For once, I find myself agreeing with almost every comment from every poster! Well, perhaps with just a few minor exceptions ?
I agree that bad dealers should be named and shamed but that it can just be down to a poor salesman. We’ve dealt with two different sales people at Heritage VW Bristol. The first was dreadful and the second was was OK. Nothing special, but OK. Heritage Gloucester were dreadful. Had to chase them several times about a test drive and lead times and they never phoned me back. Months later they called me to ask if I was still interested in the Tiguan (presumably they were under pressure to hit a sales target), so I took great pleasure in telling them that I was, but as they couldn’t be bothered to get back to me we had ordered one from elsewhere. Our current Tiguan came from Marshall’s Oxford South. Not local to us, but we went there because of this forum as they were promoting £500 off the AP. Chris and Kit were both lovely guys, but sat on the order for weeks before placing it (build slot allocations presumably) and there was zero communication over 5 months about how the order was progressing. I had to do all the chasing.
Colour choice is entirely subjective, but there are three facelifted Tiguans in our village. A Dolphin Grey, a Nightshade Blue and a silver one. I like silver, but it doesn’t work on the Elegance as the ugly grey plastic side skirts really stand out. As kbfern mentions, if the Nightshade Blue looked anything like it does in the promotional blurb it would be stunning. But it doesn’t. Not even remotely close. In the flesh it’s a dark petrol blue colour that looks more green than blue. It’s OK, but nothing special. The Dolphin Grey one looks best as it completely masks the side skirts. I know that a lot of people on this forum don’t like grey cars, but they do tend to make cars look quite classy, which is why so many drivers of prestige cars (Aston Martin, Porsche, Bentley etc) tend to choose greys. The right grey can look stunning, but I just don’t get this trend for these very pale and flat ‘putty’ greys. Ugly as hell IMHO and can ruin a nice car! As for Ginger Brown (or any other browns) I must confess that I don’t think ‘pensioner’. I call them sh*t browns ?. I agree that the colour choice on the Tiguan is dreadful, as it is with many German manufacturers. The Germans might make the best cars, but they have no imagination with colours.
kbfern – As you are back to the drawing board, can I suggest that you have a look around at what else is available and you might want to read my review of our current Tiguan on the reviews thread. We have had four Tiguans, so are pretty knowledgeable about them. They served a purpose for us but the shortcomings have become too irritating now and our current one is not being replaced with another Tiguan.