New Volkswagen ID.3 GTX Fire & Ice review: plenty of purple but the price is a hurdle

Verdict

The Venn diagram of people that might actually want to buy the Volkswagen ID.3 GTX Fire & Ice consists of just two groups: those who know about the nineties special-edition Golf that inspired it, but which was never sold in the UK, and anyone who truly loves the colour purple to the extent they can happily live with purple wheels on their car. However, they’ll also need to be willing to spend £48k on an electric hot hatch which is fast, practical and comfortable, but not exciting. We wish VW all the best in finding these particular individuals. 

If you’re a Games of Thrones fanatic who came here thinking Volkswagen had made a hot hatch inspired by your favourite TV/book series, we’re sorry to disappoint you. However, if you’re a hardcore VW fan who remembers the Mk2 Golf Fire and Ice edition from 1990, congratulations you are in the right place!

Don’t worry if you’ve not heard of the Golf ‘Fire and Ice’ before because, while around 16,700 examples were made, it was never sold in Britain. The special edition was a collaboration between Volkswagen and the fashion designer Willy Bogner, whose namesake brand creates luxury sportswear.

Then in 2024, Volkswagen created a one-off ID.3 GTX Fire+Ice which sported a specially developed Electric Violet pearl-effect paint finish with glass beads that changed colour depending on the light, while the interior took a lot of inspiration from Bogner’s clothing collections. The best feature had to be the quilted centre section of the seats that was not only similar to Bogner’s Fire+Ice down jackets, they had a zip that when undone revealed the seat fabric used in the original car.

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So that means the new Volkswagen ID.3 GTX Fire & Ice you see here is a limited-edition production version of a tribute to a special-edition Golf from 1990. Confused? Don’t worry, so are we.

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Just 1,990 examples of this ultra-violet throwback will be made, and over here each one costs £48,360. That’s about £2k more than the standard ID.3 GTX, however, more eyebrow-raising than that is this car costs slightly more than the stupendous, Nurburgring record-setting Golf GTI Edition 50. It’s also more expensive than the rally-bred Toyota GR Yaris.

So what has Volkswagen done to justify that price tag? Well, it has a bespoke deep-purple metallic paint, which doesn’t have the same brilliant, eye-catching effect as the finish on the 2024 concept, plus geometric patterns on the C-pillars and purple 20-inch diamond-turned ‘Locarno’ alloy wheels. 

Other new styling cues include flame-red badging and accents along the sides, special puddle-light patterns and the original ‘Fire and Ice’ logo on the roof spoiler.

The interior plays into the fire-and-ice theme by giving the driver’s seat and the one behind Ice Blue stitching and accents, while the passenger-side seats get Flaming Red details. The same split of coloured stitching and logos continues on the floor mats, dashboard and doors. One interesting detail is the centre section of the seats has a zipper pattern, as a nod to the concept. 

These are all nice touches, but they don’t make the interior feel special. This is an issue with the standard GTX to be fair, which also lacks that cockpit-like feeling some people look for in a hot hatch.

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That’s because the ID.3 features a very low centre console; great for making the cabin feel spacious, but it doesn’t cocoon the driver as they tackle the twists and turns of British B-roads. It doesn’t help that the driving position feels quite high up, too, because the seat can’t be lowered that much.   

You’re also just surrounded by various shades of black trim and fabrics, plus the 12.9-inch touchscreen might look good but VW’s infotainment system is still quite laggy, difficult to navigate and there are no physical shortcut buttons. More disappointing, however, is the steering wheel still has annoying touch-sensitive buttons, not the proper physical ones that you get in a Golf and other VW products now. 

On the road, the GTX Fire & Ice edition feels as comfortable, capable but uninspiring to drive as the regular model. It’s certainly quick with the rear-mounted electric motor producing  321bhp and 545Nm of torque, allowing the hot hatch to go from 0-62mph in 5.7 seconds. Being rear-wheel drive not only means there’s no torque steer when you put the power down, and around tight corners you can feel the back of the car playfully pushing out.

Steering is direct and quick, which makes the VW feel more nimble than its circa-2,000kg kerbweight would suggest, but there’s no feedback through the wheel. Similarly, the brake pedal feels spongy and the GTX lacks any of the technology found in other performance EVs to make the driving experience more engaging, such as the virtual gearbox in the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N or the Star Trek-esque synthesised soundtrack in the Alpine A290. 

At least as a family car it’s pretty good. The cabin feels spacious, with room in the back for six-foot adults to sit comfortably and a 385-litre boot, plus even though there is a firm, sporty edge to the ride, it’s still fairly comfortable. 

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