Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace 2.0 TDI 150
- More seats, more diesel...more good?
- Six is a crowd
- Am I wrong about this car?
- The (oil) burning question...
- Still the perfect family car?
- Big holiday airport trip success
- In defence of an unglamorous feature
- Remembering what we love about Big Volkswagen(s)
- The world's second best in-car infotainment system
- The perfect Tiguan...isn't even a Volkswagen
- Another VW SUV - this is getting baffling
- Goodbye Tiguan...we're off to the other extreme
More seats, more diesel...more good?
Our second Tiguan in quick succession is very different to the first. Is it the one to buy?
Date: 4 June 2018 | Current mileage: 3011 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.4mpg
So the MINI Countryman has gone and in its place outside my house is a car that’s roughly in the same genre. One family crossover for another.
Yet in execution the two couldn’t be more different. The Countryman was an eccentric petrol electric hybrid and, arguably, a ‘style first substance second’ sort of thing; the Tiguan is a diesel and about as perfunctorily sensible as family 4x4 type things come. The Countryman has a disco lights toggle; the Tiguan has a retractable tow bar.
This is, in fact, our second Tiguan long termer in quick succession. Despite that – and the fact I’ve made a video review about one – it turns out I never really understood Volkswagen’s crossover.
See, when I started planning a video review of the Volkswagen T-Roc recently, there I was thinking that the Tiguan was Volkswagen’s family crossover – you know, its answer to the Nissan Qashqai, Peugeot 3008, Ford Kuga etc. Its highly expensive answer, but its answer all the same.
A Volkswagen interior... *shrugs shoulders*
Then the T-Roc comes along, which is very nearly as spacious but of significantly lower quality, ostensibly at least, and ergo priced more closely to the aforementioned non-Volkswagens.
So what that makes the Tiguan is…I’m still not sure, to be honest. I’ll hopefully get to the bottom of that over the next few months.
As well as resolving in my own mind whether it really is as boring as I thought it was when I reviewed it. Perhaps a long-term stint with it will develop into…erm…beguilement of some description.
Our particular car, then. It’s a diesel (obviously) and it has DSG and, again, it has a tow bar. Caravan spec, basically. It’s also an Allspace, which means it has a slightly bigger boot than a non-Allspace Tiguan, in which there are two additional seats. Nice. We’ll talk about that lots too. Here we go then…
Six is a crowd
We all of a sudden need to take six people somewhere in our big Tiguan. Take that, five-seat crossovers!
Date: 18 June 2018 | Current mileage: 3452 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.8mpg
You may know that we’ve already had a Tiguan here at HJ, and very recently too. For those averse to clicking hypertext (or who just want to stay here), it was a very different proposition, spec wise: five seats, R Line trim, petrol.
The main question we’ll answer over the next few months is whether the Allspace version here – the seven-seat one, that is - is really worth the extra outlay. But of course, there are also a few other comparisons we can make: petrol or diesel, and is R-Line really worth it?
For now though, we’ve already had our first instance of the Allspace thing being useful. It went as follows…
So we’re doing a trip to the theatre for the boy’s 11th birthday (because we’re, like, totally cultured and that) and we’re due to pick up grandma. That would make five of us in the car. But when we get there, turns out granddad isn’t at work after all and he’s coming too. There’s been a mix-up. Classic.
Just as our Nicola begins to declare that we’ll have to go in two cars, the realisation that our Tiguan will, in fact, accommodate seven dawns on her. Booya.
Said rearmost seats. Excite.
Getting the seats...erm…there’s probably a better word than ‘erected’ but that’s what I’m going to go with…was easy. No problems there. Plus, kids always love sitting in the rearmost seats of a car – it’s the ‘back of the bus’ rule. So, grandma and granddad took the middle row. Everyone had enough space. Problem solved. And all it took was a couple of tugs on some little fabric hooks.
It was a textbook example of so-called ‘occasional seats’ getting occasional use and working brilliantly. However…
The parcel shelf. There was nowhere to put the parcel shelf, it seemed. We had stuff in the boot, see, and so what miniscule space was left after the rearmost seats were erected was immediately filled by that stuff and the parcel shelf wouldn’t fit. And the kids were getting bored. And the grandparents were stood on the street.
So we did what anyone would do: basically throw the parcel shelf into my in-laws’ garden. Where it stayed until being moved into the garage after our night out. Where it will stay until we remember to get it back.
A few days later I remembered this whole episode and had a look for a parcel shelf deployment space. And there is one. Of course there is. It’s under the little boot floor and above the spare wheel. Clever. So now I know. And so do you. Honestly, those Volkswagen people - it's as though they know what they're doing.
Am I wrong about this car?
The Tiguan seems to be an object of desire out on the road...but Mark's not feeling it.
Date: 2 July 2018 | Current mileage: 3752 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.2mpg
You know when you have an opinion that seems completely at odds with the general consensus? This happened to me the other week when I stopped watching I, Daniel Blake about an hour in, bored to tears. Terrible film. It played out like a Gateshead College second year film studies project, I thought.
Then I checked out its Metacritic page and discovered that it’s not only universally liked, but won a Palme d’Or. What do I know, eh?
So it is with the Tiguan, sort of. I do like it – I really like it – but I just don’t appear to hold it in the same esteem as other people do. Sure, I appreciate its fine build quality, its superb ergonomics, its ostensibly imperious engineering and, of course, its crossover style versatility. But I also find it a bit…well, boring. I see it in purely utilitarian terms, rather than something to be desired, you know?
But that view doesn’t seem to chime. When I tell people I’m running a Tiguan they tend to respond with a slightly wide eyed nod of approval. And once, when I was loading it up with stuff after the HJ Awards, I returned to find our website editor David engaged in conversation about it with two blokes. They were both very eager to learn about the Tiguan, and both admiring it keenly.
Is this badge worth £3,000? Not literally...over a SEAT, I mean.
The price of the thing – and the existence of the similarly sized T-Roc - suggests that Big Volkswagen, too, sees this as a premium and highly desirable product.
I mean, take a Tiguan and a SEAT Ateca with the same engine – the 150PS TSI petrol, say – and you’ll pay roughly £3,000 more for the Tiguan.
I think I’d rather save the money, to be honest. Mainly because the two feel very similar in terms of their size, build quality, ride and handling. Maybe I just don’t esteem the Volkswagen badge as highly as others do?
And, you know, none of this is to criticize the Tiguan itself, which is largely flawless. I just find this situation interesting. It’s not as though I’m calling it an amateur piece of work – an I, Volkswagen Tiguan. That would be a terrible car.
The (oil) burning question...
The Tiguan is of course available with petrols and diesels. We've run both here at HJ. So which is better?
Date: 16 July 2018 | Current mileage: 3911 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.4mpg
The Tiguan comes with the standard off-the-shelf melange of VW Group petrol and diesel engines. Obviously. But if I tell you there are three diesels and two petrols, you could probably have a decent guess at what they are. Go on…
The petrols are a 1.5 TSI with 150PS, a 2.0 TSI with 180, and the diesels all 2.0 litre, two with a single turbo and pushing out 150 or 190 horsepower, and a bi-turbo with 250. Did you guess correctly?
These engines are truly ubiquitous because you’ll find them in Volkswagens, Audis, Skodas and SEATs, and in each case in multiple models. The benefits for you, the consumer, are substantial. Not only does it mean a symbiotic multi-brand develpment cycle that ultimately brings quality up and your car price down - I know, I know - emissions scandal...but I'm making a point about something else here - but it also means an abundance of parts and expertise a few years down the line. For when, say, your DPF gets knackered.
But for me, the road tester, it means that every time I drive another mid-level VWG car my heart sinks a bit. Especially if it has the 2.0 TDI 150 that this Allspace has, which I’d hoped the emissions scandal would have killed off by now. (I’m half joking.)
As you can see above, in a car this big and heavy it’s not actually that efficient, despite performing admirably close to its claimed MPG. It’s also quite clattery. But its most egregious characteristic is lazy throttle response when linked – as our car’s is – to the seven-speed DSG. It’s a problem I had when running a SEAT Ateca with the same engine-gearbox combo, funnily enough.
It’s not the drivetrain I’d choose. I’d have the 1.5 TSI petrol every time. Front-wheel drive. Probably DSG still though – I’m a car journo brave/stupid enough to admit that I like automatics. The TSI is smoother, nicer to listen to and just more…interesting. And that particular car would cost a couple of grand less than this one (1.5 TSI SE Nav DSG: £31,115)
That’s a sentiment that the driver of our last Tiguan long-termer, our website editor David Ross, seems to agree with too. In this post here he posits that had the 1.5 been available when he ordered his, that’s what he’d have chosen. Funny thing is, faced with choosing between a 38mpg 2.0 petrol and a diesel, he still chose the former…
…and even after it returned 28mpg – performance car efficiency, pretty much – he still didn’t regret it.
I understand why. If you’re thinking about buying one of these you can do your own mathematics based on your particular finance minefield, but even with a 10mpg deficit it’ll take some serious mileage to claw back your additional diesel investment. And even if you do, I just don’t think the few quid you’ve saved is worth it.
Still the perfect family car?
Last July we asked whether our five-seat Tiguan was ‘the perfect family car’. If it wasn’t, then the seven seat one probably is.
Date: 30 July 2018 | Current mileage: 4150 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 40.8mpg
I call our Tiguan Allspace the ‘Allsaints’ for no other reason than it gives me an excuse to sing “TAKE ME TO YOUR BEEEAACH!”
Every time. But to be honest, if you are going on a family trip to the seaside, there are few cars more suited to it than the Tiguan Allspace. (I’m ashamed of how proud I am of this whole intro, frankly.)
The Tiguan we ran here last year was the five-seat model, which our David suggested might be the perfect family car:
“True it's not that exciting, but it's reassuring, relaxing and easy to drive. And for a family car that's exactly what I want.”
All Saints and Allspace: both great at taking you to a beach.
Sames, David. Sames. Running a Tiguan is a perpetual journalistic struggle because it’s just so effing perfect. The Allspace bit makes it even more so (logical fallacy accepted). For a start, the boot capacity goes up from 615 litres to 700, which to put into context is 50 litres more than a BMW X5 has.
It’s proper easy to load too, with a nice flat loading floor and an oblong shape that’s not too disfigured by encroaching suspension. Check out this ‘real world’ (read: terrible) phone snap of my boot as I type this. That’s a big cymbal bag. And that camo thing all the way back is a drumstick bag. And on the left, that’s a Dacia foam finger. The items aren't linked.
Plus, of course, there are the 6th and 7th seats folded into it, which are proving useful - we'll come to the specifics of how during the next update. And, as I’ve already mentioned, the clever way that the parcel shelf stows away under the boot floor is a great touch.
But more than that, what's mint about the Allspace is that during the day-do-day rigmarole everything just…works. Beautiful driving position, great visibility, loads of room, an infotainment system that works properly and intuitively, plenty of in-cabin storage, and lovely build quality. To quote a good friend, for a family car that’s exactly what I want.
Problem is, like most men of my age (38) with a young family, I’m still convincing myself I’m not a family-man-with-family-car type person. Somehow. Which is why every time someone asks “how’s your Tiguan?” I reply “it’s great, but…”
Then I shrug my shoulders and think about something more exciting. A sandwich, say. Or a massive foam hand.
Big holiday airport trip success
The Tiguan Allspace literally saved us a trip during holiday season. Seven-seat joy.
Date: 13 August 2018 | Current mileage: 4,365 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 40.9mpg
It was holiday season recently, which meant trips to the airport. Which meant Our Cars updates involving boots full of suitcases and 'this car is practical' type conclusions reached. Fair enough...but that's not quite what this is.
To set the scene, before I took up full-time employment with HJ I was a freelancer, working for such esteemed outlets as... never mind. Anyway, as any freelancer knows, summer holiday time poses a particular quandary because freelancers who go on holiday are freelancers who aren't working, and freelancers who aren't working are freelancers not getting paid.
Which is why I decided not to join my wife, kids and in-laws on holiday a few years back. That's 100 per cent the reason. Nothing to do with two weeks with my in-laws. (Just kidding, Mick and Hazel. I love you really.) I worked. I was lonely. I made money. Everyone enjoyed their holiday. No problem.
I guess it might look a bit odd that I chose not to go this year either, what with my employment status now affording me the luxury of paid annual leave. Nonetheless, despite being urged to join them I figured it would be nice for the in-laws to spend some time with their daughter and grandkids without me. They won't miss me. I'm pretty irritating. You may have seen my videos.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it's a very convolted way of explaining why I had to take them all to the airport recently, and how the Allspace came into its own. There were six of us plus cases, see, and we genuinely weren't sure whether it would work.
But work it did. The Allspace only has 230 litres of boot space with the rearmost seats up, which is less than a Porsche Boxster's, but by only using one of those seats, the Tiguan managed to swallow no less than four luggage cases, four rucksacks and six people.
Imagine this scene at an airport rather than a refuse disposal centre.
If I was a good car journalist I'd have taken a picture as evidence, but like most summer holiday trips to the airport, we were running a bit late and it was mildly stressful. In the absence of that, feast your eyes on this picture above, and imagine cases and things in the gap next to the rearmost seat.
In essence, the Allspace saved me doing a second trip to the airport, which literally saved me a whole £1 on drop-off parking fees, plus maybe 64p in diesel. Back of the net.
Shortly afterwards I did a Ford Edge review, and concluded that one of its major weaknesses is not having seven seats, despite being so vast. I received the following comment on YouTube from a man called Brian:
"...I only need two seats and a big load area so why the fcuk [sic] does everyone seem to get a hardon about 7 seats!!!..."
Well, this is why people get a "hardon" about seven seats. It can occasionally save them £1.64. Deal with that information, Brian.
In defence of an unglamorous feature
Our Tiguan has a feature that, in Mark's opinion, is one of motoring's most scandalously under-reported advances.
Date: 27 August 2018 | Current mileage: 4,601 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.2mpg
Nobody talks about keyless entry. Why?
Actually, that's not entirely true. We motoring writers mention keyless entry occasionally, like when we're copying and pasting a spec sheet for a new car review. And sometimes in my videos I'll put it in a list of standard features of a car, way down at the bottom if I'm running out of interesting things like moose detection or rear cupholders.
And yet, I honestly think it's one of the greatest car convenience features ever invented. I mean, when automatic central locking was invented it was a true... and I hate this phrase but I'm going to use it anyway... game changer. I'm old enough to have owned a couple of cars that required sticking a key in the door to open them, but I'm not old enough to really appreciate how amazing remote central locking must have been to a generation of people familiar with a choke.
Remote central locking is ubiquitous now, of course, but proper hands-free keyless entry with engine start - which is what I'm talking about here - isn't. It's still novel enough for manufacturers to justify charging for it as an optional extra - to the tune of £450 in the case of our Tiguan. Yikes.
An old Volkswagen key. They're better than this now.
Just to be clear, I'm talking about the system that will unlock the car automatically when you have the key about your person and pull the door handle. Same for starting the engine. In practice it means the key could be in the depths of your bag and it wouldn't matter - you'd still be able to get into the car and start it without having to empty out all the stuff you've just bought.
For a prolific rucksack user like me, it's a solid gold convenience. Seriously, I can't tell you how many times I've appreciated it. The times it's saved me, for example, from having to ferret about the bottom of my bag for the keys when it's raining. Compare that to one of the Tiguan's glamour options, adaptive cruise control, which I've used maybe twice. (I don't like how ACC uses the brakes on the motorway. Using your brakes on the motorway is generally a hallmark of terrible driving. I'll not get into that now.)
Of course, £450 is a scandalous amount to charge for what is essentially a small radio transmitter, but in the pantheon of £30,000+ premium crossover options shennanigans, it's not too bad; our car's blue paint costs £570.
Remembering what we love about Big Volkswagen(s)
Big Volkswagen Group might be having a diesely rough patch right now, but its software people deserve an award
Date: 10 September 2018 | Current mileage: 4,987 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.5mpg
I used to work at Big VAG Towers in Milton Keynes. I was a press officer for SEAT - Senior Press Officer, no less. (Although I later realised the title simply made me 'Mr Press Officer' in Spanish, rather than having any actual autonomy.)
Anyways, it means I still have some friends who work in Big VAG Towers.* It was through those friends that I found out about this story:
Anti-pollution activists stage protest at Volkswagen's UK headquarters
Yep, my friends had been prevented from entering the VAG by some anti-diesel protesters.
Volkwagen is, of course, getting it in the filler neck about diesel at the moment - and justifiably so - but that's making it easy to forget just how effing brilliant the whole company is at churning out cars. To clarify, my view is that the diesel cover up is an absolute scandal, and inexcusable on every level, albeit the politically motivated boundaries imposed on carmakers is almost certainly contributing to the whole emissions farce. Now's not the place to get into this... like you, I think it's bad.
But whatever level of corporate malevolence you ascribe to Volkswagen, its contribution to just making really good cars, of all shapes, sizes and price points, is almost beyond argument. The Tiguan here is one such example - a car that sits somewhere around the middle of the vast VAG expanse of greatness beween the Skoda Citigo and the Bugatti Chiron.
DSG-diesel combo not my favourite thing. Nor cleaning my car.
The problem I've had running this Tiguan is that it's just such a plainly competent big Volkswagan that I struggle to find interesing things to say about it. You may have noticed this. Its remarkableness is partly the result of its being unremarkable. It's spacious, well built, well equipped, refined, practical, flexible... a whole heap of good adjectives.
But that just makes it proper boring. Honestly, the only real complaints I have with it are its sluggish low speed throttle response (an increasinlgy common characteristic of Volkswagen Group DSG-type gearboxes across all the brands), a little too much noise from the diesel, and a parcel shelf that's fiddly to put back. I know, right. Oh, and I'd like to get much more than 40mpg out of it. Volkswagen diesel, eh? *tut tut*
Do I recommend it from a cold journalistic perspective? Absolutely yes. Would I tell my mates to buy one? Nope. I'd tell them to buy a Peugeot 3008. Apart from my mates who work at Volkswagen... actually, no, especially my mates from Volkswagen.
*DISCLAIMER: I may have friends who work at VWG, but that doesn't stop me from criticising VWG products like I would any other.
The world's second best in-car infotainment system
The Tiguan's touchscreen was, until recently, the best in any car. Now it isn't. That distinction belongs to...
Date: 24 September 2018 | Current mileage: 5,511 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 41.8mpg
In-car infotainment systems are a big deal. I don't know what the stats are, because the SMMT doesn't have them, but my best guess is that 90 per cent of all new cars sold now have some sort of infotainment screen. Be it a touchscreen or, sigh, a rotary dial type system.
When I worked at SEAT (have I mentioned that before, that I worked at SEAT?) we were launching the current Leon. One of the things that The Factory (our name for SEAT's Spanish HQ in Martorell) was keen to impress upon the motoring media was the part the company had played in developing the infotainment software, which would be used throughout the whole Volkswagen Group.
To be honest it was a difficult sell for us, the SEAT PR department. How could we get all these hard nosed car journalists - who were only really interested in how the thing turned corners and how many Volkswagen Golf parts they could spot in the cabin - to be interested in the little screen in the dashboard?
Turns out we couldn't. Same went for the stereo upgrade, which was another thing that the chief engineer, a lanky German fella called Matthias Rabe, was keen for us to venerate to the world's media. I never told him this, but I think the main problem was, having developed this super-duper, sky high fidelity audio upgrade, they then decided to call it...SEAT Sound. FFS. That's product marketing 101: give the thing a good name, a vaguely aspirational one. Call it BANGMONSTER 8000, the NOIZE-XTENDER MAX... call it anything you like... but SEAT Sound? Its like calling the Mii 'SEAT Small Car'.
I've gone off on one. Sorry.
Volvo's touchscreen infotainment setup: world class.
Anyways, for me, the SEAT-led infotainment system, basically developed at the start of this decade and still found in most lower-to-mid level VWG cars (like our Tiguan), is still world class in its clarity, intuitiveness and responsiveness. This not only makes it a simple pleasure to use, but safer too; as someone who uses myriad infotainment screens week-to-week, I can tell you for a fact that the worst ones are basically unsafe to use on the move.
There's only one system that's surpassed it, in my opinion: Volvo's. The so-called Sensus touchscreen uses proprietary software that's actually enjoyable rather then just proficient, like it was designed by someone familiar with an iPad.
Hopefully in a few years time the bad ones will be few and far between, but for now only Volvo and VWG have infotainment setups that I'd actually recommend a car because of. If that seems far fetched, ask yourself how much time you actually spend engaging with the infotainment of your car compred to, say, ragging it around a B-road...?
The perfect Tiguan...isn't even a Volkswagen
Having run two very different Tiguans here at HJ, here's the one we reckon you should buy...
Date: 8 October 2018 | Current mileage: 5,943 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 42.1mpg
This here is the second Tiguan we've run in relatively quick succession and it's quite different to the first, which was a five-seat petrol model with four-wheel drive. I think it's fair to say that although David liked it, he wasn't 100 per cent convinced he'd chosen the right Tiguan. "The economy of a hot hatch with none of the performance," he said to me once. Or something along those lines.
So I'm wondering, with all the Tiguan-based possibilities afforded to buyers by Volkswagen, where is the sweet spot in the range? What's going to give your typical Tiguan buyer most satisfaction per pound?
Firstly then, I'd suggest an Allspace every day of the week... or, actually, not. Because, in fact, you won't use the extra seats anything like every day of the week. And if you're after a proper seven-seater, this is not the car for you. So there's £2750 you can save by ditching seats six and seven. Granted, you'll also be ditching 85 litres of boot space (615 vs. 700 in the Allspace), but in reality that's no great loss.
In addition, you can't get the lower powered stuff in the Allspace, so whereas the Tiguan range starts at £23,500, the extra-seater version begins a whopping six grand higher.
Problem is that the sweet spot of the Tiguan range is right there, in the mid-to-high twenties. For me, one of the very best pound-for-pound engines in the word is VWG's 150PS 1.5-litre TSI petrol. It's punchy, smooth, relatively economical, avoids all the diesel DPF nonsense, and has that rare thing in modern cars: character.
The perfect Volkswagen Tiguan^^^
The cheapest way to get that engine in an Allspace is £29,500 (base model, manual gearbox), whereas for £28,600 you can have a five-seat version, with DSG automatic and in SE Nav trim. Which includes navigation, if that's not clear.
That's the version we'd go for. A car like the Tiguan is much better suited to DSG than a manual gearbox; you won't get the sloppy low speed throttle response that the diesel-DSG combo gives you; sat nav is essential because... well it's 2018; the extra seats are a luxury probably not worth near enough three grand; SE Nav spec is well equipped; you don't need 4x4, probably; it's on the right side of thirty grand. Having said all that...
...there's a good chance we'd go for a Skoda Kodiaq instead. It's virtually the same car, except a bit better priced and, a bit more thoughtfully designed inside and, to my eyes at least, a bit better looking. For a shade over £30,000 you could have an SE L DSG model (better equipped than the Tiguan's SE Nav) with the same engine. And you've got your sixth and seventh seats back. Yay.
So, in conclusion, the perfect Tiguan is a Skoda Kodiaq.
Another VW SUV - this is getting baffling
Volkswagen has just announced yet another crossover SUV thing - and another reason not to buy this one?
Date: 26 October 2018 | Current mileage: 5,943 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 42.1mpg
Another month, another Volkswagen Group SUV thing. One with an actual Volkswagen badge this time. It's called the T-Cross and, apparently, it's an "urban crossover model" which "reveals itself to be an ideal companion in everyday life and beyond." (Making this not just a small SUV, but the first one you can use after you're dead, apparently.)
Basically a quite small SUV-shaped thing, anyways. Which is confusing, because I thought that's what the T-Roc is? Although the T-Roc already confused me because when I drove it for a review (see below), I concluded it could easliy do the same job that the Tiguan does, and much more cost effectively, albeit with a little space and quality compromise.
The T-Cross has a wheelbase that's only 3cm shorter than the T-Roc's, and the body is only 12cm shorter. It follows, then, that the boot is roughly the same size too: the T-Cross's total luggage capacity (seats folded) is a mere 9 litres less, at 1281. And, if you slide the T-Cross's rear bench forward, the standard boot capacity is actually a little bigger than the T-Roc's (445 vs. 455).
What I'm getting at is that here, probably, we have another SUV-shaped Volkswagen that you could feasibly use as a five-seat family car. And cheaper than the last one. Again, probably. And also probably, another reason not to buy a Tiguan.
I really admire the Tiguan for its overarching family car brilliance, but in six months with it I've never fallen in love with it. Rather, I've just really really appreciated how excellent it is. You know - spacious, practical, well made...just sensible.
The T-Roc on the other hand, by virtue of its slightly more interesting design and its more compact body making it that bit less clunky around town, is a car I felt I could love. Certainly, having spent a week with a T-Roc I concluded that if I was in a Volkswagen dealership, looking for an SUV type family car, briefcase full of fivers in hand, I'd honestly save the cash and buy a T-Roc over a Tiguan.
Which is why I reckon that in the same scenario, if there was also a T-Cross there that would relieve my briefcase of even fewer fivers, I'd probably buy that.
It's weird, I know, criticising Volkswagen for making yet another car that has the same sort of appeal as its bigger, more expensive ones. We should be applauding it. And I am, I suppose. I just wish that the personality it's so clearly tried to inject into the other SUVs was also in the Tiguan. It would have made the last six months a lot more interesting.
Goodbye Tiguan...we're off to the other extreme
It's time to give back our Tiguan - we're replacing it with something that approaches family motoring a very, very different way...
Date: 9 November 2018 | Current mileage: 6,500 | Claimed economy: 47.9mpg | Actual economy: 42.3mpg
So here we are. Six months with the Tiguan, done. It's been exactly as fuss-free and, frankly, non-eventful as I'd expected. Which is to the car's credit. I can safely say that there are no surprises when runnng a Tiguan Allspace.
Good stuff:
It's very spacious and the Allspace bit genuinely adds value: bigger boot normally, seven seats occasionally.
It does the ride, handling and refinement stuff very well indeed: comfy, mostly quiet.
It's actually come surprisingly close to its claimed economy: a solid 40mpg isn't bad for a quite large all-wheel drive SUV.
Not so good stuff:
It's pricey, and especially so compared to other VW-badged SUV's you could fesibly buy as family cars.
The 2.0 TDI is unrefined at times, especially cold, and the DSG has annoying sluggish throttle response.
It has all the excitement of a 50-slide PowerPoint presentation about a dream someone had once.
In fairness, I could have written these facts down in an envelope before taking delivery of the car, Brendan Rodgers style, but I suppose that's a good thing. The Tiguan has matched expectations. Exceeded them, in some respects. Like how it's actually pretty enjoyable to drive - doesn't lollop about much, that sort of thing. And I didn't think I'd break through the 40mpg mark either.
Which is why it's one of those cars I'd highly recommend, but wouldn't buy myself. I'd buy a Peugeot 3008 because it's much more interesting...
...or not. What I'd actually buy, honestly, is what's replacing our Tiguan. This bad boy:
And so, we go from possibly the world's most mundane mode of family transport to alomst certainly the most outrageous production family hatchback on the planet. This is exciting. Here we go, then...
