New Tiguan: Dual Use Technology
Visitors of the Geneva International Motor Show will be able to lay their sweaty palms on the facelifted version of Volkswagen’s pocket-Touareg, the Tiguan. The Touareg’s smaller sibling has been a surprising success, with 572,000 units delivered worldwide so far.
Volkswagen prides itself of having “the only SUV in its class that can be ordered in two different versions: one for on-road use and one specially tuned for off-road driving.”
In Europe, the Tiguan can be ordered with one of seven engines, three of them, all turbo-charged four-cylinder direct-injection engines, are new to the trucklet: There are four gasoline engines between 122 hp and 210 hp. Three turbocharged TDI diesel engines deliver between 110 hp and 170 hp. A 7-speed dual-clutch gearbox (DSG) is available as an option.
In Germany, the Tiguan can be bought at an entry-level price of €24,175 ($33,081). Kindly perform your own VAT, purchase power and burger index adjustments.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Do USA car companies wave unavailable products in the face of overseas customers? VW, Audi and Subaru do this a lot to their USA customers. It is as if they are trying to say "Look at how GREAT we are because of these unique products that you CAN'T HAVE!" Frankly, it's boring and annoying. Meanwhile, it's interesting that the Tiguan 4-motion, with its trick DI engine and 6 speed auto, is both slower and has same fuel economy as the Subaru Forester XT using a much older port injection engine and despised (by journalists) 4 speed automatic.
Is there a low gear on that thing? My experience with RAV4 demonstrated that as far as clearance and approach/departure angles it can go on par with the cheaper stocker jeeps easily, without any "mods" like those VW touts. But it had absolutely no climbing ability. It looks to me that VW is trying to deceive buyers.