Volkswagen’s 2025 ID. Buzz – GOOD DAY SUNSHINE

Volkswagen’s 2025 ID. Buzz

GOOD DAY SUNSHINE

I need to laugh, and when the sun is out
I’ve got something I can laugh about
I feel good, in a special way
I’m in love and it’s a sunny day*

It was in Lincoln, Nebraska – in the mid-‘60s – that I first became acquainted with VW’s not-then-ubiquitous Volkswagen bus. With its University of Nebraska campus, Lincoln had its share of import cars; even at that time most college towns did. But in a grade school where my classmates were typically shuttled in wagons, the bus – owned and driven by Kent Seacrest’s mom – stood out like a Texas jersey in Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium. You might have seen a bus serving as a courtesy vehicle for a VW dealership or delivering VW parts to area shops, but you didn’t see a friend’s mom delivering kids to school. Unless, of course, you knew Kent Seacrest. And his mom.

In late ’66 my family moved to an Omaha suburb and needed a second car. By that time there were numerous choices, but the most obvious choice remained VW’s Beetle. And in shopping for that Beetle we visited the Volkswagen dealership and saw Volkswagen’s bus, often outfitted with the Westfalia camping kit. What it offered in both presence and presentation was so far removed from what was typically sold in dealerships, well…it was as if it was from an entirely different planet. 

Some 15 years later my brother Kevin, then 24, took five months to travel Europe. Kev, in company with friends Curtis Drake and Sam Kramer, invested roughly $2K in a 1974 VW bus with 60K miles. It served as their ‘motor hotel’ for the entire tour, and then sold prior to their return to the States. At that time I was on a BMW showroom, too busy to wish I was with them. But 45 years later I’d sure like those five months sitting in my memory bank.

If VW’s ID. Buzz has a value, it’s too tap into those memories, or – of course – create new ones. Its overall design, especially when painted in Pomelo Yellow and Candy White, doesn’t really imitate earlier buses, although its one-box profile does a credible job of saying ‘Volkswagen’. But VW’s first Microbus and subsequent Vanagons and Eurovans were relatively small – especially if compared to today’s Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey – while the ID. Buzz is large (195 inches in overall length), wide (78 inches) and heavy (a curb weight of three tons!). Old buses may have been slow but were tossable, while the 6,000 pounds of ID. Buzz tracks like a bowling ball.

If today’s minivan is designed to carry both people and their things, the Volkswagen gets one out of two.  The step-in is slightly awkward, given the positioning of the ‘step’ for both front seat and middle row passengers. Legroom in the second row is almost limo-like, and when opting to carry a road bike I simply removed the front wheel and parked it between the front seat backs and the middle seat cushion. Too easy.

But given the Buzz’s EV platform, folding the third row into a floor cavity isn’t an option; with the battery pack there is no floor cavity. The third-row buckets need to be removed, and while the process is simple our test vehicle had a concealed storage compartment – with a frame – that isn’t. The seats come out, but you still have the interruption of the storage compartment, which inhibits flat storage of many things forward of the hatch. And since one reason you buy a minivan is for its flexible storage, VW’s product team would seem to have fumbled.

For power VW gives you the choice of a single electric motor – which was powering the rear wheels of our Pro S Plus trim – or dual motors with all-wheel drive. Obviously, for all-season composure all-wheel drive is the best bet, but winter tires and the Buzz’s low center of gravity would probably power you through the worst of winter with our vehicle’s rear-wheel drive. Or you grab an Uber.

Once you adjust to your position behind the wheel – and don’t let the thick A-pillar and B-pillar distract – piloting the VW EV is fairly straightforward and, I’ll admit, a reasonable amount of fun. Throttle response is very good, acceleration strong and freeway cruising serene. And with that low center of gravity and composed suspension cornering is relatively flat. I also found the turning circle surprisingly tight, given the Buzz’s girth. 

The EPA estimates some 234 miles on a full charge, while our Level 2 charger supplied upwards of 280 miles on the Buzz’s gauge. Regardless, there’s enough here for almost a week’s worth of errand running, but I’m not sure I’d head to Austin from Dallas without an idea of what charging options were available around Temple. 

In sum, the $60K to almost $70K Volkswagen wants for their Buzz is a competitive value, if only for the smile it delivers as you walk toward it. But in my admittedly retro perspective I wish VW’s team had done a better job of channeling Volkswagen’s bus odyssey, rather than imitating – at least in its footprint – today’s Honda Odyssey. Good day, Sunshine.

*Lennon/McCartney – 1966