My last post was about our car being crashed into with around 1000km on the clock - happy to say we've had it back for about 4 weeks now and you can't tell at all. Brand new rear bumper/trim at the left-rear and most of the left-rear suspension replaced (hub, bearing, strut, control arm) including the 20" RLine wheel ($2400 for the wheel!). Insurer was brilliant and can't talk highly enough of Amex Autobody if you're in North/North-East Melbourne.

Anyhow, wanted to post a glowing rant about our 1st Wedding Anniversary/Easter road trip. We drove Melbourne to Angaston in the Barossa Valley over Easter. 850km each way and 2.5 days driving around wineries the Barossa. We have a Ruby Red fully loaded 162TSi Highline w/RLine, DAP & Sunroof.

The Tiguan was amazing the whole time. We spent a lot of time in the car and getting in and out at wineries and we were both very comfortable the whole time. In any car, I hate driving with all the windows wound up - just feels stale and claustrophobic. Cracking the sunroof so it's tilted open was enough fresh air flow to keep it feeling fresh inside without being too noisy at highway speeds.

Highway speeds were quiet and easy and overtaking caravans and trucks was easy even from a cruise speed of 113kph in the 110kph zones. A couple of times overtaking a few cars we got very quickly to 130kph to pass really easily. We had it in Comfort mode on the highway and it makes it quite floaty and soaks up the bumps.

DAP was awesome - just set the speed and manage the steering. Takes a lot of the on/off throttle stuff out when you're following other cars which made a massive difference on such a long drive. Hitting a town, just dial down the speed to match the limit and it adjusts quickly or if you're following traffic leave it on 110 and let the ACC match your speed to the car in front.

Coming into/out of Eden Valley area it's windy and hilly - chucked it in Sports mode and made a massive difference to handling in twisty bits. Gets rid of a lot of body roll and tightens up the ride and steering to make a really big difference.

Economy was fantastic! Coming home, we fulled up in Springton about 25km out of the Barossa Valley and we could have made it home on that tank - around 750km! Comparing the distance to go on the satnav and the computer's estimate of fuel left, we would have had 50km of fuel left in the tank when we got home!

In all, nothing we could fault really and the car was amazing for a long road trip and long weekend of driving! Now to find time this week to get rid of all the bugs!