Dubber
My last post was about our car being crashed into with around 1000km on the clock - happy to say we've had it back for about 4 weeks now and you can't tell at all. Brand new rear bumper/trim at the left-rear and most of the left-rear suspension replaced (hub, bearing, strut, control arm) including the 20" RLine wheel ($2400 for the wheel!). Insurer was brilliant and can't talk highly enough of Amex Autobody if you're in North/North-East Melbourne.
Anyhow, wanted to post a glowing rant about our 1st Wedding Anniversary/Easter road trip. We drove Melbourne to Angaston in the Barossa Valley over Easter. 850km each way and 2.5 days driving around wineries the Barossa. We have a Ruby Red fully loaded 162TSi Highline w/RLine, DAP & Sunroof.
The Tiguan was amazing the whole time. We spent a lot of time in the car and getting in and out at wineries and we were both very comfortable the whole time. In any car, I hate driving with all the windows wound up - just feels stale and claustrophobic. Cracking the sunroof so it's tilted open was enough fresh air flow to keep it feeling fresh inside without being too noisy at highway speeds.
Highway speeds were quiet and easy and overtaking caravans and trucks was easy even from a cruise speed of 113kph in the 110kph zones. A couple of times overtaking a few cars we got very quickly to 130kph to pass really easily. We had it in Comfort mode on the highway and it makes it quite floaty and soaks up the bumps.
DAP was awesome - just set the speed and manage the steering. Takes a lot of the on/off throttle stuff out when you're following other cars which made a massive difference on such a long drive. Hitting a town, just dial down the speed to match the limit and it adjusts quickly or if you're following traffic leave it on 110 and let the ACC match your speed to the car in front.
Coming into/out of Eden Valley area it's windy and hilly - chucked it in Sports mode and made a massive difference to handling in twisty bits. Gets rid of a lot of body roll and tightens up the ride and steering to make a really big difference.
Economy was fantastic! Coming home, we fulled up in Springton about 25km out of the Barossa Valley and we could have made it home on that tank - around 750km! Comparing the distance to go on the satnav and the computer's estimate of fuel left, we would have had 50km of fuel left in the tank when we got home!
In all, nothing we could fault really and the car was amazing for a long road trip and long weekend of driving! Now to find time this week to get rid of all the bugs!
Dubber
Wow, what a great road trip. My brother & his wife were visiting over from NZ for the OZ F1 GP & took our brand new Tiguan R-Line 2.0 TSi for a road trip to Lorne & back. I was in the UK for a week on a work trip so they've driven it more than me! They have a 2.0 TDi Highline back in NZ & loved the comparison with the 18.5 updates.
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Volkswagen Fan
Thanks for the detailed post. That’s expensive for wheel replacement! I’m after the same car though I’ve had some last minute thoughts about whether to go R-Line or not.Originally Posted by adrianb
Issues I’m concerned about are the 20s - comfort over bumps, ease of damaging and expense of repairing/replacing them, whether the controllable chassis and progressive steering will be useful for these sorts of trips, and the body kit catching more of the dirty rain we get sometimes in Melb, etc.
Wondering if you have any more thoughts on those issues based post your road trip.
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Dubber
Hey dptiggie - happy to share my thoughts! TLDR - Get the RLine! It looks classy and I'm still impressed with the adaptive chassis. Definitely get DAP and (imho) the sunroof too.
I bought some reasonably spendy 20x10s for my other car for just under $6k - that'd only get me 2.5 Tiguan wheels. To be honest, my rationale is if you're at the point where you need to replace a wheel it's more than likely to be an insurance job due to an accident (as in our case) or you've messed up pretty bad and hit something big at high speed. As for damaging, the 360 camera you get with the DAP makes it so you'd have to be either lazy or negligent to kerb the wheels - it gives you a spot-on view of the kerb at all 4 wheels so you can get as close as you like when parallel parking -you can actually see the kerb to avoid hitting it; plus there's Park Assist so if you think you're likely to kerb your wheels just use that and let the computer get it right for you!
Day to day, I drive it with the adaptive chassis in Sport mode - I'm used to performance cars and like the stiffness and limited body roll it has for an SUV. You do feel the bumps in Sport mode but you also feel the road, if that makes sense, and I like a firm ride. My wife drives in Normal mode and it's noticeably softer and soaks up the bumps better, a bit more body roll and a bit less stiffness in corners. To be honest it's the best balance for daily driving if I wasn't used to sportier suspension. Like I said in Comfort mode on the highway it soaks up the bumps really nicely - on longer trips it's really good.
I love progressive steering - I've never owned a car with it before but I'm an instant convert. On the highway/freeway you still have a nice feel for the road making while those small constant steering adjustments and when you're parking or turning a corner it just whips it around.
Ours is Ruby Red which shows the dirt a hell of a lot, other than that no issues with the body kit and water/dirt. A lot of the RLine trim is gloss black and doesn't really show more dirt than the grey-ish trim it replaces.
Honestly I can't fault this car. The 162TSi motor is great around town and on the country roads. I've never used a seat warmer before in my life but have been loving it. I love the pano sunroof but I think it's going to be shut for a while now! Android Auto is amazing - using Waze and Spotify on the screen is awesome.
Volkswagen Fan
Thanks adrianb! That’s really helpful. I was well and truly sold on the DAP and SUN. And that’s really the most detail I’ve seen on the adaptive chassis and progressive steering. Going to go the fully loaded.
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Dubber
Happy to help! We bought ours sight unseen somewhat - we saw a pre-delivery RLine out back of the dealer but couldn't even sit in it, drove a Highline w/DAP and a different Highline w/162TSi.
Volkswagen Enthusiast
Do you think its worth paying the extra to get VW Mud Flaps to reduce stone chips on the side and rear body kit ?
Dubber
We didn't get them - although to be honest I didn't think about it either. Personally I'd be more inclined to get some paint protection film than mudflaps. If you lived outside a major city and were regularly on unsealed or soft-shoulder roads it'd probably be worth the mudflaps.
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