I’m not perfect. I’ll admit that before I drove the 2025 Volkswagen ID Buzz, I was pretty skeptical of it based solely on the price. As an auto journalist, this isn’t really what you’re supposed to do before driving a car, but what can I say? I play fast and loose. I mean, can you blame me? $61,500 to $71,500 for a Volkswagen minivan seems like a hell of a price to pay. However, after spending the better part of a day with the ID Buzz, I get it, and I get its price… for the most part.
The 2025 ID Buzz begs the question, “How much would you pay for people to like you?” VW’s reincarnated bus makes up for lack of interior quality and efficiency by being one of the most stylish and well-liked vehicles on the market, and it’s pretty damn practical to boot. If you’ve got about $70,000 to spend on a car that’ll make you tons of friends — and to hell with everything else — the ID Buzz is a compelling package
Full Disclosure: Volkswagen flew me out to San Francisco, fed me and put me up in a very nice hotel all so I could drive the 2025 ID Buzz.
I know styling is a subjective thing, but it’s hard to deny that the ID Buzz is not a lovely piece of design. It’s got all the nice throwback touches you’d expect from a retro-inspired car, but it also has enough contemporary elements to make it feel thoroughly at home in a modern world. Up front, you’ve got the classic snub-nose and big emblem from the original bus, along the sides you’ve got three strakes in the rear pillar that harken back to the air vents on those original VW busses, and some really great looking 20-inch wheels that serve as a throwback to the hubcaps you’d find on the original bus. There are some more modern-looking rims available, but you should really just skip those. Up top, you’ve got an enormous greenhouse that makes the entire van feel extremely airy.
It also helps that there are a bunch of different two-tone color schemes (eight to be exact, with three more solid grayscale colors) that make this thing look like nothing else on the road. If you’re forking over about $70,000, you’re doing it because of how good the ID Buzz looks. It’s very rare that a concept car (albeit, an old one at this point) looks so similar to the finished product. It’s even a fairly decent size. At 195.4 inches long, it’s not exactly small, but it’s about nine inches shorter than a Pacifica or Sienna.
My only real issue with how the ID Buzz looks is its headlights. I understand Volkswagen wanted to keep its corporate ID face for the bus, and that means it has cat-eye headlights, but I would have really liked to see a more circular design. Maybe that would be too much. I also don’t love how the second-row windows don’t retract into the door. Instead, they’re little square cut-outs that slide inwards. I feel like this was something that was acceptable on vans in the 1990s, but we’ve figured out how to make a minivan with roll-down windows at this point. These are both pretty small gripes, but gripes nonetheless.
Unfortunately, my real issues with the ID Buzz lie on the inside, where it’s hard to justify the hefty price tag Volkswagen is asking for its latest model. A lot of the materials inside the ID Buzz simply are not good enough for a people’s car that is priced like a luxury car. This is especially true for the upper door panels, dashboard and some of the switchgear. It’s some of the cheapest plastic I’ve been able to find in a car outside of a rental-spec Chevy Trax. It’s hard. It’s scratchy. It’s low-rent. It’s bad. It’s especially bad when you look at the $70,540 (including destination) as-tested price of the ID Buzz I drove. Keep in mind, you can still spend even more money than that, but I’ll get to prices later.
Material issues aside, the rest of the ID Buzz’s interior is pretty solid. It isn’t nearly as retro-inspired as the exterior, which is a bit of a shame if you ask me. I feel like VW’s designers could have had a little more fun. Regardless, Volkswagen clearly spent a lot of time fixing its infotainment system. The 12.9-inch center display and 5.3-inch gauge cluster screen, standard on all models, both work reasonably well. They’re quick to respond and all of the information they hold is laid out sensibly and legibly. Sure, it would be nice to have a physical volume knob and HVAC switches, but it’s not too annoying to use. Every Buzz also gets wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a wireless charger, eight USB-C ports, a 30-color ambient lighting setup, a leather heated steering wheel and three-zone climate control. Not too shabby. There are some other niceties you get with the higher-trim Pro S Plus and 1st Edition models, like a 14-speaker Harman/Kardon stereo (which is fine), automatic sliding doors and trunk, massaging seats and a head-up display.
Overall, there are three interior colors for the U.S., and thank God none of them are black or gray. You can choose from Copper (a terracotta color), Dune (white/cream) and Moonlight (dark brown). The leatherette on the seats and armrests feel fairly premium, especially in comparison to the plastics and wood veneer. Sadly, the U.S. doesn’t get the European interior color schemes that match the various two-tone paints.
Because the ID Buzz is a minivan at its heart, you won’t be too surprised to learn it’s got a metric shit ton of space — that’s an official measurement. Volkswagen says that if you take out the third row of seats and fold the second row down (they don’t fold into the floor because of the battery), the ID Buzz can fit 145.5 cubic feet of cargo. With all three rows up, there is still 18.6 cubic feet of cargo space behind the third row, and thanks to VW’s nifty flex board, you’ve got two levels to fill with your stuff. Fitting people is just as impressive. At 6-foot-1, I was able to fit into all three rows extremely comfortably with tons of head- and legroom to spare. I should note the Buzz comes as either a six- or seven-seater depending on the drivetrain you choose. Rear-wheel-drive models get seven seats and all-wheel-drive ones get six with two captain’s chairs in the middle row.
As it stands, there are two drivetrain options you can get in the 2025 ID Buzz. There’s either a rear-motor, rear-wheel-drive setup or a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive configuration. VW says the RWD power unit puts out 282 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque and has an EPA-estimated 234 miles of range from its 91-kWh battery. Meanwhile, the AWD Buzz makes a combined 335 horsepower. VW isn’t publishing a combined number for torque, but it says the front motor puts out 99 lb-ft, and the rear motor puts out an identical 413 to the RWD model. I can’t speak for the RWD car, but the AWD Buzz was quick enough (VW doesn’t quote a 0-60 time). It’s not going to set your hair on fire, but 335 horsepower is more than enough for what this car will be used for. Any more than that and I feel it would be a bit too powerful for the multi-link front and rear suspension. The AWD Buzz’s range is quoted by the EPA at 231 miles from that same battery. Both versions come with an 11-kW AC onboard charger, and the Buzz can DC fast-charge at up to 200 kW.
I’ll be honest, I don’t love these range numbers, especially out of a car that costs this much. That’s just sort of the nature of Volkswagen’s MEB architecture, though. It’s not deeply efficient, and that’s taking into account that its drag coefficient of 0.29 isn’t half bad. During some admittedly spirited driving, I was able to get about 2.5 miles per kWh. That’s middling at best. Something like the Kia EV9 — the Buzz’s closest competitor if you’re using your head — can crack 3.5 or even 4 miles per kWh if you take it easy.
Middling is the way I’d describe the overall driving experience of the ID Buzz. That might sound a bit harsh on its face, but we have to remember this is a 5,300-ish-pound minivan after all. (1,230 pounds come from the battery, alone.) It was never going to be a corner carver, but it’s not dreadful by any means. You could tell the hot dual-motor Buzz I was driving was much more comfortable cruising around town or driving down the highway than taking the corners of the Pacific Coast Highway at speed. The electric rack-and-pinion steering system is pretty nicely weighted, but like most electric cars, you get zero feedback. I know the wheels are up there, but I’ve got no idea what they’re doing. Also slightly surprising is the ID Buzz’s penchant for understeer. Despite the fact that more power comes from the back, this thing likes to push, but if you’re trying to hustle your ID Buzz down a canyon road, perhaps you need to reevaluate yourself.
Braking was the only actually suspect part of driving the ID Buzz. Up front, it has 15-inch vented discs, but the rear is saddled with 13-inch drum brakes. I know that it isn’t a big deal to have drums on an EV, but if I’m not mistaken this is the most expensive drum-brake equipped car you can buy. Take that however you like. It has regenerative braking, but there’s only one mode and isn’t very aggressive. It’ll slow you down to about 3 mph, but it won’t bring the car to a stop. Volkswagen really does not believe regen braking is the answer, for better or worse. Overall, brake feel is sort of poor. It’s very spongy and you don’t get a lot of confidence that this rig is going to come to a stop if you’re driving hard. Don’t worry, though — you’re not going to drive it hard.
I’ve alluded to it a few times, but I suppose now would be a good time to bring up the ID Buzz’s price. There are three trim levels: Pro S, Pro S Plus and 1st Edition. The Pro S is RWD only, and the two latter trims have AWD as an option AWD. The Pro S starts at $61,545, and there are no options available. Next up is the RWD Pro S Plus, which starts at $65,045, and fork over $69,545 and you’ll get the Pro S Plus AWD. You can add two-tone paint ($995) and an electrochromic panoramic glass roof ($1,495) to either of those. Finally, you’ve got the limited-time-only 1st Edition that comes with everything. RWD versions of that van start at $67,045, and the AWD 1st Edition will set you back $71,545. All of these prices include $1,550 for destination.
To be honest, I don’t hate the pricing of these cars, though I do wish there was a cheaper way to get into the AWD model. You can’t get AWD for anything less than as-near-as-makes-no-difference $70,000, and that’s a lot of money. I’m conflicted, though, because I don’t mind the ID Buzz being expensive in theory. If VW wants to charge $70,000 for a slice of nostalgia with a fantastic design, then it should go ahead. I just wish the interior materials matched the price.
The ID Buzz asks its buyers two simple questions: how much are you willing to spend on style, and how much do you want people to like you? I don’t mind that at all, honestly. It’s OK to have some cars exist purely to make people happy, usefulness be damned. You’ve got to be willing to ignore some pretty sizable issues if you want to feel good about the price. I don’t know if I could do it, but I’m also not the target audience for this car.
Then again, maybe I am. I’ve driven a whole lot of cars in my time at Jalopnik, and none have garnered so much positive attention. Everywhere I went, people were giving me thumbs up and asking about the ID Buzz. It’s the anti-Cybertruck, in a way. It’s a car that instills a great amount of joy in people through the very fact they are able to see it. If you like attention as much as I do, then this is a big positive. I just don’t know if my need to be liked should cost me $70,000.
