Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace | Step up on the Tiguan

Volkswagen's huge push with SUVs is not much of a surprise and like the T-Roc, the highly exciting Taigun is on its way too. But the archetype of the Volkswagen SUV is the Tiguan. The Tiguan, ever since its launch in India, has been in a league of its own — espousing its German build quality, safety and driving dynamics. Earlier this year, the Tiguan got an update — it is now bigger, has more features and gets a more powerful engine. It also got a new name and is now called the Tiguan Allspace. The best just got better!

When it comes to SUVs, bigger is better and the Allspace is a fair bit bigger than the Tiguan it replaces. It is built on the same MQB platform, but has a wheelbase that is 110mm longer and is a total of 215mm longer overall. This is complemented by enhanced styling — the headlamps get new DRL signatures, the sides don’t have plastic cladding but instead get a stylish chrome strip and the 4Motion badge, while the rear remains familiar. The new Tiguan looks visibly larger than the older one and has a far more sophisticated stance. The biggest change on the outside has to be the colour palette with an unmissable Habanero Orange and Ruby Red being added to the seven shades while on the inside you can get sporty all-black interiors with the orange and red or a two-tone Storm Grey theme on the others!

The larger size of the Tiguan Allspace has contributed to an enhanced cabin experience. The most obvious change is the addition of the third row of seats. But apart from that too, there are smaller changes that enhance practicality. The second row, for example, is now on rails so it can slide forward and backward to increase the space in the third row. The third row has a 50:50 split while the second row has a 40:20:40 split, if you need more boot space. This flexibility is exactly what makes the Tiguan Allspace live up to its name. Up front, the dash is pretty much unchanged from before but with the added benefit of a digital instrument cluster.

The big update for the Tiguan is under the hood. Volkswagen has put the 2-litre TSI engine under the hood of this SUV, making it far more powerful than before. It makes 187.7bhp and 320Nm of torque, and brings the refinement and urgency that is so typical of these direct injection turbo-petrol engines. We drove the Tiguan Allspace with this engine not too long ago and were all praise for it. In our review, we said that ‘the updated engine finally feels like it does justice to the Tiguan’s chassis’. The Tiguan has always been a good handling SUV — one of the best in its class, and now the added punch from the TSI engine will allow you to push those dynamics further. But in addition to the added punch, the engine is BS6-compliant and meets some of the highest emission standards worldwide.

At evo India, we have driven the Tiguan a whole lot, all across the country. We took it as a support vehicle on our attempt to scale the highest road in the Eastern Himalayas. We took the Tiguan up to the unexplored reaches of the snow-bound Shingo La pass in Ladakh. And the toughest test that it aced is being the editor’s long term test car — taking him on his daily commute, his frequent runs to Mumbai and back, to his farm loaded with supplies, as a back up car on our shoots; it has done everything and the editor loves it. Every single journey in this SUV has brought to the fore its comfort, the high-quality cabin, impeccable highway manners, the ability to traverse long distances with ease and its ability to face tricky terrain and come out on top. Now with more space, added practicality and a better engine, the Tiguan Allspace delivers a package that is impossible to fault. With the lockdown easing up, it is time we attempted another epic adventure to really put it to the test!