A car's name, in the end, doesn't matter as much as design and build quality, price, mileage, safety and performance. But "Tiguan"? What happened to names normal people can pronounce and remember, like "Bug," "Beetle" or "Rabbit", Volkswagen? Didn't you guys learn from the "Phaeton" (2002-2006), your luxury sedan whose name caused a car crash in everyone's mouth and most often emerged in as mangled a condition as "Kosciuszko Bridge"? Holy Tourag, Batman.
Fortunately, the unimaginative but can-do Tiguan is a better vehicle than its moniker would lead you to believe, though it started its test with a handicap. The contents of my almost-full gas tank were siphoned while parked outside Whole Foods on W. 24th St. in Manhattan about an hour after I climbed into the vehicle. I drove to a station on 34th St. and saw "Premium Only" written on my gas tank flap, which was an additional sock in the puss: a four-cylinder asking for Premium? That's like putting heavy cream in a cup of Sanka, despite the engine's turbocharger and supercharger. Now, about $52 poorer, the test really began.
Upon startup and takeoff, I found a pleasing, butter-smooth clutch-shift-brake combination coupled with an especially quiet engine even while violently pushing the transmission. It's a simple, functional car, pleasant to drive, with a sleek, trimless exterior design similar in shape and size to a variety of other offerings from similarly styled rides. Its building materials vary widely. Soft-touch covers appear on the trim, dashboard and door, but the plastic cover to the rear windshield wiper snapped off in my hand when I tried to open the rear glass. The Tiguan comes in three trims; my tester S, the SE and SEL, each more elaborately outfitted and pricier.
Will it deliver a knockout punch to more established, tried-and-true rivals? It'll have to prove itself. The vehicle only gets 18 miles to the city gallon and about 24 on the highway, but what it's really selling is a family vehicle with a bit of style and pretension, and which drives like a car. You don't need much brawn to get the best performance out of it. There's reasonable but not overwhelming room front and rear (no third-row options are offered), and the front passenger seat folds flat for carrying longer objects. The interior includes various clips and storage bins to hold most standard-issue electronics modern motorists travel with, and Volkswagen's Prevent and Preserve Safety System keeps you and the family safe via an electronic stability system, six airbags and more.
A better name, though, would be "The Volkswagen What?" which is what strangers inevitably shot back when I uttered, slowly and carefully, "TEE-gu-an."
source: http://www.nydailynews.com/autos/2008/0 ... _ea-2.html
