Camping with the new Volkswagen Tiguan

01:22 PM PDT on Thursday, September 4, 2008

The next big thing in SUVs is small SUVs. By now you're probably tired of reading that buyers are shunning large sport utes and migrating to diesel powered hybrids that sip homegrown organic biofuel (I'm kidding, but not by much). These days the only SUVs that are flying off the lot are Small Utility Vehicles, the well known players being CR-V, RAV4, Escape, Forester and Vue. Just in time to capitalize on this market trend is a new offering from Volkswagen called Tiguan.
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Normally I spend a week with a car using it the way any family would - shuttling the kids to sports practices, gathering groceries and fetching Happy Meals. Tiguan though is being pressed into severe duty because we're going camping. This VW is not a big vehicle, it's about the size of Honda's CR-V and we take a lot of stuff on our excursions. Originally the plan was for friends to take our cooler, campstove, sleeping bags and condo sized tent in their minvan. Sadly they had to bag the trip at the last minute, leaving us to haul it all ourselves. For a moment I think about using our personal car then realize if I can wedge all our gear into the Tiguan it saves us 500 + miles of wear and tear on the family truckster. Well, what would you do?

http://www.king5.com/video/index.html?nvid=279285 (Video)
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EnnNorak - 9/7/2008 8:48:09 AM

+1 Boost

My wife wanted a Tiguan but we found that the arm rests on the front door were so high that our elbows were propped up to look like a chicken about to fly. No amount of seat adjustment would remedy this problem. I was also annoyed at the lack of proper struts to hold up the hood while examining the engine compartment. We ended up buying a Passat instead.

Htay7500 - 9/7/2008 10:33:17 AM

+1 Boost

Its a very refined car. Though the interior (design-wise) doesn't look like a VW and the back end is a turn-off. Better looking than the others though. It could use a little more room and mpg and I'd get it over the forester.

Hyundai - 9/7/2008 6:02:37 PM

+1 Boost

The center stack is very un-VW-like. It looks like something out of a Kia..

Everything else I really like, even the back-end. I just would never be able to live with the center stack looking so cheap.

rawbux - 9/7/2008 11:23:36 PM

+2 Boost

That's a good lookin' vehicle!

Hyundai - 9/8/2008 4:55:53 PM

+1 Boost

TurboSpyder: Is that even a question that needs to be asked?