Apart from the ongoing emissions scandal, it’s hard to see how the second-generation Tiguan can go wrong. It’s better than its predecessor in every respect: 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 carmakers encourage 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 car’s engineering fairly pointless. The engines could wheeze out 50 horsepower and we’d 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).
Different this time, though. Volkswagen didn’t bother with studs, leaving its second-generation Tiguans replete with winter tyres. These won’t exactly replicate the steering feel or the handling finesse of a set of standard tyres, but they’re a lot closer than a set of metal porcupines.
4Motion Active Control
Officially, Volkswagen said the aim of the event was to sample its new 4Motion Active Control system, which lets drivers scroll through snow, normal, off-road and properly off-road setups. But the system 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 total possibilities to nine.
This is also the first all-new model Volkswagen has globally launched since the emissions scandal broke, and the company would quite like to be known for making cars again. The Tiguan will be the most important car it 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 – a positive one this time – in the US.
The new model shares almost nothing with its predecessor. 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 than before. And it’s 50kg lighter.
The first SUV or crossover to be built on Volkswagen Group’s award-winning MQB architecture (the basis for the Golf and a host of other recent successes), the Tiguan is heavily focused on all-wheel drive, though it offers six-speed manual versions of its 1.4-litre petrol four-cylinder and base 1.6-litre TDI as front-wheel drives.
Hybrid version
There will be a plug-in hybrid version, complete with an official electric range of 50km, which will offer less than the 50 grams of CO2 emissions on the New European Driving 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 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, 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 seat to stay in place while the larger side folds flat. You still get a maximum of 1,655 litres, and it’s a useful space, with no lip to climb over.
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, 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 the driver’s eyeline, it never feels integrated and can be an annoyance in the peripheral vision rather than an 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 turbodiesel, too, with its 340Nm of torque. Volkswagen calls it a TDI SCR, to make a point that it’s more advanced than those diesel engines.
Both engines are very 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 is really all anybody needs. It gets to 100km/h in 7.7 seconds, speeds beyond 200km/h and is smooth and calm.
Sound deadening
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. The car hides its ride height with a flat cornering stance and a beautifully cosseting way of easing across hard country.
The feeling of composure is helped by the brilliance of the Tiguan’s 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 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 can be anything but.
