Volkswagen Tiguan Prototype 2016 Review - International

Volkswagen Tiguan
Pre-launch prototype drive
Arvidsjaur, Sweden

Apart from the image hangover from Dieselgate, it’s hard to see how Volkswagen's second-generation Tiguan can go wrong. It’s better than its predecessor in every respect. It’s larger inside and out, it’s superbly quiet and controlled, it has a more flexible interior and its ride and handling compromise is ridiculously good. And the interior feels far more 'premium' inside than anything else in the class.

Ice driving is a thing car-makers do when they want us to concentrate our opinions on everything except the way a car handles or even accelerates.

The tyres usually sprout spikes or studs, rendering any analysis of the below-deck doings fairly pointless. The engines could wheeze out 50 horsepower and find it more than adequate.

Usually, we’re limited to writing about engine noise, interior space and quality, whether or not anything fell off and how many dog-sled teams we found (one, incidentally).

It's different this time, though. Volkswagen didn’t bother with studs, leaving its second-generation Tiguans replete with a 235/50 R19 set of the wonderfully named ContiVikingContact winter tyres.

They won’t exactly replicate the steering feel or the handling finesse of a set of standard boots, but they’re a lot closer than a set of metal porcupines.

Volkswagen officially says it has us here to sample its new 4MOTION Active Control system, which lets you scroll through snow, normal, off-road and properly off-road set-ups, but it goes deeper than that. The normal mode has a subset of options, ranging from eco through to sport and the customisable individual mode, so that takes the possibilities out to nine.

Volkswagen unofficially has us here because the Tiguan 2 is the first all-new model it has launched since the Dieselgate scandal spiralled so haughtily out of control and it would quite like to be known for making cars again. It will be the most important car the company launches this year, even allowing for the bigger-selling Polo (because the Tiguan’s seven-seat derivative is at the core of Volkswagen’s latest attempt to make an impression in the US).

The new model shares almost nothing with the predecessor that sold 2.6 million models, but was caught in a no-man’s land in countries like Australia and America. Its interior size left it too small for markets accustomed to bigger machinery at the price, but was too big to let Volkswagen squeeze in another model between the Tiguan and the Touareg.

That’s changed. Completely. It’s a far bigger car inside and out, with another 60mm of wheelbase length, all dedicated to interior room, then another 30mm of width. It’s also 22mm lower in the roof height, but counter-intuitively, it carries more ride height (200mm, or 180mm at the differentials) than before. And it’s 50kg lighter.

The first SUV/crossover to be built off Volkswagen’s MQB architecture, the Tiguan is heavily focused on all-wheel drive, though it offers six-speed manual versions of its 1.4-litre petrol four-cylinder (92kW) and base 1.6-litre TDI (85kW) as front-wheel drives.

Everything else will be all-wheel drive, with a familiar 110kW version of the 2.0-litre TSI motor and two versions of the 2.0-litre engine (132kW and 162kW) fleshing out the petrol-powered options. The strongest two engines are turbocharged, with direct fuel-injection and variable valve timing and the all-wheel drive models all use seven-speed dual-clutch transmissions. They’re not all the same, with the bigger engines getting a stronger unit, rated for more torque.

It’s a bit the same over on the (whisper it) diesel side of the garage, where the five-strong array of turbocharged, direct-injection engines is highlighted by the quirk of two 110kW versions of the four-cylinder engine.

That’s explained by Volkswagen giving countries the option of one or the other, depending on how much towing their buyers do. Tow a lot and the country gets the DQ500 seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, rated to 500Nm and able to tow 2500kg. Tow a little and the engine delivers less torque and gets the lighter-grade DQ250 DSG.

Otherwise there will be a 140kW version of the 2.0-litre and a biturbo 176kW unit, though the stronger engine is going to be a later arrival, because it wasn’t originally in the game plan for the Tiguan and only got shoved into it after former CEO, Dr Martin Winterkorn, drove it in a Passat prototype and unsubtly demanded to know why not.

There will be a plug-in hybrid version, complete with about 50km of (on paper) electric range, which will offer less than 50 grams of CO2 emissions on the NEDC cycle (though the NEDC will be defunct by the time the Tiguan hybrid arrives in 2018, just in time to beat the tighter 2020 EU emissions laws).

The Australian outpost of Volkswagen has yet to finalise (or be told) which powertrains they’re getting, but it’s probable that the entire petrol range and the tow-spec 110kW diesel are coming, plus the two bigger diesels.

The powertrains are one thing, but the switch to MQB beneath the skin has brought an unavoidably noticeable growth spurt. The car gives you the choice of rear-seat or luggage as a priority. In its standard form it has a useful 615 litres (up 145 litres), and can grow as the rear seats slide forward up to 170mm. They also slide (and fold) independently, with a 60:40 split that allows a baby capsule to stay in place while the larger side folds flat.

The head restraints stop the seats folding flat when the second row is its most forward position, though, which is a good thing because 1) it doesn’t actually matter at that point and 2) it would leave a 170mm hole between the flat part of the luggage area and the flat part of the seat back. You still get 1655 litres, and it’s a useful space, with no lip to climb over and a square-ish hole to push through.

The rear seats are flat looking, but usefully comfortable for full-size adults, though the look of the plastics is noticeably cheaper in the rear than it is in the front and the optional fold-down table has a very un-Volkswagen clunky feel to it.

If you’ve seen a Passat’s interior, you’ll be familiar with most of what goes on in the Tiguan, and that’s a good thing. The instrument panel has no analogue parts at all and is instead the stunning, fully digital TFT Active Info Display (Volkswagen’s version of Audi’s Virtual Cockpit) with seven different display options.

On top of that, quite literally, is a head-up display. The glass unit rises from the top of the instrument cluster and though the display area can be adjusted to suit the driver’s eye line, it never feels integrated and can be an annoyance in the peripheral vision rather than an intuitive aid.

The seats are terrific, though, and so is the dash. Volkswagen follows its recent traditions by putting the Tiguan’s most prestigious bits and pieces high on the dash, while the cheaper, harder plastics lurk down low, where they’re rarely seen or touched.

We tested the 2.0-litre TSI petrol motor, with 110kW of power, then had a stint in the 110kW turbo-diesel, too, with its 340Nm of torque between 1500 and 3950rpm. Volkswagen calls it a TDI SCR, to make a point that it’s a bit more advanced than those diesel engines.

Both engines are incredibly well isolated from the interior. You can hear them, but you rarely feel anything negative coming from up front, which is especially impressive in the diesel.

The petrol engine is really all anybody needs, because it’s cleaner (a bit of a point lately) and you’d have to drive about 30,000km a year for four years to get a payback on the diesel version. It gets to 100km/h in 7.7 seconds, speeds beyond 200km/h and is smooth and calm.

The sound deadening is as impressive as the vibration damping. The wind noise levels are incredibly low and so is the insulation from bump thump. You might not expect much of that on snow, but the broken snow and ice edges on tarmac roads neatly replicate square-edged expansion joints.

You can feel the suspension moving to meander over road issues without bothering you, largely, about all but the worst of them. It helps that the stock 17-inch rubber runs high (50 profile) tyres, but even the biggest 20-inch options are still quite tall.

The car hides its ride height with a flat cornering stance and a beautifully cossetting way of easing across hard country. The feeling of composure is helped by the brilliance of its electronic systems, which have a snow mode that barely lets the car slide and provides an astonishing amount of security.

It doesn’t have a fixed drive distribution setting (say, 60 per cent to the rear axle) because it’s constantly changing depending on the conditions, pushing drive around in the latest version of the Haldex all-wheel drive concept.

Maybe it’s not fun for those who prefer their sliding and skidding, but for the millions of people who bought Tiguans to tote their families, it’s exactly what they wanted. Besides, you can always push it across to its sport mode if that’s what you want.

We are not going to lock in a score (let’s call the one here a tentative one) until we drive it on a more consistent surface, but on the face of it, the Tiguan will be a winner for Volkswagen.

It’s hard to see how it will be anything but.

2016 Volkswagen Tiguan pricing and specifications:
Price: TBC
On sale: Late 2016
Engine: Four-cylinder 2.0-litre petrol
Output: 110kW/320Nm
Transmission: seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 7.3L/100km
CO2: 168g/km
Safety rating: TBC