GTX

Nice to drive, but overall terrible. Potential candidate for worst car ever?

My Buzz GTX died after 4 days and took VW 69 days to fix it. Not ideal, but all new cars have niggles, although this was serious and needed a new motor. Even so, that's not the worst thing about the Buzz.

Good things:
Nice to drive (like ANY EV) its quick, quiet and handles well
Sliding doors
It has a lot of space - no surprise there (even then its not that well designed so to get a dog in the back you need to remove a chair, and probably the shelf and the storage)

Bad things: (in a nutshell, almost EVERYTHING else)
Terrible user interface where illuminated buttons (On on all buttons & switches in the world) is OFF, yes, you need to think everytime you use the screen "on is off". An example, the climate screen has two big buttons for "smart" and one for the fan. One is white the other is black. Which is on and which is off. Engage VW brain and think "on is off" therefore the white one is OFF. Mental. This may not sound like too much of an issue, but it really is stressful and has a high cognitive load while your driving just to do simple things. "Max AC" is actually "Max Cooling". The icons for the radio stations range in size from a stamp to my palm, and waste so much space. I am able to add multiple favorites of the same station. Why? The map shows adverts. I was near Aldi and a popup said the same. There are so many other screens that are nonsensical but you get the gist.

The gears go up on a twist through R->N->D but then to switch between regen and no-regen you flip to switch up a gear to flip between them (so moving between D and B is always a twist in the same direction). Surely it would make more sense to go up to B (Battery-regen) and then down to R like R->N->D->B like a bicycle derailleur?

Only one level of regen, which is very weak. Zooming up to a motorway off ramp using "B" (regen) you almost certainly need to use the brake pedal. What a waste of energy (literally).

GTX has a hard suspension which crashes over speed bumps, even in comfort mode. Everything jolts & shakes, your back, your passengers and all the hard plastics.

Unbelievably, the HUD and mirrors are NOT saved with your profile. if I switch between myself & driver 2, the seats move, but EVERYTIME the HUD and mirrors need to be adjusted.

The HUD does not show some of the signs which the steering wheel display is showing such as school zones and cross roads. Am I supposed to look at that and not the road?

Lots of hard plastic which resonates at 1/3 or higher volume.

Subwoofer lacks depth.

No pull handles to get into the cab. My elderly relative couldn't get in without my pushing on their bum, there was nothing to grab.

There are some buttons beside the steering wheel by your knees. You cant see them when holding the steering wheel, your wrist obscures the view. They work headlights and heater elements, but there is also unrelated anti-fog on the main screen as well? Which one should you choose? The buttons are also touch buttons like a TV from the 1980's and often pickup your finger as it approaches by getting brighter, then selecting the wrong button. Garbage!

There's only 2 window switches even if you have 4 windows. The buttons for those and the mirrors and door locks are, you guessed it, stupid touch buttons which need 5 touches to get them to work.

The glass roof is binary, so its clear or obscure. Frustratingly the button is a slider, which needs multiple swipes to get it to work. Why?

My foot presses on the wheel arch when accelerating, and my shoes are only size 10 UK. Not a problem for left hand drive, but shows lack of care by VW. Massive wheels = style over substance I guess.

Oh, by the way the range is mediocre as you probably have read elsewhere. Moving into 2026 there are similar competitors coming to market from Kia, BYD and others. I expect they will kill the Buzz off, it's just so bad, except to drive.

You can ell that VW has a culture problem. I cannot accept that sensible engineers and focus groups all agreed that the way that the User Interface and buttons have been designed was a good idea. Its just insanity and to be avoided.

Report as offensive