New FRONT wheel drive 118TSI Tiguan...any feedback???

[iamthestig]

Well, I have ordered one - but don't expect a review until after arrival in 2Q 2012...

[Jad]

Should be picking ours up next week. We'll be doing a bit of longish distance driving over the Christmas break and towing a trailer for a chunk of it. I'll post my impressions after we've played with it a bit.

[iamthestig]

Excellent - Might be enough time to change our order if it is a bad thing !

[Jad]

Picked up the car on Friday and have been busy clocking up the KMs to run it in before our big road trip after Christmas. We got the bog standard 118TSI with only the VW Towbar and carpet mats installed. The handling is firm on the road and very quite in the cabin. The daytime lights are configured to always be on when the car is running which is nice ( you can change this in the MFD). The feel of the manual shift is probably the nicest I have ever used, the throws are short and positive and the gear stick has a nice meaty feel to it. 1st gear still catches me out sometimes, especially with auto-hold on. You need to give it a bit more throttle to get it moving but once rolling its smooth driving. I like the fact that the Start/Stop feature also works to restart the motor if you stall it out on a bunny hop. If you're outside the car while its idling you can hear the supercharger whining away. The car is very zippy and I'm sure will only improve as the engine loosens up. When you get the revs up to around 3200-3500rpm when both the supercharger and turbo are both going the car really takes off. 5th & 6th gear are definitely for cruising as you need drop back to 4th if you want to overtake and get any timely response from the motor. Can't say we're going to miss any of the optional add-ons as the car as is ticks all our boxes. It would be nice if VW produced a long wheelbase variant though to address the functional but smallish boot.

[iamthestig]

Thanks for your feedback. We have a 6 sp Manual Jetta already and that has a lovely gearbox too. Any fuel economy info yet ?

[Jad]

Nothing worthwhile on the economy front yet as we're still running it in with a mixture of stop/start around the burbs and some freeway runs. Next time I'm in the car I'll jot down what its currently doing though.

[brad]

Thanks for your feedback. We have a 6 sp Manual Jetta already and that has a lovely gearbox too. Any fuel economy info yet ?

Fuel economy shouldn't be thought about when the engine is tight & your trying to run it in.