Moby Dick Leaves for New Adventures

Dismal Wizard gets the new car itch every 7 years or so. In 2023, it struck early. It’s a long story. In 2021, on faith, sight unseen, DW ordered a new VW ID.4 expecting Volkswagen to have its electric vehicle act together following the Diesel scandal. In December, he took delivery. In April 2023, the car was a participant in a mishap on Independence Boulevard in Virginia Beach. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men took 14 months to mend the ID.4. Five months on, DW was getting sick of rental payments to Enterprise for a Nissan Versa sedan, a mean little thing. Realizing he was giving Enterprise a car payment each month, he decided to turn a rental payment into an actual car payment.

I’m a retired engineer which can make me a harsh critic of other’s work. As you read this tale of two vehicles, please keep some things in mind.

• My local dealer properly mended my ID.4 and that I was pleased with all aspects of their work except its timeliness.
• The ID.4 is an OK BEV
• Volkswagen still designs and builds a quality vehicle.
• The ID.4 is a serviceable family hauler.
• The ID.4 is not my taste.

References

1. https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/dieselgate-timeline-car-emissions-fraud-scandal-germany Clean Energy Wire writers summarize the German Federal Republic’s investigation into collusion among German auto makers to limit the size of the Ad Blue additive tank on Diesel models.
2. https://youtu.be/TOEbs2SzYBo?si=nOnFYp5jEgYfbmRB, Betrayed! How German Auto Lost Their Engineering Soul and Lied to Fans, Customers and their Heritage, YouTube channel “Connecting the Dots”, based on reporting in German Magazine Der Spiegel.
3. https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-cartel-collusion-between-germany-s-biggest-carmakers-a-1159471.html, The original Der Spiegel article.
4. https://youtu.be/Y5TvFY7xRDM CNN video summarizing the scandal.
5. https://media.vw.com/en-us/releases/1668 , 2019 VW decision to commit to product electrification
6. https://recurrentauto.com/ Used battery electric vehicle battery health assessment.
7. https://recharged.com/ Nationwide buying and selling of used battery electric vehicles to broaden the market for electric vehicles. Helps with all aspects of acquiring a used BEV.

Diesel-gate

This story has its origins in collusion across the German automobile industry that no OEM would introduce a product feature not easily replicated by the others, ie, that they would not compete on innovation. This included the introduction of Diesel emission controls, that no company would do it better than the others. References [1-3] tell this story. In short, Mercedes took the lead on urea injection into the exhaust to control nitrogen oxides. The others followed along. But where to put the Ad Blue reagent tank and how big to size it. The manufacturers conspired with the tier one supplier on tank size and shape.

Then the US regulator wanted each vehicle to bunker 10,000 miles of additive. But the tank was already sized below that volume for 2 liter motors. What to do? Then someone had the bright idea of injecting additive at a rate that would make the tank last 10,000 miles, well below the rate needed for compliant NOx emissions.

Because emissions were tested in the lab but not while the vehicle was on the road, it was easy to program the ECU to inject the proper amount during emissions testing and a lesser amount to meet the 10,000 mile road requirement. The OEMs felt it unlikely that they would get caught.

Then an engineering student needed a thesis project. Why not measure vehicle emissions on the road? It turned out to be possible to mount the needed instruments on a hitch mounted pallet. He did. He tested a VW diesel. The German makes got caught and the press picked up the story from the school.

VW Must Make Amends

VW was suddenly caught with thousands of non-compliant vehicles in inventory and held by its dealers in North America and the European Union. They also needed a PR campaign to get well. After several chief executive changes, VW settled on an accelerated commitment to electrification of its products which it announced in 2019. In this way, they would satisfy the regulators and repair their image.

VW had been making BEV’s for some time as halo vehicles in the Audi product line. It called these eTrons. Most were sedans but they also experimented with a sports variant. This history suggested VW was well experienced in electrification and VW had a history of excellent driving dynamics, good interiors, and solid vehicles.

At that point my GTI was 4 years old and would be around trading age when the new VW electric vehicles entered the market in 2020 or 2021 or so. So when ID.4 was announced, I decided that I would get in the queue for an AWD ID.4. I took delivery in December 2021 after a 6+ month wait.

VW Swings and Misses

It turned out that although VW had been trialing battery electric vehicles for some time, they were no match for specialist manufacturer Tesla. And I really wanted the smaller ID.3. VW decided to bring its larger ID.4 to North America and that we would not buy the smaller car. After all, we did not buy the Golf other than the hot hatch version. So no ID.3 for us. Just the larger ID.4

ID.4 is so last century. It’s a nice car. It’s very much a VW. Well built, comfortable cabin. Nice cabin materials. Good driving manners mostly.

But it was a not so great an electric vehicle. Engineering-wise, many features were incomplete and it lacked features that the upstart had taught us to expect. Features like

• Over the air software updates
• Plug and charge at paid public charging
• Scheduled charging
• Car wash mode
• Dog mode
• One pedal driving in which the car comes to a stop when the accelerator is released.

And some features that were there were rough.

• Traction control and stability control would actuate under routine conditions on tight, banked, low speed bends.
• The window controls were stupid. Two levers to raise and lower a left window and a right window and a toggle button to choose whether the fronts or the rears would move. The button was capacitive. A brush would cause it to toggle. You had to look at it.
• The mirror control, once upon a time, was a friendly stateful gumdrop that selected the left mirror, no mirrors, or the right mirror and it served as a joy stick to tilt and pan the mirror. VW kept the appearance of the control but made it stateless. The computer had to count interrupts to select a mirror. The same control also activated mirror deicing and mirror folding for the car wash. And the driver lost the bubble and control of the mirrors. Maddening.
• The view from the driving position was straight out of the 1950’s. It was difficult to judge where the car was in the lane, whether it was clear of parked parked cars, and if it would fit between cars parked on opposite sides of the road. This was really my worst gripe.
• The drive control was prone to mis-operation. It was a stubby stalk with a twist knob for the gears and a button at the end for engaging the parking brake.
• The car creeped like a 60’s slush box on fast idle. Foot off the brake holding was not implemented.
• It was a pain to set up the car for the carwash. The vehicle had to be told to roll, the mirrors folded, the auto washers secured, etc.

Then there was a mishap

In April 2022, I was driving northbound on Independence Boulevard near the North Hampton Avenue ramp. An EMS vehicle was over taking us. I rolled into the right lane. The two boneheads in front decided that they would stop, turning right to foul both the travel lane and the North Hampton exit ramp. I slowed to stop to avoid them. That put me on the path of the EMS vehicle attempting to enter the exit lane.

The VW received a pretty good thump on the left side of the hatch. The hatch was badly bent, also the left quarter, and the bumper elements. Underneath, there was body in white damage that would also need repaired. And the HV isolation was triggered. So the vehicle was dead in the water and had to be towed from the scene. I had it taken to the local VW dealer collision shop. Nine months later, the shop would get the HV isolators allowing work to commence.

Replacement Rental

During this period, my insurance paid $900 toward a replacement rental from Enterprise. That allowance lasted about 45 days. Then I was out of pocket.

For the indeterminant future as VW had no HV isolators. All the while they were screwing together ID.4s at 3 locations worldwide and every VW ID used that same isolator (apparently, but not necessarily, it would turn out).

Anyway, in late 2023, VW found isolators and began work on the car. It would take them another 6 months to finish repairs as every time they tried to put the car back together, something would not fit and they would have to replace another bit of the body in white (the car under the skin).

In September, I spoke with VW Cares. They commiserated with me at length but would not answer simple questions like why were there no HV isolators? When will they be back in stock? When can I have my car back mended? What has gone wrong?

After this conversation, I realized how totally screwed up VW was. Logistics was completely out of control. Apparently, they had created a nightmare parts incompatibility problem as they has tried to adapt parts from earlier vehicle designs to work on newer vehicle designs. After ID.3 and ID.4 came ID.5, ID.6, and ID.7, all MEB platform vehicles that supposedly shared drive components and control units. In reality, they had been tinkering with the control messages that components exchanged making newer components incompatible with earlier versions. The tip was that the SKU (stock keeping unit code) for the HV isolators kept changing revision number.

It looked like I would be paying Enterprise $750 or so out of pocket each month and paying the ID.4 loan. If I had a car payment going out the door anyway, I’d buy a car and sell the ID.4. The Nissan Versa sedan was just a mean joyless little thing.

Tesla Comes to Norfolk

And Tesla was just down the road at the intersection of Military Highway and Little Creek Road less that 3 miles from my door. So I dropped by, tape measure in hand, to check out the Model Y. Rocky would fit. The Model Y would fit in the car port. It was about the same length and width as the ID.4. The mirrors were not an interference fit with the carport columns. So I scheduled a test drive and checked out colors.

I’ve reported on the test drive earlier. On the test drive, I tried all the control things that gave me heartburn with the ID.4.

• Timed charging, check.
• Mirror positioning, check.
• Dog mode, check. Tesla invented it.
• Car wash mode, check. Tesla invented it.
• One pedal driving, check. Tesla nailed it.
• Comfortable seats, check.
• Comfortable driving position, check.

And it moved like a BMW. Very agile. Very quick. So I ordered one. A week later, it was here.

Perceived Safety Decided Me

In use, several things troubled me about the ID.4 The killer was that VW had difficulty repairing them expeditiously. But there was more.

• I really didn’t like the view from the driving position or feel confident taking the car into a tight space.
• It was hard to park. Reverse drive tuning made reversing into parking awkward to manage. It wanted to run away or roll down a hill. So 60’s. Backing into the drive and carport was an exercise in embarassment.
• I was selecting the wrong gear fairly often. There are only 2, forwards and backwards so that is a big deal.
• The ESC would trigger on dry roads having complex curves.
• The view aft is poor. Blind spot warnings are primitive. Even with the huge mirrors, lane changes were a bit white knuckle.
• There is no parking view. The sonar can’t show what is at hazard, only distance to go to a hazard.
• No Marco Polo button on the key fob. You have to declare your forgetfulness to the whole carpark using the alarm button.

Tesla Deligts

The Tesla Model Y is full of little things that are nicer than they have to be. There was really no question about which to keep.

• The controls on the wheel are genius. Turn signals and headlight flash on the left stalk. A button on the end triggers a windscreen wash cycle. During windscreen wash, the left roller adjusts wiper speed.
• Drive direction on the right stalk. Parking brake on the end. The right stalk also engages AutoPilot. Down to engage, up to cancel.
• The buttons on the wheel are also simple. The left cluster controls the infotainment and phone. The left roller sets audio level.
• The right set works with AutoPilot to set the following distance and the roller sets speed. And that’s it. Not the bewildering mess found on the ID.4 and cousins.
• The entry system is genius. The Tesla phone app acts as your key. When you approach a door, it unlocks. You can pick just driver door, all on driver’s side, or all on vehicle. And there is a Marco Polo button. Two, one to honk and one to flash.
• The lock sound can be set. The traditional horn beep is standard. A goose honk is optional as are several others.
• Timed charing is simple. You just set a global commence charging time
• Charge on night rate is simple. You set the car to finish charging before the rate change time.
• Magnets hold the sun visors on the centerline. There is no clip to wear out.
• The cargo blind is secured by magnets. It is folded as a tambour door and drops into a space behind the rear seat to load and unload. The cover can be stored in the vehicle. It will fit under the load floor with some thought. Or under the dog’s mat.
• The center display works brilliantly. Autopilot situational awareness on the left, navigation to the right. And a huge view for reversing. All cameras are crisp and contrasty and fisheye corrected.
• The one pedal stopping appears to know where the vehicle ahead is and where the stop line is. At least, it gives that impression.
• One pedal slow down is easily modulated with the accelerator.
• The climate control is automatic. It’s smart enough to defog the wind screen. There is dog mode, camp mode, and cabin overheat protection. And a 20% charge to go bingo on parked climate control.
• The heat pump is strong. Cabin cooling and heating is fast. The dash-width air plenum distributes conditioned air uniformly across the cabin. There’s no frigid air blowing on hands or feet in the summer.
• Automatic headlights work as expected. Light for signs is automatic without putting brights in the eyes of oncoming traffic.

Selling the ID.4

When I set out on this course of action back in September 2023, it was with some trepidation as the car market had become shambolic. Several forces were conspiring to bugger the market. The first was that

• The Federal Reserve had raised its interest rates forcing the private sector to follow along.
• Car makers had increased the complexity and cost of their vehicles to the point where the median car was unaffordable by more than half the market. Maybe only 1/3 of the market could afford a median priced vehicle.
• Hertz decided its BEV fleet purchases weren’t so hot and began paring inventory of underperforming vehicle models including Tesla and Polestar inventory.

Originally, I had planned to sell the ID.4 to one of CarMax or Carvana. But both were in trouble with overpriced inventory. The used market was in cardiac arrest by spring when it should have been firing on all cylinders.

By chance, a YouTuber I watch, Gjeebs, plugged Recurrent Auto which offered a battery monitoring service. Every week, they pull battery charge and discharge history from Tesla, do some modeling to estimate battery condition, and send you a report. Recurrent Auto’s rice bowl is producing these reports to sell to dealers selling used BEVs. So they have a stable of used BEV dealers. A sideline is lead referral. If you have a BEV to sell, they inform their dealers and introduce interested purchasers to the seller.

I met Recharged, Inc. through the Recurrent Auto service. Recharged made an offer consistent with Kelly Blue Book and Recurrent Auto’s recommended private to dealer selling range. I accepted. We did the paper work and Recharged deposited payment less loan payoff into savings as agreed. On Friday, they took possession of Moby Dick to find him a new home.