Finding my ID.3

6th June 2025

Buying this car was a treat. There was nothing wrong with my previous car, a 7½ year old Volkswagen GTE plug-in hybrid. That was a great car. It looked great, was really nice to drive, was quick and efficient. The only problem was I loved driving it in EV-mode, but it's small HV battery realistically could only provide about 15 miles of range, less if it was cold and I wanted the heating on!

I also thought about my typical car usage and it rarely involved trips over 200 miles in length. Being a home-owner with off-street parking, I would be able to do most of my charging at home and mainly only at off-peak rates. Only occasionally would I need to use public rapid-chargers.

Also, whilst there was nothing wrong with my GTE, I couldn't help being a little bit worried when I looked under its bonnet. There was a lot of stuff in there which could go wrong. You effectively had two different drivetrains which needed maintaining. Of the two, an EV's drivetrain is so much simpler. You effectively have just a motor and a HV battery. From an engineering perspective, that seemed a lot more sensible.

Which EV?

I definately only wanted an EV which had been designed from scratch as an EV rather than one which had originally started off having an ICE and was adapted into an EV. I believed this allowed such EVs to be designed from a blank sheet of paper rather than needing to fit within the constraints of the original car. I wanted an EV with no-compromises.

I initially researched the BMW i3. I was attracted by their innovative design and the interesting option of a range extender (a small petrol engine fitted under the boot which could indefinitely extend the car's range should the HV battery run out of charge). However, I quickly decided I didn't need nor want a range extender because it might compromise the full-EV experience. The i3 was also a bit small and this limited the HV battery size and consequently, their range. I also wasn't sure I wanted a premium brand such as BMW and so I moved on to considering the Tesla Model 3. These have a great reputation for design and efficiency and have been around a while and so are good second-hand buys. However, the main reason I decided against buying one was it was a bit too big and mainly because it wasn't a hatchback which I prefer.

I then started considering the Volkswagen ID.3. My previous 3 cars have been Volkswagen Golfs, my GTE effectively a plug-in hybrid Golf. I like the Volkswagen brand, I think their cars are well designed, practical and not ostentatious. Golfs are a good size for me and also, are relatively easy to get a fridge, wheelbarrow or bike in the back with the seats down. The ID.3 is effectively an electric Golf. Whilst externally it is almost the same size as a Golf (just a bit taller), its longer wheelbase means it has more interior space. A benefit of the bottom-up EV design. The ID.3 has been around since 2020 so there are lots of cars available to buy second-hand. If I'm honest, when the ID.3 first launched, I wasn't sure I liked the look of it, particularly at the front. However, over time, it had grown on me.

Which ID.3?

I searched for a suitable ID.3 using Auto Trader. I'd bought my previous 3 cars using them. They cover so much of the used-car market with cars on sale from private sellers, independent garages, car supermarkets and franchised Volkswagen dealers. They provide so much information about each car you learn almost everything you need to know about the car before you go see it.

I began looking at the different power outputs and models of ID.3. I quickly decided that I didn't want cars with the smaller 45 kWh battery. I didn't think they would have enough range for me. I didn't want cars with the larger 77 kWh battery either because: i) I didn't think I needed the longer range ii) The car would always be less efficient because of the heavier battery, and iii) ID.3s with this size battery only had 4 seats! I wanted a 5 seater.

As for which model of ID.3, I quickly focused in on "Family". All UK ID.3 models have impressive specs but Family models have all the options I wanted to make me feel like I had got value for money.

Finally, which colour? Whenever I've bought a second-hand car in the past, a car's colour was never something which would prevent me from buying it if everything else was ok. This time however, I was a little bit more picky. I was a bit disappointed by the range of colours available. The most popular colour appeared to be Moonstone Grey. This is a mid-grey that I didn't dislike but this colour only seemed to have appeared from about 2018 and I was worried it might suddenly go out of fashion and date the car. So I decided against this colour. I wasn't a fan of the Stonewashed Blue colour - it looked a bit too... "wishy-washy" to me. There weren't many silver ID.3s but I didn't mind as I didn't particularily like that colour either. There were a few Makena Turquoise cars but I found this colour a bit too bright. My previous car, my GTE was white and whilst it looked great when clean, it was hard to keep looking like that. I promised myself I would never buy another white car. Also, white ID.3s with the black bonnet tops and hatches, looked to me like a taxi in Rome, Italy! That put me off Glacier White ID.3s. I've never been attracted to owning a black car. In my mind I always associated them with either hearses, taxi's or cars driven around by gangsters! But when a friend suggested black I began to look a bit more closely at black ID.3s and quickly realised, they looked ok. They weren't actually black anyway but rather a dark grey metallic called Manganese Grey. One bonus was they disguised quite well the black plastic bonnet top and hatch. So black, or rather Manganese Grey became my preferred colour.

The majority of ID.3s I saw for sale had the Pro Performance, 150 kW/202 bhp motor output which can do 0-62mph in 7.3 seconds. This was a little quicker than my GTE. However, I knew I rarely used full power in my GTE and thought it unlikely this would change when I had an ID.3. So I began to think about buying an ID.3 with the lower-output Pro motor with an output of 107 kW/143 bhp. Initially I thought the lower-powered Pro motor would be a different motor and therefore perhaps wear more quickly than the larger-output Pro Performance. However, when I read that the Pro and Pro Performance motors are the same, with the Pro just having it's output reduced by software, I knew this should not be an issue.

I had a test drive in a Pro Performance Family and it was very nice. However, when I went to test drive an ID.3 with the lower-output Pro motor, it wasn't as quick, but it was fine for me. It was also a Family model and was Manganese Grey and so I ended up putting a deposit down on it. I had my ID.3 :-)

If you have any requests or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.