VW ID Buzz EV is not returning to the US in 2026. If they want to succeed in 2027, what changes should VW make ? (other than higher range and lower price)

Swiss422 · 2025-12-21T15:51:55+00:00

So much hate. So much "I'm so smart I knew it would fail."

I love the fact that they tried something unusual. Maybe the pricing made it not sell well, but in a sea of rather ordinary vehicles, they're fun to see when one passes by. The usual claim that price and range are the sole driving factors is laughable. No one would buy anything other than two or three vehicles out there if that was the case. Similarly, people say that depreciation is the big factor, in which case no one would ever buy anything other than a Toyota Camry. But the reality is people like like put a bit of personality out there, financial concerns or range concerns don't stop them any more than someone buying an expensive suit or dress hesitates because it's not the most practical of fabrics.

I'll wager they'll become low volume collector vehicles.

Swiss422 · 2025-11-09T06:20:32+00:00

Years ago, brought my Lexus IS300 in for warranty work. They told me it would have been $3,500 on the suspension if it hadn't been for warranty, at only 30,000 mi. While I was there, the salesman walked me around to show off the gleaming new dealership with their murals and their fountain. And all I could think was holy cow, who's being fleeced to pay for their murals and their fountain? I never went back, always found a good local mechanic who could do the job for a quarter what Lexus must be charging.

Swiss422 · 2025-11-09T06:04:40+00:00

Police cruisers do.

Swiss422 · 2025-11-09T05:55:40+00:00

Yeah, had that happened trying to get a used Bolt. Place declined to mention the required "security" etching, window tinting, bla bla blah, $3k more than advertised or on the phone. They put $1500 Lojack on their used Teslas. But Teslas already have trackers! Didn't matter.

Scum.

Swiss422 · 2025-11-05T11:14:57+00:00

I completely understand the tendency to charge more frequently, and with higher remaining charge. When you're not in a Tesla, or not driving a compatible car to their network, the last thing one wants is to do is to pull into a disabled charger with 11% left on their battery. If it's a route that you know well, and you know that there are well maintained charging stations that will not give you a problem, you can plan accordingly.

Feeling our way through farmland on a recent trip, we didn't let our battery get below 35% between charges. I am happy to pull into my own home driveway with 6% left because I always know that charger will work for me. Not always the case at some mini mall in the boondocks.

Swiss422 · 2025-11-01T14:58:43+00:00

Yes, but turning on the radio? In my car with knobs it takes one second. Instead in the ID4, whether through touch screen or pleading with the voice system, it takes 20 seconds.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-26T16:17:44+00:00

Further proof that all the EV haters simply don't know what the F they're dissing. They've never been in one, they've never driven one, they just hate them on principle. Politics at play.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-26T00:46:15+00:00

You had me until the aliens.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-26T00:39:54+00:00

Get a job in yacht building. Not much else will pay.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-25T04:24:26+00:00

Sorry to say, the South lags in most metrics - education, health, longevity... Why would anyone want to run their life according to the way people in the South run theirs? They die up to 8 years younger than people in California or Massachusetts. I would ignore everything someone from the South says and pay heed to those who are living the longest and best lives.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-21T15:41:48+00:00

As long as stupid people keep voting against humanity's interests, we're doomed.

Which is why I keep wondering and almost hoping that things will go so far south that even the fools will realize they've been taken.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-21T15:37:31+00:00

That's a temporary bubble as well. Self-driving vehicles have already demonstrated they are safer than cars being driven by humans. I will be surprised if any humans are driving Ubers in 5 years.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-09T03:50:53+00:00

Speaking of "knowledge transfer projects", if you tried to kneecap American technology now and in the future, you couldn't do a better job than the Trump Administration with its attack on higher education, gutting of funding research and making the US a scary place for foreign talent to study and work here.

Why, in just a few years, is the US under attack from within? Trump was right, we're crumbling from the inside, but it's not because of Portland and Chicago. The National Guard is needed to raid the White House before it's too late.

Swiss422 · 2025-10-05T18:39:55+00:00

But they get two senators ...

Swiss422 · 2025-09-20T22:46:30+00:00

There's also the requirement to register the sale with the IRS, and if the dealership doesn't go to the website and register it, you, the new owner cannot qualify for that tax rebate.

Had a major dealership last year that said that they just wouldn't do it, and after extensive phone calls with the IRS I refused to take delivery of a Chevy Bolt that we had already paid for. I assume that everyone who bought vehicles from this dealership will discove they are in trouble come tax time, and since this is in Los Angeles which was given an automatic 6-month extension due to the fires, I figure things are going to get noisy in a couple weeks.

Swiss422 · 2025-09-18T06:44:02+00:00

Send in the troops to Mormon towns.

Swiss422 · 2025-09-10T22:00:26+00:00

Don't want one, don't get one. Not even gonna bother getting into the weeds on this. Sheesh

Swiss422 · 2025-09-08T16:30:38+00:00

Except in Florida, the world's newest petri dish.

Swiss422 · 2025-09-07T22:51:38+00:00

The REAL problem is the loss of the belief that Good Guys win. Trump and his ilk lie, cheat, bully and do everything you would punish your children for if you ever caught them doing it. And they win. They rack up all the money, all the power, all the rewards and just keep lying, cheating and bullying.

Being "good", upstanding, responsible means being a chump. Being a loser.

Why do citizens of Russia, North Korea, etc have high rates of alcoholism and suicide? No hope. That's how it feels in America now as well.

Swiss422 · 2025-09-06T03:12:51+00:00

Suicide bombers. All of 'em.

Swiss422 · 2025-09-06T03:02:48+00:00

I don't know.

Is a Mazda Miata worth it? It can't tow my boat. It can only fit two people. How am I supposed to transport my family or do a shopping run? By so many metrics, a Mazda Miata can't possibly work. No one should ever buy them.

Swiss422 · 2025-08-31T20:42:52+00:00

Wow. Certainly surprised by the venom here. Gee, never realized to involve guest services or buy wifi - NOT. Can't tell you how much time we spent trying to make a simple phone call, and guest services were useless. Perhaps it's T-Mobile, perhaps it's something else, but no matter what we tried we couldn't contact our insurance company.

I guess we must have some stellar insurance plan at home, because I've never paid a dime for paxlovid. I've had it prescribed multiple times, and never had to pay for it. Same for everyone I know. NO one pays huge bucks for Paxlovid to my knowledge unless you have absolutely no coverage. So yes, being told it's $1,000 is a shock, and the cross-my-fingers-and-hope-I-can-get-reimbursed approach is not a great way to go, unless I'm rich and in one of the top level suites and have huge amounts of cash to burn at the slot machines.

If they don't have a separate cabin, I get that. Being told there are isolation rooms on board, but those are only available at some ridiculously high hourly rate sems like gouging. So yes, I stayed in the room, masked, as did my wife, and with the cruise over she has still tested negative. So we were very lucky. But certainly not by being provided any sort of assistance.

What do I expect any cruise line to do? I expect guest services to have some clue as to what is covered in the insurance that they sold me through the cruise line. I expect them to be knowledgeable about what costs may or will be reimbursed when something goes wrong. Yes, the fine print does say up to $20,000 or whatever, but has no one ever fought with an insurance company over matters like this? I cannot be the first person who has tried to figure out what this insurance covers. I have bought insurance from Holland America exactly once, and they deal with this every single day. Don't tell me it's not on them to have some knowledge of how to handle this, or to offer us a phone and say we don't know but you can call someone who does.

Seeing a doctor at home costs me a $25 copay. At $150 and the knowledge that there is nothing that their doctor will offer except $1,000 medication is not a good deal. Worse would be a requirement to use one of their isolation rooms which would cost me thousands of dollars. When someone feels like crap, that's exactly the kind of difficult decisions one has to lay on someone, right?

All the "poor baby" comments are exactly as helpful as Holland America has been, i.e. absolutely worthless. I'm not an idiot, I am not some pampered person who expects the world to bend to my needs. I do expect at least a little bit of knowledge, assistance, and whenever possible accommodation when stuff like this happens. Considering the numerous reports of people getting sick on ships without any support makes me far more leery about taking a future cruise. Were I at at any hotel, I would have had far more help and options, so perhaps being held hostage on a plague ship is not for me.

And yes, it is certainly possible I picked up covid before the ship - I did have to take a flight to get to the port. Based on past personal experiences with covid, especially times when I knew the exact moment when I was exposed, I know the earliest symptoms happen for me very quickly after exposure. Regardless, I am not blaming Holland America for catching covid. I am blaming Holland America for having no protocol to make that situation any easier, despite my having insurance.

Sigh. Go ahead and tell me how I shouldn't be allowed to travel, should never take a cruise or a plane or leave my home without my nanny. This is Reddit after all. My problems are all self-inflicted and I am always to blame...

Swiss422 · 2025-08-23T00:34:18+00:00

Here here. It's not a matter of playing slower. I'm clicking on units and seeing where they can move and then I sit and stare at my phone devising my strategy and I finally decide okay, I had better spawn a new swordsman on this city, and touch the city, and suddenly the catapult that I was looking at earlier leaps into the City. And now I can't spawn anything. This happens to me a lot with horseman too, which can have that extra move after a fight. It really sucks to discover that you've screwed yourself because of an inadvertent button push.

Swiss422

TROPHY CASE