VW Alltrack SE

While I don't own the Alltrack, I do own a 2015 GTI which uses the same excellent MQB platform which is terrific and is shared among many of Audi and VW's recent offerings. I also had a 2012 Sportwagen TDI, which I loved but sold back to VW because of dieselgate. I considered a new Alltrack when I sold back my Sportwagen, but I didn't want another payment and wanted something a little faster - and the Alltrack had literally just hit the market at the time and were hard to find.

Couple of thoughts.......

Reliability......
Lets get this out of the way.... My sportwagen was my first VW after coming from years of worry free Honda/Acura ownership. Recent VW/Audi has made great strides in reliability, but they simply aren't as carefree as Toyota and Honda. They are a bit more demanding in regards to maintenance and you need to use the specified fluids/parts at the specified intervals. No pushing intervals. I've had no maintenance issues on either VW, but plan for a bit more involved maintenance, but you get a better driving experience..... that is the tradeoff. VW has been using the small inline turbo engines for awhile and they have evolved into very reliable engines after a few isolated issues 10 years ago.

Design........
This is where VW stands out a bit for me, personally. The crossover SUV's are all starting to look alike and they mostly have bad poor rear visibility and arbitrary lines on the exterior. VW keeps a very rational exterior design vocabulary, with big windows and great visibility in their wagons, mixed with very clean, crisp lines. The interiors follow a very similar clean vocabulary and use very high quality materials. Many of the crossovers have crazy arbitrary lines on the interior and cheap plastics. VW is also great at carving a lot of space out of a small package. You will find that these have nice sized back seats.

Performance..........
Compared to the typical crossover SUV, the lower Alltrack wagon will get better mileage and also handle much better. SHHH, my GTI easily exceeds the rated highway mileage, just like my TDI did. Sportwagon's are simply very fun car's to drive. You might think about just going with a Sportwagen if you don't need the AWD. The 1.8 has decent power, and you can safely add a stage 1 tune and boost the power a bit for about $500 and sacrifice very little in reliability.


The issue with sporty wagon's is that VW simply doesn't have any peers to the Sportwagen. There are German/Swedish compact wagons that cost $15k more and have less space, and there is the Outback, which is a good car, but a larger, heavier car and isn't as much fun to drive. The Acura TSX wagon was a very good alternative, but they were discontinued. You can still find lightly used versions out there, so you might consider this option.

I pretty much agree with Dnslater, we have owned VW's and they have been pretty reliable to own. The key is Maintenance. As Dnslater indicated it's more involved on the maintenance side but a better Driving experience.
We owned a Passat VR6 and now we have a 2012 V6 Touareg and since it's my Mom's I always make sure it's maintained and follow the schedule. Always liked VW for its quirks. The Alltrack based on reviews is good. You can always get the extended warranty for peace of mind.

Used to own a 2007 Rav4 V6 Sport model, I sold it after 4 yrs . The only thing good about it, is the engine, it's a sleeper in that guise. I call it a TIN CAN, you just touch that thing it gets dented, all hard plastics, road noise, seats aren't that comfortable for long trips and Driving Dynamics pretty much suck. I test drove the new Rav4 out of curiosity, there is an improvement but DD is still meh. Told my wife wife, that is my first and last Toyota. Again this is based on ownership and my opinion. Leased a 2012 Murano and now a 2015 and its Night and Day difference. After my 2015 lease I'm going back to a German make. Life is too short not to enjoy driving :).

Regards..

I hope the Regal wagon makes it here next year, but I will believe it when I see it. They are saying end of this year, but we haven't even seen one with a Buick badge on it yet. Looks awesome though.

I believe the Regal TourX is coming, but I'm personally disappointed that we're only getting the pseudo-SUV (like the Golf Alltrack) and not the regular wagon.

Do you need an AWD vehicle? If not, the Golf SportWagen (FWD) is about 300lbs lighter, $3500 less expensive and gets 3mpg better fuele cconomy overll.

An interesting alternative, especially if styling and interior design/quality are high on your list, is the Mazda3 5-door. It actually has slightly more interior space than the VW SportWagens and is equal or larger in most dimenisons (legroom, headroom, etc.). Just tossing it out there because a very nice 2017 Mazda3 Touring 5-door can be had for around $19k or the Touring 2.5 (within has the 184hp 2.5L engine vs. the 155hp 2.0L) for under $20k.

The earlier recommendation of the Acura TSX SportWagon was also a great suggestion. They were made from the 2011 to 2014 model years, although 2014 was a short model year and there are very few of them out there.