2012 Volkswagen Tiguan Pros and Cons at TrueDelta: Why a Tiguan? by ForceFed84

Warranty, maintenance cost

Basic warranty, but extendable up to 100k miles through 3rd party. A big plus for me is the no maintenance cost for 2 years.

Powertrain performance

The 6 speed triptronic paired with the 2.0L TSI engine is great. Smooth power delivery, pulls very well from 2,000rpm all the way to redline. Took a few weeks for the transmission to stop shifting so early in to 6th at low speed but the computer seemed to have figured it out.

Fuel economy

For a small crossover/suv its pretty good. Went on a 400 mile round trip to the mountains (5,500ft elevation) for the weekend and back (2,00ft elevation) and averaged 26mpg. Day to day driving I get about 25.5mpg without trying to be conservative.

Handling

The 2012 tiguan handles great, when the online reviews said it drove like a GTI I didn't believe them. But take a AWD Tiguan through a nice twisty mountain road and it's a fun car to drive. The haldex awd system works great in the snow, I'd almost say driving in snow is fun now if it weren't for the other drivers out there.

Reliability & durability

Ive had no issues with my tiguan, after 16,000miles in one year and plenty of abuse such as hundreds of redline shifts in 1,2,3rd gear and taking it on quite a few deeply rutted mountain roads. It still has no issues, squeaks or rattles. Everything is like the day I bought it.

Exterior styling

Plain conservative exterior styling

Cargo capacity

I bought this car hoping to pull a pop up camper trailer or a pair of jet ski's but it turns out that between buying the right kit and getting it wired and then programed into the car. Its an expensive and time consuming endeavor for a vehicle that can only tow 2,000lbs.

Dealer practices

The only reason why I'll probably never buy a VW again is because of the dealership. The cost and the length of time of repairs is ridiculous.