[MR Mark Winter]

Looking at Seats website it seems all Ateca’s are fitted with LED headlights. But do they get better as you go up the range. Would really like the IQ.Light – LED matrix headlights as fitted to some VW’s.  Asked at a dealers and was told they all have LED headlight’s. Nothing more!

Thanks in advance.

Topic

[Chris (Chester)]

Hi Mark

 

We’ve got the new Ateca (Exp Lux) and the headlights are great (had the same on my old Karoq). We live in the countryside and we need good headlights for the back lanes in winter, you will not be disappointed.

We did consider and tested the Tiguan with all the toys (and IQ lights are slightly better) but the whole thing worked out £3,500 more than a fully specced Ateca (sunroof, all the extras etc). For what the Ateca costs, it’s very good value for money! I hope this helps.

Chris

[Markw]

They are all the same, but the coverage is phenomenal I can tell you that.

Currently driving Seat Ateca 2.0 FR Sport TDI 190 DSG 4drive

Mokka E ultimate on order

[Glos Guy]

I have no knowledge of the Ateca whatsoever, but the issue is less about range (all LED lights will be very good for that) but functionality. The iQ lights are fully adaptive matrix lights which, via a camera, ‘read’ the traffic ahead of you. You set your headlights to full beam and then when a vehicle approaches you, or you close in on a vehicle ahead of you, they ‘cut out’ that vehicle from the full beam whilst leaving the spread of the full beam range everywhere else. As the oncoming vehicle passes, or you overtake the vehicle you are following (or it turns off) the zone that has been cut out returns to full beam. It’s quite mesmerising and very clever stuff and is a great safety feature. They do quite a few other things as well. There’s a massive difference between ‘standard’ LED headlights and fully adaptive LED headlights. I have no idea whether the Ateca LED’s are fully adaptive or not, but others will be able to confirm.

Surprised that Chris found the Tiguan to be more expensive. I did a quick check of the standard kit of the Tiguan Elegance versus the top spec Ateca a few months ago and with the sole exception of leather (which is a big omission on the Tiguan and a very expensive option with electric seats at £1,500) the Tiguan Elegance had a lot more kit as standard and some of the things that were missing on the Seat weren’t even available as options. Haven’t got the info at hand now, but well worth doing a detailed spec comparison based upon which features matter to you most.

[Rene]

The Tiguan is only more expensive if leather is a necessity.

As is, the Tiguan Elegance is considerably cheaper (1.5 DSG in both), for the exact same equipment. An Ateca with sunroof is three grand, a Tiguan with the same spec is two and a half – but comes with IQ Lights, which aren’t even an option on the Ateca. Neither is DCC, nor the upgraded “Pro” Navigation, which it sorely needs.

We currently “own” a 1.5 DSG Excellence Lux, and we love it. But our next car, due end of this year, will be a Tiguan Elegance, with DCC and the Pro Navigation. We don’t mind cloth interior (especially since you can get it in a friendly/bright grey, rather than the dark interior of the Ateca), so to us, it’s a no-brainer.

Other than that, go to youtube, type in “vw iq lights” and have a look. Matrix arrays have such a huge advantage over standard LED systems, it’s not even the same league. Especially as someone who lives rural and drives 90% of the time at night with high beams on, i’m sick and tired of blinding myself with the reflection of my high beams off of street signs. Something that does not happen with IQ lights.

[ChrisK]

I’m hoping the Tiguan Allspace comes back as a “Allspace Elegance” next month with the IQ lights as they have another advantage for me because I use an adaption that controls the main beam and in the day the main beam button on the remote control acts as a flasher but at night with headlights on its switches high beam to dipped and dipped to high beam and a few times I’ve inadvertently flashed someone at night only to blind them and myself getting a fist wave. ?

 

 

 

[Author]

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