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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It’s confusing that this looks more like an Audi than most Audis of late
It continues to shock me that there still isn’t a hybrid version of ANY VW for sale in the US.
Absolutely shocked there was no mention of the pseudo column shifter on the right side of the wheel. I thought this was the column shifter website.
I was gonna ask… where’s the shifter? For a minute I thought the volume knob also was the shifter, which seems like a terrible idea.
1) WTF is a Tayron? I assume from context that it’s some sort of VW crossover, but I’ve never heard of it.
2) That interior is still garbage. It’s a super generic “modern” interior that the LED monster threw up on. A volume knob and physical controls on the steering wheel are table stakes. If your entire HVAC control system is still touch-based then you’ve failed miserably. The fact that it’s slightly less terrible than the outgoing disaster does not make it in any way good.
if this is garbage what do you consider “middle of the road” or even “good”?
Meh to the max! And the sad thing is that they’ve got like 4 other marginally different size and just as bland crossovers for sale on this side of the pond. It’s a weird company where the only interesting vehicle is hatchback golf. And that’s not that exciting either.
When the european Tiguan came out, I thought it looks too much like a Ssangyong Korrando. Not that either one looks bad, but it’s not a compliment to VW.
Although, now the resemblance became less obvious to me. Getting used to the Tiguan’s design has helped it – in my case.
US Tiguan is based off the Tayran, while the European Tiguan is it’s own design, at least that is what I was told.
You must be right about this. They just have a similar front, and that’s what reminded me of what my first thought was when I first saw the new Euro Tiguan.
A more powerful and lighter weight white and black Tiguan? An “S” Tiguan, if you will?
Some say he can beat an Altima in a rental car race. Others say his lease terms are astonishingly reasonable. All we know is he’s called the STIGguan.
Why is it wearing a samurai mask?
It’s pretending to be a trash panda.
Wandering Wolfsburg in search of vw’s lost mojo
Can we just stop with the non metallic paint the color of mud?
Wet concrete seems to be the flavor of the week lately, much to my surprise.
Drive selector slash volume control? So I could inadvertently throw it into reverse when trying to crank Sanguisugabogg?
I’m optimistic the implementation is less stupid than it sounds, but yeah, that caught my eye, too.
Presumably if the vehicle is not moving then it’s a drive selector, at all other times a volume control. But that raises the question of what if you want to crank the tunes while parked? Secondary volume control on the screen or maybe the wheel?
It looks to have a tap function in the center (little down arrow under the word volume) which probably toggles between the volume and drive mode selection. The center of the button also appears to be a tiny screen which will show you what function the knob is currently in.
Edit: Just found pics on Car & Driver and yes the center of the button is a tiny screen showing various functions https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/2025-volkswagen-tiguan-146-673d17840e9a0.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*
https://hips.hearstapps.com/hmg-prod/images/2025-volkswagen-tiguan-145-673d1783c93c6.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*
I’m assuming by “drive mode”, they don’t mean which gear you’re in, but vehicle tuning selections like “sport, snow, eco, normal” etc.
Still weird though.
Funny how buttons like “drive mode” get a physical control when those are exactly the types of things I’d be willing to hide on a screen. My wife’s car has lived in the same setting for years, less the family vacation to the mountains wanting more engine braking.
Plus if the car noticed you were driving in a different style to the setting you are in (wet, sport, ice) they could get the old Microsoft clippy to pop up and ask if you’d like to change your settings.
I think it’s as in sport, normal, economy, etc. It has a column shifter-ish thing on the wheel. Also sanguisugabogg shouldn’t need to be cranked, it should’ve started at max volume
I don’t care if a vehicle is bland or boring as people like to criticize, I do care if it’s not a quality product. My friend had the last gen of this, it was such a POS despite being brand new. Somehow had suspension knocks and the interior felt identical to our old ’95 Explorer. My Tercel interior felt better and that’s the issue: I don’t mind something being inexpensive, I mind when it’s cheap. That VW felt so cheap and has been par for the course for VW products over the last 2 decades. Pity, I grew up at the tail end of VW products being affordable, quality products.
I have a 2021 VW that doesn’t feel cheap at all. Maybe because it’s a German-built Golf. Not sure where Tiguans are made.
The interior on this is a complete win compared to expectations. Yes touch screen for climate is a miss, but physical steering wheel buttons and a physical volume knob are wins. More importantly, they made the interior design at least somewhat interesting compared to the Mk8 which just looks cheap and terrible. Not perfect, but with a bit more power and less weight, should go a long way to boost sales which VWoA needs desperately right now.
Tiguan R needed in the US immediately.
You could slap a BYD badge and pass as a good Chinese car.
BYD quality at 4x the price!
With the name Tiguan, meaning Tiger/Iguana, they went more iguana than tiger on this iteration.
Wait, did they in fact get rid of the stupid window switches for traditional front and back ones? It’s mentioned as a flaw of the old car, but never mentioned as something that’s been fixed with the new one.
I’m not usually one of those people who sees a UI decision and eliminate the car from consideration, but that choice is so tremendously stupid that I couldn’t buy a new car with such a flaw.
To be fair, its long been a VW tradition dating back to Rabbit/Golf Mk1/2 where the windows shared the same relay so you could only open one at a time (even though there were 2 switches)
What? On the ’15 GSW TDI I had, you could open one, two, three, or four windows at a time…
And did Mk1s even have electronic windows?
Yup, if you count the convertibles/cabriolets (which were mk1s and carried through until 93).
They stopped doing this in the later mk2s and after.
My 86 Cab has all winders, my 92 Cab had electric fronts and winder rears (and too many other paleolithic-era digifant issues to count)
I don’t know if that’s the sort of “brand heritage” people are looking for when they buy a modern VW, lol.
What? No one wants overly complicated, yet still not particularly functional, electrics? 🙂
I’m afraid not, haha.
You had POWER windows?! I had to crank mine by hand.
Last gen Tig had separate windows controls. I believe the reference was to the ID4.
Ah thanks for the clarification. I guess I had assumed the Tiguan had gone through the same nonsense during a refresh or whatever.
One of my neighbors has one of these (I live in the UK – the new model is already out here) and I drive past it every day.
There’s nothing particularly offensive about it (apart from the very sporty looking bucket seats), but it’s possibly one of the most aggressively bland and boring vehicles I’ve ever laid eyes upon.
“An empty car hauler pulled up to the dealership and a 2025 Tiguan drove off.”
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.
I know most people complain about the 3rd row on compact to midsize crossovers being useless, but for some families they’re a great option that fit an occasional need, without forcing them into needlessly massive (and expensive) dedicated 3-row crossovers. The classic case being the “I have two kids, but I’m occasionally transporting cousins/teammates/friends/grandparents as well”. That 3rd row was one of the only things that the Tiguan was able to distinguish itself with. It’s also the primary reason Dodge was able to sell so many Journeys.
As a fan of the compact MPV segment that the 3-row crossovers in this size pretty much superseded, I actually do think the option is generally good and knew there’d be some defense of it, so I didn’t want to put it in absolutes by saying “anyone.”
But for VW I don’t think the feature had a meaningful impact. The current gen was quite successful over the first-gen just by virtue of the size jump and competitive pricing. The 3rd row came when competitors were dropping it and I don’t think a lot of people really knew it even had it, plus it was odd optioning: standard on FWD models, optional on AWD.
For the Journey and Outlander it makes a key selling point but they were also historically value-based options which despite incentive spending, isn’t the Tiguan. The Sorento is a tick bigger but built its rep on value, maybe less so now; Santa Fe I almost mentioned before as an example of the reverse happening as they just added the 3rd row back.
For VW in the terms of sales, yeah you’re probably right. Hell most people shopping probably had no idea you could get a 3rd row in it anyway.
As much as VW still seems to attempt to sell themselves as premium despite their obvious shift downmarket in the 10’s, their entire strategy of late seems to be “put out something somewhat competitive, yet somehow larger” in every segment. So I think they’re trying to be the value automaker in that regard.
The current Tiguan has been an odd one where I have to remind myself that it is actually the global product, not tailored or cheapened to North America or China or other markets like the last Passat, Atlas, Taos, or the Jetta to an extent. It’s just that we don’t get the shorter variant, but that would have been too small to compete here so using the longer version was the right move IMO. Size was often something of a common “flaw” VW would run into against the competition. H/K followed suit with a LWB Tucson/Sportage for our market, and now others are creeping in size to the same point anyway. Subaru and Mazda I put in the same category there, Subaru has figured it out but Mazda seems to sort of float around it somehow.
Our Tiguan is now China’s Tayron L, which confusingly enough, is the shorter version of the 3-row Tayron. The European Tiguan is around 180″ in total length, the US Tiguan/Tayron L is about 185″, and the European 3-row Tayron is around 188″ in length.
And this isn’t even mentioning the new-for-China Tiguan L Pro, which is about 186″ long. Talk about splitting hairs!
Eeesh, yeah that explains it. I was seeing Tayrons with and without the floating roof D-pillar which added to the confusion on what was what. It was becoming one of those things I didn’t even care about that much but needed the answer to, lol.
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.
Yeah, the ‘get used to it’ crowd just say that as justification for their poor purchase. Nothing better than turning the car on on a freezing morning just to have it blast blizzard on you while you gotta wait 1-2 minutes for the damn UX to boot. Even more thrilling when you’re wearing gloves!
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.
You’re a brave man. I honestly don’t even think I could attempt to put up with that interior.
Summary:
Meet the new 2025 VW Tiguan, it’s aggressivly adequate.
It’s a car of all time.
It might be boxy, but its good.