VW ID.3 V2

GTX PP ordered last week. Properly excited now. Official lead time is 12 weeks but does anyone’s experience differ?

I ordered one at end of November. Spoke to the dealer on Monday and he said it's currently in production and expects delivery in 3-4 weeks

have any of you optioned this €1500 assistant pack and was it worth it?

The park assist is not something I care about, and I see the gtx PP has a rear view camera as standard, but I currently have VW blind spot monitor and emergency assist and I find it excellent. Is that ‘travel assist’? €1500 feels like a lot just for that alone, mind.

If you have to have your hands on the wheel anyway, what exactly is the advantage?

….

Travel Assist is great if your on long drive, particularly motorway or days with strong winds etc. you just activate it, place a hand on the wheel and overtake as needed.

It’s hard to explain the difference. I drive Dublin to Belfast and back often and when you have it, it just takes part of the fatigue out of a day like that.

My first ID.3 didn't have Travel Assist. I ordered it as on option on the GTX PP that I bought last year. I think it's great and well worth it, even with the reduction in tax relief because it pushed the price of the car well over €40K.

It not only adds the blindspot sensors (which should be standard) and Park Assist Plus (which I rarely use), it also has the 360 view when parking, which is dead handy. But Travel Assist itself is brilliant. It integrates seamlessly with driving (unlike, say, Tesla autopilot), allowing you to intervene as you like. You can take over the steering at any point. When you stop steering, it takes over again. If you want to go faster, press the accelerator. When you let off, it takes over again.

I think of it this way. In a normal car with an automatic transmission, if you stop interacting with it, it will react in certain undesirable ways: if you let go of the wheel, it will go straight until something stops it; if you don't press the brake, it will coast into whatever is in front of you; if you don't press the accelerator, it will slowly come to a stop. Travel Assist changes all of these "default" actions so that, absent input, the car just keeps driving. If you let go of the wheel, it will continue to steer on the road (eventually warning you to put your hands on the wheel). If you don't press the brake when there's an obstacle in front, it will slow down and ensure that you don't hit it. If you stop pressing the accelerator, it keeps the car going.

Before I had it, I didn't realise how much it feels like a kind of safety net. Not that you just let it do everything without paying attention. But if you're inattentive for a moment, you can have some confidence that the car will keep you on the road and safe.

There may be a danger that people come to rely on these systems too much. I could imagine someone being tempted to drink drive and letting the car do most of the driving. But for a reasonably conscientious driver, it's quite helpful and not just for long journeys. I use it more or less every time I'm on the motorway and sometimes on other kinds of roads. It's pretty good in a traffic jam too.

I've also noticed some varying ranges on the dashboards if the cars I've looked at online anywhere from 250km to 350km ish at 100%. Even though I thought they had the same battery sizes

Are the batteries reliable or is it just that the range estimate displayed varies based on the driving style of the owners? Will it go up and down frequently like that?

What's real world range that drivers are finding in ID3s (2020 - 2022 models)?

Switch over to % view and be done with the guesswork however.

I'd get nearly 250km @ 120kmh on the motorway depending on heating. OH likes 25°!

Cold day today on N and R roads I'd be close to 300(preheated car before leaving). Summer probably 360 on a good day.

Approaching 150k kms on it. (Bye bye warranty soon!)

Are the batteries reliable or is it just that the range estimate displayed varies based on the driving style of the owners?

It varies based on recent consumption figures so, yes, based on driving style of the owner.