I had a 1+ hour test drive of the Tiguan over terrible and excellent roads. Sharing my thoughts -
Looks - I am not looking for street presence and I knew that Tiguan won't have much of that. So, that's not an issue. The front of the Tiguan is sharp and smart, the sides are simple and clean but the rear is plan bad - it looks very disjointed, narrow and tall like a MUV from the rear. Wife and kids were so-so with the design. Though nobody really hated it, we all agreed that the car is not a looker and does not look good enough considering the price.
Build quality - top notch, solid, heavy. I think it is the best I have seen so far in this price range. Probably, Jeep Compass is similar but the fit, finish, quality of the Tiguan is way way better.
Interiors - Really nice. It is all black but still feels spacious thanks to the large windows. Overall material quality is very good, excellent fit and finish. Lots of cubby holes, storage space, charging points. Driving position is super comfortable and even the passenger seat has all adjustments (though manual) The rear seats are also great, excellent legroom and headroom, has reclining function, great view of the outside, thigh support is good and there are AC/temperature controls for the rear passengers as well. Overall, among all the cars I have seen so far, this is right at the top along with the Octavia. I feel the Tiguan seats are different from Octavia though - Tiguan seats are firmer and the material is also harder than the Octavia (not sure if it is leather or leatherette)
Ride and handling - I was worried about the ride quality reading the official review and the comments from some of the owners in this thread. But I was pleasantly surprised. The ride is on the firmer side but not at all uncomfortable. It is very matured and the suspension is not noisy. My test drive included terrible roads (almost off road condition) and the Tiguan handled it very well. Even the Ground clearance is very good as I took it to some non-existent roads where normal cars don't venture (only trucks). One advantage of the taut suspension is the excellent handling as it is very easy to chuck it across corners or switch lanes etc. I thought Compass has the best ride-handling combo in this class of cars but I think Tiguan is better, particularly on the handling part.
Performance - The car is good enough for every day driving and there is adequate power to overtake slower vehicles. Even the turbo lag etc is very less. But, this car won't put a smile on your face with it's performance. Considering the 30+ Lakh price, it is just adequate. For example, I think it performs at par with a Vento TDI DSG which costs half the price of a Tiguan. I don't have the numbers but I enjoyed the performance of a Polo 1.2 TSI more than this (comparing apples and watermelons, but still). The Hyundai Tucson was clearly more refined and faster than the Tiguan.
The Honda CRV gets lot of flak in this forum for under-powered engine which is absolutely correct. The Tiguan is better than the CRV but it is under-powered for the segment/price and not much faster than a CRV. I must say that I felt a bit disappointed.
NVH - Awesome. Almost no road noise or wind noise (I could drive up to 130 kmph). Even the diesel engine is pretty refined and noise/vibration is well contained.
Conclusion: For me, the Tiguan was not in consideration as it was way above my 25 lakhs budget. However, it came into consideration due to the huge discounts. I had a few rounds of negotiation with the dealer here and was ready to stretch my budget further for the Tiguan, if it really impressed me and appealed to my heart. I was thinking of overlooking missing features in Comfortline (rear camera, push button start provided everything else is super impressive. Unfortunately that did not happen - the bland looks (particularly rear) and the not-so-great performance were the main reasons. . Unfortunately, that's not the case. So, Tiguan is out of consideration for me.
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Originally Posted by rutvij I used to have reverse camera in my Innova and I have one in my Jazz. Believe me sensors in My Octavia works much better than these two cars. Only issue is that even after spending close to 30 lakhs one is not getting such a basic feature like camera in Tiguan. I am in the same boat as you and trying to overlook absence of camera and start stop button in comfortline trim for making up my mind for tiguan!
It seems that our journey is parallel as I remember conversing with you about jazz 10 years ago! |
I do remember our conversation about Jazz 10 years ago. I feel for normal parking, the sensors are good enough but I have found the camera to be super useful in some situations like when you are reversing in a busy street etc.As you said, I was mentally prepared to overlook the missing rear camera or push button start if the Tiguan bowled me over. But, it did not. Everyone's requirement is different. If your heart is set on Tiguan, this is probably the best time to buy it. I am sure you can find some after-market jugaad for the reverse camera and the push button start is just a gimmick for me.
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Originally Posted by sj_koova I believe the reason VW has excluded camera is the cost. You may wonder what big deal with just a reverse camera. Interestingly, the revere camera in Tiguan is pretty much the entire system of parking assist minus the actual parking assist feature. Camera has 4 different angles and display features multiple guiding options including steering direction etc , couple of them purely for the purpose of auto parking. Instead of giving a mere reverse camera, they used their expensive system for no good reason.
Unless they make a localized version of Tiguan, I do not think they will include reverse camera in Comfortline. |
Thanks, makes sense to me. The Tiguan feature set has not been customized for India. For example, who needs heated seats in India? Ventilated seats would have made much more sense. I am not sure if 3-zone climate control or reactive hood or self-healing tyres are super important either (I would like a proper spare)