New Tiguan Owner - and my thoughts so far.

[Philbie]

Howdy folks,

My first post on the site and a long time volkswagen nutter. I have owned nearly all VW models from golf MK4, MK3, Passat sedan, Passat wagon, R32 Mk1, Golf MKV GTI, Toureg V6 and now the new Tiguan 103TDI.

Today is the third day of our Tiguan experience. I traded my 2006 GTI DSG for the Tiguan. I have two kids, and wanted a more comfortable car for lugging them, and myself around in. Space in the cabin was important, but not so much in the boot. we also own a current spec Rav4 2.5 4cyl.

I drove both the manual and auto Tiggy's and with both leather and cloth trim options.

I ended up buying a Manual (which i felt drove much better) with comfort pack, leather trim, satnav, metallic paint, rear parking sensors, and fog lights.

My first impressions are wonderful. The manual has plenty of power and doesn't have the wind down drawbacks of the auto box. for me, (6'4) the seats are brilliant, even better than the toureg which were flat and hard.

Gimicks and gadgets I love, and it has ample. everything is typical VW, mind you it does show it's been built to a price. it misses out on the little things like metal glove box handle, gas struts under the bonnet, fuel filler release in the cabin, scuff plates (now optional) and a few other things, however these have been replaced with other nice items like ipod connection, seat trays in the back and many other items.

Luggage room is really surprising, whist it looks small, is actually bigger than the golf, (only a little though) on the second day after collection, I picked up some family from the airport and drove 300 k's with 4 large suitcases in the back, two briefcases and two overnight bags, and three large adults up front.

The back seat passenger remarked how comfortable they were as did the passenger up front. the car had plenty of power and gripped well to the road as it was raining.

Fuel use was great at an average of 5.9L per 100klm during the trip. I was impressed after all it's not run in yet.

The reverse camera is brilliant, and a sinch to use once you have played with it a bit, and the satnav, i could go on about for hours, brilliant to use, DVD picture and audio is amazing, and the navigation much better than my garmin Nuvi. it takes a 2GB (nothing Bigger) SD card and reads direct from it or store the music directly on the 30g hard drive. The compass feature is also great.

16" rims seem today to be a thing of the past, but gave a wonderful ride and extremely quiet on hankook tyres. (another cost cutback - yet I am impressed with the lack of road noise - what happened to my continentals?).

All in all - I have been very impressed so far, and would rate this as the most comfortable VW to ride in that i have owned yet.

If you want good euro quality, a nice comfy ride and economy, good seating for four large adults or two adults and three kids, this car is great! luggage storage whilst good - would be it's only drawback. Compared to our Rav4 in luggage storage, the rav4 eats it for breakfast.

VW have a winner here, and I do agree it will be an outstanding seller in todays market.

Cheers for now,

Philbie!

[Mischa]

welcome to the forum thanks for the writeup. congrats i think you're our first tiguan owner

[phaeton]

Welcome to VWwA Philbie
Great write up on the Tiguan



How does it compare to the Passat and Touareg ?

Also FYI VW have a deal with Hankook hence why no Conti's, probably why also how they ride well on the Tiguan.

[robere]

Hi guys first post.

Just got my Tiguan yesterday. I picked it up from country WA. The only metro units left were manual and Catalina blue. To me the color looks like a teenagers color so that was out and I do a heap of metro kilometers so i wanted an auto.

Yesterdays weather in WA was wild, a cold front crossed the coast and we had full on rain and winds. I flew down to pick up the car, the flight was pretty hairy I was glad to get off the plane and sort the car paperwork and start on the 450klm 4.5 hr drive back.

The Tiguan was awesome, stability and hold on the road were great. Winds were side on and the rain was constant; a good test. The Tiguan's auto box was responsive when cruising it dropped back when necessary with a smooth operation up and down.
The drive and road connectivity was something i wondered about with the 4Motion system. There was no front end pull on the steering that i could feel. I have never been behind the wheel of a more solid car. After having a Discovery and a few other larger 4WD's it was great to feel a responsive tight vehicle rather than a big clumsy bus.

The controls in the cab are all intuitive and positioned well. The seats feel good, having an ordinary back i was not happy about not having a lumbar adjustment but after the 5hr drive back my back was in good nic.

Economy was good i got round 7/100 so under half a tank to get back was impressive.

I was a bit apprehensive about the boot space but the ability to slide the rear seats forward increases this by about 150mm.

Vehicle looks great, i ended up with black as the color minimal extras; parking sensors, mud flaps and floor mats.

So far so good i will update as i get more of a handle on metro driving. The only thing i have noticed so far is a bit of lag in first. This can be sorted by changing to Sport mode which starts in 1st rather than 2nd gear but this pushes the economy down.

[Philbie]

Welcome to VWwA Philbie
Great write up on the Tiguan



How does it compare to the Passat and Touareg ?

Also FYI VW have a deal with Hankook hence why no Conti's, probably why also how they ride well on the Tiguan.

Here come some photos, I'll put some more up when I take them! I find the new passat rather crap with the seating arrangement, mind you, I am 6'3 and not a lot appeals to me anyway, to be fair. We have a new 4motion V6 passat in the family, and I don't like it to be honest, but it is more fuel friendly than the last model.

The Toureg really doesn't compare in my opinion. It's a very different car and pitched at a different market. Mind you, if they put the seats from a Tiguan into the toureg, I'd buy another tomorrow.

As fair as large 4x4's go, my pick would be the Mazda CX-9. a very classy car however with a very hungry motor.

[phaeton]

Cool thanks for pics

Very true Touareg probably does not compare

Welcome to VWwA Robere

[AJD]

Congratulation on getting one of the rare VW's. It looks a treat and it appears you are more than happy with the Tig.

I am trying to wait patiently for mine ....... 8 months to go unless VWA can apply a lot more influence in Wolfsburg.

By the way, what is the "switch" on the upper left in the boot? Also, is there enough room to stash one of those nice little Treg compressors down with the spare?

Cheers

[robere]

The other items you can see L-R are the access panel latch, a triangle hazard sign for the jack and emergency breakdown gear storage area, then a 12v outlet and finally the light . There are also chrome luggage anchor points in the shot as well. Not sure which switch you are looking at, it might be one of these.

[AJD]

The other items you can see L-R are the access panel latch, a triangle hazard sign for the jack and emergency breakdown gear storage area, then a 12v outlet and finally the light . There are also chrome luggage anchor points in the shot as well. Not sure which switch you are looking at, it might be one of these.

It looks like a switch or something above the access panel latch, above the triangle sign?

[MissVuks]

My dad is interested in buying one of these - can you give any comparisons of it to a Subaru Forester (if you can)..