Volkswagen Tiguan AD/BW 110TSI Life (2016-2026)

IMPORTANT REVIEW ON VOLKSWAGEN TIGUAN – I thought I was buying a quality brand, and on paper, the Tiguan looks like a really great car, BUT my new Tiguan has been a serious lemon in numerous areas. But being sold a "lemon" is just the beginning of the nightmare. As you will read everywhere on the internet, dealing with Volkswagen and getting them to fix your car's faults is an absolute… Read more

nightmare. Just getting Volkswagen Australia to "respond" has been a nightmare. I'm talking about ZERO RESPONSE to well-documented emails sent to VW Customer Care for over 9 months!!! Hours and hours wasted on the phone too. On one particular day, I spent 4 hours on the phone, and still, I got nowhere! Getting them to actually do something has been infuriatingly difficult beyond anything you could imagine, it just goes around and around in circles. It's now been 2.5 years, and I still have a car riddled with serious unresolved problems. Volkswagen will not take responsibility or make any serious attempts to rectify the numerous issues, some of which seriously jeopardise the safety of myself and my family. Volkswagen talk themselves up but then never delivers on any of it. Volkswagen's whole process is designed to stonewall you every step of the way. It just shouldn't be this hard, and to be frank, it's immoral. Volkswagen say they care, and then refuse to do anything! Volkswagen has been unbelievably bad to deal with, it's a never-ending nightmare that is unnecessarily difficult and extremely frustrating. Here's a summary of faults, followed by Doncaster Volkswagen and Volkswagen Australia's dismal handling of my Tiguan's many faults.... • Tiguan at just 4 months old, goes into "limp home mode" for several minutes, spluttering and refusing to travel more than 40 kmh. This is usually because a "catastrophic" problem has been detected, but later resumed driving normally. • Driving along and my Tiguan suddenly dies and rolls to a stop. (Car was 4 months old) • Despite this complete breakdown, the Tiguan's computer system did not log any faults, errors or breakdowns!!! To any rational person, this would be an obvious indication that something is seriously wrong with the car's electronic system, but not for the people at Volkswagen. If they don't have an "error code" they will not make any attempt whatsoever to fix the problem, despite the obvious fact that there is a problem here. The stupidity of this approach is mind-boggling and beyond exasperating. • Cruise Control and the sensors are outright dangerous. The Tiguan frequently brakes suddenly on freeways and I've nearly been rear-ended so many times. On two occasions, I was nearly rammed from behind by large semi-trailers. It's incredibly dangerous, and puts myself and my family at serious risk. VW claim they care about my family's safety, yet refuse to do anything about the problem. • The Tiguan's sensors continuously loose the plot over absolutely "nothing". You can be stationary with nothing moving around the Tiguan and suddenly all the sensor alarms go off. The Tiguan regularly slams on the brakes when attempting to crossover completely flat driveways. Turning right into a petrol station is risky because sometimes the Tiguan suddenly slams on the brakes as you approach the completely level entrance leaving you stopped in the middle of the road with oncoming traffic breaking to avoid hitting you. • The auto stop/start has left me stranded in the middle of the road for 5-10 minutes on numerous occasions. • The Tiguan's gearbox is dodgy and flounders all over the place. The gear changes are often long and sluggish, and all over the place with poor gear choices. The car frequently refuses to change down a gear when needed, it flounders about and there are long delays as it tries to work out what gear it should be in. The gear box sometimes makes clunky jarring sounds. The car often jerks and lurches. • The Tiguan has tried to take off after a long complete stop in 3rd gear. At the time I was trying to exit a side street and merge with the traffic, but the Tiguan could not accelerate because it was "stuck" in 3rd gear. Cars had to brake hard to avoid hitting me as the Tiguan groaned and limped out in front of the oncoming traffic. So many of the Tiguan's faults regularly put our safety at risk, and yet Volkswagen will not take this fault seriously. • The entertainment unit intermittently dies for about 5 minutes. No music, no navigation, no cameras. • The clock will not hold time and every day it displays a new random time. • The auto parking regularly fails to work, it "finds" a parking spot and then reverses straight past it – not even attempting to turn into the parking spot. • Recently the Tiguan refused to move forward, "the car fought with itself" refusing to rev beyond 1100rpm and at the same time applying the brakes. It was bizarre. I have written multiple well-documented emails to Doncaster Volkswagen, to both the Service Manager and the Dealer Principal, and for over 13 months, I did not receive a single reply – despite follow-up emails. (My IT guy confirmed that the emails were delivered.) Recently, Volkswagen asked the dealership to get in touch with me and apologise twice, and the dealer principal refused each time. Seriously! One time when the Tiguan broke down, I called VW Road Side assist. Unbelievably my call (about 6pm) went through to a message service asking me to leave my details, which I did, expecting a call-back in the next few minutes. VW Road Side assist NEVER called back and NEVER sent anyone - EVER!! All up I have logged 6 or 7 calls to Volkswagen Road Side assist in 2 years. Numerous emails to Volkswagen Australia detailing the above faults are completely ignored. They did not respond for well over 9 months despite numerous follow-ups!

VW Australia's customer service is beyond bad, it is absolutely disgusting. Their whole system is configured in a way that prevents you from getting anywhere. It seems impossible to move beyond the call centre or talk to some at Volkswagen's head office who can actually do something. I've spent an enormous number of hours on the phone to Volkswagen trying to get someone to take some sort of action. The people in Volkswagen's Customer Care Call Centre repeatedly NEVER take any action and NEVER get back to you, over and over again.

My Tiguan is an absolute LEMON, and from where I stand, I believe Volkswagen has been negligent and immoral in their handling of my car's many serious faults. But then again, this is the company that deliberately cheated and deceived millions of their customers around the world with their disgraceful diesel emissions scandal. It appears they haven't learnt a thing about what's morally right, they're still demonstrating the same disdain towards their customers. It's unacceptable. Do yourself a favour and DO NOT buy a Volkswagen. Read the many reviews about how Volkswagen deal with their car's faults and how they handle customer complaints. It's disturbing, and frankly, I would love to see them investigated by the ACCC.

For a mid size SUV it is surprisingly roomy – Purchased this car new and since September 2020 have done 10000 kilometers of rural and city driving. First the good things. I was immediately impressed by the clean lines, cabin spaciousness and quality finish. I am tall and somewhat hefty but ease of entry, head room, leg room and all round visibility is close to best in class. I even had to… Read more

slide the seat forward for pedal reach. The Trendline is a base model but has a quality feel with a classy steering wheel and luxury dash layout expected on more expensive models. It has a surprisingly powerful yet frugal 1.4 turbo petrol engine that is smooth and provides grunt when needed. Its quick off the mark and the 6 speed DSG (double clutch gearbox) changes effortlessly but can become fiddly at lower speeds (more on that below). The steering is direct and confident, suspension stiff giving an almost sporty but somewhat bumpy ride. I haven't tested this with a full compliment of passengers and luggage but for the better part it is genuinely fun to drive and competent. Despite this it has some annoying foibles. Firstly the gearbox for most of the time is quick and precise except when suddenly de accelerating coming into a roundabout or turning with intention to go up an incline. There is a lag which some say is turbo lag but I suspect it is the gearbox needing a few seconds to sort out where its at and undue accelerator pressure can cause rev flareup and FWD spin. I did a 7 hour trip on the Hume Highway with stretches of 110 kph and felt that the engine was looking for another gear. It settled in nicely at 100 kph but couldn't work out why I was consistently being overtaken until a road side speed test confirmed that the digital speedometer over indicates by 5 kilometers (I was really doing 95 kph!) For an extra $1600 it also came with the traffic and park assist package. I don't like it but I realize its not unique to VW. It chimes at the least provocation such as leaving the garage and driving near grass. When engaging cruise control it annoyingly slows down detecting passing vehicles or those way ahead and even detecting overpasses. I tried the parallel park assist twice and had the shock of my life when it lunged backward into the parking space followed by a loud bang when the brake came on. In comparison to past vehicles I find the Infotainment and phone connect wanting. As it doesn't have GPS, I tried use Google Map on Android connect which worked fine until you stopped and then for the next half hour refused to reconnect. In the end I used my $65 standalone GPS. Worldwide VW has produced 6 million Tiguans and 3 million sti engines so you would expect this to be a well though out vehicle which for the better part it is, if only for that DSG gearbox and the tech lets this otherwise very competent car down.

Volkswagen Tiguan Year 2020 - a disappointment – Do not be fooled by Volkswagen and their dealerships (namely Volkswagen Gateway Werribee) when they tell you that the Tiguan Model 2020 has 'Lane Assist', 'Cruise Control', front sensor alert, and other features. The Lane Assist 95% of the time in my vehicle rarely works; the Cruise Control fluctuates between 1 to 3 km up and down; front sensor… Read more

alert only works in my car when I am almost about to hit the car in front of me; the boot is hard to pull down; and one feature that I cannot believe has passed Australian Standards is that the car only has one (left side only) reverse light. Not good. Had purchased the vehicle brand new on Saturday 8 January 2020, had called Gateway Volkswagen Werribee (the dealership where we purchased it from) on Monday 10 January 2020 (two days later) to advise them of the non-consistently working features of the vehicle only to be told to bring back the vehicle on Friday 14 January 2020 (the vehicle not even one week old) to them for testing. After they had the car for the full day, I received a call from their workshop to say that there is nothing wrong with the vehicle. In addition, when I had taken the vehicle to their workshop on that Friday, I was asked to sign a legal document making me liable for parts. Seriously, this is a new car. Gateway Volkswagen Werribee, I cannot believe you actually ask all new car purchasers to sign a legal document that makes the customer liable for any parts, if parts have to be changed after they have just bought a new car not even one week old. Also after reading the legal document, it read like it had been plucked off some website as it referred to the customer's 'servants' - seriously. So now I have a brand new vehicle (one week and 3 days old) that has non-consistently working features. It is like the 'Lane Assist', Cruise Control, etc., are just gimmicky features that are advertised with the vehicle but are simply not to be relied upon. Disappointed with Volkswagen Head Office and Gateway Volkswagen Werribee. If your features do not work that you advertise they have, this is then false advertising. I had asked for a new replacement vehicle or my money back. Still awaiting their response. Watch this space!

21 Feb 2020 - Volkswagen Head Office, not interested and said we will not be given a replacement new vehicle or our money back. We have a LEMON.

Great suv – Liking out latest purchase, cheap to run, has a few luxury features. We are retired now so don’t use daily. Keyless start easy to get used to. Have added a tow bar ready for taking the boat out

Lovely car to drive, would like to see some improvements in the newer models – I drive the car mainly for travel to and from work, school pick up and drop off and any other errands etc that I need to travel around for. I use the car daily, there are very few days that I don't drive at all. Mostly really like this car, the sensors took a little getting used to and I love the reverse camera and birds eye view when parking. I… Read more

have 2 car seats in the back and when it is just the family in the car, this is ample room for all. If we need to put someone in the middle on the backseat, it is very squishy. The navigation system on the car is not as good as the navigation through Google Maps when the phone is connected. The climate control and heated seats are great. Love the screen and the options available. Controls on the steering wheel make it easy when driving. I don't like the engine shutting off when staying still at lights etc as there is a bit of a lag when it starts again, have had this on other cars and when the engine restarts, there is no lag. Otherwise a great car.

New 2018 Tiguan 110 TSI Comfortline – Just picked up our new Tiguan and still coming to terms with all the amazing technology built into it. The safety pack with active info display is incredible - I love having the GPS navigation screen right in the middle of the driving display rather than on the separate console. Lane assist, parking assist (with cameras and sensors all round),… Read more

active cruise control monitoring make this a very safe car to drive. We also got the luxury pack - mainly for the electric seat (my wife is a lot shorter than me) but the electric tail gate is also excellent (and the sun roof is a very nice to have as well). I was a bit concerned that the 110 TSI may not be powerful enough but it has plenty of grunt when needed. So far it has proved to be a fantastic driving experience.