When VW introduced the revised 2018 Tiguan, I said it should appeal to a wider audience thanks to the addition of a third row of seats.
That forecast has proven true with Tiguan sales up, while VW sales overall are down slightly for the first six months of the year.
After that makeover, the Tiguan entered the 2019 model year with minimal changes.
There is some difference in feature availability but nothing you can see or put your fingers on.
The main attraction continues to be the amount of space for people and cargo compared to the competition, in particular the availability of that third row.
There may not be much room back there, but there are seats and belts for that occasional need.
The new Tiguan is based on the corporate MQB modular platform that serves beneath a variety of other VW family vehicles (Audi, SEAT and Skoda).
The scalable nature allows the company to vary wheelbase, track width and other base points. For the Tiguan, it comes in two wheelbase lengths. We only get the longer version in North America.
The front and rear wheels are 18-cm further apart, with most of that extra length given to rear seat legroom.
Overall length is up by 27 cm with much of that appearing aft of the rear doors — making room for a tiny third row of seats and/or a very large cargo compartment — 58 per cent larger than the previous generation Tiguan!
The interior is pure Volkswagen, functional, driver-focused and modern. The driver faces an oblong display area with a pair of round dials for engine and road speed flanking a configurable display.
The centre stack has a 20-cm infotainment display atop the HVAC controls — three large round knobs, thank you. The infotainment system, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, is simple to use and the Fender audio system on the test vehicle provided crystal clear sound with very good depth.
Thanks to that longer wheelbase, there is lots of leg room in the second row, especially when in its rearmost position. The third row is best left for occasional use by small or supple passengers.
Cargo space is less than impressive with the third row in place. Fold it down and things become much more spacious.
The second-row seats are split 40 / 20 / 40. With the centRE folded down, I was able to transport a long object, along with two child seats.
Hats off to the interior design team for providing space under the cargo floor to store the retractable cargo cover, rather than leave it behind or resting atop everything.
The ride quality is comfortable, but would probably be better with the 18-inch wheels on lesser trim levels. The low-profile 19-inch rubber on the tester made the ride a bit brittle on poorly maintained surfaces.
The Tiguan is powered, relatively, by VW’s excellent, turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine. But it has to cope with two tons of vehicle and the result is a rather slow rest to 110 km/h time approaching 10 seconds.
The 4Motion all-wheel-drive system takes the worry out of winter. A knob on the console allows the driver to select from four modes: On-road, snow, off-road and custom off-road.
The new Tiguan manages to stand out in a very crowded field thanks to the availability of a third row and the amount of room in the second.
The specs
Model: 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan Highline 4Motion
Engine: turbocharged, 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, 184 horsepower, 221 lb.-ft. of torque, regular fuel
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
NRCan rating (litres/100km city/highway): 10.6 / 8.7
Length: 4,701 mm
Width: 1,839 mm
Wheelbase: 2,790 mm
Weight: 1,713 kg
Price: $39,575 base, $43,580 as tested, plus freight
Competition: Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson, Mazda CX-4, Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4
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