2013 Volkswagen Tiguan: You Better Shop Around

It's safe to say that Canadian drivers have enjoyed a long love story with the Volkswagen Golf, so when it came time for VW to join the compact crossover party what better platform to borrow than that which underpins the popular hatchback?  Enter the 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan, a vehicle which follows the standard formula of stuffing extra ground clearance underneath a smooth-riding chassis bulked up with muscular styling to create an urban runabout with a modicum of foul-weather acumen.

Volkswagen's strong reputation with the Canadian crowd is admirable, but the Tiguan finds itself fighting for attention in a saturated small crossover market.  Are the attributes that have made the Golf such a winner still appealing when the starting price jumps by $5,000?  And can the Volkswagen hold its own when compared against recently revised family haulers from Toyota, Honda, and Ford?

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A Simple Touch

The 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan straddles the line between stylish and simple both with regard to its exterior design and its comfortable passenger compartment.  Pleasant creases and smooth curves grace the front and sides of the crossover, while a relatively unadorned cargo hatch dominates the rear.  The Tiguan's grille is plain in the way of the recent Jetta sedan, but when seen in profile the crossover exhibits a vitality that several of its more awkwardly practical competitors can't quite claim.

Inside, the Highline trim of my test vehicle delivered heated leather seats, automatic climate control, a navigation system, and the kind of premium feel that VW has become so adept at instilling in its small automobiles.  The R-Line package that came with the Tiguan I drove added a flat-bottom sport steering wheel (in addition to special 19-inch alloy rims and smoked tail lights) and a dated navigation and entertainment system that unfortunately exhibited VW's slow-poke load times.

Passenger room in all four positions was excellent, although I would not have wanted to spend any significant amount of time riding in the middle of the rear seat.  A panoramic sunroof that ran from stern to stem let significant light into the cabin and helped it to feel bigger than what its compact dimensions initially suggest.  What most impressed me about the Volkswagen Tiguan's interior, however, was its cargo room.  At 1600 litres, it's only about 300 litres bigger than that offered by the Golf, but using the crossover to help a friend move house revealed just how practical the Tiguan could be with the rear seat folded forward, as its squared-off passenger compartment swallowed box after box and was easy to load and unload.  Keep in mind, however, that this total volume is well off the pace of rivals like the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CR-V.

Steady And Nimble

Like the GTI edition of the Golf, the 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan comes with a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that is turbocharged to provide 200 horsepower and 207 lb-ft of torque.  A six-speed manual transmission is offered as standard equipment, but my tester featured the optional six-speed automatic.  The autobox combined with the Tiguan's relatively porky curb weight meant that acceleration from the crossover was acceptable, but not exceptional, especially on the highway when the motor had to work extra hard to pull off a passing manoeuvre.  Handling, however, was much better than I had anticipated, and in combination with the Tiguan's comfortably-sprung chassis the crossover was great for tooling around town.  All-wheel drive is standard with the Tiguan, and while I didn't get the chance to ford any streams with the crossover there is no doubt that it would turn in the kind of winter performance that is so important in this class of vehicle.

A Question Of Value

Getting back to the crux of the matter: how much is a taller Golf really worth to you?  The 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan forces would-be shoppers to make some tough decisions when it comes time to equip the compact crossover.  At $24,990 for a base Trendline model, the Tiguan is roughly $3,000 costlier than the more efficient Escape, and about $1,000 more expensive than the larger RAV4.  The gap becomes a chasm, however, when moving up to the all-wheel drive Tiguan's Highline trim and its $37,440 starting price.  It's actually impossible to build an all-wheel drive Toyota RAV4 - even with a full slate of options - that comes within $2,000 of the Highline's MSRP, and once the Escape has made it up to that lofty level it comes with a host of high-tech features such as automatic parking and SYNC that the Volkswagen simply can't match.  The $5,000 worth of options that came with the Tiguan I drove pushed its sticker well north of $40,000, which is nosebleed territory for a non-luxury 'ute.

Budget-minded crossover buyers will have to avoid many of the features that give the Tiguan its high class feel if they want to be able to stay on the right side of the $30k mark when ordering this family hauler.  Otherwise, it's hard to justify spending so much cash in the face of so many well-rounded alternatives that are cheaper, larger inside, and much more frugal at the fuel pump.