Tips for a new owner?

[Makro99]

Hey all - we’ve just taken delivery of a late 2022 OD3 Pro life 58KW.

Would love to know all your best tips and tricks!

[sidehaas]

There are many, it depends what you want to know about
If you like video there is a YouTube channel called Battery Life who has done lots of good videos that are helpful for new owners. Most of them are with old software versions but many things are still applicable and you can always ask here if unsure.

[Makro99]

I’m so clueless on new cars I’ll
Take any tips going! I’ve had a 13 year old
Diesel with no computers. So anything that you love about the ID3 that maybe isn’t in the manual!

[andy47]

Some obvious things that helped me
- use an overnight tariff for home charging, e.g., Intelligent Octopus
- Use an aggregating card for on road charging, e.g,. Octopus Electroverse, Motability GoCharge,
- Use plug and charge for Ionity with Electroverse certificate
- watch your driving style against miles per Kwh. I aim to get over 4 miles/kwh. I drive in B and hardly use the brake
- plan on road charging carefully - have a back up if the first one is not working or not available
- carry change for parking - charger may be in a pay and display car park
- if disabled check upfront if charging/parking spaces wide enough to allow wheelchair access
- use go.chargetrip.com/range-spider to model real range for one way or return trips
- try to keep battery in range 30-80% but occasionally charge to 100% to calibrate battery

[Boattrainman]

Buy a spare wheel (or a mini wheel) jack and wheel brace and throw them in the boot if doing long and/or remote trips. Store the spare by removing the false upper floor, it will be resting on the hard metal of the car plus will give more travel storage.

Re-arrange the icons on the home screen on the infotainment to suit what you use the most. You just hold them with your finger and move them around the screeen.

Buy a cheap back seat cover if you have a dog, the upholstery can get marked easily.

Keep a clean rag in the storage box beside the driver, the shiny piano black bits can get dusty very quickly.

Don't trust the remaining range figure, especially if running low, it is usually out by around 25%.

Don't keep charging the car from very low (say under 20%) to high (90% and above) this counts as 'deep cycling' most forms of rechargeable batteries don't like this, as it shortens their life. I recharge at home usually when the car goes below 60% and back to the recommended 80%. An occasional deep cycle and/or charge up to 100% is fine.

Enjoy what is a very well made vehicle and super driving experince!

Rob

[Andyjor63]

I own a id3 family pro 2023 worse car I ever owned not fit for purpose never buy a vw again unfortunately software is a disgrace even dangerously lane assist is so bad worse ev out there stick to Kia BMW Hyundai in my opinion

[Boattrainman]

You're entitled to your opinion Andyjor63.

However, most contributors elaborate on their negative issues and provide some sort of deeper explanation, which might end up being helpful or informative for other forum users, all you are doing is having a rant.

For the record, the Lane Assist is a feature of lots of cars I have driven, VWs version is exactly the same, and can be disabled, though why a driver would do this given its a key component of the safety rating is a mystery to me.

If you don't like a '23 car, I strongly suggest you didn't do your research well enough before purchase.

Sell it and move on.

Rob

[SinglePointSafety]

What Boattrainman says....I've driven a number of EVs and been a passenger in many. The id3 ride, especially with variable damping set to 'max comfort' (roads round here are abysmal and getting worse) is impressive for this class of car, and it's pretty much the quietest EV I've experienced: it seems to be remarkably good at suppressing road and wind noise

As others have said, keep the car's software up to date (v2.4 is a decent bug fix, I'm still waiting for 3.0/3.2 recall) and learn to accept that the id3's software occasionally 'glitches' and may need a re-set - that's happened several times to me, but the car was always driveable. Be prepared to learn the good and bad points of adaptive cruise control and lane assist - you will very soon develop a good 'feel' for how they work, and if driven with care and attention, they are a real aid to safety and convenience

Keep an eye on the rear tyres, especially if (1) they're the original Bridgestones and (2) you drive with, er, 'enthusiasm'. I drive like I died last week, and my rears are down to 3 mm after 15000 miles

[Raxacorico]

The id3 ride, especially with variable damping set to 'max comfort'

Hi SinglePointSafety - is that a user setting through the infotainment screen please?

[SinglePointSafety]

Hi SinglePointSafety - is that a user setting through the infotainment screen please?

Yes indeed - if your id3 has this option, you select from the infotainment screen and for 'mode' you will see the option of 'individual' where you can set a number of items to suit your style of driving

[Raxacorico]

Hi SinglePointSafety - is that a user setting through the infotainment screen please?

Yes indeed - if your id3 has this option, you select from the infotainment screen and for 'mode' you will see the option of 'individual' where you can set a number of items to suit your style of driving

Many thanks - does it "stick" between getting in and out of the car?

[sidehaas]

Hi SinglePointSafety - is that a user setting through the infotainment screen please?

Yes indeed - if your id3 has this option, you select from the infotainment screen and for 'mode' you will see the option of 'individual' where you can set a number of items to suit your style of driving

Many thanks - does it "stick" between getting in and out of the car?

Variable damping is part of the DCC system which is only available on the Max trim.

[Raxacorico]

Yes indeed - if your id3 has this option, you select from the infotainment screen and for 'mode' you will see the option of 'individual' where you can set a number of items to suit your style of driving

Many thanks - does it "stick" between getting in and out of the car?

Variable damping is part of the DCC system which is only available on the Max trim.

Thanks Sidehass! That's why I've not seen it! Not on my version ...

[sidehaas]

I’m so clueless on new cars I’ll
Take any tips going! I’ve had a 13 year old
Diesel with no computers. So anything that you love about the ID3 that maybe isn’t in the manual!

Some tips for the car are:
1) just get in and spend 30 minutes playing around with all the menus to see what it can do (suggest asking here if you see stuff you don't know what it is, but try to get used to the electronic handbook if you can too),
2) if anything seems to go wrong or there is a warning light, don't panic. If it's just the infotainment it can usually be solved by resetting it - you just hold the button on the bottom left corner down for 15-20 seconds. If it's something else, it can often be solved by either just turning off and on, or by leaving and locking the car, leaving it for 15 minutes with the key out of range and then coming back. Not that this all happens often, but worth being aware if it does.

Get a home charger and a time of use tariff if you haven't already.

If you are going to be using public charging much, the car's nav is getting better at route planning but it still sometimes sends you to sites that are too small. You should aim to only use sites with 4+ high power chargers, 6+ on a busy motorway. Download the following apps, learn how to use each and decide which you prefer for finding chargers: zapmap, wattsup, abrp.
Also, get a wecharge RFID card and if you are with Octopus, also an Electroverse card. Useful backups to contactless at some charging providers. Don't use charge points that require apps to charge/pay unless you really have to (few do).

[SinglePointSafety]

On the subject of apps for finding charging points... I've been using ChargeFinder recently and found it to be both reliable and comprehensive for giving real-time availability data. The Electroverse app is (usually) good, but lordy, every now and again it suffers from amnesia and a whole slew of chargers disappear, before they eventually return (why, ffs?)

[sidehaas]

On the subject of apps for finding charging points... I've been using ChargeFinder recently and found it to be both reliable and comprehensive for giving real-time availability data. The Electroverse app is (usually) good, but lordy, every now and again it suffers from amnesia and a whole slew of chargers disappear, before they eventually return (why, ffs?)

I don't recommend Electroverse or the VW app for finding chargers because neither have properly working filters for the number of chargers at a site. If you tell the Electroverse app to only show sites with six chargers it will show you loads that only have two chargers but where each has a CCS, Chademo and Type 2 connector (even when you have filtered on CCS). This makes it completely inadequate for my purposes. It's caused by the backend data being inconsistent between different providers. The apps I mentioned are the only ones I know that usually get it right - this is because they manually check/modify the data rather than relying completely on automated supplier data.

The Electroverse RFID card is useful though and you get a small discount on some chargers if you are on an Octopus time of use tariff.