Five good and bad features on the new VW Tiguan.

The VW Tiguan came to the market with a bang. It’s sharp design, edgy looks and mini spaceship/ transformer aura caught the market’s attention.

We have a full in-depth review in our latest edition of TheMotorist Digital Magazine by Francisco, so I’m just here to tell you five things I enjoyed and found frustrating about VW’s new Tiguan.

The Bad Points

• The 1.4 TSI  comfort line is a great engine, but I just feel for the Tiguan there is not enough power. 92 KWs is not much for a small SUV. The Highline engine will produce 110kw, which will definitely improve the overall drive

• A Manual gearbox in this car isn’t for me; the clutch has very high bite point, and at first, the car can be quite awkward to drive. I also found myself dropping down a gear for more power on many occasions.

• The side door storage has thin slots that drop right into the door, and it’s incredibly easy to lose phones and wallets in that little compartment, and tough to remove them if you have fat hands like me, you can’t get to them while driving either.

• I found that there is a delay in the automatic boot lid when activated via the remote. When using this for the first few times,  I ended up pressing the button on the remote twice, which then causes the boot to go up and down like Nicki Minaj in any one of her music videos- I’m picky here,  but I’m struggling to find bad points

• The Adaptive Cruise Control is a great function, but I discovered that the vehicle does take some time accelerating after a vehicle in front has moved over, it’s only 5 seconds or so, but this feels like a lifetime when half of Durban is up

The Good Points

• The new Tiguan looks fantastic, and I found many people checking this car out. The previous Tiguan did not look great, and it looks like the apple fell very far away from the tree this time. There is even talk that mummy tree had an affair with Mr Oak tree across the garden because the New Tiguan is styled entirely different.

•  The Adjustable Cruise Control I mentioned earlier allows you set distance and applies the brakes when cars pull out in front of you or traffic arises ahead. The Tiguan responded quickly when another vehicle came up head and made highway driving much easier. Usually, I don’t normally use Cruise Control because of the amount of times I have to brake and deactivate it.

• The Active Info driving display is one of my favourite features VW provide. The dashboard is fully digital and can be adjusted to the driver’s preference in regards to what driving data is shown on the display. For example, a driver may want to view efficiency, speed and gear change indicator, tyre pressures, music, navigation and so on.

• Price – The Tiguan I tested had the R-Line exterior package and a bunch of optional extras including premium sound, Metallic paint, Automatic boot lid, app connect, adaptive cruise control, leather seats, composition media, Panoramic sunroof, app connect and the Active Info Display, and LED headlight. You could say the car was pretty kitted out, and the price – R419000. Personally, I feel you get a lot of car for that price.

• I put the 1.4 TSI engine in the bad list, but its small size and performance also have benefits. For example, if you are a soccer mum (or dad). The 1.4 is a great engine for running around in, while also providing decent fuel economy. I would enjoy it more if mounted to a DSG box.

So that is just some of the things I liked and didn’t like about the new VW Tiguan, overall it’s a fantastic car, which will only be made better with 2.0 petrol and Diesel variants. For in-depth driving and lifestyle reviews, check out our digital magazine here.