► We say goodbye to the ID.5
► But it’ll be difficult to miss
► And there’s the £58,330 price tag
When it’s time to hand back a long-term test car I generally make a big deal about it, taking the car for one last punt. In the Caterham 160 and Mazda RX- 8, for instance, this turned into an all-day adventure. But in the case of the Volkswagen ID.5 a four-mile round trip to the nearest car wash felt like plenty.
It’s not a car that engages the keen driver in any way – there’s little dynamic sparkle, and even less character – so taking it out for a last long drive never struck me as a good use of time.
That dispassionate relationship sums up my six months of ID. 5 ownership. This is not a car that sprinkles its magic to transform routine trips into enjoyable jaunts. It doesn’t urge you to take the long way home. It doesn’t invite a nickname or evoke a sense of pride when talking cars with friends.
It moved me and my family around in anonymous-looking comfort and safety. It was transport, no more and no less.
The laggy and unreliable user interface took a lot of heat. Three times the central screen turned black and died, only coming back to life an hour or so later. Not a disaster when you’re on familiar roads, but not exactly endearing when navigating Canterbury’s one-way system on a wet December night.
Its regular reluctance to hook up to our iPhones, like its reluctance to swap from one device to another, irked. Enough has been written about the truly idiotic unlit audio and temperature controls, so I won’t go into how frustrating these are to use.
The consistently inconsistent responses from the haptic buttons on the steering wheel, the three-step deactivation of intrusive safety systems at the start of every trip, the age it took the throttle pedal to respond after I released the brake pedal, the poor rear visibility – enough glitches, annoyances and irritations to detract from the high levels of rolling refinement, the spacious and comfortable cabin, the decent range and solid performance.
The ID. 5’s fundamentals are sound enough – it’s just disappointingly mediocre in too many areas to be wearing a VW badge and a £58,330 price tag.
You can pay a lot less for considerably more style, dynamism and quality.
Read the previous month here
Logbook: VW ID. 5 Pro Performance Tech (month 7)
Price: £55,580 (£58,330 as tested)
Performance: 77kWh battery, e-motor, 201bhp, 8.4sec 0-62mph, 99mph
Efficiency: 3.9 miles per kWh (official) 3.1 per kWh (tested), 0g/km CO2
Range: 323 miles (official), 240 miles (tested)
Energy cost: 13.0p per mile
Miles this month: 801
Total: 6425
Count the cost
Cost new £58,330
Part exchange £32,080
Cost per mile 13.0p
Cost per mile including depreciation £4.26