Volkswagen ID. Buzz 2025 review - Australian first drive

While there will ultimately be four versions of the ID. Buzz, the fourth is a cargo-van layout, so we’ll deal with that one separately, elsewhere.

Which means the people-mover version will be available in three variants, starting with a five-seat short-wheelbase model called the Pro five-seater, as well as a long-wheelbase model called the Pro seven-seater.

Logical enough, but then there’s the range-topping long-wheelbase model which also gets you all-wheel drive and is called the GTX 4Motion.

However, that model won’t be showing up in the first batch, so the model we’re dealing with here is the Pro version in five and seven-seat formats.

Prices start at $87,990 for the five-seater and $91,290 for the Pro seven-seater, both before on-road costs

In Pro trim (five- or seven-seat) the vehicle gets a powered sliding door on each side, folding mirrors, a powered tailgate, tinted windows, keyless entry and start, stainless-steel pedal trims, 8.0x19 (front) and 9.0x19-inch alloy wheels (21-inch wheels are optional) height adjustable front seats, heated front seats, three-zone climate-control, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a digital radio, dynamic LED matrix headlights, rain-sensing wipers, parking sensors and voice-control.

The major specification difference between the five and seven seaters is a move to larger brakes in the latter to reflect its higher kerb mass.

The flagship GTX model will add a new layer of luxury and convenience to that, but for now, it’s not slated to arrive here until early to mid-next year.

Like many lifestyle vehicles, the ID- Buzz is available with a raft of options, some conventional, others more in line with the retro theme on show.

There’s a panoramic sunroof option at $3290 and a stereo upgrade to a Harman Kardon unit which also brings a head-up display for the driver. That adds $2200 to the ticket.

There’s also an interior style package with bits and pieces you can add or subtract including luggage nets, different fabric trim, darker window tint and heated outer-rear seats. Tick all the boxes at that package adds $6470.

You can also choose the 'Premium Interior Style Package' with even ritzier trim and a $6970 tag.

But the options that best suit the theme here are the exterior paint choices. There’s metallic and pearl options at $1890 each, but the real hot-item is likely to be the $4090 two-tone paint treatment that takes us straight back to the glory days of hippies, Kombis and those epic two-tone paint jobs.

Here’s where a people-mover lives or dies, and it’s fair to say that as the great-great-grandchild of the original people-mover, there’s a bit at stake here.

Up front, the central, removable storage box between the front seats is spot-on. When it's in place, there are two drawers that can be accessed from the front and rear seats, and cubby holes adorn the cabin with cupholders seemingly everywhere, including the third row.

The second row seating is beautifully done, too, with high air-vents, climate controls (the second row is the third of three climate zones) and reading lights. Those in the second row also get a pair of flip-up tray-tables and each front seat-back incorporates a cloth loop for hanging tablets and e-readers.

Even the third row features plenty of storage nooks, cupholders, air vents and storage slots, although the third row backrest itself is rather upright.

It’s still big enough and comfy enough for adults, though, and this is where the one-box design of the ID. Buzz starts to trump three-row SUVs for sheer practicality and space.

That starts with the huge, powered, sliding side doors (one on each side). They haul back towards the rear of the car, opening up a huge hole through which even a full-sized adult can climb with some dignity intact.

That includes getting into the third row which means the VW is a car that can cope with seven adults most of the time (as opposed to the average SUV wagon which is much better with five little people out of seven, and only for some of the time).

There’s a ton of legroom and foot room in the second and third rows, and head-space is never a problem despite the slightly higher floor level dictated by the battery-pack location.

And even with all seven seats occupied, there’s still a decent amount of luggage space (ever wondered why SUVs are often seen towing trailers at holiday time?).

Niggles are few, but include the placement of the USB-C points deep within a recess that makes them fiddly and sometimes tricky to locate and dock with properly.

Then there’s the gear selector wand which, like many people-movers is a column-shift rather than a floor-mounted unit that eats up valuable floor space.

Our problem is not with the lever’s location, but rather that VW has felt it necessary to reinvent this simple control yet again. Rather than simply flicking the lever up or down, the driver needs to twist the end of the wand forward for Drive (a second forward flick boosts the regenerative braking junction) and backwards a few degrees for reverse.

Then, when leaving the vehicle parked, there’s a button on the tip of the wand that is pressed to select the equivalent of Park and apply the hand-brake. It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s more a case of what was wrong with the muscle-memory of several generations of drivers?

And if you do need to cart more than the ID. Buzz can carry inside, there’s the option of towing a braked trailer of up to 1200kg for the short-wheelbase five-seater and 1000kg for the seven-seater.

In the rear-wheel drive variants we sampled at the national launch of the vehicle, the mechanical package starts with a single electric motor mounted between the rear wheels and producing 210kW of power and a whopping 560Nm of torque.

A single-speed transmission is all that’s required for the torque of the electric motor to provide any road speed such a vehicle requires, and keeps the mechanical layout as simple as possible for reduced servicing costs and improved long-term reliability.

Suspension-wise, the ID. Buzz gets a fairly conventional MacPherson strut set-up at the front with a VW-typical multi-link system at the rear.

Brakes, perhaps a little surprisingly, are disc at the front and drums on the rear. But don’t forget an EV does a lot of its braking by using the electric motor as a regenerator, so the conventional friction brakes of an EV don’t have the same workload as a conventionally powered vehicle of the same size and mass.

The dual-engined GTX model will be a different story altogether with a motor between each axle and a larger battery-pack for all-wheel-drive and stronger performance, but given the projected usage of a vehicle like this, it’s fair to suggest the rear-drive ID. Buzz as tested here does not fall short in any mechanical way and will be ample for most families.

The long- and short-wheelbase variants of the VW feature slightly different battery sizes for slightly different theoretical ranges. The five-seater has a 79kWh battery for an official 422km range, while the seven-seater gets 86kWh in its battery pack for a 452km on-paper range.

Either way, the lithium-ion batteries can be charged form an 11kW wall-box in about seven-and-a-bit hours from zero to 100 per cent charge.

2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz SWB

On a commercial fast-charger, the VW will accept up to 185kW, at which point its five-to-eighty per cent charge time is a claimed 30 minutes. On a conventional household socket, that time jumps to just under 23 hours.

The ID. Buzz uses a CCS Type 3 socket, and VW includes a Mode 2 and Mode 3 cable as standard.

Our drive through some fairly hilly country at freeway velocities (110km/h) was surely the toughest test for an EV’s energy consumption and, in those conditions, we record between 19 and 20kW per hour, suggesting the advertised range might be a bit optimistic in that scenario. But around town where regenerative braking is a factor, those numbers would improve.

The ID. Buzz features all the safety gear and driver aids you’d expect including emergency autonomous braking that works at all speeds and can identify pedestrians and cyclists.

That’s teamed with post-crash emergency braking (to avoid subsequent impacts) stability-control, emergency steering assist with lane-keeping assistance, automatic headlights with auto high-beam control, dynamic cornering lighting and adaptive cruise-control.

You’ll also find lane-change assist, a speed-limiter, swerve support with turn-assist, rear-cross traffic alert, a reverse camera and an auto-hold function for taking off on hills. Tyre pressure monitoring is another great safety feature that comes standard on the VW.

As well as the active stuff, there are side-curtain airbags for every outboard seating position.

Volkswagen has not had the ID. Buzz tested in Australia for an ANCAP crash rating, but will instead rely on the car’s Euro NCAP score of a maximum five safety stars.