One sunny morning in Northumberland, I drove an Ariel Nomad 2 across the Holy Island causeway when the tide was a little too high. I got drenched, and the car all but surfed away. The resulting photo was pretty memorable, a storm-surge of salty spray jetting in every direction. What an amazing vehicle, able to tackle even crazy conditions like that.
Unseen, of course, was the electric hatchback, following a few metres behind at the same speed and depth and saltiness, carrying the photographer Jonny Fleetwood.
Once that photo was taken, we headed off on some delicious Scottish Borders roads. I had a fantastic time in the Nomad, driving it like it bid me do. I never felt I wanted to overtake the electric hatchback I was following, Jonny driving and his heavy bulky gear in the boot.
Oh and that electric hatchback drove from London to Northumberland and back with precisely zero charging hassles or delays. It look less time charging than its occupants took grabbing coffee and sandwiches.
As we’ve pointed out, four years, one facelift and several OTA updates after they started delivering the original ID car, the ID.3 still has its flaws. But my experience now is of a car that’s reliable and useable in its software, as well as its hardware.
But yeah, the flaws. While the interface is reliable now, VW is still cheaping out on the processor. Is there an early Raspberry Pi behind the screen? Even if you’ve parked for just a couple of hours, the navigation starts up with a 30-second spinning ball. You can’t quickly press the driver-assist menu button and then the lane-keeping defeat. That takes your eyes off the road for too long. You have to press the menu, look forward for a couple of seconds while it scratches its little digital head, then look down again once the menu has actually appeared.
Still, CarPlay worked well: it’s stable and snappy and even projects its navigation arrows onto the HUD, so mostly I was using the native navigation merely so I could test it as that’s my job.
But as I say there were no total screen wipeouts in the 5,000 miles in this bigger-battery ID.3, and 3,000 miles in a 58kWh version immediately beforehand. In previous VWs running this screen system, petrol or electric, crashes have been endemic. Also, in the ID.3s I’ve had around 50 flawless public charging experiences, versus only one dud – which was an old post in France.
The French trip was in the 58kWh car, and its 220-mile range did mean one had to plan ahead a bit when doing long trips. The extra reach of this 77kWh version was surprisingly useful because I happen to do a lot of journeys of 250-300 miles, and now I could do them uninterrupted. It got a comfortable 280 miles and 3.6m/kWh without thinking about speed, and 320-odd (4.1) if being a bit gentle on mixed roads.
Also, the spec on the second car added a HUD which was nice but inessential, and matrix headlights which worked well. Plus adaptive dampers. Without them the ID.3 can get floaty on a B-road. The adaptive dampers tighten up the body control and make the steering sharper, and yet at town speed the ride’s more supple. Money well spent.
Not that it was a hot hatch. Most of the time I was sitting on motorways, enjoying the refinement, stability, and great seats – even better with massage in the 77kWh car. Under those circumstances, all it needed was better speakers.
I’d been a bit nervous taking on a pair of ID.3s as my earlier ID.4 experience had been of a joyless car with glitchy software. But after six months I’ve warmed to it a lot. And there still aren’t many hatchback rivals, so it remains relevant. And given post-facelift low-miler 77kWh ones are now about £29k approved used, that’s a good buy.
