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New ID3 record may be set on Monday

4K views 31 replies 16 participants last post by  Fang2260 
#1 ·
I’ve been holding off getting the 2.1 update on my current ID3. The dealer has booked me in 3 times, but I’ve postponed each appointment. Sadly the errors, faults, odd behaviour - call it what you will, aren’t going away and the dealer can’t get any support from VW unless 2.1 is installed on the car.

Anyway - it’s going in on Monday / Tuesday and whatever the percentage, there is a chance it could be bricked.

As I’ve already got a new / never driven bricked ID3 in the dealers intensive care workshop (now 32 days), there’s a possibility that I could end up having 2 bricked cars.

Does anyone know if this will be a record?
 
#4 ·
It’s a very long story, but to summarise - I was miss sold / lied to / tricked, into believing my current model had certain features that it didn’t - dud to find out until after I’d taken delivery due to Covid. The new one is to replace the original, it’s now been going on for about 6 weeks.
 
#7 ·
Why would you delay the process?

Your car has issues, so get it updated,
if they brick it they will either un-brick it or replace the relevant controller(s), just make sure they give you a courtesy car whilst they have yours.

There is nothing to gain in holding off when your car has software issues.
 
#11 ·
Possibly because :

1) There have been numerous update problems
2) I was waiting for the update process to settle down
3) Modules are taking a month to obtain from VW
4) VW - don’t seem to know what the underlying problem is
5) Some cars have been bricked for well over a month, I’m aware of one that’s over three months
6) ID3’s are often not available as loan cars
7) I just don’t want the hassle
 
#17 ·
I'm pretty sure you can 'brick' a £180k Taycan just as easily.

In the same way that you can leave a normal car immobilised by having a faulty sensor.

These are mechanical things and with all the best will in the world, they don't operate perfectly all the time.

Spare a thought for an airline that buys a £375m A350 which breaks down down route within 24 hours with a sensor issue and takes 3 days to have a new one sent half way across the world with an engineer to be replaced. Yes, in both circumstances a warranty comes into force, the airline might even get a little compensation as a penalty against Airbus but it won't cover lost operating costs or make up for the annoyance caused.

Just be pleased British Leyland aren't still operating... Those cars wouldn't last 5 years and were a whole load simpler.

And anyone who thinks that problems with cars are exclusive to VW, needs their head examing.
 
#20 ·
You would hope premium brands would have top notch standards in terms of hardware components purchased, software development (bought in or otherwise) and in particular testing processes.
Testing seems to have been in particular a significant problem for VW re the ID3 launch. I guess their inexperience with software development and roll out.
Hopefully, things are improving, lessons learned etc etc...
 
#21 ·
You would hope premium brands would have top notch standards in terms of hardware components purchased, software development (bought in or otherwise) and in particular testing processes.
Testing seems to have been in particular a significant problem for VW re the ID3 launch. I guess their inexperience with software development and roll out.
Hopefully, things are improving, lessons learned etc etc...
After having spent some time poking around mine, the hardware/mechanical side of things seems the usual VW, that is to say average. That’s not meant as an insult to VW, it’s just that I think just about all European cars (the only ones I have experience of) are very good as well.

Software wise, I can’t comment with any real knowledge as I don’t know anything about it other than as a user, but certainly what they’ve done seems to mostly work. Sorry to mention Tesla again, but our new M3 mostly works too, but the main screen still freezes occasionally and requires a reboot and keyless entry is a lottery. It’s not perfect, but I guess the simpler the car and its software, the more likely it is to work without obvious fault.

I don’t think VW would have launched the ID.3 in the middle of a pandemic unless they had to, and it has undoubtedly led to a slower response in solving the early problems with what is for VW a very new approach to car software and integration.

I think they’ve done ok considering the situation, just like I want Tesla to carry on disrupting the car market, I want VW to succeed in their ambitious plan to move from ICE to Electric. If they can’t do it, it’s hardly going to encourage anybody else to give it a go.

2 or 3 EVs in an otherwise ICE based model range isn’t going to cut it, but at least VW seem to be all in on their direction of travel.
 
#22 ·
I was listening to a Fully Charged Podcast featuring Alex Voigt the other day and he was talking about the problems with the German automotive industry in general and specifically the VW ID3 rushing out the software. There were two schools of thought, the Engineers wanted to scrap the software and start again from scratch as their were too many bugs, the Managers didn't want anymore delays. I think you can guess who won the argument :)

There are lots more interesting insights into the troubles the mainstream automotive industry is having with EV's but software does not seem to be their strong point yet. I'm sure they will sort it out one day and when that day comes I might trade my cheap French EV in for an expensive German one :)

 
#24 ·
The VW issues aren't just the ID.3. The Autotrader review of the new Golf R had problems with software as well. Carplay didn't work wirelessly on that either. I don't think the issues are to do with electric car specific software entirely. It seems to be car software which is a worry as VW is a car manufacturer and has been for a while so should really have better development processes to deal with problems.
 
#25 ·
True! My Golf mk8 courtesy car was shocking! It did have wireless CarPlay, but the audio stuttering was even worse with that. It was so bad that I had to turn off voice prompts for the navigation entirely because every time Siri tried to give me a driving direction at the same time as music was playing the whole thing totally fell apart... haha
 
#28 · (Edited)
There is a big of difference between a faulty sensor that needs replacing and a software update that takes the vehicle out entirely for weeks or months requiring a loan vehicle.

This is the first first time I have heard of something like this with an EV. Updating your mobile phone firmware maybe but a car costing this much its clearly not acceptable.

I haven't heard of issues like this with other brands, Tesla, Nissan, Kia etc

In fairness the head unit and software side of German cars has always been quite backwards and antiquated.

They do mechanical engineering well but the software side always seems terrible . The head unit on my 18 plate eclass estate feels like it's from a car 10 years ago. So not that surprising I suppose.

Its pretty obvious the software was not up to scratch from launch with the ID3. It's not just it is unstable it's all the missing stuff like charge timer etc.

How can a brand new car be missing key functionality like this at launch that early EVs had 10 years ago !

It's a shame because it's a nice looking car. Hopefully VW can get their act together. Be interesting to see how the batteries last in the German cars. The software is obviously crucial for battery management.
 
#29 ·
There is a big of difference between a faulty sensor that needs replacing and a software update that takes the vehicle out entirely for weeks or months requiring a loan vehicle.

This is the first first time I have heard of something like this with an EV. Updating your mobile phone firmware maybe but a car costing this much its clearly not acceptable.

I haven't heard of issues like this with other brands, Tesla, Nissan, Kia etc

In fairness the head unit and software side of German cars has always been quite backwards and antiquated.

They do mechanical engineering well but the software side always seems terrible . The head unit on my 18 plate eclass estate feels like it's from a car 10 years ago. So not that surprising I suppose.

Its pretty obvious the software was not up to scratch from launch with the ID3. It's not just it is unstable it's all the missing stuff like charge timer etc.

How can a brand new car be missing key functionality like this at launch that early EVs had 10 years ago !

It's a shame because it's a nice looking car. Hopefully VW can get their act together. Be interesting to see how the batteries last in the German cars. The software is obviously crucial for battery management.
You keep mentioning the price, but it’s not ok at any price.

But anyway, 2.1 software sorts the vast majority of issues, and my own car is good now, not that it was bad before either.

Charge timers work ok for me, but then I’m on a 24/7 flat tariff, so no 3rd party interface getting in the way.

The software is clearly skewed towards looking after the battery first and foremost, hence the short winter trip journey getting poor efficiency results as it heats the battery.
 
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