Welcome back. I'm Keith Barry. I'm Steve Alec. And I'm Ryan Pilikowski. And we're going to be talking Tiguan today, specifically the Volkswagen Tiguan, as if there is another one.
So we bought a 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan SE 4-motion. It's a compact SUV. It's redesigned for 2025. And it's in this kind of most competitive segment out there.
So we've got, I mean, these are all the heavy hitters that are making money and selling the cars that you'll see in any parking lot.
Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-5, Mazda CX-50, Nissan Rogue, Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4. These are kind of, this is the bread and butter.
And it's where Volkswagen really needs a car that's going to help themselves.
It's a tough place to be.
It is.
It is.
To go up against the, you know, you can't carve out a niche somewhere. You have to take on the big players.
So we bought one to test for our test program.
It comes with a 201 horsepower 2-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine, an 8-speed automatic, and ours came with all-wheel drive.
The manufacturer suggested retail price was $33,795 for the SE 4-motion, which is pretty, you know, pretty good, especially compared to some of those competitors.
We got some options.
We got a panoramic sunroof.
Prepaid scheduled maintenance was included on ours, which is a dealer thing, I think, right?
And then a first aid kit and roadside assistance kit for $110.
So little tip if you're buying a car, don't get those things.
Just get them from, you know, get it online, order it, because those are upcharged.
Destination fee, $1425.
So our total cost was $36,825.
Final assembly point for the car was in Puebla, Mexico.
So I don't know, we were talking a little earlier about how this kind of feels like Volkswagen getting back to its roots a little bit in terms of, I mean, what's your first impression of this car?
That's exactly how I felt.
I mean, you know, I grew up, I was a teenager in the early 2000s, you know, you had your Jeddas, the Passats, and they were, you know, very well built Volkswagen's.
They build quality was good, you know, fit and finish was nice, it had nice leather in it.
And then it seems like Volkswagen kind of didn't do that recently, but this feels like it got back to that.
And they listened to their customers.
It's stuff like a couple of years ago, they had touch capacitive buttons on the steering wheel.
Everybody hated it, including us at CR.
And they listened, they put real physical buttons back on the steering wheel.
It really seems overall like an effort of Volkswagen trying to recapture their customers or maybe VW loyalists who weren't here the last couple of years because of the change.
I kind of wondered, because I remember when I was, you know, talk about like stereotypes, but I literally missed an OAR concert because my best friend's GTI, the coil pack went on it.
And we had to wait to get it towed.
So you have to have a coil pack in the trunk.
That is like the most 2003 story of all time.
But yeah, but I remember exactly.
But now that sort of the jet is gone, the golf is, I mean, the jet is here, but it's not, you know, kids aren't getting them for their 16th birthdays anymore.
You know, it's a different kind of.
That was an era.
Yeah.
It wasn't that an era.
A lot of my friends had the GTIs or golfs or the beef jet.
That was a good passat.
Yeah.
They were popular, but they like, like you just said, I mean, they were put together like pretty well.
Like they felt like for the money you were getting like a lot of car.
And that was always that Volkswagen thing.
You know, it was pretty solid car for not a ton of money.
Yeah.
And it was something you could get for, you know, obviously most parents weren't buying their kids brand new cars, but the people who did get them, a Jetta was a sensible choice.
But now the, you know, the golf, there's just the golf are, you know, these kind of entry sort of cars aren't there to get you into this.
So this is sort of, I mean, there's the Taos, but this is sort of that car.
This is kind of the, you know, with a small SUV being a new sedan.
This is the new Jetta.
It is.
This is kind of their chance improved with that freshening they just got.
But this is like a grown up version of that.
It really is.
I enjoy driving it.
Yeah.
So you just spent some time, a lot of time in it.
Not a lot.
But I did get to drive it because I hadn't gotten in it originally, but I did get in it.
And the first thing I noticed, like you just mentioned, the first time I sat in it, you never even drove it.
Everything felt kind of nice.
Like there was like, materials were nice around you.
Everything feels pretty good.
I was, maybe I was paying attention to that, but I was surprised by it.
And then driving it, I'll be honest with you.
I liked it.
Yeah.
I think the only downside I saw to it, there's a few hiccups in the transmission.
Yep.
I didn't, I was reading through the logbook.
I didn't get a lot of low speed stuff.
But just some of the shifts just felt like they were hitting a little harder than they should have been.
Other than that, I really enjoyed driving it.
It handles really well.
It's on the CX-5 end of the spectrum for handling, yes, me.
Not quite, but the steering is really, really nice.
Communitive, just fun to drive.
And it feels pretty solid all the whole time.
Some larger bumps, and if there's a repeated section of bumps, it gets a little bit,
it's a little firm underneath, it gets a little bit unruly, but not bad at all.
It's the low speed bumps, I feel like that.
It really comes through.
But when you're traveling fast, it takes cracks pretty well.
Yeah, I was very pleased with it, to be honest.
And then, yeah, they got rid of some of those obnoxious touch-capacitive buttons and whatnot.
There's some actual hard buttons, you know.
That little stuff goes a long way for me, because I can't handle that touch-capacitive stuff.
Especially on steering wheels.
Yeah.
Do you brush it by accident?
I hate that stuff.
And then I don't even know what I changed.
It takes a little while to figure out the car in the first place, but...
Yeah, it's not perfect, but it definitely seems to have...
It's a step in the right direction, if you ask me.
It's interesting, they moved the...
So when I wrote about the debut of this car, and when all we could see were pictures,
and I thought, ooh, I don't like the fact they moved the...
They switched to that kind of weird shifter that they're using on all of the new Volkswagen's,
and they put this big multi-duty knob in the center console that you twist for...
It does triple duty as volume, as sort of driving experiences.
So throttle response, sport mode, that kind of thing.
But then also, there's something which can change in some of the...
Depending upon the trim level, change the ambience of the car
and the colors of the lighting and things in some of the higher level trims.
And I thought, oh, why would you do...
Why would you make something so you have to...
A volume knob should always be a volume knob.
Just by itself.
But I didn't touch it by accident, and it was fine.
And I could figure it out.
There was nothing that made me kind of angry.
So many new cars have.
This is how we evaluate things, though.
How angry did I get?
How angry and frustrating was it?
Did it have a steering wheel on the door?
What is going on?
So it's good to see at least a company going back in the right direction.
I agree with you.
That transmission, I noticed occasionally it was situations where
you're creeping onto a merge that's a yield and not a stop.
So maybe not creeping.
You're coasting a little bit.
You're coasting, exactly.
I'm thinking of the merge from Route 9 onto 95 in Old Lime
where you kind of have to check your...
And then, okay, can I go?
Can I go?
Oh, all right, punch it.
Here's a spot.
There's some construction out by Costco
where there's a real tight turn and you have a short merge.
And I noticed that's when it was kind of the car was like,
what are you asking me to do?
And you got that kind of clunkiness.
A little bit, but not to the extent of reading through the logbook.
But again, maybe you drove it early on.
Sometimes these transmissions actually, they work themselves out.
They use a drive cycle that kind of, they figure themselves out a little bit.
So that could have been part of it as well.
But it wasn't enough for me to be irritated by the car at all.
I was just going to say I'm not a deal breaker.
No, not at all.
I really enjoyed it.
I mean, just going back to like the old Volkswagen used to have like great seats.
I always thought...
Yeah, yeah.
They, and they've lost their way.
This is a great seat.
It is.
The driver's seat I thought was fantastic.
It fit me very well.
You know, one seat doesn't fit everybody, but it fit me really well.
It fits me very well too.
And the armrests, you know, I just drove the Taos as well.
And the armrests were kind of on different planes,
which I don't like.
Well, this one, the Tiguan, you can adjust the center armrests
both forward and backward and up.
So you could put it on whatever plane you want.
Yeah.
And, but I did look at the logbook and that bothered some people
that center armrest.
I don't know why I couldn't figure it out because I loved it.
But again, it's something, you know, you got to test it yourself.
It depends on where your elbow is.
If you sit a little ahead of it, you can bump it.
And I guess it would just sort of flop down.
So people would complain about that, which I get,
which is another reason why go test drive the car.
Yeah, go drive yourself.
Now we're talking about downsides.
There's been kind of a perennial downside
and we have a reliability person right here.
So I think you know what I'm talking about
with the Volkswagen brand in general.
So that's sort of the, you know,
that's kind of that feels like it could be
a potential concern, right?
It could be historically, you know, Volkswagen
as a brand has been toward the bottom of the list.
They're not always the most reliable,
especially new introductions tend to be
less reliable than average as well.
But, you know, that is a blanket statement.
So I guess let's see what the data brings back
regarding this TIG 1.
And it is a tough, like you said, that segment to be in,
to be unreliable in that segment,
going up against the RAV4 and the Forester.
I mean, you really have to have a lot of positives
to be competing with those cars.
And another thing that drives me a little nuts
is that there's no hybrid version.
And I mean, that's kind of a Volkswagen problem.
But there are so many great hybrids now.
This isn't 10 years ago.
This is, you know, the hybrid makes the better car.
The Hyundai Tucson Hybrid is like one of my,
I mean, it gets incredible fuel economy.
It's like one of my favorite cars to drive.
You know, the CX, the CX 50 hybrid
with the Toyota hybrid powertrain.
There's a new Forester hybrid that I saw just parked
out there that we're testing.
So it's really kind of like this versus the Nissan Rogue,
which price-wise, and sometimes, you know,
it seems like it kind of fits a little nicer too.
You know what this car is on paper?
It may not be the best option.
And when you, you know, all the data that we have just said
about reliability and that kind of thing,
you really have to be either a Volkswagen loyalist
or in general want that European feel.
I don't know how to explain it.
The vibe of this car is just different
than all those other Forester, RAV4, CR-V.
And I personally like it better.
I would argue the interior on this is nicer than all of those
in terms of like at least the quality,
the looks of the quality of it
and actually how it's put together, I thought.
Yeah, it's like you walk into a kitchen
and there's no handles in the cabinets.
You're like, oh, this is European.
It's just a different, it's just a slightly different,
you know, it's just slightly different.
Yeah, it's got that sort of minimalist
but not Nordic sort of sense to it.
But reliability thing is the biggest for me.
If you're buying a car in this segment,
you're looking for a reliable car.
I mean, you're looking for a practical, reliable car.
So that's a tough place to be.
I mean, it's sort of a Volkswagen thing.
I don't have any advice for them
other than make everything more reliable.
It's a tough place.
But, you know, the price it is,
it does sort of, you know,
it is a little less than some of the competitors.
I'm sure there are going to be
probably some attractive lease deals on it.
At least if you lease it,
it'll be under warranty the whole time.
If you purchase it and buy it new,
it's under warranty that whole time.
I mean, you still have, you know,
the issue of having to drop it off at the dealership
as opposed to going to work
or going to where you're missing your OAR concert.
I mean, really, how could I, how could,
anyhow, it was really upsetting.
No, I'm actually, yikes, anyhow.
But yeah, so, yeah,
you could miss your hacky sack tournament.
It's just totally.
But yeah, so that's, I think, the key
is to think about that, how much that means to you.
But like you said, I mean, you're the statistician
and you're saying, maybe buy the Volkswagen.
I mean, you know, having driven all of them,
I really do like the Tiguan the best.
And, you know, it's, again,
not the best choice on paper
from a reliability perspective
and many other metrics,
but I just straight up like the vibe of this car better.
Yeah.
It means a lot to me to have nice fit and finish
and get built quality.
I agree.
I agree.
I think the next closest, I think my choice,
even though I praised the Tucson hybrid,
I think the CX-50 hybrid would probably be the kind of,
the step a little, you know,
it sure it doesn't feel as kind of taut inside
for whatever reason.
Like if you, I always notice in a Volkswagen,
you get inside and you snap your fingers
and it kind of has an echo.
Just because everything's just the tolerances,
everything is just kind of.
A lot of hard surfaces.
Yeah, well, yeah, exactly.
A lot of surfaces that don't look cheap for some reason.
Right, yeah.
But I like the CX-50.
You get the hybrid drivetrain.
You have a Toyota drivetrain.
You have that still a little bit of sportiness,
better fuel economy, the price is all right.
That would be my choice in this segment.
What do you think?
This is a hard one for me
because I enjoy driving this a lot,
but I think I'd still go CX-5
just because of the reliability
and it's, it is super fun to drive.
So, I give them,
I give them a lot of credit
what they did with this car though.
I think they were definitely taking a step
in the right direction
and I hope they keep doing that.
I also hope they can bring that reliability
to me in two or three years.
I know.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah.
And then they'll probably raise the price.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, yeah, I guess it's just sort of a,
be a little cautious.
If you want to learn more about the Tiguan,
you can head over to CR.org.
Some other content there that you can check out.
And you can read about all those other cars
we talked about too.
So it's time for questions now.
Questions that you sent to CR.org
slash Talking Cars.
And our first one is from Gerald from
Westchester, New York.
Gerald asks us,
recently I've been addicted to watching
car crash dash cam videos
and it got me thinking
if you're pressing the horn
in the event of an accident
would the airbag still deploy?
If the airbag deploys,
wouldn't the hand or arm obstructing
the airbag deployment result in serious injuries?
If pressing the horn prevents the airbag deployment,
then wouldn't this eliminate the benefits
of having the airbag?
In either scenario,
it seems like pressing the horn is a bad idea.
I want to get your insight
as my natural reaction is to press the horn.
First, Gerald,
I'd just recommend that maybe,
you know,
maybe watch some videos of like cute animals.
It just might,
it just might make your life a little...
There's more oblique stuff out there.
Yeah, just kind of, you know,
titrate it.
Put a little, you know,
one, you know,
one baby deer frolicking
and one car crash dash cam video.
That's especially some of those Russian ones
are, yikes.
Yeah, so anyhow,
so we looked into this.
We found a couple of, you know,
there actually haven't been like studies.
Right.
But if you remember when airbags first came out,
a lot of cars would have,
and some of this is because they couldn't figure out
how to get the horn pad on there.
And other times it was for this very reason.
You'd have the little horn buttons on the side
or in some cars that have it on the top
of the turn signal.
And people would be,
I remember my dad driving his 93 Chevy Corsica.
It was his first car with an airbag.
Someone would cut him off
and he would just punch the airbag.
My SOP 9000 had the, you know,
had the buttons.
Exactly.
Those are fun because you could do do do do.
You know, you can do the instrument.
Yeah.
Exactly.
But it brings up a really good,
it brings up a really good question.
All I could find was just some articles
that talked about people who, you know,
they broke a thumb,
they broke a hand,
they got a laceration,
you know, they're wearing jewelry
and it cut them when the airbag went off.
But I didn't see anything about
extremely serious injuries.
But that's what the whole airbag
is supposed to prevent, right?
Yeah.
Well, yeah.
I mean, if you've ever had the
unfortunate chance of having an airbag come out,
I have, but not a steering wheel airbag.
It was actually a whole side curtain airbag.
But it's an extremely violent event.
It's a pyrotechnic canvas bag
that inflates rapidly in milliseconds
before your head hits the steering wheel
in a crash, right?
You should look up slow motion videos
of safety stuff,
watch, you can see how an airbag comes out,
whatever, how it works.
But however, it's designed to save your life,
not your limbs.
There's going to be some collateral damage
sometimes, right?
I mean, if your hand's in the way,
it's going to come out,
it's going to hit you in the face.
Broken limbs, things like that can happen,
but you're alive.
Hopefully, that's the point of it, right?
I mean, the airbags,
like when that one came out on me
on the side,
I had a sweatshirt and a jacket on it.
It was like in the spring,
so it was fairly cool out.
I just last like burns under my jacket
from it coming down.
That's how rapid this thing comes out,
and it's not this, you know,
airbag sounds like this fluffy, soft thing,
and it's really, yeah, it's like
an aggressive canvas bag.
It comes out and it's very,
it can burn you,
it can do a lot of things.
So your hand's across the steering wheel,
arms across the steering wheel,
and it comes out.
Yeah, you're going to get hurt.
That's going to hurt.
But you'll survive.
But that's the point,
it's keeping you alive.
The important stuff,
your head and your chest,
that stuff.
It's interesting,
because they have taught in driver's ed,
you know, when I learned,
it was 10 and two,
and it was hand over hand turning.
And now I think it's different
for performance driving, right?
Well, you still, yeah,
you still do that,
but if you're driving an actual race car or something,
you don't have an airbag in the first place, right?
But I thought it was interesting
that they're teaching them shuffle steering.
We were talking about this.
That's interesting.
Because they don't want your hand crossing.
Now, if your horn is your last chance
to tell someone,
you don't say,
oh, I guess I'm just going to get hit.
You know, the horn is there
to warn other drivers and to stop.
So if it's your last chance to say,
hey, stop or hit the brakes or whatever,
it could be, you know,
if the driver's not paying attention,
it could be enough
to get them to hit the brakes,
maybe not, you know,
reduce the severity of the crash.
Sure.
So don't not hit the horn,
unless you're driving by my house
at like four o'clock in the morning,
in which case, please don't hit the horn.
But yeah,
exactly.
You might get a little injury,
but the airbag still is going to save your life.
Just drive safely, right?
Yeah, drive safely.
And I hope those videos do kind of,
speaking at Driver's Ed,
did you grow up with the Driver's Ed
where they made you watch
like the gruesome videos
that would probably be, like,
not allowed on, like, TikTok?
Yeah, just trying to scare you.
Yeah.
I don't remember that.
I remember just getting in a car
and driving around town.
Yeah, no, we had to watch.
I remember Mr. Patrikus sat us down
and we had to watch these videos
and they were, it was,
it was pretty, it's somewhat stuck with me.
It scares some safety into you, right?
Yeah, although I think the people
who were scared by them
were the ones who were going to drive safely anyway.
Right, yeah.
The ones who weren't, they were like,
cool.
It's like maybe, nope,
that's not what it's supposed to be.
All right, so Mellick from Tennessee
has a question and asks,
I'm in the market for a family SUV.
I'm a dad of three tall, active kids.
And when I say tall, I mean tall.
For instance, my oldest just turns
13 and is already six feet tall.
We spend a few weeknights
at the local hockey rink,
lugging equipment and travel
out of state to hockey tournaments
a few times a month.
My spouse and I have decided to have
another child in the next few years
growing our family from five to six.
I want a vehicle that can comfortably
accommodate our growing family
and our lifestyle for years to come.
What vehicle do you guys recommend?
Easy for me.
Yeah?
Yeah.
What do you say?
Wagonier.
Wagonier.
That's my favorite car in that segment.
We've had, we've tested all of them
and everything about that,
that I just love driving.
He didn't, now I want to say,
he didn't mention that one of his criteria
was reliability.
Okay.
Or you know, anything like that.
If reliability is, then I don't know,
maybe look at some other options.
He doesn't give a price point either.
But he doesn't give a price point either.
But like without much information,
that's my favorite car in that segment.
Yeah, hockey ain't cheap.
So you might want to be saving some money.
Yeah.
You could throw all the hockey stuff in the back.
You can fit everybody in the car.
I got to say the tallest family I know
who have tall kids
and also play sports, everything else.
Kind of the only thing that works.
I'm going to go on the same sort of route
as you is a full-size SUV.
Yeah.
And I personally, I like the Expedition.
Folks I know have the GM version of the,
you know, they have the Suburban, the Tahoe.
That kind of full-size SUV
is kind of, because no matter what,
even with a minivan,
even with something like the Palisade
or the Telluride,
when you've got all three sets of seats up,
there's not that room in the back.
Right.
And that's the thing.
It's the stuff that's the problem.
Yeah.
Exactly.
I should specify, yeah, wagging your L,
because then you have all three seats up
and you could put a bunch of stuff in the back.
Exactly.
So everyone gets their own row, basically.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What do you think?
So I have some thoughts on this, okay?
Oh, yeah.
Ask our resident tall person.
Well, we have a list of, like, you know,
vehicles for tall people, right?
But, you know, he's listing all these kids
that are tall,
and then they're gonna lug all this gear around.
So you want something like, you know,
but you guys are mentioning, like,
body-on-frame SUVs, right?
Something like the Grand Highlander.
Oh.
Has a ton of room,
especially leg room,
because it's a unibody style car,
meaning when you have these body-on-frame
trucks, that floor is real high.
And sometimes that third row is actually not that,
it's not as big as you think,
because the floor is up real high.
With the unibody cars, you can kind of,
the way they're designed,
you can kind of get down lower
with your feeding position and stuff.
So something like the Grand Highlander,
I thought had a ton of room.
Even in the third row,
you can put on a full-size adult.
However, you lose some of that cargo capacity
where, like, you have a suburban,
you have that extra thing right behind that, right?
But the difference between parking
and owning a certain suburban
and a Grand Highlander
are much different.
So something to look at
when you are going towards a vehicle
of that size,
don't automatically assume
that those big SUVs
have that much more room in them.
It might be a little overkill,
you know, fuel economy-wise,
all that stuff.
And there's a Grand Highlander hybrid,
back to hybrids.
Right, yeah.
If you're going to those hockey tournaments
out of state,
you're gonna,
getting like 17 miles a gallon
is gonna add up.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
So, I'm always a,
I'm a suburban Tahoe guy.
I always like those.
But I would just credit taking a peek
at something like a Grand Highlander,
for sure.
Well, take it from the tall person.
Yeah.
It is reliable.
It is reliable, yeah.
Yeah.
Okay, maybe you're right.
I really put a buzzkill on that.
I love the wagon here,
but I love it because I don't own it,
you know.
Yeah, correct.
I mean, that is true.
It's just,
I never thought about that side of it, too,
you know,
how much it fits,
the Grand Highlander
fits tall people in the back.
Yeah, it's super roomy.
Yeah.
However, you don't,
you don't have that extra
in the very, very back
because a lot of times the third row
in those smaller,
full-size SUVs,
it takes up that cargo space a bit.
Yeah.
So, worth looking at.
Yeah.
And when all else fails,
Van, some sort.
Well, honestly,
a minivan makes the most sense, okay?
It really does.
They have a ton of room,
but it's a minivan we know.
They just make the most sense
for hauling people and things.
I would have said the Carnival Hybrid,
but he specified
in the market for a family SUV,
so that's the reason I didn't, yeah.
Some of the Hybrid you got to watch,
you do lose some floor space
because of the batteries in the back,
so you got to kind of pay attention to that.
Yeah.
But just go drive them.
Go check them out.
And the Sienna, unfortunately,
seems to be,
it's always on our list of the cars
that are the worst deals
because they're in such high demand
that they're selling for at
or above MSRP.
Yeah.
It's always on that list
on CR.org.
It's like, it's always,
always up there.
Just raise the price.
Yeah.
Anyhow, well, good luck.
And safe travels and good luck to the team,
for the hockey team.
Yeah.
Right there.
That's pretty cool.
If you have a question,
are we still giving out swag?
We are still giving out swag.
So we're still giving out,
you can get some talking cars,
CR branded things
if we feature your question.
So more stuff to carry in your new SUV.
I promise it'll be small.
So send those questions to CR.org
slash talking cars.
If we answer it,
you get an answer and some stuff.
So thanks so much for talking cars.
If you want to learn more
about the cars we talked about today,
head to CR.org.
We'll talk again later.
About this episode
The 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan SE 4-motion is under the spotlight as the hosts discuss its redesign and competitive positioning in the compact SUV market. With a 201-horsepower turbocharged engine and a price point of around $36,825, the Tiguan aims to regain Volkswagen's reputation for quality. The hosts appreciate the return of physical buttons and overall build quality, while noting some transmission hiccups. They debate its reliability compared to competitors like the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, ultimately expressing a preference for the Tiguan's European feel, despite concerns over long-term reliability.
Our experts share their first impressions of the 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan. We break down Volkswagen's latest improvements, explore how the Tiguan stacks up in the crowded compact SUV segment, and explain why its redesign gives it a more refined, "grown-up" feel. Plus, we answer your questions about airbag deployment and recommend the best vehicle for a tall, traveling hockey family.