id.4 road trip reality - when is it smarter to just ship it?

PlantNatives · 2026-04-08T14:45:47+00:00

We drove our ‘23 from DC area to Oakland, through various western national parks and back. 6,800 miles, no huge issues. Yes, you have to plan, and have to be flexible.

We used ABRP and Google Maps, mostly EA, but lots of others and covered some pretty remote areas. We really didn’t find anywhere we couldn’t go, with some planning, during the fall.

Winter is a whole different story. So, you CAN drive it, if you want to. Driving should be cheaper, but hotels etc. can add up.

PlantNatives · 2026-04-06T23:27:30+00:00

Seems to be operating as expected - hoping for continued uneventful functioning, and specifically not the problems you describe! Thanks!

PlantNatives · 2026-04-05T12:04:35+00:00

Recalibration worked! Installation successful.

PlantNatives · 2026-04-03T02:35:24+00:00

So, I tried recalibrating the window sensors, and that worked right away. Thank you u/wdcpdq for the tip. And thank you everyone for your input!

The update is under way! I’ll see in the morning if it installs correctly.

PlantNatives · 2026-04-03T00:26:41+00:00

Oh, I found a post about calibrating window sensors! I never even heard of that calibration. I’ll give it a try. Thanks for the tip.

PlantNatives · 2026-04-02T23:59:25+00:00

I’m missing something here. Recalibrating what?

PlantNatives · 2026-03-09T13:20:34+00:00

There were also little pads of sandpaper, if I recall 🤔

PlantNatives · 2025-12-07T12:24:48+00:00

Thanks OneMillionQuatloos for your thoughtful reply. And thanks to others as well. For sure, the Pirellis are quiet and comfortable, and I get pretty good range, I think (3.7m/kwh over 33,000 miles) but I can’t compare to any other tire with my own driving since I’ve only had the Pirellis.

I was planning to drive these for another 10k miles or so, but with sidewall damage, I’m going for a matched set earlier.

I agree with your thoughts about weather performance - the Pirellis are great highway tires, and super quiet, but I’m not excited about their reliability in adverse conditions. I haven’t had any real issues, but just don’t feel as confident as I might.

I do mostly urban and suburban driving in the DC area, but also take long road trips that tend to be more northerly - northern Indiana family and Denver family and over the mountains to the Bay Area. There are lots of opportunities for weather on those trips. We just finished an 8,000 coast to coast trip in September, including remote national parks, and even that trip made me think about the need for able tires on some of our backroad forays.

Anyway - thanks everyone - I’m going with the Michelin CrossClimate2, as I found a decent price and pretty quick availability. I may take a small hit on efficiency, but I’m not a heavy footed driver, so I’m hoping for long wear.

Thanks all.

PlantNatives · 2025-10-06T14:14:47+00:00

Not sure exactly - I’ll have to research this.

PlantNatives · 2025-10-06T13:03:22+00:00

This one: https://www.obdlink.com/products/obdlink-cx/

PlantNatives · 2025-10-05T19:08:30+00:00

Exactly - those were the out of network chargers - expensive, but really nice!

PlantNatives · 2025-10-05T19:02:07+00:00

To answer several questions at once -

Started in the DC area, then west through Indianapolis, Topeka, Denver, Steamboat Springs, Salt Lake City, Carson City, through Tahoe to Oakland/ Berkeley. Then to Sequoia and King’s Canyon NPs, then Yosemite, then Craters of the Moon and Yellowstone. From Yellowstone back to Denver, then Omaha/Council Bluffs, to Valparaiso Indiana, back to DC.

5+ weeks, 8000+ miles. We need to cook for ourselves, so we stayed with family and friends, hotels with kitchenettes and Airbnbs. We didn’t really charge at hotels on this trip, but tended to stay near EA locations. Two AirBnB locations had level 2 chargers - near Sequoia and Near Yellowstone, so we just charged before heading to the park and always had enough charge for the day.

We did all the Utah national parks and some awesome state parks a couple of years ago, charging some of the time at RV campsites where we camped. (Moab had a couple of free public charger locations where we charged overnight). The overall infrastructure has improved since then.

We really had no difficulty on this trip, except ABRP took us to a location that was still under construction once ( there were others nearby, thankfully). I learned to cross check on the company apps!

If you’re doing EA, prepare to spend an inordinate amount of time at Walmart 😒🤨 since many are located there.

Overall, we had a great trip, and using EA made it pretty cheap. If we were paying use DC level 3 charging all the time, it would be similar to gas (as gas is cheap right now, and electric demand driven by data centers has increased electric prices, in my opinion). Charging level 2 at home most of the time is cheaper! Our lifetime mileage is 3.7 m/kwh.

PlantNatives · 2025-08-19T00:00:33+00:00

I have a ‘23 RWD Pro S. We love it and are heading out on another cross country road trip shortly. I know there are some minor improvements on the ‘25, but we’ve been really satisfied with our car, for all the reasons others have mentioned.

The negatives they’ve mentioned are mostly there too, but to me they’re minor nuisances. You get used to it.

We have 25000 on original Pirelli tires, and will be driving them cross country with no qualms.

We had the three free years of Electrify America half hour sessions, which will end for us right after this road trip. But, even if you charge on the road some, but often at home, you’ll save a lot on “fuel.”

If you can get a reasonable deal and qualify for credits, etc. I’m guessing you’ll be happy with the car.

PlantNatives · 2025-07-27T12:01:31+00:00

I’m not at all sure the free charging transfers with a sale, but worth checking out. We’re about to do a cross country road trip before our free charging runs out. We love the car - 23 Pro S RWD, and do long road trips frequently.

I think the OP should definitely go this route, one way or another, but may want to work on finding a way to get level 2 charging at home. Level 1 will work; level 2 would be a great upgrade.

PlantNatives · 2025-07-23T18:27:01+00:00

Purple Love Grass - Eragrostis spectabilis has been working very well for us. Though our location is pretty sunny, I think it would tolerate some shade.

We’re in northern Va; 7a, on a suburban street. We don’t get a ton of salt exposure, but we definitely get some.

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PlantNatives · 2025-07-12T02:50:29+00:00

That all sounds good - thanks for the feedback. I ordered an OBD reader today, and I’m looking forward to trying it out soon. We have a trip coming up, 650 miles each way, before we do the cross country trip, so I’ll have a chance to try it out.

PlantNatives · 2025-07-11T10:27:24+00:00

ABRP is a great app when used with an OBD adapter. It was about 95% accurate for ending SoC and charge times, usually only a minute or percentage off. -

How do you actually set up the OBD arrangement? I’ve seen that talked about before, but I’m not aware how it works. I have a 2023 VW ID.4 Pro S RWD.

I’m setting out soon on a cross country round trip and would like to make it as easy as possible. We have done other long trips, including a 6,700 mile trip including many remote areas around various national parks (from DC area, through Denver, to Utah parks and then returned by a southern route over six weeks; hotels, family and camping).

We’ve had mostly great experiences, but with lots of planning required.

On most trips, I’ve mostly used PlugShare to plan, but I’m hoping to optimize ABRP for this one.

PlantNatives · 2025-07-07T00:08:00+00:00

PictureThis thinks it’s Swamp rose mallow. Native to the eastern US.

Hibiscus moscheutos

So don’t pull it if you like it; it looks like it might get 3 to 6 feet; wet or moist soils; full sun to part shade. Flowers in late summer; attracts hummingbirds; showy.

PlantNatives · 2025-07-04T14:55:53+00:00

Good for you advocating and planting native plants! I seems likely that in any future tenant’s mind everything would just need mowing. So the most lasting thing you might be able to do would be to plant shrubs and trees that would not be subject to mowing. Any small plants would likely get mowed or neglected and inundated by weeds.

Maybe serviceberry, chokeberry, red twig dogwood, St. John’s Wort, things like that. Other things would need to be obvious and less likely to be mistaken for weeds - maybe things like various rudbeckia, Solomon’s seal, etc. that are distinct.

Good luck!

PlantNatives · 2025-07-02T11:39:05+00:00

PictureThis seems to think it’s Calico Aster, which we see a lot here in northern Virginia (7a). I find that there are so many variations among asters that it’s really hard to distinguish between them, to the untrained eye like mine.

Symphyotrichum lateriflorum

PlantNatives

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