2 Weeks with my ID3 Life

[CarterHounslow]

I have a 58 kw/h ID3 life, and even though I love it, there are a lot of things which I feel warrant a complaint to VW about, and I wanted to not only show you the things I like about the car but also see if you think I'm being unreasonable (some of these are issues that others have listed on here too).

Some of the bad are not criticisms of the car per se, but more to do with the service from VW and general lack of information.

THE GOOD

- Range seems okay. It's been on and off with weather here in the last two weeks, some good days, some bad days. I managed on the best day, driving at an average of around 45mph with some max speeds of 70 mph in 20 degree sunshine with the a/c on 3.9 miles per KW/h which I thought was pretty good. In the cold I've noticed that heating really does hit the range, the difference of a couple of degrees was costing 1 mile per kw/h as I was playing with it sat at a red light and seeing how the consumption changed.

- We Connect on the whole, basic as it is, seems to work pretty well most of the time

- The drivability of the car is excellent. One review said it's not that exciting to the keen driver. I've driven a lot of track cars and performance cars, and I have to say I find this brilliant and he's talking out of his backside. Centre of gravity is very low, steering is responsive, sport mode tightens it up a treat. Does understeer a little, which is to be expected. I drive my Dad's 2017 Golf GTI a lot and can honestly say I prefer this.

- Extremely comfortable on long journeys.

- Great space inside.

- Sat Nav is a great improvement on what I had in my 2017 Tiguan.

- The ID Light is a gimmicky but very pretty feature. I wish the light to turn left or right came on earlier though, only happens right at the junction.

THE NOT SO GOOD

Nothing on this car is terrible I don't think, but there are some downsides.

- Timed charge doesn't work, or is too slow a charge rate for some reason.

- No cupholders or speakers in the rear. I know I have the Life, but I have heated seats, heated steering wheel, but they can't put speakers in the back? I also get a massive central console but no cup holders for the rear? Very odd.

- Very laggy screen when turning on sometimes, I just get "This isn't available" and then ten seconds later it all comes on.

- Android Auto only works via the cable and if I disable bluetooth first.

- The manual you may as well throw in the bin, as it doesn't contain half the information you need (omissions listed below)

- The severe lack of information from the dealer on most things (Issues listed below).

- Why on earth are the windscreen wiper controls upside down compared to every VW in history?


Omissions from the manual:

- Day 2 I plugged it in at a pod point, got the message "Emergency charging only" and this was only the second time I charged it anywhere so I was concerned. Mentioned in the manual? No. Had to google it.
- Is it mentioned anywhere in the manual what reduced A/C current is? No, had to google.
- Does it tell you how to connect to car play or android auto in the manual? No.
- Does it explain timed charges anywhere in the manual and what charge immediately is? Not to my knowledge, but maybe I didn't look hard enough.

I can find all this stuff out for myself, but older people are going to have a nightmare with this.

Lack of information from dealer:

They should really explain to you about battery conditioning affecting charging speed. They should explain about charging between 20-80% to prolong battery life. He literally sent me out the showroom with 95% charge and a kick up the backside. He only seemed concerned that I'd managed to connect my mobile phone via bluetooth before leaving.

No one explained about the We Charge Go being free for one year, I had to go through the app on my own and discover it. Do you think this should have been mentioned as it's actually pretty useful.

The eSim that's in the car. Is that free forever? No one has ever explained that.


It was honestly like he was selling a petrol car and couldn't wait to get rid of me. And to add insult to this, they've had my car for two weeks nearly, and still haven't sent me the money for it as they were purchasing it from me, so I'm currently £14,000 out of pocket.

[OllyExeterID3]

Lack of information from dealer:

They should really explain to you about battery conditioning affecting charging speed. They should explain about charging between 20-80% to prolong battery life. He literally sent me out the showroom with 95% charge and a kick up the backside. He only seemed concerned that I'd managed to connect my mobile phone via bluetooth before leaving.

Completely agree with this. I gave our dealer (Inchcape) poor reviews for our service. I was in the fortunate position to be a cash buyer for our Life - but the customer service was shockingly bad. Tried to find out about the spec - ended up learning more through online press releases and even before he told me. Similarly, told me wrong advice saying I could change the regen level to three settings using the gear selector (asked him to clarify twice which he did but is definitely incorrect), told us we would get alloys on the base model (this was back in November, found out online that it was steel wheels), told us interior dash could be selected as white (definitely couldn't, again found this out online), told us 2.1 update would be in 'early December' and it would only take a couple of hours - now booked in and know from on here it can be varied. Finally, no aftercare, no phonecalls, and despite saying how much training he had done on EVs, managed to give so much incorrect information.

Still love the car itself, but I agree that, if we are going to encourage others to buy EVs, the advice (both from dealerships and in manuals) needs to be considered and accurate.

It feels like there is still an inherent bias towards petrol/diesel, I got better service buying a £12k VW Up! a few years ago than with a £29k EV...

[CarterHounslow]

Lack of information from dealer:

They should really explain to you about battery conditioning affecting charging speed. They should explain about charging between 20-80% to prolong battery life. He literally sent me out the showroom with 95% charge and a kick up the backside. He only seemed concerned that I'd managed to connect my mobile phone via bluetooth before leaving.

Completely agree with this. I gave our dealer (Inchcape) poor reviews for our service. I was in the fortunate position to be a cash buyer for our Life - but the customer service was shockingly bad. Tried to find out about the spec - ended up learning more through online press releases and even before he told me. Similarly, told me wrong advice saying I could change the regen level to three settings using the gear selector (asked him to clarify twice which he did but is definitely incorrect), told us we would get alloys on the base model (this was back in November, found out online that it was steel wheels), told us interior dash could be selected as white (definitely couldn't, again found this out online), told us 2.1 update would be in 'early December' and it would only take a couple of hours - now booked in and know from on here it can be varied. Finally, no aftercare, no phonecalls, and despite saying how much training he had done on EVs, managed to give so much incorrect information.

Still love the car itself, but I agree that, if we are going to encourage others to buy EVs, the advice (both from dealerships and in manuals) needs to be considered and accurate.

It feels like there is still an inherent bias towards petrol/diesel, I got better service buying a £12k VW Up! a few years ago than with a £29k EV...

Seems like you had it worse. We were the same, we paid cash as it was purchased for the business, I didn't bother with any of the options, I was only really interested that I got a model with alloys.

I know that I purchased it during Covid and if things had been different I probably would have been invited in, had a coffee etc. I was just exchanging keys in a car park in Leamington Spa when it's 6 degrees outside. I have purchased two brand new cars from VW before and I felt there was more of a fanfare, but I am going to chalk it up to Covid annoyingly.

But it was like, charging cable in the boot, cap for the socket is there. No mention of "Oh you're max A/C charging is 11 kw" I went to Tesco on a 22kw charger and wondered why it was so slow. Now I know!

[HeidiFlowerpt Driver]

My experience was different, but might not have been...

I bought mine from Marshalls in Taunton. I don't live in Taunton and the town where I do live has a VW dealership (who shall remain nameless). I tried them, they were as useful as a chocolate teapot. I wrote a letter of complaint, and didn't get an answer. So I went to Marshalls who were brilliant. Helpful, communicative, friendly. Everything I had hoped I could expect from a premium brand dealership. I'm glad I found them.

[OllyExeterID3]

My experience was different, but might not have been...

I bought mine from Marshalls in Taunton. I don't live in Taunton and the town where I do live has a VW dealership (who shall remain nameless). I tried them, they were as useful as a chocolate teapot. I wrote a letter of complaint, and didn't get an answer. So I went to Marshalls who were brilliant. Helpful, communicative, friendly. Everything I had hoped I could expect from a premium brand dealership. I'm glad I found them.

Good to know. My lesson learnt here is that I need to shop around in terms of dealerships. Our complaints (via dealership, VW and independent survey) were not followed up and no-one offered an apology. Completely understand that during COVID, extent of customer service will be impacted - but to straight-out lie about specs and availability feels horrendous when paying out £30k....

Needless to say I will only be returning to dealership for 2.1 update then looking elsewhere for any other aftercare!