Volkswagen Tiguan – Stylish yet tough!

Fast food chains like McDonalds began their journey in India as a first one to offer quick and delicious burgers. Then it moved on to making the food more affordable and attracting an even larger set of audience. This way the brand has seen a jump in its sales and probably you won’t be ever seen an empty McDonalds. With time passing by, today this food chain has seen a major rise in its pricing. Once people did get used to the brand, there have in increase in its price and quality. A successful business plan that has taken close to 20 years for the brand to make a very strong presence in the heart of many Indians. At the same time, the other brands haven’t been able to pull off things in that manner. Let it be KFC or even the new entrant Burger King.

There is something that McDonalds is doing it right, which could be getting things what Indians like or the price, maybe even the warm welcome. Similar is the situation of the Indian car market today, most of the automakers that entered Indian during the 2008-2010 phase were highly aggressive and now have slowed down their product investment and even lost a lot of market share. There has been a reduction in their market share and change in strategy for a major market share. Volkswagen, one of the world’s largest car maker hasn’t had a very successful story in India either. But this is one of the only brands that is working on reviving its Indian product portfolio. Efforts have already began when it launched the Ameo last year. This time around, it is the turn of the Volkswagen Tiguan. Will this is an important product to turn around things? We were invited by the company to review this new SUV in a drive from Bengaluru to Chikmanglur. Read further to know more about this SUV.

How does it look?

The Tiguan is the first VW product that has been designed on the MQB platform. This is a modular platform and all the upcoming cars/SUVs will be based on it. This will help them to get more flexibility in the near future. In terms of design, the Volkswagen Tiguan does have a lot of styling elements that resemble its siblings. There is a large front grille that gets three horizontal chrome slats and this melds well into the LED headlamps. The headlamps even have daytime running LEDs integrated into them. The dimensions appear to be ore compact than what it is. The SUV is wide and hence it doesn’t seem to be tall.

The side profile is much like the other VW SUVs like the Touareg. The silhouette is like that of an SUV and this is what makes it look stylish. The  rear somewhat looks different in design when compared to the other bits on the SUV. The Tiguan rear design might take some time to be absorbed by some and we are one of them. The Highline variant comes with 18-inch wheels, while the Comfortline gets 17-inch. The Highline variant even gets LED tail lamps, which aren’t there on the Comfortline.

What’s inside?

A high quality cabin that does stand out. The Volkswagen Tiguan does have appealing interiors. They are plain Jane, but the quality and fit and finish is at par with the German competition. The steering wheel is leather wrapped and looks similar to that on the Polo/Vento family. There is an 8-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There is even reverse camera, push start/stop button (only on Highline) and even Panoramic sunroof, which is also made available on the Highline variant only. The steering wheel can be adjusted for rake and reach but it isn’t electric.

The space on offer is more than sufficient. The front seats are spacious and offer good amount of head room and leg room. Here there is even lumbar support adjustment and good enough side support. The driver’s seat is electrically adjustable and it offers memory also for the seat and the mirrors. The co-driver’s seat is manually adjustable. The rear seats have good enough knee room and the thigh room is also more than sufficient for tall passengers. There is a large central tunnel, which will intrude in and this makes it comfortable only for two people. Then there is an armrest and rear AC vents too, which temperature control option. The boot is large enough as it is large enough for use.

How is the engine?

A 2.0-litre diesel engine is the only option that powers the Tiguan. This mill churns about 140bhp of power and 340Nm of peak torque. This comes mated to a seven-speed DSG. The engine is highly refined and has low NVH levels inside the cabin. You can hear minimal diesel clatter when it crosses about 3000rpm. The performance of the Tiguan is good and it has sufficient power to drive in the city and even on the highway. Well, for a car at this price, it should have had better performance.

The engine is responsive and the power it churns out is good enough. There is Sport mode and even tip-tronic option on the transmission. If you wish to get more sporty feel, then there is even paddle shifts on the steering wheel. It was a first drive, so we cannot say what will be the exact mileage. However on out drive the driver information system showed us a mileage of about 13km/l.  That is what we were expecting from it. The SUV was driven in the city and even on the highway. Some of it was cruising and some was pedal to the metal sort of.

Also Read: Hyundai Tucson Review | Jeep Compass Preview

Driving Dynamics

The ride on the Tiguan is a bit on the stiffer side. Despite the stiffness, the ride is good enough as the SUV doesn’t feel unsettled on most of the bad roads. To be honest it is good enough for our road conditions. This has to be done, still it would suffer in handling aspect. The handling is good enough making it ideal for daily city use. You will enjoy driving it even on winding roads. There is some amount of roll, when it isn’t too much.

The steering wheel is light and this makes driving a breeze. There is good enough feedback too in the steering wheel. The feel of the steering wheel is premium. The road visibility of the Tiguan is good enough with minimal blind spots. The outside mirror size has a good size, while the rear-view mirror could have been a bit bigger. As we have mostly driven on highways and city roads, but even in monsoon we didn’t loose traction at any time. We did ride in the rain also.

Volkswagen Tiguan Verdict

An exciting compact SUV, it looks stylish. The Volkswagen Tiguan is a good and exciting package. However, the pricing of this SUV is a bit higher than what we would have expected it to be. This is the most expensive vehicle at the moment from the brand, and of the two Comfortline is certainly the better value for money package. It is about INR 4 lakhs cheaper and is for sure a better choice. We don’t want to mix luxury and value for money aspects, just that buyers will not want to compare the three German luxury cars with VW.