Forget The ID. Buzz, VW Already Can Make The Re-Born Microbus You Really Wanted

I’m not willing to give up on the VW ID. Buzz.

Well, that’s actually not entirely accurate. I’m happy to give up on the horribly-named Buzz in its current state, and it seems like Volkswagen is as well, at least for the 2026 model year. Personally, I don’t see it coming back in this form, but we all want to see a do-over. At the Autopian, we continually talk about what seems like the perfect solution to this conundrum that’s right under VW’s nose. Let’s explore how we might be able to make the New Bus that everyone really wanted all along. Well, not exactly what everyone wanted, but something far more usable.

Buzz Kill

“Highly anticipated” is often a kiss of death for any product. You anxiously await some Next Greatest Thing for ten or even twenty years, and expectations are way up there. Sure, there are occasions when the thing finally arrives, and you’re delighted, but all too often you’ll end up with the likes of a Godfather III Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy.

After the exciting and successful reboot of the Beetle in 1997, we were just waiting for a revival of the next-most-loved VW, the Type II Transporter “Bus.”

You can read through VW superfan Jason Torchinsky’s recounting of the sad tale here and here, but the idea of a modern VW Bus goes back almost a quarter of a century. After the gangbusters success of the New Beetle, we were all stoked to see the first of many revived Type II concepts at the turn of the century. This thing was paraded around endlessly, and then revised versions were presented to an anxious public. Naturally, we all had high hopes for this thing; finally, a minivan that was cool. The assumption was made that it might be affordable enough and economically powered by a Passat motor or something. When the finished product arrived, it indeed looked good, but the appearance was about where the excitement ended.

First, the new Bus got caught up in Volkswagen’s electric initiatives and became an EV-only proposition. The timing of the launch also coincided with a major drop in EV popularity as the public saw a freeze in the development of the charging infrastructure. Believe me, this new Bus would need that infrastructure. Our man Jason’s test vehicle could apparently only muster about 150 5o 160 miles between charges in warmish North Carolina, making it a bit of a non-starter as the road trip machine it appeared to be.

Things got worse from there. Here’s a minivan that can only seat seven with a bench seat in the middle row (no captain’s chairs) and, when fully loaded, stickered for around $70,000; a price point that could almost get you a “real” luxury car and not what appeared at first to be an affordable family van.

The rear doors only have small opening glass portals (which refused to work on the one I tried), and fit and finish don’t live up to that price tag. Even the “ID. Buzz” name is horrible, and when you see monochromatic white or black ones, it’s obvious that the two-tone paint jobs are doing a lot of the heavy lifting with the “fun” image.

Seriously, if it just looks “sort of like a VW Bus” or a “subtle visual tribute,” then it’s not going to accomplish what the buyers likely want. If it doesn’t look much like a retro Bus, even at a highly discounted $50,000 price, I’d rather just buy a likely far more reliable Odyssey or Sienna and be done with it.

I could go on, but why? The fact is that if even just one of the major faults had been fixed- the overall range or seating capacity or the selling price- we’d have had the winner we expected on our hands. Talking with Jason and based on the comments of our ever-active Slack, there’s a way to possibly fix both of those major problems and have The Bus We Want.

Ist das die Antwort?

Visiting a trade show in Germany last week, I was astonished to see virtually no examples of ID. Buzz prowling the streets of Düsseldorf in the home nation of this EV van. I did, however, see something else in essentially every street and parking lot.

It’s called the MultiVan, and it’s a front-wheel-drive continuation of the thing sold here briefly as the EuroVan some years back. Most of them are used for service work, but they’re also available as passenger vans and are often painted in two-tone schemes similar to the ID. Buzz. In fact, from the back at a distance, I can see a lot of people confusing them for a Buzz. It’s available as a gas- or diesel-powered model and even a plug-in hybrid with up to sixty miles of all-electric range, and all-wheel drive is offered as well. The hybrid doesn’t seem like a rocket ship, but you do have a combined 245 plus horsepower when the gas and two electric motors all kick in (that gas motor, by the way, is a 1.5-liter, so God only knows how fast it would be with more than 2 liters).

This is not a new subject. Here’s just one of a number of interactions on Slack regarding the MultiVan and the interest, at least on the editorial staff, of seeing it here:

Based on my quick research, the VW person was not wrong. A fully loaded all-wheel drive MultiVan can sticker for as much as $80,000 in Germany; that’s a big chunk of change. However, there are less expensive MultiVan models, and it is a bit of a stretch to call that MultiVan “too expensive” when VW is selling the ID. Buzz with only under 200 miles of realistic range for similar money. At least a $70,000 to $80,000 MultiVan would be a real road tripping machine and rival the seating layout of high-end people carriers like Escalades and Grand Wagoneers.

Yes, I know that a $60,000 plus MultiVan-based New Bus would upset people like Jason, who wanted this new Bus to be a rather affordable minivan for everyone, but I don’t think “affordable” and certainly not “cheap” is ever going to be possible with a German-built car now. Honestly, I’m surprised that Jason didn’t point out that it hasn’t been the case for decades. Don’t forget that the VW Bus and later Vanagon were hardly “affordable” propositions by the mid-seventies and only got worse from there.

For example, a brand-new VW Bus in 1976 stickered for a little under $6000, a price that could have gotten you an American luxury car like an Oldsmobile 98 or Pontiac Bonneville. Later, a still-slow 1988 Vanagon Syncro priced out at around $24,000, or about the same as a BMW 3-series coupe. Hell, for that price you could have bought something like a loaded 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis Colony Park top-of-the-line station wagon and had enough left over for a nearly-new Yugo. As with those older Buses, it seems like any New Bus will sadly be more of a high-end “boutique” product than an everyman machine, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be good.

Let’s use a new MultiVan for our New Bus, which we will absolutely call the “New Bus,” dammit, and not some stupid series of letters followed by a pointless name.

‘Bussin Van

Now, I’m not sure how well you know our Jason Torchinsky, but he rarely does things the easy way, and he sort of expects the rest of us to do the same thing. When I mentioned to him the idea of turning a MultiVan into a New Bus, he was as happy as a pig in what comes out of a pig. Of course, I knew I wasn’t going to get off so easy. Check out this Slack message:

Oh, crap. So basically, he’s letting me change anything non-sheet-metal that bolts on, but the rest needs to remain. Why? Well, I didn’t ask since there would be no point in doing so, but my assumption is to prove to VW how bog simple it would be to make something they already have into something that we all really want. Also, I’m assuming that to meet Federal safety regulations, the front and rear bumpers/fascias would have to be altered (among other things) anyway.

I figured that I might as well start with the all-black MultiVan that I saw in the parking lot of the trade show I was at last week, since you simply can’t get too much more un-Bus like than such a somber color scheme. Also, if it can’t look like a “New Bus” without the two-tone, then it’s not really a retro bus in my book.

Below is a rough proof of concept Photoshop of the front. I used headlamps from the last A5 Beetle and made small turn signals above, as on pre-1968 transporters. The cut line on the side of the MultiVan (that hides the door glides in back) will be molded into the new face panel and sweep just like the arc on those iconic early Buses. A giant emblem will live in the center and possibly overlap (and be attached to) the unchanged sheet metal hood. Unlike the chrome outline Beastie Boys jewelry logo on the original buses, I’ll keep a new one in a black circle to hide things like cameras.

In back, the MultiVan looks very similar to the Buzz, and those horizontal taillights are doing nothing to help the “Bus” look.

Again, very rough scribble, but I removed that “duck bill” rear spoiler that everyone uses now and then filled in the taillights with plastic bits. Replacing them would be thin-profile LED units that could almost surface mount on the rear sheet metal to simulate the lights on 1972-79 Buses. I tried doing something more like the early buses, but it just wasn’t happening. Note also the plastic simulated vents on the rear quarters to match the old guy. Maybe Jason was right: it sort of works without changing anything else.

Admittedly, it’s sort of goofy looking, but isn’t that a bit of the point? Let’s go full color and really pour on the Buss-iness. The fact that the MultiVan is already available in two-tone combinations to me means that it’s just aching for the Bus treatment. Let’s add the changes from the proof of concept to that one in a tasty orange.

Note the alloy wheels with chrome caps to simulate the old Bus rolling stock (parts bin spotters note that I used Maserati Bora wheels as a basis). The front is almost a bit Nissan Juke-like, which I don’t think is a bad thing considering the happy-looking product we’re trying to create.

Jason also liked the idea of graphics or plastic to add on the side glass to replicate individual windows and look even taller and Bus-like:

Here’s an animation of the changes:

Now the back: getting rid of that duck bill in back and replacing it with a more rounded tailgate top helps to simulate the “Bus” look better regardless of what aerodynamic or functional purposes the EuroVan’s “fin” provides.

I’ve animated those changes again for you to see:

The final product has a bit of Mitsuoka silliness to it, but “silliness” and “fun” are things sorely lacking in today’s automobiles, so I don’t really see it as a negative.

Two Outta Three Ain’t Bad

No, we didn’t accomplish all of Jason’s goals. A MultiVan-based Bus would have the cargo room and passenger layout/capacity that the ID. Buzz lacks. The sixty-mile all-electric range would be perfect for almost all of your local jaunts, and you’ll never have to sit at charging stations every two hours or so like on the current Buzz. It would look even more like the transporter we all know and love.

Sadly, even base models would likely cost as much, if not more than, top-of-the-line Japanese or Korean vans, and at $70,000, plus the loaded ones would still be unattainable by the average Joe. Honestly, we’re dreaming if we think a large German-built automobile is ever going to be “affordable” again in the United States. Still, even at that rather steep price, the MultiVan-based Bus would be a good value for what you’d get, and I could see it selling far better than the Buzz could ever dream of.

Besides, a $75,000 plug-in hybrid Bus? Three or four years from now, when they come off of lease, you know what Autopians like you and me would be scouring for online during lunch, right?

Top graphic base image: Volkswagen