mediocre Hyundai experience which is also too bad.