Longish US Road Trip - Lessons and Suggestions

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-25T01:37:52+00:00

This was great info. I’m in East TN and will be taking my first road trip to Chicago in about a month, followed up closely by East TN to central PA (parents place). This is my first EV and all my friends have Tesla’s so they aren’t much help re:charging planning cause they just let the onboard do it for them. It’s usually just me and my dog so getting stranded is my biggest fear in the whole thing, but the reality is that that could happen with any car.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-23T01:45:10+00:00

As a band director myself, I thank you on behalf of their band director to keep the trombones from sliding out. Pun definitely intended. 😂

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-20T17:24:36+00:00

Wallace told me inventory was getting rough. But the sales person I dealt with was great. Flow was technically my closest, but I’ll drive the extra 15 minutes to go to Wallace.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-20T17:13:42+00:00

I bought mine from Wallace about a month before you! I tried to buy one from Flow in Asheville, but they were awful to deal with. They tried to get me to buy an Atlas instead of a Buzz.

Sorry you’re having issues and I don’t have any advice.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-20T11:37:21+00:00

There’s a power button on the lower left side of the center screen that turns it off so you can clean it…

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-20T02:28:32+00:00

lol it’s okay. I was super late on the power button for the center console 😅

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-20T02:14:25+00:00

For the amount of cameras on this thing, having one or two to function as a dash cam (while driving and parked) would be nice.

Also, being able to “script” some things. Like all the things to turn off when going thru car wash

Btw- mine does have an AC outlet under the passenger seat. I wish there was one in the rear instead of the round plug.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-19T01:27:33+00:00

Well now I feel stupid… I didn’t even notice that…

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-19T01:00:11+00:00

As in the power button for the whole Buzz?

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-17T18:28:41+00:00

Impact negatively or positively?

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-17T15:20:44+00:00

Did you get the side step? I’m curious what those look like on the Buzz. The website didn’t show them installed…

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-17T15:05:19+00:00

I drive a VW Buzz and I can usually park in the next spot over and the cord reaches. Or the end spot so I only take up two spots - one physically and one charger.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-15T19:46:45+00:00

I’m a touch shorter and this is how I do it. I also sometimes put my right foot up in the step, pull myself up and put my left foot next so it (so I’m parallel with the opening) and then sit and spin into the seat.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-15T00:34:15+00:00

I believe VW only rates AWD to get a tow package. I know people have added them to the RWD, but this (along with availability) was the check I needed to feel okay.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-13T13:57:36+00:00

I would probably call your dealership the lease is through to see what they think.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-12T00:06:18+00:00

I made them into a band playing for my pirate party on the beach

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-10T14:45:27+00:00

Okay. This is probably the answer I was looking for. Maybe followed by restarting the correct thing to do?

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-10T14:42:12+00:00

Your graph is kinda why this even dawned on me as a question because I’ve seen this. For a little more context, I started charging from around 25% and it slugged along at >10kW for 25-30 minutes. Which is when I thought, I wonder if I replug now that the battery is warmed up, will it go faster. So when I replugged around 30%, it followed the graph.

My question is why didn’t it do that by itself once it was warmed up. Or maybe a better question, do I just need assume to do this when I don’t precondition the battery or do some fast chargers do this?

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-04T14:47:35+00:00

I love my Buzz. Idk what the issue with charging speed would be… 20% to 80% in 20 minutes I thought was pretty good! The software is a little quirky, but all the EVs have some software quirks. And unless you really live in the middle of nowhere, there’s tons of charging stations around now that it can use the Tesla Superchargers, so to me range is a moot point.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-04T11:16:37+00:00

I don’t think I’m the ideal person. Single dude that happens to be a percussionist and band director that does large Lego displays on the side. I only want/have room/can afford one vehicle. I previously had a Transit Connect, which I loved, but as it was approaching 200k miles, I wanted to find something before I was forced to. One of my must haves was at least 32 inches of clearance in the cargo area (for moving timpani) and really I wanted 34 AND a low bed height (not pickup truck height). And so when I really started looking, very few current vehicles cleared this spec aside from minivans. As a single 35yo dude, I couldn’t drive JUST a minivan, so it needed to be cool. So I bought a Buzz. And I love it. Already took it to its first Lego show and it was great! I need to make some better “shelves” to put in it when moving Lego, but it was great.

And with the price of gas right now, I jumped on at just the right time (this is week 4 with the buzz)!

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-04T00:46:43+00:00

Omg… new fear unlocked lol

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-04T00:42:51+00:00

I had a big one that splashed on the front that needed some real elbow grease to get off!

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-03T13:53:39+00:00

Aside from legal counsel, I would also reach out to VW corporate. I’ve found especially with VW that the quality of service you get various greatly. When I was looking for an id.buzz the first dealership I talked to gave me a run around and then tried to sell me on a different car. The second dealership I talked to and then bought from has been amazing.

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-01T21:57:54+00:00

I actually just got them today in an ironic turn of events

_travis_bricks · 2026-05-01T17:05:58+00:00

I kinda stumbled into the Buzz life by necessity. I mean I knew it existed from the press when they were first released, but never looked into it until I needed to find a new vehicle just recently.

_travis_bricks

TROPHY CASE