| A Week at the Wheel | Bucks, England | Volkswagen Tiguan SE 2.0 TDI |

Inside & Out:

Volkswagen made a bit of a mistake when showing the first design sketches of the Tiguan as a teaser. No way could the production car ever hope to live up to the cool rakish lines of that drawing. The actual Tiguan is a handsome enough machine; it's just that in typical Volkswagen fashion there's not a great deal of flair. The grille is smart enough and the lights are neat, but in profile the Tiguan is pretty forgettable. The same is true inside: it is very well built and solid feeling, but it's hardly inspirational design. That's partly down to Volkswagen borrowing much of the Touran's interior - it being the most worthy, yet dowdy vehicle in Volkswagen's line-up.

Up against its most recent rival, Ford's Kuga, and the well established Land Rover Freelander, the Tiguan looks bland. However, in an environment where SUVs are sometimes frowned upon perhaps the quiet looks of the Tiguan are a bonus.

Engine & Transmission:

Typically cars in this class are specified with turbodiesel engines, so it's hardly surprising that the big seller in the Tiguan range is the 2.0-litre TDI unit. With 138bhp and 236lb.ft of torque it's a usefully grunty engine, hauling the Tiguan along with surprising vigour. Certainly it feels livelier than Ford's comparable unit in the Kuga, despite it sharing almost identical performance figures. The numbers that count here are a 0-62mph time of 10.5 seconds, the Tiguan's engine losing its battle with wind resistance at 115mph. The six-speed manual transmission is nicely positioned, the weighting and precision of the throw across the gate well measured, making shifting cogs something of a pleasure.

Smoothness is hindered somewhat when moving away though thanks to a rather abrupt clutch. There's very little feel from the clutch pedal, which combined with the engine's low-rev urgency can make for clumsy progress when initially pulling off.

Ride & Handling:

For what's essentially a tall Golf Volkswagen has achieved rather an impressive ride and handling balance. There's very little body roll when cornering, the Tiguan gripping hard. Push it too hard and there's understeer, but you really have to be trying to get to that stage. The ride is similarly accomplished, it especially impressive when you consider the Tiguan's resistance to body roll. The steering is quick and accurate too, there being weight but no real feel at the rim. There's very little in the way of road or wind noise either, the Tiguan an accomplished motorway machine. Volkswagen will happily sell you a Tiguan that's set up for off-road use with better approach and departure angles, but it's unlikely that many buyers will need to venture further off road than the standard car is capable of.

Equipment, Economy & Value for Money:

Equipment levels on the SE model tested are respectable rather than outstanding. It's slightly disappointing to see the spaces for foglamps in the lower bumper unfilled in a car costing over £21,000, while the lack of standard Bluetooth preparation as standard is poor - though this complaint can also be levelled at the majority of the Tiguan's rivals. Standard air conditioning, a decent stereo with an aux-in socket go some way to compensate. All Tiguans come with an electronic parking brake, which although offering a useful auto hold function, is all too easy to forget to operate, necessitating pumping the brake to disengage it. Economy is quoted at 40.9mpg on the official combined cycle while CO₂ is 182g/km. That's decent enough in this class, though like all official figures you'll struggle to get anything like that in daily driving.

Overall:

Volkswagen might have taken its time to produce a compact SUV contender, but the result is impressive. The Tiguan drives well, is solidly built and reasonably well equipped as standard. It's just a shame it doesn't look a bit more exciting. Perhaps that's part of its appeal though; among showier competition the Tiguan is a demonstration of restraint. And as Volkswagen is having to up capacity to fulfil demand it seems that's exactly what many buyers are after.