bmer
Tire Trailblazer
- Messages
- 6,955
15/02/2008
By Richard Hammond
There's a fantastic off-road driving course less than 10 minutes from my house.
I would have liked to take this new Volkswagen Tiguan there for a bit of mud wrestling. But since Land Rover leases the facility it would be like sitting at the home end at Millwall wearing an Aston Villa kit.
Likely to cause offence.
The other problem is that the centre has some serious sections that challenge even the mighty Land Rover Defender.
Advertisement
Apparently, there are people in the forest who got stuck years ago and have been living wild on dead leaves and small rodents ever since. That could be me if I took the Tiguan there.
Two versions of the Tiguan are available. First, the standard one with VW's Haldex 4Motion four-wheel drive transmission and second, the Tiguan Escape, which is the same mechanically but has extra equipment added to make it more suited to going off-piste.
This includes a shorter front end and metal plates under the engine and gearbox to protect them from being bashed by rocks, and a protective grille to prevent the radiator being punctured.
The Escape also has hill-descent control and a compass, though I can't imagine many owners attempting to cross the Sahara in their Tiguan. Still, you could always set a course of 173 degrees for Tesco.
I thought noisy and clattery diesels were a thing of the past but VW appears to be hanging on to one for nostalgia's sake in the Tiguan Escape 2.0 TDI. Even when it's nice and warm, this engine is far too noisy.
It's a letdown because, otherwise, the Tiguan is a very relaxing car to drive.
The build quality is first-class and the Golf-sourced dashboard well screwed together, if a little boring.
These days you can transform a family car into a millionaire's plaything by ticking lots of boxes on the options order form. Get tick happy with the Tiguan and you can easily raise this model's £23,300 price to £30,000
Our test car was fitted with the optional £2,175 Dynaudio sound system and rear parking camera.
There's leather, too, which adds another £1,450 to the bill. And bi-Xenon headlamps with automatic range adjustment and dynamic curve lighting - a light shines to the kerb as you turn in its direction - clever, but another £815. The fulllength sunroof is a £795 option but well worth the money.
Apart from the noisy engine, which sounds even worse when you start changing gears with the Tiptronic six-speed automatic gearbox, the Tiguan drives very well.
Although you are sitting high up there's hardly any body roll. But the ride could be better, as it's choppy on poor surfaces (almost any tarmac road in Britain, in other words).
This diesel engine has 140bhp but there's a more powerful version with 170bhp arriving in the summer.
Even the current engine has decent performance, with a top speed of 115mph and a 0-60mph time of 10.7sec. More importantly, the government combined fuel consumption is 39.7mpg.
There's also a whopping 1,510 litres of space inside the Tiguan if you fold the rear seats down - a handy 395 litres with a full load of passengers.
There's another figure in the Tiguan specifications that is rather interesting - it has a maximum towing weight of 2,500kg.
There, I thought if I looked hard enough I might find a reason for owning VW's softroader. With its surefooted 4wd system and spacious interior it will make the perfect caravan towing machine.
THE FACTS
Volkswagen Tiguan Escape Five-door SUV
Price: £23,300
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel, 140bhp
0-60mph: 10.5sec
Fuel consumption: 39.2mpg
THE RIVALS
Land Rover Freelander 2.2 TD4
A better all-rounder than the VW and much better off-road. More upmarket than the old Freelander £23,460
Toyota RAV-4 T140
Good on road and a great engine. Tiguan's main rival £22,845
Nissan Qashqai 2.0 DCi
Hard to pronounce and even harder to like. Rather pointless and one of my least favourite cars. Also available in two-wheel drive £22,199
Review: Volkswagen Tiguan Escape - Mirror.co.uk
