My Dad is into model trains. Among his many other hobbies, this retired grandfather of three loves nothing more than to spend hours, days and weeks with one of his many miniature railway installations. What’s this got to do with the new Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace? A lot. Trust me.
You should know: This elongated Allspace (7-seater) press vehicle arrived in the tumultuous times we like to call “silly season”, where year-end functions and last-minute-dot-com activities crowd our collective calendars. And slap bang in the middle of it all, my choo-choo crazy father asked if I could pick up some of his recent purchases on a remote Winelands farm…
More info: Although his latest haul was nowhere near as voluminous as I thought (this big Tig can swallow between 760 and 1920L of cargo) the last few yards are seriously steep and rather rutted farm roads. Despite the parking sensor alerting me to tall grass, this Allspace never bottomed out (201mm of ground clearance) and climbed on with minimal wheel-spin.
Why you should: Other than that, the road-biased 255/45R19 rubber performed admirably for this front-wheel driven 1.4 turbo-petrol family hauler. VW’s “4Motion” all-wheel drive system is reserved for the more potent (and expensive) 2L iteration which completes a range of two engines, four spec levels but only one gearbox.
Why you shouldn’t: I’m sorry, it’s my favourite broken record, ye olde DCT. Or DSG in Volkswagen speak. Once I’d collected Vadder’s various Märklin bits, I ventured to a shopping mall only to realise it was Black Friday. A swift about-turn later, I had to endure this Allspace lurching, sleeping and wheel-spinning its way up an elevated exit ramp.
It’s hopeless at low speed, this transmission.
What else? We could talk steep prices but they’re no worse than the Tiguan’s competitors; unless you’d like to brave the new Asian crowd. Stick with this trusty German and you get plenty of Deutsche quality, quite a bit of tech (including a touchy steering wheel) and highly efficient drive trains… see what I did there? Trains. Hehehe.
Included in each sale is a 3-year/120,000km warranty and 5-year/90,000km service plan.
FULL SPECLIST
| Engine: | 999cc in-line 3-cylinder turbo-petrol |
| Transmission: | 7-speed DCT, FWD |
| Max. Power: | 85kW @ 5000rpm |
| Max. Torque: | 200Nm @ 2000rpm |
| Avg. cons.: | Claimed 5.4L/100km |
| 0-100km/h: | seconds (claimed 10) |
| Top Speed: | Claimed 200km/h |
| List Price: | R503,000 |
we’ve also owned a tiguan with the dsg and it can be very frustrating in slow moving traffic ….. Eventualy the gearbox broke so we had it fixed and sold the car.