Buying VW Tiguan – anything I should know?

No, not auto hold, I’ve driven cars with that. Once that is engaged, when in traffic, as soon as you come to a stop, the electonic handbrake ( another pet hate of mine-getting to sound like a real luddite) stays on until you apply throttle. The phenomenon I am describing happens on cars with conventional handbrakes. My Skoda Superb Manual with a lever handbrake has hill hold which is a similar system but only works if the car is pointing up hill

If I turn off the anti-creep button, that’s exactly how it behaved, jimw. I had one on Tuesday – Diesel, 7 speed auto.

Well, I assume it was diesel – that’s certainly what I filled it with before returning it 🙂

Rachel

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/carbycar/volkswagen/tiguan-2008/%5B/url%5D

Thanks bearGrease – interesting read.

If you are looking at a sante fe, have a look at the touareg as well when you are at the VW dealers. More of a premium SUV, tows very well and loads of roooom for family and bikes. You’ll never have to squeeze stuff in!

What about a Rav 4? I went take a look at the GT86 and financing options and ended up preferring the Rav 4 for the size and comfort. Not compared it directly to the Tiguan but from memory it seemed bigger than our Freelander which in turn looks bigger (in the boot) than the Tiguan.

Being in Aus you might have more toyota dealer and better prices?

edit: just checked and it is larger than the Rav 4 so scratch that. Maybe the opening on the Rav 4 made it look bigger.

Freelander is bigger than both.

Mazda CX-5 is worth a look too.

My wife had a base model Tiguan. The seats weren’t great, it wasn’t amazing to drive and the stereo was horrid. It was brilliant in the snow or muddy fields, it held it’s value really well (bought from new) and she loved it. We bought the service pack and the car cost nothing apart from petrol. No tyres, no faults, no brakes in 32K miles. As a drivers car, it wasn’t great, but from a money point of view, it was brilliant.

Has there not been significant issues with the dual mass flywheel on the diesels?

Skoda Octavia Scout is on an amazing lease deal at the moment. I got mine for £180 pm for 8k miles a year. Even if I do 10k factoring the excess miles that’s only £5.5k over two years versus £13k deprecation if bought new.
They are supposed to be very good towing cars and are much larger inside than the Tiguan

I have a Tiguan and I’m really pleased with it, in fact it’s the second one I’ve had. Tiguan Match 2.0TDI Blumotion. I tow a caravan and you hardly know the caravan is attached. Superb motorway cruiser and with the back seat down you can easily get a couple of bikes in it.
http://www.mytiguan.com/
If you have any more questions the above site is worth a look. I’m sure there are a few members from Australia on it.

The maximum towing capacity is not the same as a safe towing capacity.
The cars kerb weight is probably way below 2,200 kg and i’d never like to tow above 100% of the cars kerbweight.85% is generally accepted as the figure to aim for.It must be a massive caravan at 2,000kg and if it is i’d be looking at stuff in the Mercedes ML/ Landcruiser class.