Care to guess what the best-selling Volkswagen is in America? That’s right, it’s the Tiguan crossover. There’s even one in the greater Autopian fleet, that’s how popular it is. Dealers managed to sell 21,231 of these compact crossovers in the third quarter of 2024, despite the current model having been on sale since 2018. In this ruthlessly competitive segment, that’s an eternity, but putting those sort of numbers on the board means that Volkswagen needs the next one to work. Well, here it is, the American-market 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan, and it looks to be a pleasingly safe play with plenty of promise.
First, a bit of background. It’s no secret that Volkswagen’s been having a trying few years, and some of the brand’s more recent mistakes have shown up literally inside their new cars. The elimination of physical controls on the ID.4 in favor of volume and temperature sliders, the cost-cutting of trying to use two window switches to do the job of four, the fussy operation of the outgoing MIB3 infotainment system, it all turned off people looking for nice, easy-to-use cars. Well, it seems like Volkswagen’s learning from its mistakes, because while the new Tiguan isn’t a full return to buttons, it ought to give the people what they want.
From the front, the new American Tiguan looks similar to its rest-of-world siblings. You have to look hard to notice the differences because they are quite subtle. The big one is that the new Tiguan doesn’t look as long as the Tayron, with a shorter quarter window and shorter rear overhang, yet it features a Tayron-inspired floating D-pillar rather than the more conventional design seen on the European Tiguan. At the same time, the rear bumper on the new U.S.-spec Tiguan doesn’t seem to be shared with anything else, and the end result is something both familiar and unique that won’t rock the boat.
Familiar to all current Tiguan drivers will be the two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine under the hood of this new crossover. However, whereas the old Tiguan made 184 horsepower and 221 lb.-ft. of torque, the new one boosts peak horsepower to 201. Nice. Better still, the new Tiguan weighs 170 pounds less than the old one thanks to more high-strength steel in the structure and aluminum suspension components, which should do its part to boost, well, everything. Acceleration, braking performance, cornering grip, fuel economy, you name it. Lightweighting is the way to go.
Step inside the Tiguan, and not only will you find a rather attractively layered dashboard with textiles, wood veneer, and silver trim to lighten things up a bit, you’ll also find heaps of tech. Even the base model gets a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12.9-inch infotainment touchscreen. That’s a whole lot of real estate, but it only goes up from there. You can spec a 15-inch touchscreen infotainment system which is essentially like having a laptop mounted to your dashboard. Wild. Oh, and the toys only go up from there. You can get 10-color or 30-color ambient lighting, heated and ventilated front seats, heated rear seats, massaging front seats, a 12-speaker Harman/Kardon sound system, and three-zone climate control with a proper separate climate zone for the rear passengers. That’s a lot of toys, but what about the user experience?
Well, all your climate controls are accessed through touch-based functions, and while this isn’t the biggest deal in an era of automatic climate control, it’s still not ideal. However, Volkswagen has learned from prior models, because the new Tiguan features a giant volume knob in the center console that doubles as a drive mode selection switch. Sure, steering wheel controls exist, but nothing feels as good as just cranking it, and how are you going to crank it without a knob? [Ed note: Phrasing!]
Speaking of steering wheel controls, the capacitive touch steering wheel controls on the old Tiguan have been banished in favor of actual buttons, like on an even older Tiguan. Remember kids, if it ain’t broke, don’t break it. Reverting back to actual buttons just makes sense, because that’s what works well with human brains. End of discussion.
The 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan looks like a nice, conventional compact crossover, and that’s a good thing. With more physical controls, more power, and more luxuries than the old one, it seems that Volkswagen is beginning to realize that some people just want cars. Not supercomputers on wheels, just well-appointed, pragmatic vehicles to get to work and back. Don’t get me wrong, the new Tiguan is still high-tech, it’s just more user-friendly than it may have otherwise been. Expect to learn more in the next few months as the latest iteration of Volkswagen’s U.S.-market bread and butter inches closer to launch.
(Photo credits: Volkswagen)
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VW makes quite a point in the press release about it being 2-row only. Something of a pivot from the outgoing one, where they were so insistent about 3 rows even though it went on sale the same time as the Atlas (so not like it was trying to stand in as the brand’s 7-seater). I don’t think that will be missed by too many, although it takes some shine off the weight loss if it’s more from removing parts.
I’m trying to make sense of the sizing…is it actually different than the Tayron out back, or just a Tayron with the 3rd row yanked out? In just photos it does look shorter as described but I don’t know if that’s just a trick of the PR pics.
The interesting thing about the current Tiguan is that the one we get in the ‘States is actually a larger variant called the Tiguan Allspace. Compared to the regular Tiguan, the Tiguan Allspace has a longer wheelbase and a bigger cargo area that affords it a vestigial third row.
It looks like that’s the case for this new one, too. And VW was wise to do it.
The front looks like an angry cartoon face gritting its teeth.
What you mean is that Single Function buttons work better. That shit where any button serves move than one single purpose is the failure mode. In those cases, I think touch screens are actually a better choice. Anything complicated enough that it requires a crapton (hyphen omitted on purpose) of buttons or multi function ones, probably just works better with a touchscreen. There’s some nebulous threshold for buttons where too many requires you to look just as hard and be as careful as with using a touchscreen.
Screed complete.
You have a point. See: Acura interiors circa 2011.
Is that a column shift I spy? I think the interior is fantastic.
The design is atrocious
No hybrid no care
…that being said, this does not seem like a total and complete fuck up, which is progress for modern VW. Maybe 5 years from now they’ll even give us physical climate controls back!
Whenever I’m in most new cars I miss the old HVAC levers and rotary selectors. I hate when you turn a car or the fan on and the AC immediately kicks in because that was the last setting. But the only way to change it is to turn on the fan.
Its like we’ve gone backwards in useability.
On my 2017 I can turn from heat to AC to vent even with the car off using physical dials.
Having them in the infotainment screen is a nightmare. All the people that say “don’t worry you’ll get used to it” are lying.
I’ll say–as a multiple-time and recent VW owner–they somehow swapped places with Honda, which now has some of the most approachable, ergonomic, functional, pleasant interiors in the mainstream space. Meanwhile, VW interiors are needlessly frustrating. If I couldn’t use CarPlay on my ’24 Golf R, I simply would not have purchased it.
Summary:
Meet the new 2025 VW Tiguan, it’s aggressivly adequate.