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8/28/2008
We’re going in that!?!
That was my wife’s reaction when Volkswagen’s new, 2009 Tiguan 2.0T arrived in our driveway a few days before we were to leave for our family vacation.
Tiguan is the second crossover SUV in VW’s lineup and sitting on a modified version of the Golf/Rabbit platform, it’s noticeably smaller than its elder brother, Touareg. Also unlike Touareg (the name of a nomadic tribe in the vicinity of Timbuktu), its name is made up and doesn’t really anything. (It’s a cross between Tiger and Iguana, say VW spokespeople.)
Click here to view a photo of the Tiguan:
www.valleybreeze.com/www/VW_Tiguan_09.jpg
Tiguan is handsome and fully contemporary. It was the “noticeably smaller” part that had Karen concerned. Turns out there was no need for alarm. This is a five-seat crossover with a 60/40 split back seat (okay, it’s really more like 66/34.) And although it’s not up to English muffin standards, it’s also blessed with a nook here and a cranny there. Tiguan’s interior proved the adage that inches matter: We started by folding down the bigger “half” of the rear seat, the left half. It doesn’t quite fold flat; there’s a bit of an uphill ramp to it. But what saved the day was the fact the rear seats can slide a few inches fore-and-aft. Adam may be tall for a six-year-old, but he is, after all, still a little kid and he didn’t need all of the rear-seat legroom available. Sliding the right portion of the rear seat forward provided enough room to fit the big suitcase lengthwise in the way-back. Doing so left room for the other suitcase, the two coolers, the beach chairs…
By the way, adults have more than enough rear-seat legroom with the seat all the way back; it’s not bad part-way forward, but the rear seats can slide nearly right up to the front seats. Width-wise, two are fine but if they’re not noticeably slim, three grown-ups in the back seat had better be friendly!
Driving smaller cars – something we may all get used to in order to lower fuel costs – can require better planning. But it does lead to more efficiency, as well as putting all available space to use. For example, there was room for to pack pairs of shoes, a shaving kit and twelve rolls of toilet paper along with the spare tire. (Twelve rolls! I thought you could buy TP in Massachusetts!) Still, the last time we joined family members out here in Wellfleet we were driving a Nissan Armada. We fully loaded that aptly-named cargo ship for a weekend stay. We must have carried tons of unnecessary stuff because while we stuffed Tiguan, this trip was for a week. And we had a clear view out the rear-view mirror and a clear peek-over-the-shoulder sightline for merging in Cape Cod’s famous traffic circles. The camera screen on the dashboard was a confidence-builder for backing up.
Driving Tiguan
That “2.0T” in our test Tiguan’s name refers to the engine, a turbocharged 2-liter, four-cylinder mill. It drove the front wheels through an automatic transmission; VW also offers a stick-shift version. Even with cargo loaded to the gills, it provided satisfying performance. Handling was self-assured and the ride was comfortable.
Interior appointments were what we’ve come to expect from Volkswagen: quality materials and (mostly) convenient controls. (The navigation system is not quite intuitive to use.) Tiguan does suffer from what I call “European Head Restraint Syndrome.” In other words, since I tend to sit pretty upright, the headrest tends to push my head forward, unless I recline the seat more than I would have otherwise. Let’s just say most Swedish cars fit me even worse; you may fit just fine. John does.
Tiguan’s instrument panel vents for the climate-control system are among the best we’ve seen. There are two circular openings at each position: Each can be aimed in any direction so that, for example, the driver can set the extreme-left pair to shoot both right at himself and over toward the back seat (where there’s another pair of vents.) Additionally, each pair of dashboard vents has a thumbwheel for controlling how much air moves through it. This setup is going to be hard to improve upon.
Tiguan’s sunroof is humongous – probably about the size of the old fabric-covered slider on VW’s iconic, 1960s Microbus. This one is tinted glass. If you’re sun-shy, be aware that it is shaded only incompletely: There’s a perforated-fabric shade that rolls into place electrically inside the whole shebang and can be left deployed, even when the roof panel is open. Air gets through, but so does some sunlight – even when the glass is closed. This raises interior temperature compared to a steel-topped car, although the A/C seemed capable of keeping up with it. Glass operation is via VW’s easy-to-use knob that lets you preselect the panel’s position, then let go. Surprisingly, though, we weren’t able to get it to just tilt up the trailing edge and stop there.
Volkswagen’s timing in introducing Tiguan right now is good: This seems the right time to be offering smaller sport-utility vehicles to American drivers. As our own experience shows, it’s up to the task of handling a small family’s vacation chores more efficiently than older, bigger SUVs – as long as the family does its part and packs more efficiently.
By the Numbers:
2009 Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0T CUV
Base MSRP $23,790 (incl $690 delivery)
As tested: $31,623 (a few extras!)
EPA MPG: 18 city / 24 hwy
