2024 Volkswagen Tiguan Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The new Volkswagen Tiguan looks good. From the outside, it’s easy to understand why many would consider this German crossover more premium than its non-European rivals, even if apples-to-apples feature comparisons don’t in fact bear this out. The VW Tiguan just appears to be more designed than similarly priced Japanese options in the compact SUV class.

LED headlights and taillights are standard, and an illuminated grille light line embellishes the front end on the range-topping Highline R-Line, which is what we tested. That meant our car also had the silver roof rails; they are black at the Trendline, Comfortline, and Comfortline R-Line trim levels. The rear end centres the model name in fashionable all-caps style, though it also features the classic Volkswagen badge.

The Trendline trim is only available in grayscale colours: you cannot even choose to pay for an alternative on the base Tiguan. On higher trims, more colourful blue and red options become available, along with all-black, black and hazelnut brown, and black and grey interior colourways.

The base Tiguan Trendline comes with heated front seats and cloth seating surfaces. Moving up to the Tiguan Comfortline adds eight-way power driver’s seat adjustability and leatherette upholstery, in addition to a power tailgate. The R-Line trims, offered in Comfortline and Highline, get a panoramic sunroof. Finally, the Highline R-Line upgrades to real leather and adds front-seat ventilation, a heated steering wheel, and three-position driver’s seat memory. It also adds eight-way power adjustability to the front passenger’s seat and heated outboard rear seats.

The 2024 Tiguan comes standard with a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine that produces 184 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque. This is paired with an eight-speed automatic transmission—not one of the near-ubiquitous continuously variable transmissions (CVTs). In Canada, Volkswagen’s 4Motion all-wheel drive (AWD) is standard equipment. Fuel economy ratings measure up at 10.6 litres per 100 kilometres in the city, 8.0 on the highway, and 9.4 combined in non R-Line configurations and 10.9 L/100 km city, 8.1 highway, and 9.7 combined for the R-Line trims.

Our experience behind the wheel of the Tiguan Highline R-Line was a bit of a mixed bag. Power delivery felt inconsistent, with both the turbo and the transmission lagging behind the driver’s inputs in some acceleration scenarios. The gas pedal felt touchy even in Eco mode, which in many vehicles smooths out throttle mapping. The brake pedal, meanwhile, has a lot of travel, making it poorly matched with the accelerator. We found the steering to be light and a tad rubbery: it provides increased resistance as the wheel turns, just as you would hope, but it also feels over-eager to spring back to centre. However, visibility and handling were both good, which helped to make the vehicle feel smaller and more maneuverable than we might expect for its size. Road noise was not excessive, and the ride was comfortable enough that only the seating surfaces themselves, and not the suspension, drew complaints from our passengers.

The seats in both rows of our top-trim test car were very firm. But why, you might ask, is it “both rows," given that the Tiguan can seat seven? In Canada, the third row is an $800 extra-cost option on all trims. The trade-off of omitting this option is more interior space that can be dedicated to luggage or gear. The two-row Tiguan allows 1,064 litres of cargo space with all seats in place, or 2,078 litres with the rear seats folded down. In the three-row Tiguan, this drops to 340 litres behind the third row, 934 litres with it folded, and 1,849 litres with only the front seats in position.

Though cargo space suffers in the three-row configuration, passenger space is hardly affected. Every 2024 Tiguan provides its driver and front passenger with up to 1,006 millimetres of head room and 1,021 mm of legroom. The second row cedes more than a half centimetre of legroom to the third if equipped, dropping from 983 to 924 mm. The minimal impact on space for passengers further up-vehicle shows in the third-row dimensions: with just 858 mm of headroom and 708 mm of leg room, it’s significantly tighter. Significantly tighter, in fact, than the back seat of a Mazda3 hatchback.

Lest we sound overly critical, we must note that the Tiguan is a compact crossover, and one of only two new vehicles in its class to offer a third row at all. The other, the Mitsubishi Outlander, affords its third-row passengers just 475 mm of legroom, a spec which makes the Tiguan look downright roomy by comparison.

Let’s start with the hot topic. We did not hate the much-maligned haptic touch slider buttons for climate control. They still count as hard controls in our book, and we found them responsive and easy to operate. What we did hate was the physical volume knob, because of the way the on/off button is integrated into it. As you twist to manipulate the volume, the power symbol rotates right along with the rest of the knob—and it’s sensitive. A stickler for right angles could waste ages trying to return it to a perfectly vertical position.

We were surprised to find that the infotainment system relies on nearly monochromatic graphics. In an otherwise stylish vehicle, the relatively austere digital interface felt out of place. It’s accessed through an 8-inch centre touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The base Trendline gets USB-C ports, while other Tiguan trim levels get wireless charging. All but the top trim forego navigation.

Volkswagen’s Digital Cockpit System is standard on the 2024 Tiguan, meaning every trim gets a digital instrument display. Only the R-Line trims, however, gets the fully configurable 10.25-inch Digital Cockpit Pro screen with up to four views. Others make do with an 8-inch version and two views, which, though we only experienced the more advanced alternative, is likely plenty for most drivers.

If we wouldn’t go all the way up the trim ladder just for Digital Cockpit Pro, we would for the nine-speaker Fender Premium Audio System. The professionally credentialed audiophile among our passengers volunteered a positive assessment with no prompting required.

The Volkswagen Tiguan earned a 2022 Top Safety Pick+ award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which is that organization’s highest honour. Because it is, at its core, a carryover model for 2024, this should be promising. The Tiguan has not earned the same 2024 distinction as of this writing.

In Canada, forward collision avoidance with automatic emergency braking and pedestrian detection is standard, as are emergency calling, blind spot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic alert. Adaptive cruise control, lane assist, and Emergency Assist, which are part of the Travel Assist function, come in at the Comfortline trim. Tiguans equipped with this feature provide semi-autonomous highway driving, can detect an unresponsive driver and act accordingly, and can steer into parallel or perpendicular parking spaces.

Park Distance Control becomes standard at the Comfortline R-Line Black trim level. We found its judgment a bit lacking and the Maneuver Braking feature intrusive, but we do have to give VW kudos for making it possible to permanently deactivate the most irritating elements.

In Canada, the 2024 Volkswagen Tiguan ranges in price from $37,628 to $48,228, including the $2,100 destination charge and other fees. In a class that includes the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4, this range is reasonable. However, it’s important to note that the top-of-the-line CR-V and RAV4 both offer hybrid powertrains, bringing added value in terms of running costs for a very comparable new-car price. NRCan rates the range-topping Tiguan’s fuel economy at 9.7 L/100 km combined (10.9 city and 8.1 highway). A similarly priced Honda CR-V Hybrid, also equipped with AWD, is rated at 6.4 L/100 km combined. And an AWD Toyota RAV4 Hybrid? That’s supposed to get 6.0 L/100 km combined. Fuel efficiency, then, is not on the Tiguan’s side.

Volkswagen backs the 2024 Tiguan with a four-year/80,000-kilometre bumper-to-bumper limited warranty, including 24/7 roadside assistance. Every new Tiguan also comes with a complimentary four-year subscription to VW Car-Net. This suite of connected vehicle services not only allows for conveniences like remote access, but also includes safety and security features such as automatic crash notifications and stolen vehicle location assistance.

Though it’s certainly not all the Tiguan has to offer, we think the model stands out first and foremost for its premium looks. Consumers on the hunt for a compact crossover have plenty of options to choose from, from the bland styling of the Ford Escape to the bold lines of the Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson. Some won’t care about the looks at all, but for those who believe your choice of vehicle says something about you, the Tiguan is one that no one will be embarrassed to be seen driving.

Note: Images show a US model.