New to me... VW Tiguan 2022 Elegance - recommended

[vaud]

For context...

After a Jaguar XF 3.0 diesel (any many, many cars before) I wasn't doing many miles in the Jaguar compared to prior years. It had a litany of electrical faults, some caused by low usage and the battery, some were just "normal for JLR" I decided to get rid of it and have a more boring family car for short/medium journeys (as in I do about 5k / year at the moment).

Having test driven a Tiguan (and the SEAT variants, as well as an Audi Q4 etron (with their staggering depreciation)... I decided I wanted a (fairly) fully specced Tiguan 1.5tsi with the 2021/2 updates. I'm a Yorkshireman so no way was I buying new. (stereotyping but I see no point in having a massively depreciating asset on the drive for 5k miles per year)

Spent months with autotrader and VW looking for one - low mileage, ideally not white or grey. Then one popped up locally - 17k miles, metallic red (I like red for visibility and my first two cars were red, its kind for dirt) - 1 owner, 2022, all the elegance features - but a little ambiguous from autotrader/vw vs VIN lookup.

I was fine with the idea of a 1.5tsi around town - its a neat engine and feels anything but slow off the mark and at 30/40/50 speeds. I was skeptical on a longer motorway run. It's been fine (just driven to Suffolk from Yorkshire). Need to adjust my driving style vs the Jaguar but it's very competent, especially cruising.

Good

• Its a very refined engine for a 4 pot. Coasting, 2 cylinder mode, etc - and quiet. Start stop is as good as I have driven in any hire cars, etc. A pillars aren't too thick, very good visibility.

• The interior UI is pretty good - some odd glitches but nothing major.

• Digital cockpit is excellent, as is Carplay. Loving that I can have 128gb of music and audiobooks on call. I need to fix my MP3 tags. (yeah I know these are not specific to a VW)

• Rear space is excellent - with a lot of legroom and headroom - not quite sure how they do it.

• Comfort - I though 19" wheels would be too much but it is a very balanced ride (West/North Yorkshire roads are awful). I will get some 17" steel wheels and winter tyres later in the year as I need to go into deepest North Yorks on occasion in the winter.

• The boot is vast (less so on the PHEV version) and is bigger than the Volvo XC60 (our other car)

Meh

• Manual seats - very few specced with leather seats with electric controls and hard to retrofit (as are lots of functions) VW are keen on monetisation to unlock/maintain digital functions but they make it very hard to upgrade physical stuff

• VW main dealer - OK on negotiations- pretty fair for trade in vs motorway/WBAC. A bit lower, but not taking the piddle. Not too pushy on extras. Very direct and fair - (maybe to be expected in a dealer covering some of West Yorks, large chunk of North Yorks and Lancashire - no central city BS.

• Seats are ok; firm but supportive

Not so good

• The dealer never told me there were no mats - would have paid for them... partly my bad for not asking but some missed profit on their side.

• The complexity of VW models means that even if you have a VIN and look up their manuals you still get ambiguities in the manual(e.g. "your region may vary")... FFS VW you built the car, you have my VIN so there must be an absolute record of it's spec (somewhere in VWs systems of record)...

Overall

• Overall - pretty impressed, it is a surprisingly relaxed cruiser
• ACC is very good, especially if you are a defensive driver. If you are more assertive you should switch it off
• Pano sunroof is nice (I know it can have issues over time)
• My kids like it, so a lot of win (they didn't like the Jaguar)

A solid 9/10 so far for value for money.

Can't name and shame, but there is nothing to shame about the dealer (more about VW policy) so if you dfind yourself near Skipton then you know where to search.

[Dr G]

Good to hear you're enjoying it so far; they're very good at simply fitting in to life (and I agree that in the real world that engine is absolutely fine. It has ample power).

Hugely subjective of course, but they are nicer in feel than a lot of the obvious (cheap) competitiors.

[vaud]

Dr G said:

Good to hear you're enjoying it so far; they're very good at simply fitting in to life (and I agree that in the real world that engine is absolutely fine. It has ample power).

Hugely subjective of course, but they are nicer in feel than a lot of the obvious (cheap) competitiors.

Thanks - yes it’s great as a second car. Tried the Skoda and the Seat versions but this felt the best for relatively little extra money. Even on 19”s it’s a surprisingly supple ride.

[Sheepshanks]

Annoying about the mats - they come as standard when new.

[Mark V GTD]

Elegance spec has some nice extras that the R-Line didn’t get.

[Mark Turmell]

We’ve got the R Line 2.0TSi, 4-Mo, it’s done about 6,000 miles and it’s just coming up to 3 years old.

There’s an annoying error that crops up every 18 months or so and it requires a new steering wheel, we’re on number 2, I think it says travel assist unavailable.

Make sure you’ve got that under warranty as it’s bloody expensive if you have to pay out of your own pocket.

It’s a shame as we really like it and would definitely consider another.

[LightweightLouisDanvers]

2000 miles a year?
You'd be cheaper using taxis!

[vaud]

LightweightLouisDanvers said:

2000 miles a year?
You'd be cheaper using taxis!

Unlikely as we live outside a city with few Ubers. A nice local taxi firm, but not for long distances. Also need for short notice dad taxi duties when my wife is away for work with the main car. When I do travel it tends to be on holiday to Norfolk/etc

Anyhow this is PH, when did practicality and maths get in the way of owning a petrol car?

[Countdown]

@Vaud - I might be mixing up the spec changes but does this have the touch sensitive on the steering wheel and for the heating? if so how do you get on with it?

My dad is currently driving a 2016 plate Tiguan and he loves it (although he's doing less than 4k miles per year). we're thinking about getting him a '22-plate but the touch sensitive controls would make him go barmy.

[vaud]

Countdown said:

@Vaud - I might be mixing up the spec changes but does this have the touch sensitive on the steering wheel and for the heating? if so how do you get on with it?

My dad is currently driving a 2016 plate Tiguan and he loves it (although he's doing less than 4k miles per year). we're thinking about getting him a '22-plate but the touch sensitive controls would make him go barmy.

Let me live with it for another week an I'll let you know.

There are a lot of buttons on the wheel but they are physical "click/push" buttons.The heating is touch sensitive but it is on its own slider below the UI screen, not buried in the user interface on the screen. I think the 2024 (?) was all touch sensitive.

If you get your preferred settings arranged for a single driver (it remembers them each time) then he wouldn't need to adjust anything aside from heating and/or heated seats. Radio, etc is default. A friend in his 70s has one and loves it - even takes it camping - and if it rains he puts the back seats down and sleeps in the back, which he said is very nice (well preferable to a tent in the rain)

[Countdown]

Thanks.

[vaud]

Sheepshanks said:

Annoying about the mats - they come as standard when new.

Thanks. I dug out the 2022 brochure and also the fact that the auto trader advert that said it had SD card slots (turns out they discontinued them in 2021 but they left the slots in the glovebox (with no electronics)



One polite email to the dealership with a copy of the advert and the 2022 brochure and all is resolved (I’d bought some 3rd party mats)

Free VW rigid cargo mat and VW cargo net which I think is fair. Would cost me about £120 but will cost them a fraction of that. The SD cards would have been handy but I have car play and USB.

The mats were just annoying but the dealer was reasonable.

[Mark Turmell]

Just renewed the warranty for 12 months, ‘all component cover’ £250 excess for £269.

[vaud]

Mark Turmell said:

Just renewed the warranty for 12 months, all component cover £250 excess for £269.

From VW directly or a dealer?

[Mark Turmell]

vaud said:

From VW directly or a dealer?

Direct from VW, Googled the link, pretty good value so long as there’s no small print.

On my Transporter I had the ‘All In’ warranty/service plan and had the front crank seal fail twice, once under the original warranty, no problem. But the All In had small print saying that leaks aren’t covered, but because it happened again less than 2 years later it was covered under the original repair, but I did have to get stty with the dealer.

The All In covered me for a new instrument binacle (£1000+), nearside central locking module (£400ish) and a few other small ticket items so it was well worth the £35ish a month for 2 years, includes 2 services and 2 mot’s and recovery too.

[vaud]

Thanks - I will be taking that up...