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You may remember the Volkswagen Touareg, or perhaps you may not. It was a handsome, well-built and seriously capable luxury SUV that was built on the same platform as the Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne, no less. There were two generations of the Touareg, and both were sold in India, but sadly, you won’t see as many of them out on…
You may remember the Volkswagen Touareg, or perhaps you may not. It was a handsome, well-built and seriously capable luxury SUV that was built on the same platform as the Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne, no less. There were two generations of the Touareg, and both were sold in India, but sadly, you won’t see as many of them out on the roads as its cousins from Audi and even Porsche.
That’s because, though cheaper than those two, most Indian buyers still found it too expensive for something with a humble VW badge. It was discontinued in 2014 and that was the start and end of VW’s foray into SUVs in India. Until now.
This is the Volkswagen Tiguan Highline – at the moment VW’s entry-level SUV – until smaller ones arrive in the coming years. It’s also the company’s ticket back into the booming Indian SUV market. Thing is, it’s not a cheap ticket, and certainly not an entry-level SUV by our market’s standards. it is in the same range as seven-seat 4x4s like the Toyota Fortuner and Ford Endeavour, but then, it’s an altogether different offering.
This is where VW’s other characteristic traits of solid build and high tech come into play, and boy, have they done a stellar job here. The dash design, like the exterior, is restrained as ever, but they have experimented a bit with more angles and shapes this time. What’s a little disappointing is the all-black colour scheme for all but the roof lining (which is grey); a bit more colour, even if just for the plastic trim inserts, would have gone a long way. Mind you, the ambience improves drastically at night when the subtle LED ambient lighting comes on.
There’s only one powertrain option – a 2.0-litre TDI diesel engine mated to a seven-speed DSG automatic and 4Motion all-wheel drive. And before you ask, these are VW’s new-generation powertrain components – the EA288 diesel motor (so you needn’t worry about emissions issues) and the DQ500 gearbox (so you needn’t worry about transmission issues).
The Volkswagen Tiguan Highline engine will even decouple itself from the gearbox in Eco mode when you’re coasting to help reduce consumption. The latest-generation Haldex AWD system is permanently active, constantly shifting torque between the front and rear as the situation desires, reverting to FWD under minimal loads, like when cruising out on the highway.
The motor is in a 143hp and 340Nm state of tune for India, which in practice, feels quite adequate for this 1.7-tonne SUV, although once again, at this price point, you simply expect more, or at least a more effortless driving experience. After a slight grumble at startup, the motor settles down to a decently quiet idle, and when you do hear it again at about 2,000rpm, it’s still impressively contained. In fact, it’s so refined that you will notice quite a bit of wind noise around the wing mirrors, even at 80-100kph in Volkswagen Tiguan Highline.
The gearbox is great at getting the Volkswagen Tiguan Highline off the line smoothly and provided you maintain a constant rate of acceleration, it will continue smoothly all the way to sixth and seventh gears. It’s only when you are a bit erratic with your accelerator inputs that it fumbles, sometimes showing a reluctance to upshift or downshift. The solution – press on with a little more authority.
You get a nice surge of power around 2,000rpm, although it feels a lot smoother and more linear than earlier versions of the 2.0 TDI motor. Sport mode (apart from firming up the steering) also locks the engine in the sweet spot of the powerband – around 1,500-3,000rpm – and what’s really impressive is that it revs quite freely, all the way to almost 5,000rpm! Volkswagen Tiguan Highline