Best electric 7 seater VW ID Buzz LWB Pro 2025 review
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00:00Here it is, the new Volkswagen ID.Buzz and this one is the seven seater and in this review I'm
00:05going to tell you whether the seven seat model is worth the extra money and what you need to know
00:09about this vehicle range. There's three versions available and all of them are priced a little bit
00:14lower than I was expecting, but will the price be right for you? Stay tuned and you'll find out and
00:19you'll find out whether this might be the right car for you as well. If you haven't already,
00:22like, subscribe and ring the bell and let's get to it!
00:24Volkswagen Australia has confirmed the pricing and specifications for the ID.Buzz lineup and
00:34there's going to be three passenger focused versions available in Australia. The entry
00:39level one is called the Pro Short Wheelbase. It's the small one, it's got five seats instead of seven
00:45but it's more manageable in daily driving because it is a fair bit smaller. It sneaks in underneath
00:51the luxury car tax and if you're thinking of leasing that vehicle that means there could be
00:55some big fringe benefits tax exemptions for you. Essentially you could save thousands and thousands
01:02of dollars if you can deal with five seats but if you can't you might want to go for this one here
01:07which is the Pro Long Wheelbase. It is a big vehicle, it's got much more space inside, it's
01:13got three rows of seats, you can remove those back seats if you want to and it's super duper practical.
01:19Look, plus on road costs it's going to be almost $100,000 but that's still cheaper than what we
01:23were expecting to pay for the ID.Buzz lineup. Now there's also the GTX model which is the range
01:30topper. It's $110,000 or thereabouts and it does have dual motor all-wheel drive, more power, more
01:36torque and it's also got the same big battery that the long wheelbase version has as well but just a
01:41little bit less range because it's a bit heavier and it has more performance. The GTX model definitely
01:47has the wow factor. I think that a lot of people are going to opt for the GTX because it has
01:52everything you can get in an ID.Buzz as standard but hey, all of these models have plenty of
01:57options that you can still tick. Like for example if you want two-tone paint like this it's an extra
02:03$4,000. It's a lot of extra money but hey, are there any alternatives that you should consider
02:08if you're thinking about an ID.Buzz?
02:12Okay when it comes to alternatives to this car there are a few that you might want to consider.
02:17Firstly, I would say that you should go and have a look at the Kia EV9. It's a big SUV and that
02:24might be all you need to hear. It's an SUV not a people mover and it does have three rows of seats
02:29with plenty of space, plenty of practicality, lots of great features and lots of really good tech as
02:36well. I like the EV9 a lot. I'm not so sure that it makes as much sense as this when it comes to the
02:42price though because it starts at $97,000 before on-road costs up to more than $120,000. So look,
02:49makes this look pretty good value I have to say. But there's another Kia that you might want to
02:53check out. The Kia Carnival Hybrid. You can get a GT-Line version of the Carnival with either a
03:00diesel engine or a hybrid engine or a petrol V6 for a lot less money than this and if that's all
03:07you need to hear, well you don't need to hear any more from me because the Carnival is a bloody
03:11brilliant people mover and it could be a really good alternative to this. Otherwise you might want
03:15to wait for the Zika 009. That electric van from China just looks like it's going to be a game
03:23changer in our market. I can't wait to drive it and if you haven't already, subscribe and you'll
03:28be notified when I do get a chance to do that review. It'll be very soon before the end of 2024
03:34in fact. So yeah, tell me what you think in the comments. Would you choose any of those or is the
03:38Buzz the one that gives you the buzz?
03:43This is the long wheelbase version of the ID.Buzz and if you haven't seen my short wheelbase
03:47review you'll find a link in the description below. This is a much bigger vehicle, 250 millimetres
03:53longer than the short wheelbase and you can see it is all wheelbase. The front end design still
04:00looks the same but the gap between the front and rear wheels is huge, about 3.3 metres and yes you
04:06do get dual electric sliding doors. I'll show you the interior in a sec. This one has the 20 inch
04:12wheels with nice chubby higher profile tyres which do help it ride a little bit better than maybe the
04:19GTX which I'll tell you about in the other review. This one is a nice looking design and I really
04:26like the back end design. I also like this minimalist style badging and let's have a look
04:32in the boot and see what we are dealing with here and yes we are dealing with heaps of practicality.
04:39That is a very usable third row up level of space. Maybe not like Kia Carnival levels of good but it
04:47is a rear wheel drive vehicle so it doesn't have the capability to necessarily have as much
04:53usability as the Carnival but as you can see it's got a little shelf here which is fantastic to
04:59put your luggage on top of. There's little shelves underneath as well with your charge cables.
05:04Let's see what's in this one. Oh some snacks and also it's got some other handy features in the
05:09back. There's these little shopping bag hooks, a 12 volt and there's other stuff that you can't
05:14access when you've got the shelf in place. So I'm just going to put the seats down we can have a
05:18look at it with five seats up and there we go. That is a very usable amount of space if you have
05:27it set up as a five seater and it's just a very usable design. I think that this is a very practical
05:34car. It's got a really big opening to the boot as well so it means that there's not much in terms of
05:40lifting up and in and you've got lots of height to play with if you need to load larger items in the
05:46back and I'm going to show you the third row space shortly but just have a look at those little
05:51details on the armrest there. Very very cute. All right let's jump inside and take a look.
06:00Yes that's the GTX there and I'll show you the interior of it in my other review but let's have
06:05a look at the interior of this pro version. Look at it. I think it's bloody fantastic. It's got a
06:11beautiful design to it. This finish in here with the yellow trimming on the seats on the doors
06:17it just looks so good and it looks like retro but not kitsch retro in my opinion. You'll have
06:24your own thoughts I'm sure but let's have a look at the steering wheel. Yes you still unfortunately
06:29get the haptic controls on the steering wheel which is not as user-friendly as some other
06:34vehicles in the Volkswagen lineup these days. Your gear selector is up here. Obviously the
06:39steering wheel will be on that side and the selector will still be on that side when you sit
06:43in the car in Australia. A small digital instrument display but it is relatively info rich.
06:50There's a bit of info that you can get on there and I've just accidentally turned on the steering
06:55wheel heater. Off, off, off. Okay see that's why I don't like haptic controls. Yes you've got a few
07:03other displays up here on the screen that you can siphon through. You can have your energy
07:08consumption at a glance up there as well. I like the fact that you've got the digital instrument
07:13display with the digital speedo and there's also a head-up display there as well. I think that this
07:20is a pretty usable cabin. One thing that maybe takes a little bit of the shine off is the fact
07:25that if you do want to turn off some of the safety systems you still have to do that through the
07:30touch screen over here. So let me just show you what you have to do if you do want to turn it off.
07:35Go to assist and then those little switches there might be the ones you want to turn off. I
07:40personally like to turn off lane keep and the speed warning system but I'm a bit stubborn so
07:45I don't really like being told what to do. So at least it's just a quick jump into that screen if
07:50you do want to adjust those things but in some other new Volkswagens you can do it all on the
07:56driver info screen using the steering wheel controls and I actually prefer to be able to
08:00do it that way because if you are wirelessly connected to CarPlay then your connection
08:05might be interrupted by the fact that you've got to fiddle with the screen to turn things off.
08:09If you don't like things being on but hey this screen itself is a pretty decent size, it's pretty
08:15usable, the software is quick to react and also I do think that the new design of some of these icons
08:22compared to the previous version that I drove does help it be just slightly more usable and like
08:28I won't go into too much detail of what is on offer in this screen but I like the fact that
08:33you've got a climate control bar down the bottom here, you've also still got your volume control
08:38slider there and your temperature controls as well and you've got a volume control dial on the
08:44steering wheel, well not a dial, it's a slider there as well. So other things I would like about it
08:50include this wireless phone charging dock in front of the driver. It's really handy and very quick
08:56as well, it secures your phone in place in there quite sturdily I would say. There's also USB-C
09:02ports there as well and as you can see there's plenty of practicality in terms of the storage
09:06in here. You've got those tiered storage compartments in the doors with USB-C ports
09:11in the doors as well so you can charge your phone and leave it in that little caddy. There's also
09:16this centre caddy section here which has an adjustable cup holder thing and it's also a
09:23bottle cap popper because not for beers, well you can use it for beers if you want but it's actually
09:28for water bottles because lots of them in Europe tend to come with a cap rather than a twist top
09:34and there's also an ice scraper in there which maybe isn't going to be as useful in Australia
09:39but it depends where you live I guess or if you're one of those people who likes to go to the snow.
09:43So that is a pretty practical space. There's also another really handy set of cup holders here with
09:49a storage compartment in front there if you're using those cup holders and I think that it has
09:54plenty of great features besides that. You've got electronic door popper control so you can
10:00open the rear doors using those buttons there and up above you've also got this connected
10:07services so you can do an SOS call if you need to and it'll actually call the emergency services
10:14if you are involved in an accident, at least for the European spec models. Not sure if that'll come
10:19to Australia. Now this car also has this sunroof in here. It's a very big glass roof. Yes you can
10:26see a castle out the roof there. That's pretty cool and if I press this button right here or
10:31slide my finger on it, look what happens. Let's see. Yes at the flick of a switch or actually the stroke
10:39of an haptic controller it will actually change between light and not. So not opaque and opaque
10:48and not opaque. Your kids are going to love that. In fact it might be annoying because your kids
10:52will love it so much. All right let's check out the back seat space shall we. So I've just sat
10:57myself into the second row seat and when I want to close the door I can just press that button
11:02there and it will electrically close which is very handy. Now this car does have a few really great
11:07features inside like you've got these flip up tables which are really really handy. There's a
11:12cup holder in there as well. You've also got these device pockets up the top and you've got mat
11:18pockets as well so it is a practical space in terms of what the kids might want to be keeping
11:24on board with them at all times. There's also these nice big caddies in the doors again with a USB-C
11:31port in there and yes you can also open the windows in the back of this car. Lots of vans don't
11:37necessarily allow you to open the back windows but you can here and also you've got a climate
11:43control system with air vents in the ceiling as well. So that all makes for a more usable more
11:50livable space and when it comes to the child seat factor you've got ISOFIX points and three top
11:56tethers for the second row seats and as you can probably see there is a bit of a split here so you
12:02can split fold these seats. This one will slide forward so you can get into the back row a bit
12:06more easily or you can do it from this side but yes as I said you can slide this seat a long way
12:12forward so if you want to make the third row as roomy as it can be obviously the seats are down
12:17right now but I'll show you what the third row space is like shall I? Righto so I'll pull this
12:22lever and fold that forward look at that that is a good entryway into the third row and let me just
12:30slide myself in behind this seat so we can see how much space we've got to deal with
12:34and yes that seat was set to the same position I was just in. Yeah I mean you're gonna have to
12:39maybe squidge your feet across a little bit if you don't want to have them splayed out like this
12:45but otherwise the space in here is excellent look at that lots and lots of room and also there's
12:50pretty good storage in here you've got these little holders for cups or bottles there's also
12:55a USB-C port another little storage channel up there that very very cool little embossing on
13:01the armrest which is a soft fabric finish and same over here lots of storage and a bottle holder down
13:07there too and vents in the third row and lights as well so it is practical there's no denying that
13:13this is a very practical three-row vehicle with immense levels of space I can't even
13:19see the front it's that far away it's a very very big car
13:26There's not actually all that much to see under the bonnet of this car because it's not really
13:30a bonnet it's a fully electric car you can fill up your washer fluid there but
13:34look it has a rear-mounted electric motor we're talking 210 kilowatts and 560 newton meters which
13:41is way more than the early versions of the Buzz which had a much much lower output and if you want
13:48or need all-wheel drive and you need more power then the GTX model might be the one that you
13:53could go for but hey you'll have to watch the review of it the link's in the description
13:58So when it comes to charging for the ID Buzz your charge port is here on the rear driver's side
14:04well it'll be on the driver's side in Australia it's not on the driver's side in Europe this is
14:08the wrong hand drive this is a big vehicle so you will need to pay attention to where the charge
14:12port is when you're parking at a charging station or at home now speaking of home you can charge
14:18this car at up to 11 kilowatts on AC charging that'll need three-phase power in Australia
14:26three-phase power in Australia so look that might be something you need to factor into your expenses
14:31if you're considering this car if you don't already have a high output charger at home but
14:36it's still relatively quick to charge this big battery up and if you're wondering about DC
14:41charging yes of course it's got it's a type 2 combination plug and that means if you need to
14:46rapid charge for the long wheelbase version and the GTX it can do it at a maximum of 200 kilowatts
14:51the short wheelbase one just a little bit less at 185 but it also has 11 kilowatt AC charging for
14:57that model as well so what about the battery well it's a big one it's a big one for this
15:04long wheelbase version 86 kilowatt hours of usable battery and for the short wheelbase one yeah it
15:10gets a slightly smaller battery but it's a lot lighter that vehicle because it's so much smaller
15:15so there's not that much difference in terms of the range on the WLTP standard for Europe we don't
15:20have the Australian numbers just yet but stay tuned when I drive this car in Australia I'll do
15:25an updated review and you'll be able to see just how much range this thing has and the other versions
15:30of it as well so time to go for a drive in the ID.Buzz long wheelbase pro and let me tell you
15:41I've spent a couple of hours in this car already and I'm impressed I think this is a really nice
15:46and comfortable family vehicle but it is big and big is obviously the name of the game here
15:53no denying that but I also think that if you aren't used to driving something this large you
16:00might be surprised by how big it feels and a lot of that comes down to the fact that you've got
16:04such great visibility from the driver's seat it's almost like a fishbowl like you've got this massive
16:09view out through all these windows and there's decent over shoulder view as well one thing that
16:15I wish was maybe a bit better is the through the seat headrests view because this car at least
16:21doesn't have a digital camera mirror and I wish that it did because it would just make looking
16:26back that way a little bit easier but otherwise I'm pretty impressed with the way it drives too
16:32it's got a very long wheelbase and that means that it feels quite planted and quite suctioned to the
16:38ground in a lot of situations and like it's rear-wheel drive and if you're a bit of a hoon
16:43you can exploit that to a degree it does have some fun factor to it when you put your foot down
16:49out of tight corners it will wiggle a little bit okay so just going through some corners now
16:57yeah it does it does move this thing it's not slow
17:04yes those are the tires squealing and I mean you can hear it better because it's
17:08otherwise relatively silent this machine I like it I like it it has that Volkswagen characterful
17:18charm but it's quite understated so it's not leery but there's the GTX for that link in the
17:25description if you want to see that one in action and with 210 kilowatts and 560 newton meters
17:31I mean it's a big bus but it boogies and like I really like the other elements of this drive too
17:37it's got nice steering it's very natural feeling and manageable but it's also a little bit heavy
17:44so in some situations I've found it to feel just a little bit artificially weighted particularly
17:50low speeds when moving the car in and out of parking spots and that sort of thing
17:55minor minor issue but I think that for the majority of people who are looking at this
18:01size of vehicle it's gonna definitely probably be better than you're expecting in terms of the drive
18:06experience now like I said 210 kilowatts 560 newton meters and that means that this gets along
18:14like yeah that's good that's fast and it's the acceleration from a standstill that really
18:22impresses me and that is where electric cars like this really do amaze you when it comes to just
18:29being able to propel you from a standstill without fuss it's really impressive in that regard now
18:35it's also got decent braking for a big vehicle I mean that's where you probably feel the weight
18:41of the car most is when you do do manual braking especially if you are hustling a little bit and
18:46you come up to a standstill you need to really stand on those brakes to get this heavy vehicle
18:53to pull itself up but there's also regenerative braking you just hit this little lever that's
18:58your gear selector you twist it up and it will go into B mode which is for regen brakes
19:04and it's not configurable so it's just basically on or off but it's a pretty assertive
19:10regen braking system and that means that it does
19:13have an element of the single pedal driving that you can do to this car
19:20in case you're wondering the official energy consumption figures for the Australian spec
19:26versions of the ID.Buzz haven't been confirmed just yet but I'll show you on screen what the
19:33WLTP figure is in terms of efficiency so kilowatt hours per 100 ks for this particular model and
19:41I'll also show you now what I achieved in this car with a mix of different drivers also driving
19:48across a mix of different scenarios and I have to say I was pretty impressed I've driven smaller
19:54SUVs with electric motors that have done very very similar energy consumption and they were
20:01nowhere near as big heavy or practical as this so in that regard big thumbs up for the efficiency factor
20:11the ID.Buzz achieved the maximum five star euro NCAP rating in 2022 so this car does come with
20:17all the safety spec and tech that you would expect for a big family bus that it is so things like
20:23autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection there's adaptive cruise control
20:28with traffic jam assistance so that means it's got lane keeping that can also keep you in your
20:33lane and do the stopping and starting for you that's all great technology if you like that sort
20:37of thing I'm a bit of a fan of turning the lane keeping assist off personally because I like to
20:41feel like I'm more in control and for a vehicle this large I definitely like to feel like I'm a
20:47bit more in control now there's also speed sign recognition in this car and it's one that I like
20:52to turn off too but thankfully it's not as annoying as some of the other cars that have that
20:57feature and it is a little bit simpler to turn off than some of the other vehicles which really
21:02frustrate me now there's also other great stuff in here like blind spot monitoring and rear cross
21:07traffic alert there's also parking sensors front and rear with an auto braking function to them so
21:12they will stop the car if they think you're going to hit something or someone in the vicinity of the
21:18vehicle there's a surround view camera as well and of course it comes with heaps of airbags dual
21:23front front side front center full length curtain it is a bit of an airbag festival and it's a very
21:28big bus so it should be. Volkswagen Australia offers a five-year unlimited kilometre warranty
21:36for its model range this car won't be any different and when it comes to the battery
21:40warranty that's still not confirmed for our market but I would expect an eight-year battery warranty
21:45that's pretty much the industry norm these days now when it comes to maintenance those
21:50costs aren't confirmed either just yet you'll have to wait and check out my detailed review
21:55of the ID.Buzz when it arrives in Australia and I'll know all those details so if you haven't
22:00already please subscribe and ring the bell and you'll be notified when that review comes out.
22:07This is a big family-friendly electric van and if you are looking for something
22:11that ticks that box maybe you were a previous multi-van buyer and you're looking to electrify
22:17it's the right car for you if you're that person tell me what you think in the comments section
22:20below do you like it and would you buy one I'd love to hear from you if you haven't already
22:25please subscribe I'll see you in the next one.
22:41you