Volkswagen ID. Buzz - Reliability and safety

The Volkswagen ID. Buzz has had a relatively long gestation period and comes a couple of years after the first wave of ID models such as the Volkswagen ID.3 and Volkswagen ID.4. Experience with those models should have helped with the development of the ID. Buzz, but it's still too early to give an impression of reliability for models based on VW's MEB electric car platform.

The safety expert organisation Euro NCAP awarded the maximum five-star crash safety rating to the ID. Buzz in 2022. The electric MPV’s scores for adult occupant protection and safety assist technology both exceeded the 90 per cent mark, however it received an alarmingly low 60 per cent mark for protecting vulnerable road users – the downside of having such a bluff front end.

Thankfully, safety kit is first-rate on the ID. Buzz. There are seven airbags (front, side, curtain and central), and autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection is standard. Adaptive cruise control with speed limiter is also included, as is lane assist, road sign recognition and seatbelt alert for all chairs. Updates for 2024 mean that just like a number of VW’s latest cars, including the VW ID. 7,  blind spot monitoring is now standard and not the pricey Assistance Package Plus option, because one of the things Euro NCAP now tests for is a warning system to make sure you don’t open a car door into the path of a cyclist or car approaching from behind.

However, Volkswagen as a brand has been dropping quickly down the rankings, from 18th out of 29 manufacturers in 2022, to 27th (out of 32) in our best car manufacturer rankings in the 2023 Driver Power, well behind the likes of Skoda (20th), Hyundai (17th) and Kia (6th).

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Warranty

The Volkswagen ID. Buzz actually falls under the commercial side of the VW business, which means it is covered by a more generous three-year warranty/100,000-mile warranty compared with its passenger cars, which are only three years or 60,000 miles. 

You can even extend the coverage to up to five years either as part of a one-off payment or through monthly instalments. Like all VW’s ID models, the ID. Buzz gets three years of breakdown cover, while the main battery comes with eight years/100,000 miles of warranty coverage that’ll guarantee it will retain above 70 per cent capacity over that time period.

Servicing

One benefit of running an electric vehicle like the Volkswagen ID. Buzz is that there are fewer moving parts to maintain, so Volkswagen has moved to two-year service intervals on its electric cars with no mileage limit.

VW offers service packages at the time of purchase which can help to spread the cost of maintenance over your ownership period.