FIRST DRIVE: 2024 Volkswagen ID.3 electric family hatchback | Electrifying

I have an ID.3 1st Edition, nearly three years old now. It has headlights that move around when you approach the car - and turn into corners - and selectively dip so as not to dazzle oncoming drivers. It has brake lights shaped like an X. It has a silver strip along the side at the roofline. It has over-the-air software updates (although a couple of times VW has had to recall the car to carry out an update that couldn't be done OTA). None of these features are new to the facelift. The ID.3 is much maligned, by journalists, but much loved by owner drivers. It's a very easy car to drive, very comfortable, quiet, spacious, relaxed, reliable, amazingly cheap to run. It has niggles but these irritate journalists much more than owners - who have time to get used to the car. The sliders below the infotainment screen could do with a backlight but otherwise they work just fine. The two window winders in the driver's door rather than four (not mentioned in this review but in so many others) are actually a good idea. You are highly unlikely to wind down the rear window by mistake to talk to the server in the MacDonalds drive-through. And you can touch a surface just ahead of the buttons for over three seconds, after which you can wind all four windows together with just one button. Some people like the haptic surfaces on the steering wheel, some don't. I don't, but I recognise that it's a small thing and a matter of personal preference. Journalists hardly bother to mention the great qualities of the car. VW really know how to make cars. The doors open and shut precisely, the seals don't leak water into the boot or passenger cabin. The tail-light lenses don't fill up with water, either. The chassis is nicely tuned, the suspension just right, the steering precise but light. The motor is instantly powerful and the throttle mapping progressive. In a car the length and width of a Golf the passenger cabin is as spacious as a Passat while retaining a Golf-size boot - and the turning circle is as tight as an Up! city car. These are the things that really matter, not haptic buttons.

I have a 2023 ID3 Tour Pro (77KW). I comfortably get 310+ miles and have had no issues with the software. A backlight for heater slider would be useful but you can “hello ID” and have the car adjust the temp if it’s too dark (you remember where the slider is, so it is really not an issue). I am a car enthusiast as much as the next person and IMO the ID3 is a very good car with some new design ideas which work perfectly fine. I have found the quality to be as expected with VW - just more environmentally aware. Again a good thing.

Would sooner have a Volvo EX30 long range model.

VW ID.3 I have one and I love it. The infotainment system is terrific, I don't know what the car journalists are on about.

4:30 Haven't they inform you, that even the first ID cars (could have) had the software update years ago that enables their Over The Air update capability. This function is not unique to the facelifted ID.3. Furthermore, it is applied to all MEB platform cars throguh ID.4 and 5 and Skoda Enyaq. These updates were done free during their first yearly maintenance checkup at the dealer. 5:15 Sure... it doesn't work properly: WHEN YOU ARE NOT TOUCHING THE BUTTON AREA, but the colouring on the dash.

Id3 is currently selling for 120k RMB in China, that is around 17k usd, 16k euro. That is the right price for this kind of car

When you see 2021 ones going for sub £19K on Autotrader, is a £38K base new model a good buy….?

I’d have loved to have seen this comparison with the very final ID.3 prior to the facelift. It makes the pre-facelift cars now look like a serious bargain with 99.9% of the same car underneath.

We had an early id3, which was a bit glitchy and we chopped it for an MG4 Trophy (and a pocket of cash) when the market had gone bonkers; much preferred the VW, faults and all to the just-as-glitchy MG - anyway there's a happy ending to the tale as we've now got a Tesla...

big fan, keep the videos coming :)

Lane Assist and Travel Assist in the ID.3 works great, in the MG4 it is pretty bad…

Unfortunately I live in the US where neither of those vehicles are available. I think I'd go for the MG4 though. If I could afford an Ioniqs 5 that's the one I would replace my 2020 ioniq electric with.

Does that finance comparison include matching specs, or does the gap reappear when you add heated seats etc?

So vw listened to all the comments on what was wrong with the original car, and, fixed absolutely none of them. Awesome job

We have a new Tiguan R and the negative issues about the haptic steering wheel controls had me a little worried. For me it works the same as the old push button steering wheel. The volume control for example can be used by either pushing it like previously or sliding it. Works great. I do not understand the bullshit that many of these supposed car 'experts' go on about.

Ginny is so right, last week I walked into my local dealership in Canterbury last week and looked at a new ID3 2024 model. I was really impressed with the improvements . I take delivery next Tuesday. Volvo EX30 launch event sometime in November. Delivery due if you order blind 8 or so months from then. The Megan’s, Hyundai and Kia all have the charger port in the wrong location for my garage fitted home charger. Nearest MG dealer 20 miles away from me, I have health issues so a local dealer is of primary importance for me. It’s the nearest car to my much loved i3. Sadly that is no longer made😂

Love this!

I'd take one for what it sells for in China, which is $17,500. Thoughts on that VW?

I am impressed 👌

I would like to say the ID3, but it needs to be a few thousand cheaper and needs to ditch the haptic buttons and sliders. The looks never bothered me and at least they seem to be sorting out the software.