You Couldn’t Pay Me To Drive A Volkswagen Until I Saw This Thing In Bondi

If Rolex is the Audi of watches, then Tudor is Volkswagen — the so-called people’s brand. Solid, practical, occasionally surprising, but rarely the thing you actually lust after. That’s been Volkswagen’s problem for the better part of two decades. Sure, they’ve made reliable cars. But exciting? Aspirational? Not since the Kombi and the original Golf GTI had their moments in the sun.

For years, the VW badge has meant safe, sensible, and uninspired: vanilla SUVs, beige hatches, and the reanimated ghost of the Kombi dressed up in corporate camouflage. You couldn’t pay me to drive one; people have tried.

But today in Bondi, something changed.

Parked near the lads at Vrtus, like it had just time-travelled from a better-designed future was a vehicle that made me stop mid-coffee sip: the Volkswagen ID.Buzz. Fully electric, retro-futuristic, and dipped in a two-tone colour scheme that screams road trip and oat milk lattes. It’s the Kombi reborn — and, for once, VW actually nailed it.

I first saw one earlier this year in Geneva during Watches & Wonders. It was parked confidently out the front of the Novotel like it had no idea it was in Switzerland. It looked like it had taken a wrong turn on the Pacific Coast Highway and ended up in the Alps. And yet, despite being tailor-made for California or Byron, I had not yet spotted it on Aussie streets. Ludicrous, I tells ya.

The ID.Buzz isn’t just a Kombi tribute. It’s what the Kombi would’ve become if it had been designed by someone who’s used an iPhone. The front is playful and symmetrical, the overhangs are short, and the badge is massive (as it should be). It looks like a Pixar character, in a good way.

The design language channels the spirit of the original Type 2 Microbus but strips out the nostalgia bloat. It’s modern, clean, and crucially, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Finally, a fun car that doesn’t look like it was cooked up in a German accounting office.

The ID.Buzz sits on VW’s modular electric drive matrix, the MEB platform, shared with the ID.3 and ID.4. That means it’s rear-wheel drive, just like the OG Kombi. At launch, it comes with a single rear-mounted electric motor delivering 150kW and 310Nm of torque, drawing power from a 77kWh battery.

Range? Around 423km (WLTP) if you’re driving like a normal human. And with DC fast charging, you can get from 5 to 80 percent in just over half an hour. Translation: it’s not just a pretty face.

Inside, it’s all about flexibility and feel-good vibes. Flat floors, sliding rear seats, and a 5-seat configuration that feels more like a lounge room than a van. A 7-seater long-wheelbase version is already on sale in Europe, and it’s likely coming to Australia soon.

There’s a 10-inch touchscreen running VW’s latest infotainment (still not perfect, but improving), wireless CarPlay, and all the usual EV toys regenerative braking, over-the-air updates, and app-based remote access. The Buzz Box removable centre console is a cheeky, useful touch. Even the ambient lighting feels fun rather than forced.

That’s the real head-scratcher. The Kombi’s cult following has been begging for a modern reinterpretation for years. And instead of leaning into that energy, Volkswagen gave us beige Tiguan after beige Tiguan. The ID.Buzz finally gives fans and buyers what they’ve been waiting for a stylish, functional EV with actual personality. Not just another badge-engineered people mover.

It’s the most universally liked Volkswagen since the first Golf GTI. Electric, practical, and genuinely cool. Now they need to price it reasonably in Australia, though let’s be honest, that’s about as likely as a Kombi outrunning a Tesla.

Even if you’re a cynical bastard (like me) who wouldn’t be caught dead in a van, the ID.Buzz forces you to reconsider. It’s the first new Volkswagen in twenty years that doesn’t feel like it’s apologising for something. And it’s the first car from the brand in recent memory that made me say out loud, I want one.

Just don’t expect me to wear hemp pants and start a kombucha brand.