We have five in the family. Oldest child is a tall lanky 16 year old (on his L's). Youngest is a very compact 11 year old.
Our major buying considerations were: 1) Good comfortable rear seat for long distance driving, 2) diesel or hybrid, 3) all or 4WD for mud and snow, 4) Full safety alphabet soup. Then there were other lesser considerations.
It was tough finding anything good until we saw the Tig. We got it late June 08 and have done about 16000 k's of a mix of city (Syndey) and country driving. Long term av fuel economy is about 6.4 l/100km. About 60% of our driving would be in urban areas. 6-sp manual.
The three major things we don't like most (in order): 1) space saver spare, 2) boot space, 3) electric park brake.
We end up on many minor roads and dirt firetrails - we will be burnt by the space save spare at some stage. The boot space is a nuisance but we have a good roof pod and will get a trailer if needed. We are managing OK to date - even with all the bikes and surfboard/boogey boards/fishing gear etc. Roof racks and pod and tow bar and bike carrier are essential for us. We also sometimes remove the styrofoam dividers from in the spare wheel well to give extra storage space when traveling - this gives a very useful increase in storage for less commonly needed things.
(Price of the factory tow bar is outrageous - about $2000. No after market ones at the time we bought. Nice that is it hidden when the bar is not fitted, but still....)
The electric park brake is another that would be hard to deal with off on some fire trail after returning from a canyon or bush walk. There was, apparently a problem on the Passat electric park brakes, but I have not seen or heard any systematic issue on the Tig version - this according to Chatswood Classic service rep. I suspect a mechanical hand brake would be more reliable, however, who knows, maybe it will be OK. It maybe just my electrical engineering training that makes me dislike more and more systems that can disable a vehicle. Still vehicle reliability is getting better over the years - I am happy not to have to deal with flaky carbys and poor sparks in wet weather etc. Our learner driver likes not having to worry about the handbrake on the hill starts, for sure.
Other negatives are pretty minor such as the stupid and useless light in the boot (so low that it is always obscured by stuff).
Some of the things we love/like (in no real order):
1) diesel engine is fun to drive, fuel efficiency is good
2) cabin is good with excellent rear seat leg room and good comfort even for the middle passenger
3) Vehicle size is good compromise for us (we have just the one car and so it has to do the local running about when we can't walk/ride) as well as our long camping/touring/skiing etc trips.
4) Dash is clear (but there is a slight tendency to see the (unnecessary) tacho rather that the speed when you glance down, probably not changed from the right-hand drive console, and one adapts to look in the correct spot).
5) manual gear box is good
6) handling is excellent and we think our daughters trvel sickness is better in this car than the old truck (Prado).
7) Blind spots are there but not too bad.
lots of other stuff
Overall we are *very* happy. We live with the small boot as a known compromise and deal with it by the roof racks and pod for when we need more space. We have had only one minor warranty call (broken bit in the front passenger seat belt catch that made it hard (not impossible) to engage the seat belt.
Sorry for the long post but this is our real world experience of about 10 months and 16k km in our Tig with three adult sized and two teenager sized people. Maybe of some use someone.
Bye for now,
Ian
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Originally Posted by IGW84
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