Thankfully I don't have the white dash and steering wheel. Everything is anthracite, even the headlining.
The door cards are softer and less shiny than those on the Polo, not as soft as the upper parts of the MK7 door cards, but softer than the lower parts of the Golf's door cards. The dash top is in 3 parts, with the one nearest the windscreen being hardest, with soft rubberised front top of the dash. The only bits I'm not keen on is the large piano black section of the door grab handle on all doors. Someone successfully wrapped those so they weren't the huge fingerprint magnets. It all ties in quite nicely, it's as easy to say "minimalist" as it is to say "cheap". Everything in there has a place, with nothing superfluous. You don't really get it from the pictures on the website,but in the flesh it seems justifiable when you see how much interior room the ID3 has. The kids have an extra 4 inches of legroom behind my desired seating position than they had on the Polo, which was only marginally less than the Golf.
It feels solidly built - not a squeak or rattle - perhaps there's more precautions taken to.minimise noises as you'll hear them all with the motor being so quiet.
The Irish VW website shows they have access to front sports seats as an option on the higher trims, for €1350. They look very retro, like they belong.on a 90s Porsche.
Performance wise, 0-62 feels like it's more in the realms of 6.5s than the official 7.3s. Torque is just instantly delivered - no turbo lag, no wheelspin/tramping or DSG gear engagement lag, so in gear acceleration feels even quicker than the Polo with no kickdown to take place. There's some YouTube reviewer that reckons the ID3 under review was quicker than the RS7 from 0-30mph.
Did 13 miles around the doors today and economy was much better, even though I was putting my foot down. Air resistance at motorway speeds seems to take a huge bite of fuel economy. 263 mile official range - I'd say you'll probably manage it above 15C if it's done in mixed driving.
Thanks for that, really interesting to read.
I was wondering how a light interior would hold up with kids and dog but that’s obviously not a worry.
Really good to read that it has a dark headliner too. I’ve always had a dislike of light coloured headliners.
The car looks nice in the photos, I see a few white ones around locally and there’s a white ID.4 around the corner from me (that never ever seems to move!), the white/black theme suits the shapes of them well.
Agreed also on how nearly all modern cars lack soul.
Aside from the exhaust burble at startup and under heavy acceleration there’s not a huge amount of noise coming out of modern OPF equipped cars that can be heard in the cabin.
I’d settle for artificial 1960’s movie spaceship noises piped in rather than the fake Subaru with a misfire noises the Soundaktor treats us to.
There’s absolutely no reason a BEV can’t handle at least as well as ICE vehicles and acceleration should be better at normal road speeds. Bearing in mind your average motorist aspires to an SUV these days and the middle class chariot of choice is a huge Audi or Porsche 4WD SUV to make sure the world knows how wealthy the leasers are I can’t think of anything less suitable for these vehicles than a high revving petrol (often dragging round hybrid weight too). Instant electric torque and a battery under the floor keeping the centre of gravity low would surely be perfect?
And yes, not too many youngsters have any interest in cars these days aside from either being vessels to ferry their mates around in whilst plugged into CarPlay, or as status symbols for the lucky ones with huge Audi SUV owning parents.
I’m not one for rose tinted specs but I think the pre-OPF mk7 Golf era hot hatches were the pinnacle of affordable, comfy, classy, fast, good handling hatches. Or maybe the mk5 Golf actually as it was more solid and drove pretty much as well. But the world has moved on and the ID.3 would give a mk5/6/7 GTI a very good run for its money I’d bet.
