30000 km in 3 yrs on my beloved VW Tiguan: Overengineered SUV for India

If you don’t have a problem, then this is a great car. But when you do get a problem, both spare parts and technical competence seem to be in short supply.

BHPian genghis_on_road recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I bought the VW Tiguan Allspace in March of 2021. Since then I have clocked over 30,000 km, driving in Bangalore city as well as road trips around Bangalore. I have thoroughly enjoyed driving this car but my experience has been marred by the persistent issues that I have faced from the first day itself.

Let me start with the driving experience of the car. This is the strongest point of the Tiguan for me.

• Pick-up - The pick-up of the car is very good and after a negligible turbo lag, the car is very responsive. I mostly drive in the ‘Econ’ mode and it works well for everyday use. The car is more responsive in the ‘Normal’ and ‘Sports’ modes. I don’t use the ‘Sports’ mode in Bangalore traffic because then the ride can feel jerky. But when the roads are open, sports mode is good fun.
• Braking – Braking is superb in this car. You will feel very safe driving at high speeds because the straight-line braking is excellent.
• Handling – I love the handling of the car. I have driven a lot in the Western Ghats and the power steering always gives me confidence. The car hugs the curves nicely and is always very stable. The ground clearance has also been more than adequate so far.
• Ride quality – I have found the ride quality to be quite good. It is a bit on the stiff side but very comfortable. A couple of back seat passengers have complimented me on the ride quality of the car. The cabin is very well insulated and noise levels are low.
• Auto Hold – At this point, I would like to talk about a very underrated feature of the car – the auto hold. While the vehicle is waiting at a signal, the driver can lift his foot off the brake pedal and the vehicle will stay in place. You don’t need to keep the brake pedal continuously pressed. You also don’t need to change the gear to ‘Parking’ when you stop at a light. You just bring the car to a halt and it stays like that till you press the accelerator. If you have the Auto Start feature on as well, then the engine will also switch off while you wait. It will also come on the moment you press the accelerator or turn the steering. This is a game-changing feature for city driving where you are constantly stopping and starting. It reduces your work significantly while driving in high-traffic areas. Once you get used to this, it is very painful to drive a car without this feature. I would gladly give the sunroof (and many other features) to get this feature in any car that I own.
• Mileage – City – 8-10 kmpl, highway – 12-13 kmpl (mostly on Econ mode)
• Interiors – The build quality of the interiors is very good. I have had no issues with anything in the last 3 years. There is ample storage in the front and back for bottles, cups, keys, phones and other things.

So far I have only raved about this car. But now let me come to some of the challenges that I have faced.

The day the car was delivered to me, the battery died. Volkswagen changed the battery at no cost but it set the tone for what was to follow. The batteries in the keys also died in the first year and had to be replaced. The wipers also needed to be replaced after 2 years. All of these lead me to believe the car was stored for a long time before selling. They are, however, all minor issues that could be sorted easily.

My larger issue has been with wrong warnings that flash regularly in the car when you turn it on or even while driving. When the warnings come, some of the dashboard icons light up and sometimes an emergency warning is sounded. A voice says “This is an emergency. Please contact the nearest service station’. These disappear if you keep driving. But this happens regularly and is very annoying. I have had Volkswagen look at this multiple times but they have not been able to solve this issue.

A recent issue that happened is even more distressing. I had an accident and needed to get the front bumper and a few other parts replaced. These parts were not available and it took a month to get them from elsewhere. The company’s supply chain is terrible (at least for this model) and I can expect this delay for any replacement part for the Tiguan.

All of these issues are of course specific to my car. I am very curious to know from other Tiguan owners if they have faced similar issues.

There are a couple of other issues that are design issues, and not specific to my car.

The ADAS feature can be very annoying in heavy traffic as all the sensors keep beeping frequently. Imagine stopping at a red light in India. Inevitably a two-wheeler will stop right next to you and because it is too close, the ADAS alarms will go off. There should be a way to turn this off when you are in heavy traffic.

There is an auto-brake feature in the car which is a great safety feature. It will brake the car if it feels you are going to slam into something in the front. Sometimes the feature gets triggered when it should not (especially when the traffic in front is slowing down at a speed breaker). When this feature gets triggered, the brakes slam suddenly and the car stops or slows down dramatically. Firstly this is very disconcerting for the driver and secondly, I fear one of these days it would cause a collision from the rear as the traffic behind me would not be expecting this hard brake.

Overall experience

I have loved driving this car and I look forward to our road trips on it. However, I feel the car is over-engineered for India. There are too many features, some are great, some are buggy in Indian conditions. I don’t think the technical competence required to handle this kind of car is there in the VW India technicians. If you don’t have a problem, then this is a great car. When you do get a problem, both spare parts and technical competence seem to be in short supply.

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