living with that boot?

[jettapilot]

I considered the Tiguan. I have two teenagers - girls - and I sometimes have to transport 4 x 16 year old rowers with school bags.

I can live without FWD and I found that the Jetta has the same room inside, is much the same size outside (and not so high), same diesel engine I wanted and the boot of the Jetta is ENORMOUS!

Worth a thought, unless you desperately have to have a FWD.

[DJY]

I looked at the Jetta - when I saw the Tiguan boot myself!
Jetta boot is HUGE!

But not nearly as much room in the back seat area I found.
with both front seats in a normal position for me, I found an adult getting in the back was tight. Knees on the back of the front seat, and didn't feel as roomy inside as the Tiguan.

Jetta is still a great car though!
Passat is nice too!
Passat CC even better! but adults can't really sit in the back of the Passat CC without their heads hitting the roof! Wouldn't be comfortable with two adults in the back driving for any distance I didn't think.

[jettapilot]

I'm 165cm so when my driver's seat is in position there's still plenty of room behind. The girls find it 'spacious' in the back.

I can understand it might be different with a tall driver.

BTW, I sat in the driver's seat of Passat CC and found it incredibly comfortable. Tall rear seat passengers would have to be quite laid back not to bump heads on the roof!

[IGW84]

We have five in the family. Oldest child is a tall lanky 16 year old (on his L's). Youngest is a very compact 11 year old.

Our major buying considerations were: 1) Good comfortable rear seat for long distance driving, 2) diesel or hybrid, 3) all or 4WD for mud and snow, 4) Full safety alphabet soup. Then there were other lesser considerations.

It was tough finding anything good until we saw the Tig. We got it late June 08 and have done about 16000 k's of a mix of city (Syndey) and country driving. Long term av fuel economy is about 6.4 l/100km. About 60% of our driving would be in urban areas. 6-sp manual.

The three major things we don't like most (in order): 1) space saver spare, 2) boot space, 3) electric park brake.

We end up on many minor roads and dirt firetrails - we will be burnt by the space save spare at some stage. The boot space is a nuisance but we have a good roof pod and will get a trailer if needed. We are managing OK to date - even with all the bikes and surfboard/boogey boards/fishing gear etc. Roof racks and pod and tow bar and bike carrier are essential for us. We also sometimes remove the styrofoam dividers from in the spare wheel well to give extra storage space when traveling - this gives a very useful increase in storage for less commonly needed things.

(Price of the factory tow bar is outrageous - about $2000. No after market ones at the time we bought. Nice that is it hidden when the bar is not fitted, but still....)

The electric park brake is another that would be hard to deal with off on some fire trail after returning from a canyon or bush walk. There was, apparently a problem on the Passat electric park brakes, but I have not seen or heard any systematic issue on the Tig version - this according to Chatswood Classic service rep. I suspect a mechanical hand brake would be more reliable, however, who knows, maybe it will be OK. It maybe just my electrical engineering training that makes me dislike more and more systems that can disable a vehicle. Still vehicle reliability is getting better over the years - I am happy not to have to deal with flaky carbys and poor sparks in wet weather etc. Our learner driver likes not having to worry about the handbrake on the hill starts, for sure.

Other negatives are pretty minor such as the stupid and useless light in the boot (so low that it is always obscured by stuff).

Some of the things we love/like (in no real order):
1) diesel engine is fun to drive, fuel efficiency is good
2) cabin is good with excellent rear seat leg room and good comfort even for the middle passenger
3) Vehicle size is good compromise for us (we have just the one car and so it has to do the local running about when we can't walk/ride) as well as our long camping/touring/skiing etc trips.
4) Dash is clear (but there is a slight tendency to see the (unnecessary) tacho rather that the speed when you glance down, probably not changed from the right-hand drive console, and one adapts to look in the correct spot).
5) manual gear box is good
6) handling is excellent and we think our daughters trvel sickness is better in this car than the old truck (Prado).
7) Blind spots are there but not too bad.
lots of other stuff

Overall we are *very* happy. We live with the small boot as a known compromise and deal with it by the roof racks and pod for when we need more space. We have had only one minor warranty call (broken bit in the front passenger seat belt catch that made it hard (not impossible) to engage the seat belt.

Sorry for the long post but this is our real world experience of about 10 months and 16k km in our Tig with three adult sized and two teenager sized people. Maybe of some use someone.

Bye for now,
Ian

[clip]

...and I was hoping you were going to say "I wish we had have bought the Forester"

[IGW84]

Forrester fails on the comfortable middle rear seat - as do most cars these days actually. They have these silly raised sections and very uncomfortable back rests (padding insufficient to soften the fold down armrest mechanism). Also worse fuel economy/CO2 stats.

Tig was the best we found for rear middle seat comfort out of these oilers:
Skoda, Grand Vitara, X-trail
plus a bunch of petrols such as the Kleuger and Captiva class vehicles (which are bigger and poor fuel economy).

We were considering having a custom rear seat made up (or the standard rear seat reupholstered) on the Vitara. But it was no where near as refined on the road and in the cabin as the Tig.

The new Renault Koleos looks interesting as the Megane middle rear seat was excellent and so maybe this has carried over. It wasn't released when we were buying middle of last year. Has anyone done a good comaprison against the Tig?

I suspect we are in the very big minority with middle rear seat comfort being a principal buying decision.

Ian

[clip]

The new Renault Koleos looks interesting

I haven't, but brother drove one. Didn't mind it for a family car, but preferred the Tig. They are cheaper (but also have Nissan running gear?).

[Sharkie]

I suspect we are in the very big minority with middle rear seat comfort being a principal buying decision.

Ian

It was the deciding factor for my wife. Most other SUV's have uncomfortable middle rear seats and little legroom in the center with all kinds of intrusions.

Could have gone for something with 7 seats, but I'd have no joy driving that.

[DFRDB4ME]

Thank you everyone for your input especially Ian...
The size did get the better of us... We are now looking at the Triton GLX-R.
The main reasons are … yes that boot, the 100kg down force on the tow and the limited off roadability.
I will miss the dive though.. I’ll just have to steal the Golf V Tdi from the wife for my fix…
Once again, thanks.

[Philbie]

we have two kids and a tiguan...bottom line is it's bloody brilliant in comfort but the boots too small.

We also own a rav4 - BIG difference in cars, i hate driving the rav after the tiguan. But our stuff fits in the boot!

Anyway, now i'm selling the Rav4 as we replaced it with a Nissan Navara. Seriously large boot in it! when you add a canopy.

Oops i'm waffling....Nothing will be as good as the tiguan, not even a toureg (I've had one of those too) but think about a pod for the roof if you do.