Volkswagen ID.7 long term review

Monkeying around

Yes, that is a monkey! A trip to Longleat had us taking the VW through the monkey enclosure. Thankfully, the monkeys didn’t manage to pull anything off the car, and were happy to ride along on the pano roof, slurping the morning dew off the glass. 

More importantly, the two monkeys in the back seats were very happy with the amount of space, and the amount of pockets that they could fill with sweets and treats. And they enjoyed a car picnic at lunchtime as we sheltered from a summer rain shower. 

Notably, after this excellent day out, the ID.7 looked like it had been… well, I suppose it looked like it had been covered in monkeys and other animals – inside and out. So I was impressed that the upholstery wiped down easily, and the footprints on the backs of the seats also came away easily. 

The boot isn’t the deepest, but it is vast and has a huge hatchback aperture, so I can’t complain about how much of my gubbins I can throw in there, either. In fact, while the ID.7 is excelling for comfort and efficiency, it’s also proving to be a brilliant family car. Plus, you can get an estate version, if you want – called the ID.7 Tourer. I’d go for that, as we do have a couple of dogs including a rather tall, leggy hound, so the deeper boot space would be useful for us.  

Mind you, I did manage to fit an entire tree into the ID.7 on one occasion. And a single mattress, on another (proof in the gallery above). So I really don’t think you can have a dig at the practicality of what VW calls the ‘fastback’ ID.7. It’s pretty impressive.

'Electric cars are only for short journeys'…       

Or not. The weeks are ticking by with the ID.7, and this popped up on the screen the other day. D’you know what? I actually haven’t used a public charger in all this time, despite having now done over 2,500 miles in it - or the entire length of Route 66 in America, according to the ID.7. And I still actively enjoy getting into it and wafting silkily up the road, with the massage seat on. There's a lot about this car that makes me feel exceptionally smug, and I rather enjoy that. 

Touchscreen pros and cons            

VW’s new touchscreen system wasn’t well received when it first arrived in the ID.3, but that was years ago now, and multiple software updates and tweaks have seen it become a perfectly usable, inoffensive system to use. It did take a few seconds longer than is ideal to get started sometimes, leaving you hanging on a welcome screen while you waited for the window to all of the VW's systems to wake up. But otherwise it was reliable, and I really didn’t mind it. It just did the job, even if I’d say the system in the Hyundai Ioniq 6 is a bit more intuitive.

Click for report 3​