There’s been some competition for the right to spend time with the Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer but Vans Editor and Deputy Head of the Digital Hub Tom Webster has won, for now. This means its first test is being thrown into family life with all its challenges.

My days of lusting over small two-seater sports cars are on hiatus, temporarily at least, and the vehicles that turn my head are somewhat different at the moment.

I suspect I’m not alone in this though, as much of this is down to my status as a parent of two small children that has a keen eye on how much goes out of my bank account each month. The Volkswagen ID.7 Tourer that I’m running at the moment is a vehicle that, on paper, ticks vast numbers of boxes for me.

It’s big – the 605 litre boot is only part of the story, as there is a huge amount of rear space and loads of cubbyholes that can keep items out of sight for security and to stop small passengers demanding them. It’s also got an impressive claimed electric range at 424 miles.

So far I haven’t seen anything close to that on the dashboard after a full charge, but it is creeping up through the mid 300s as the weather improves and the temperature rises. Even when it was cold it was showing around 285, which has enabled an early trip to Yorkshire and back with one fast top up, but the less time I can spend mucking about with apps and public chargers the better.

Finally, it’s got a level of comfort and equipment that makes me feel as though I’m not slumming it in order to transport my small brood. Those converted-van people carriers are fine in principle, but they do make you feel as though you are compromising in the interests of practicality.

Match up

My ID.7 is the Pro S Match trim, which means that it comes with a good level of kit. On initial assessment there isn’t really much that I’m missing, with one small exception and I recognise that I’m being spectacularly picky on that front. More on that later.

The highlights of the kit that it comes with include massaging front seats, a huge 15.0-inch touchscreen with wireless connection and phone charging, 19-inch alloy wheels and front and rear Isofix points. There are a few added extras on our car, too, including the Exterior Pack Plus.

This brings a huge electronically darkening panoramic sunroof, which appeals massively to everyone in the Webster household, especially those who travel in the back of the car. They probably also appreciate the sound insulating laminated safety glass in the back too, but just don’t realise it.

The one thing I’d sort of assumed it would come with is a motion sensor under the rear bumper that allows you to open the bootlid by waving your foot around under the back of the car. Thankfully I discovered that this wasn’t something that was fitted while on the privacy of my own driveway. This meant that only neighbours who happened to be peering out through their curtains were treated to the sight of me hopping around with an arm full of bags trying to kick the fresh air under my car. Still, putting one bag down to prod a button on the boot is no major deal.

Get up and go

What I absolutely adore about the ID.7, and several of its electric VW relations, is how simple it is to get in and start driving. You simply hop in, twist the gear selector into D and, well, that’s it. It’s the same when you finish too – pop it into P and get out and it takes care of the rest. It’s like it’s in permanent standby mode. I suspect it might take a little retraining of my brain to remember to turn a vehicle off again when I end up in other cars that don’t offer a similar setup.

It’s such a marked difference to the Genesis GV60 that I ran previously, which seemed to want various parts of my biometric data simply to turn on, let alone set the seat to the right position. In the VW I can reach in and hit my saved seating button as soon as I have opened the door and it is generally far enough back for me to fit by the time I have thrown my coat on the front passenger seat and slid in.

The only thing you have to do manually is adjust the rear-view mirror, but that is a universal element. I even appreciate how quick it is to turn off the irritating (but not intrusive) speed limit warning – you can set the driving assistance menu as a shortcut up the top of the screen, so it is two quick clicks and you can creep up to 21mph without being bonged at constantly.

The other time-saving little touch that I appreciate to a huge extent is the fact that you can touch any one of the four door handles to activate the central locking when you leave the car. So many cars only let you do so on the driver’s door, but that is rarely the last door that I shut when leaving a car, having had to help a small child out of a rear door. Having to walk all the way around from the rear passenger side to the front door, or to dig a key out of a pocket that also contains an afternoon’s worth of snacks is a pain when repeated several times a day.

These small time savers might not feel like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and they aren’t on their own necessarily. But they all add up to make for a more relaxing experience by removing things you have to think or worry about. It’s made for a really smooth onboarding process.