When Volkswagen revealed the ID.Buzz two years in the past, the corporate offered it because the “rebirth of an icon” — that well-known silhouette, the VW Bus and with all its cultural clout, was lastly again. Now, although, Volkswagen has launched pricing for the revived bus, and it’s a departure from what made the Sort 2 nice.
The brand new ID.Buzz, in North American spec, begins at $59,995 for the bottom rear-wheel-drive Professional S trim. Consumers in search of all-wheel-drive might want to step up not simply to the Professional S Plus trim — $63,495 — however to the extra 4Motion possibility on high of that, which totals out to $67,995.
Again within the heyday of the unique Bus, 1967, it could possibly be had for simply $2,150 — the equal of $20,555 at this time. In equity, 1967 marked the finish of the T1’s run — by which level tooling might effectively have been paid off 0ff — nevertheless it’s an fascinating information level when contemplating accessibility. At present’s potential van-dwelling, tour-following hippies must shell out practically triple what their mother and father did. (In all probability value observing that a lot of the Useless followers I do know in 2024, whether or not they’re elder millennials or boomers, are fairly well-off. —ED)
However, evaluating MSRP to MSRP isn’t as apples to apples as you would possibly suppose. Common new automotive transaction costs have far outpaced inflation, which means it’s not likely honest to check the ID.Buzz’s value based mostly solely on the latter. In 1967, the average new-car transaction value was $3,215, which means {that a} Kombi value about 67 p.c of common. Current information places 2024’s common new automotive transaction value at $48,644, which means {that a} fashionable Bus would are available in round $32,530 — nonetheless barely over half what the ID.Buzz prices.
However even that doesn’t keep in mind higher financial components. The common family earnings of the U.S. in 1967 was $7,200, which means a T1 would value about 30 p.c of your mixed wage — name it 4 months’ pay, give or take. Estimates for 2024 common family earnings (we received’t get the agency information for a pair years) put the quantity at $78,171, which might put comparable ID.Buzz pricing at… $23,295? Wow. Early Volkswagen Busses have been low cost.
Really, the ID.Buzz’s greatest level of comparability could be the 1979 bus — the final yr of the T2 era within the U.S., by which period Volkswagen was charging a premium above common new-car transaction costs. A ‘79 Bus, based mostly on the identical common pricing math, would come out to simply beneath $52,000 at this time. That’s not egregiously removed from the brand new automotive’s $59,995 value, nevertheless it’s additionally in a distinct class the bus that Volkswagen is making an attempt to evoke, which is true of the remainder of the VW line as effectively.
VW desires the ID.Buzz to remind you of the unique Sort 2 bus, with its multicolored paint schemes that run down the van’s entrance finish, nevertheless it forgets an enormous motive why that previous bus turned such an icon: Individuals may truly purchase them. Hippies may get their fingers on a T1 for a good sufficient value, and the bus turned inextricable from their oh so recognizable aesthetic — firmly imprinting cultural clout on these 13 or 23 home windows. With the brand new bus, Volkswagen is cashing in on that clout to the tune of 60 grand, however meaning this new Bus received’t attain the identical heights of recognizability as the primary. At the least, not new out of the field. We’ll see how the used market treats it.
