I managed to get a test drive of a VW ID7 finally. There's a lot I liked about it, from the outside its styling is quite subtle and understated which I think looks good and it feels quite special getting into it, with the minimal dashboard and decent sized HUD it felt more like getting into a shuttle from Star Trek. The spec was fantastic given it's the base model with blind spot monitoring (highly desirable for me), adaptive cruise, 360 degree cameras (which also showed a preview of the forward of the car when maneuvering through parked cars), seat massagers/heaters, heated steering wheel etc.
I didn't get a chance to get up to 60/70mph which was a real frustration but the car was really smooth to drive and with no gearbox there was never a feeling of being in the wrong gear. Something which appealed to me about the electric part is that it has 280bhp but without needing premium fuel or worrying about the turbocharger.
On the downsides though it's a big heavy car and really felt like it when driving it, my Mazda6 is on the big side for estates but the ID7 is even bigger and a good bit heavier. However it's smaller at the back than the Mazda, the boot entrance is smaller and it's down on capacity compared to the Mazda as well - I would have been fine with the bigger car for more space inside as the Mazda isn't great for capacity but not being bigger outside and smaller inside.
The dealbreaker for this particular car and perhaps inexperience with the dealer which wasn't a VW one was they had no record of the services, the current battery state of health (SOH) and no confirmation of the warranty either. I was shocked to find the servicing for this car is £400 a go although only every two years rather than one and this car is possibly due one, I see a lot of comments about how electric cars need less maintenance but this works out more than my annual services for my petrol car. The other issue with this car as with most of the original ID7's is that it doesn't have a heatpump although I still can't really work out how useful it is on this model, people are really split on it.
I found another ID7 which is a year newer when VW made the heatpump standard on the base model which suggests there is demand for it, this car is also from VW so had better documentation on its history (which admittedly there isn't yet) and not a huge amount more money. So I've been giving serious thought to his one although the possible repair issue is one of my biggest concerns, with a petrol/diesel car you mostly know where you are but with the electric cars while they generally seem reliable when they have problems they can be difficult to repair.
Handily I was also able to test drive an Octavia VRS with blind spot monitoring which is fairly rare. It immediately felt more agile and better to drive although beyond that I wasn't too taken with it, I'm not a fan of auto gearboxes and as usual this one didn't seem to really know what I was wanting to do with it. The throttle response for the 280bhp engine was pretty lackluster too, I think in both cases I'd need to set up driving modes to have the car respond as I wanted however it did put me off, my current car and my previous Octavia VRS drove well without needing any changes. The Octavia spec wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as the ID7 despite being a more expensive car
second hand although I think the ID7 started off more expensive.
I do wonder as the market changes if electric car prices are going to climb as they become more popular making the ID7 a good buy at the moment as the depreciation to this point is horrific so if I bought one and didn't like it, I could potentially change to a petrol car later without losing out too much.
I'd decided it was time to get shot of the Mazda as it's feeling old these days at times especially at low speed when you can hear the suspension going over bumps. However after 5 hours of driving to see these cars and finding it drove much better than either of them, I'm starting to wonder if I'm being too hard on the Mazda. Its old 2.5 engine is quite thirsty and it's possibly due £1500 of repairs shortly but that's peanuts against the cost of even the cheaper ID7 I looked at. It's also huge inside with few estates that can beat it as I was reminded when putting big MTB in the back and it handled it easily.
I was out for a cycle this evening and chatting to a friend who has an EQB and was surprised I was interested in an electric car, he said he really missed his RAV4 as it felt bulletproof and he thought the hybrid drive gave the feel of the electric car but easy to keep refuelled. At the moment I'm feeling like hanging onto the Mazda for at least up to its MOT and assess it from there.
but I suppose having a 9k rev limit is a bonus, it’s my toy, on car club weekends it can see 15mpg. Better than I used to do, must be getting old.
