Each to his own of course, I have the SEL Tiguan with the 190 engine and the DSG 7 speed box, in 2wd format, and I find the performance more than adequate , and in my honest opinion ( as a former 5x Volvo XC AWD driver of over 450,000 miles ) it seems to have a better, smoother ride than any of my previous SUV’s, and better than my mate’s BMW X1 , 2 L. Petrol 4×4 or another mate’s Disco Sport , and I have recently driven a 21 m. old Evoque 4 door and in my opinion, the Tiguan has a better ride and appears to be considerably larger inside and with the opening panoramic roof , certainly is very much brighter inside?
The performance is perfectly adequate for most people, although it does take a fair bit of downward pressure on the accelerator to get the best out of the car, and sports mode does not provide the same sort of response I am used to in the Volvos, but using the paddles on the steering wheel usually provides an instant response for overtaking etc!
As far as the dynamic headlights are concerned, they did seem a bit sluggish to react to oncoming traffic at first, but I had the dealer take a quick look, and I rarely have a problem now!
I don’t have leather seats in this car, but the plus side to that is that the heated seats work almost instantly, and frankly are too hot on the 3 setting for both of us.
I have had four XC Volvos and a V60, all with heated leather seats, and from memory, they took longer to heat up than in the Tiguan.
The electrically adjustable lumbar control on the driver’s seat as well as the electric massage function have been used a couple of times, and there is a lot of seat adjustment available.
The adaptive cruise is much much better than normal cruise, especially on the motorways, and when linked with Lane control, and driver alert and emergency assist its almost like your just monitoring the systems ( almost, but not quite ) .
However, neither the SatNav nor the reversing camera are anywhere near as good as those on a Qashqai that I had for 18 months, but the sliding reclining rear seats are very very handy when needing a bit of extra room in the boot, and even when in the forward position leave adequate leg room for most people
I still haven’t used Park assist , but it should be ok when I get around to using it- it certainly worked fine when I tested it a couple of times.
The full auto tailgate is an absolute must in my opinion – well worth the extra payment, I would say.
Btw, I have now covered 19000 miles in 29 months & I’m getting around 48 -52 touring mpg and around 38 mpg overall, but I use sports mode more often than not.
If I can, I will extend the lease to 5 years, or until the new Skoda Enyaq iv ev comes onto the list, “at the right AP”?