Volkswagen Tiguan R, Legit Hot Stuff
Last year, I had the chance to test the Cupra Ateca (and after, Ward had a taste of the facelift) and was wondering what car to compare it with. The Audi SQ2 and Mercedes-AMG GLA popped in mind, but they are a lot more expensive. And now? Volkswagen is bringing a rival to the stage. The Volkswagen Group VS The Volkswagen Group? I see the picture!
More of the same?
Let’s play a game of 'guess the car!' The car in this quiz takes its power from a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with four-wheel drive and a 7-speed DSG gearbox. Volkswagen Golf R, Cupra Ateca, Audi S3, Audi SQ2 you say? No, no, and nope! But we get why these cars come to mind. Our Volkswagen Tiguan R is more of the same, so I thought! But can you blame me? I have tested that Cupra Ateca with 300 hp and 400 Nm of torque and this Tiguan R puts out 320 hp and 420 Nm. Zero to 100 km/ for the Ateca is delt within 5,2 seconds and the Tiguan needs 4,9 seconds. Top speed? 249 km/h and respectively 250 km/h (limited). But thank God, the Tiguan R feels less hyperactive and offers more rest.
With the Cupra Ateca, the power was like an ON/OFF button and I can report -with great joy- that it ain’t the same with the new Tiguan R! The power of the Volkswagen Tiguan R is a lot more doseable. In addition to the better feel of the accelerator, the 7-speed DSG gearbox is set up to be more refined too! What do I mean by that? The gearbox is smooth when you want it to be -in comfort- and eagerly jumps several gears down in Sport and Race when you want it to! If you want to take control in your own hands, the gearbox performs even better (or so it feels)! Driving through a corner at speed, applying the brakes (pretty strong), and jumping two or three gears back: no problem and with some pops and bangs from the exhaust (and the added noise from the speakers inside)! At that moment, you’re thinking to yourself “hey, I’m in a crossover, but it felt like I was cornering in a hot hatch”. Yes, Volkswagen did something amazing to the suspension to make it feel like that. But the new Performance Torque Vectoring will help a hand or two. This system will allow more than only sending the torque to the rear or back, it is possible to send 100% of the torque to the rear outside wheel. That’s what you call: total control!
Then you have the normal use of the Volkswagen Tiguan R. You know, the daily traffic with a little traffic jam here and a frustrated driver there. Our Tiguan R was also capable of doing that stuff too! When you use it in a normal way, the average consumption of 9,1 liters per 100 kilometers is an easy target. That’s just 1 liter off of the 8.1 liters Volkswagen is talking about. So, what other flavors do we have on the drive-selector? Settings for Snow, Off-road, and Off-Road Pro. Driving the car in Belgium at the beginning of May and you can imagine we didn’t see a lot of snow. The “off-road”-settings deliver controlled torque for optimal traction, but with those rims and tires, we weren’t confident to go and conquer some backroads.
Lapiz Blue Metallic
That’s the color you really need on your Volkswagen Tiguan R. A better color for the car just doesn’t exist. It accentuates the sporty, big-mouthed front bumper that shows added black details. The headlights are connecting nicely too that with their LEDs and LED-day running lights with cornering lights. Truth be told, at first glimpse, I could mistake them with a pair of BMW lights. But the strangest thing at the front? The camera is mounted just above the number plate on the license plate holder. I think we will see some owners put a license plate over that camera, maybe even intentionally.
At the side, the whole 4,5 meters of the Tiguan R is revealed. Just like on the front, the Volkswagen Tiguan R is not shy about using a good amount of chrome. It's a little bit too much for my taste again but it looks clean in combination with the 20-inch Misano aluminum rims and the tinted side (and rear) windows. The blue brake calipers and R-logo above the front wheels give away the power that is lurking underneath the hood of our Tiguan R.
The 4 exhaust tips make it a lot easier to recognize the true potential of the Volkswagen Tiguan R. Just like the Volkswagen Golf R (a review soon to come) the four exhaust tips trows out some noise and if you want some more sound then you should take the R-Performance exhaust from Akrapovic for an additional 3.860 euros (BE). The finishing touch, at the rear, is the rear LED lights and the roof spoiler that comes as standard.
A proper gear selector
And not that USB-styled gear knob thingy like the Cupra Leon, Volkswagen Golf GTE and the Porsche 992. Who to the hell invented that nonentity! Around the gear selector, you have all the buttons (real buttons!) for the parking sensors, parking camera, auto-hold, traction control (happy face, launch control) and the drive selection button. Ow, I almost forgot the most important button! The silver one with “start” on it.
The middle console consists of hard touchscreen buttons for the heated seats and controls of the airco-unit. Above that, a full touchscreen that works like a charm. A fast and clear navigation system or the great-sounding Harman Kardon audio system, easily controlled by a touch on the screen or a simple hand gesture. Then moving to the side, the fine steering wheel with the new logo and a lot of touchscreen-style buttons for the cruise control, the heated steering wheel, are showing. A digital dashboard -typical Volkswagen, just like the Volkswagen Arteon Shooting Brake- is hiding behind that steering wheel, but in between the both finally some decent sized pedals. The two things that are bothering us a little bit are the cheap-looking head-up display and the use of a lot of plastic.
In this Tiguan R Volkswagen added the Titanium Black-Blue leather electric comfort seats, no doubt in our mind that we would choose those ourselves above the standard more sporty ones. Although the lateral support is just not enough on the comfort seats to keep up with the power, comfort is more important as it is still a daily driver above anything else. Every child's favorite option, the panoramic open roof, is one they added to the price list together with an “easy open & close”-package, rearview camera, and inductive charging function for your phone.
Volkswagen means a car for the people
But starting at a price of 61.000 euros (BE) and adding more than 8.000 euros of options, our Volkswagen Tiguan R ended up at almost 70.000 euros. Not a car for all people, but for some lucky people. It’s not a cheap car, but it gives so much in return! A car for daily use that can attack every soil and every weather type. As an extra, it can destroy pretty much everything that stops next to it at a traffic light. Did we find the ultimate daddy-car or do we need to continue our search?
