Volkswagen ID.3 Forum

We've now had the car for 4 weeks and have got just 495 miles on the clock (lockdown certainly helps keep the mileage down!) and I have made a list of the problems I've encountered so far.

I have the car booked into the service department of CityGate (VW) Watford mid-January and have also supplied them with this list in the hope that some/most/all of the issues can be addressed with some small software patches and/or the anticipated major update.

Anyway, this list for others to make note of and compare, but these have been our experience of owning an ID.3...

Please note that the listed issues are in no particular order of occurrence or severity.

1. ACC appears to convert set/displayed speeds from MPH then drives at the equivalent speed in KPH, i.e. when the ACC speed is set to 50mph and the car decelerates and maintains 31mph (50kph). I believe this to be an intermittent problem.

2. Centre Infotainment screen failed to start.
Single occasion.

3. ACC Disconnected message displayed on two occasions.

4. SatNav freezes after two 'pops' heard through the speakers. Multiple occasions on single day, multi-leg journey with vehicle parked and switched off for various periods. Very wet weather - 'popping' could have been water ingress related?

5. ACC message "Visit Workshop" displayed.
Single occasion, cleared the next day.

6. Reducing SatNav volume also reduces audio volume (i.e. radio). When reducing SatNav volume the SatNav announcement reduces but the playing audio also reduces.

7. Auto Door Mirror dip intermittent.
When reverse is selected the passenger door mirror does not always dip (i.e. parking mode showing curb). Selecting the mirror on the driver's door switch will re-activate the auto dip feature.

8. Park Assist missing.
Surely a £40,000 car should have Park Assist as standard, especially a 'loaded' 1st Edition which is how it was originally touted.

9. No ambient airflow available unless both AirCon and De-Mist selected, there's no option for fan only airflow. Selecting AirCon reduces available mileage so a fan only selection to increase airflow should be available.

10. Selection of AirCon On/Off on the centre Infotainment screen counterintuitive.
On/Off toggle lights up (green) for AirCon OFF but grey's out when AirCon is ON.

11. Speaker "position fader" on the Infotainment screen doesn't allow for Front/Rear adjustment.

12. Unable to schedule a charging 'start time' in the Infotainment system or App. only end time is available to set.

13. Infotainment system is slow to start and sluggish to operate. The slow start appears to reduce if the vehicle has been used then parked and restarted a few hours later however overnight will slow the boot again.
Sluggish response to finger taps often results in multiple selections or On/Off/On/Off commands.

14. Lower touch panel under the Infotainment screen not lit at night so unable to use touch panel during night driving.

15. No Auto-lock (walk away) feature available.
If the vehicle does not detect a key is in range the car remains unlocked.

16. No Jack, Wheel Brace or re-inflation pump supplied. One of the self sealing tyres fitted had a puncture and fully deflated overnight and there was no way to get the vehicle to a tyre shop.
Again... It's a £40,000 vehicle!

17. No option to select a confirmation 'blip' from the horn on locking the vehicle.

18. No Android Auto feature available.
I believe that a software update will address this issue but I have received no communication from VW or CityGate with updates of when and where.

19. No apparent 'Over The Air' update system in place?

7. I thought that's how it worked? You have to turn the mirror control to L to activate each time
11. The 1st has no rear speakers
14. There are no lights - it's exactly the same in the new Golf

The "production" software should hopefully resolve a lot of the rest of the things on your list.

Thanks for that, I had typed a longer reply than this one with some additional observations but it appears to have got lost in the ether

(or it was moderated by VW after I suggested that there were a number of obvious design flaws and that some designers and managers who signed off their work should currently be collecting unemployment benefits!)

Does anyone else feel that the windscreen wipers are the wrong way round for a right-hand drive car? With the passenger wiper swiping down after the driver's wiper, it sometimes leaves a line of water across the driver's view. The wipers are clearly designed for left-hand drive cars.

Our id.3 arrived on Saturday. Some more thoughts..

Apparently, no jack as standard, as they're 'self sealing tyres', and no inflation kit, as they're not 'run flats'.

Have just purchased a cigarette lighter voltage monitor as per suggestions in other threads to monitor the battery in case it dies, only to find that our lighter socket is dead.

Called the local VW centre to find out that there aren't that many technicians who can work on them, and there is a wait list. Earliest slot Jan18th.

yikes.

I understand that the tyres are designed as self-sealing however the appearance in the morning of a flat tyre told me another story, and at that point the car just became a large paperweight sitting on the driveway with no way to get that now flat tyre/wheel combination to a tyre shop.

The supply of either a jack/brace or alternatively an emergency inflation pump would have resolved this problem instantly. VW have still supplied an emergency key to fit a hidden lock "just in case" but didn't envisaged a rubber tyre ever getting a flat regardless of its apparent self sealing properties. In my eyes VW are being a bit short sighted.

As I already carried a footpump in my previous car, it now lives in the space under the floor in my ID3 - won't help me if the tyre is gashed but at least I'd be able to top-up if one of the tyres was low pressure...

hwhbev wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 6:09 pm Does anyone else feel that the windscreen wipers are the wrong way round for a right-hand drive car? With the passenger wiper swiping down after the driver's wiper, it sometimes leaves a line of water across the driver's view. The wipers are clearly designed for left-hand drive cars.

Yes - I think that too. Also the space between the where the wiper finishes and the edge of the windscreen is larger on the right hand side. I also think that with the intermittent wipe, it doesn't wipe as soon as I'd like because it wipes the passenger side first. Not major but frown inducing

Matoow wrote: ↑Wed Nov 25, 2020 1:56 pm
Have just purchased a cigarette lighter voltage monitor as per suggestions in other threads to monitor the battery in case it dies, only to find that our lighter socket is dead.

Called the local VW centre to find out that there aren't that many technicians who can work on them, and there is a wait list. Earliest slot Jan18th.

yikes.

I bought one of those too! Stuck it in and got no read out. Pressed the ignition and it shows 15V - presumably because the Li-ion battery then starts charging the 12V battery.

Agree point 9 - no ambient air flow is a significant problem for the reason you say.

I've found that the ACC can spuriously "detect" and apply phantom speed limits which make it more or less unuseable/dangerous except on motorways.

Even on motorways, it's dangerous. My drive to work takes me on a 70mph motorway. One section is very close to a residential road and it picks up the 30mph and brakes automatically every time in the same spot. Not great programming logic there at all.

You can turn off the auto speed adjust so that it works just like ordinary acc. It means that it will speed up and slow down as it detects traffic but wont adjust speed for road signs, etc.

I find he wife's ID3 a little disconcerting sometimes when it uses the satnav to apply a previous speed limit that has changed but overall it works fine without changing due to picking up other speed signs.

gailjon wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:10 pm You can turn off the auto speed adjust so that it works just like ordinary acc. It means that it will speed up and slow down as it detects traffic but wont adjust speed for road signs, etc.

I find he wife's ID3 a little disconcerting sometimes when it uses the satnav to apply a previous speed limit that has changed but overall it works fine without changing due to picking up other speed signs.

How do you turn off the Auto speed adjust? I’ve just spent ten mid wading through the settings options and cant see it!

I did have an instance this week where the speed limit changed while I was driving down the M1, to what I can only assume was the speed limit for a road that crossed the motorway that I'd just passed under.

This thread details the process on page 2.

https://www.speakev.com/threads/predict ... 297/page-2

I have never tried it but assume it is still working.

Thanks. Not completely obvious - so feeling a little justified at my crap ness!

It's definitely not obvious. Made even worse by the lack of a proper manual in the car (BY proper I mean a paper based booklet with a proper contents page!)