Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace Review 2024

Used as a five-seater, the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace is a cracking family car, with a desirable image, lots of room, plenty of luxury equipment, impressive quality, strong engines, good mechanical refinement and a really good balance between comfort and fun. Bear in mind, though, that it’s pricey compared with rivals, and the rearmost seats are too tight to be used on a regular basis. There are plenty of seven-seater rivals - such as the Skoda Kodiaq and SEAT Tarraco - than offer more practicality for less money, and which also do everything else just as well as the Allspace

Carmakers are always in a rush to give their customers more. More size, more technology, more power, more of everything. This isn’t philanthropy, mind. It’s because if customers get more, they can be charged more for it.

When the latest Tiguan was launched in 2018, this left Volkswagen with a bit of a dilemma. This five-seat lifestyle SUV has been an absolute sales hit for Volkswagen over the years, outselling most other compact SUVs despite being more expensive, thanks to its desirability.

And the thing with Volkswagen is that when something’s going well, they never want to muck around with it too much. That’s why the Golf looks pretty much the same today as it did 30 years ago. So, how do you keep the new Tiguan’s appeal largely the same as its predecessor’s, yet still compete with the huge number of compact seven-seat SUVs that have since flooded the market?

Cue the VW Tiguan Allspace, a bigger seven-seat version sold alongside - rather than instead of - the regular Tiguan for families who like what the smaller car delivers, but who need a bit more practicality.

Like any other Tiguan, the Allspace is very impressive in a variety of areas. Its desirable image is backed up by a high-quality cabin that’s stuffed with luxury equipment, making it feel like a real cut-above in the class.

All the latest safety and infotainment gear is present-and-correct, too, while the cabin is also packed with thoughtful, family-friendly touches, like rear tray tables that can be set at an angle to hold a book or a tablet. It’s also a really good car to drive, with an excellent balance between ride comfort and handling sharpness, while the range of engines provides an impressive blend of power, refinement and economy.

Begs the question: if it’s so great, why don’t we all drive a Tiguan Allspace? Well, a couple of reasons. Firstly, while it’s even roomier for five passengers than the regular Tiguan, it’s not quite roomy enough to be a proper seven-seater, the sort that’ll comfortably carry a septet of fully-grown adults on a regular basis.

The third-row seats are too cramped for that. It’s fine if you look upon the car as a five-seater with the ability to carry an extra two (very small) folks for short distances in emergencies. However, if you’ll regularly need to use all the pews, there are several rivals that’ll suit you better.

Secondly, the Allspace looks very expensive next to most rivals. Look at the car’s lengthy list of attributes, and it’s tricky to spot anything that you don’t get from a Skoda Kodiaq or SEAT Tarraco (both of which are pretty much the same car underneath), yet it costs several thousand pounds more.

That’s why it isn’t our pick of the class, but if you like what you see and you’re prepared to pay handsomely for a Volkswagen badge - and quite a few people will be - then, you’ll be getting a really good car.

The front seats are every bit as roomy as you’d expect, and those in the middle also have plenty of head-and legroom, although carrying three across the rear bench is a squeeze.

Life is pretty luxurious in the middle row with only two occupants, though: each gets their own foldaway tray-table that can be angled to hold a book or tablet, and with separate climate controls in the rear, those in the back can decide on their own cabin temperature.

Two extra chairs fold up out of the boot floor, but they’re pretty tight on space. Many adults will struggle to fit at all, and even smaller ones will find themselves cramped. Smaller kids might be ok, but it’s still best to think of the Allspace as a five-seater with emergency options, rather than a full seven-seater.

The boot is a useful size with all seven seats in place, and it’s absolutely massive in five-seater mode.The middle seats are split 40-20-40, allowing you a variety of options when folding them flat, and the front passenger seat also folds flat, meaning you can carry exceptionally long loads.

The surfaces you look at and touch most are nicely finished, with soft-touch materials and thoughtful trim pieces.

All the switches and buttons feel nicely damped, too, and this injects an additional feel of solidity. Granted, there are one or two harder, scratchier plastics to be found if you really look, but these are tucked away out of sight.

Overall, the Tiguan feels like a classy product. There are differences in decor between the trims, with SEL cars getting more glossy decorative inserts and R-Line Tech models adding some sporty flourishes, but all versions feel suitably posh. They’d feel posher with leather upholstery, though, which disappointingly, none of the trims get as standard.

As standard, all versions of the Allspace get an 8.0-inch colour touchscreen that brings together sat-nav, Bluetooth, DAB radio, speed limit display, SMS functionality and Apple Carplay/Android Auto. It all looks good, with sharp graphics, slick screen transitions and smooth graphics, while the logical menus make it easy to find your way around. Being a touchscreen, it does require you to concentrate hard on hitting the correct on-screen icon, which distracts you from the road, but as touchscreens go, it’s one of the better ones.

A bigger 9.2-inch screen is also available as an (expensive) optional extra. It has the same user-friendly interface, but also adds voice control, gesture control, a DVD player and a 64GB hard drive.

At the time of writing, prices started at just over £31,000 for the 1.5 TSI Match and rose to more than £46,000 for the 2.0 BiTDI 240 R-Line Tech.

The one we think would suit most buyers, the 2.0 TDI 150 4Motion DSG, checks in at around £39,000, but bear in mind that this version has both four-wheel drive and an automatic gearbox, and if you can live without those, you’ll save yourself around £4000.

Compare prices with bigger seven seaters like the Kia Sorento or Hyundai Santa Fe, and they don’t look too bad, but similarly-sized rivals like the Skoda Kodiaq, Nissan X-Trail, Peugeot 5008 and Land Rover Discovery Sport are much cheaper. The Volkswagen will shed its value a bit quicker than most of its rivals, too, meaning it won’t protect your investment quite as well.

Weaker resale values will also mean slightly higher monthly payments for finance customers. At the time of writing, though, we did find some tempting deals on Volkswagen’s website. The entry-level model, the 1.5 TSI 150 Match manual, was being offered on a four-year PCP for just over £375 per month, following a customer deposit of just over £3200. That represents a £3750 deposit contribution from Volkswagen.

According to the official WLTP figures, it’s the entry-level 150PS diesel engine that’ll give you the best fuel return, with a maximum average of more than 45mpg, but that drops a bit if you add the automatic gearbox and/or four-wheel drive.

The 190PS version returns a figure of 39mpg, while the most powerful 240PS BiTDI diesel returns 35mpg. The 150PS 1.5 is the best of the petrols with a best average return of 38mpg (again, this dips with the addition of the automatic gearbox), while the 190PS version of the 2.0-litre petrol gets 30mpg, dropping to 28mpg for the 220PS version.

Insurance groupings for the Tiguan Allspace range between 17 at the very bottom of the range to 29 at the very top.

VED tax sits at £150 per year on the majority of versions, but because a few versions cost more than the government’s £40,000 marker, you’ll also pay a £325 surcharge on top of that between years two and six of the car’s life. Bear in mind, too, that if you choose a cheaper version and add optional extras that take it over the threshold, you’ll still be liable for the surcharge.

Volkswagen ranked in the top half of the 2019 JD Power Vehicle Dependability, suggesting respectable - if not spectacular - reliability.

This is one of the Allspace’s strongest areas. The ride has a slightly firm edge at times, particularly on broken surfaces with small bumps and cracks (especially in cars on bigger 20-inch wheels), but it does brilliantly with bigger bumps and potholes, and the ride comfort is generally very impressive.

That hint of firmness also gives impressive control, so the body won’t bounce around untidily on undulating roads, or lean over too much in corners.

The steering is nice weighted, too and there’s lots of grip and traction (particularly on cars fitted with four-wheel drive). The R-Line Tech version gets a sports suspension that’s lowered by 15mm, which we haven’t yet tried, but don’t bother adding the optional adaptive suspension (standard on some pricier versions), which alters its behaviour according to the driving mode you select. Yes, you can feel a few subtle differences between the modes, but it doesn’t really improve the ride or handling.

For most buyers, we reckon the entry-level diesel - they’re all 2.0-litre units, but deliver 150PS, 190PS or 240PS - will be plenty.

It’s not fast, but there’s enough muscle to haul the Allspace’s bulky body around with reasonable purpose. We haven’t tried the middle one yet, but even the 240PS unit isn’t worth the upgrade. It’s quicker against the stopwatch, but it doesn’t actually feel all that much perkier in everyday life, certainly not by as much as the power output would suggest.

The twin-clutch automatic gearbox, meanwhile, swaps cogs smoothly enough most of the time, but the changes can occasionally feel a little slow.

We haven’t tried either of the 2.0-litre petrol choices, with 190PS or 220PS, but the entry-level petrol, a 1.5-litre turbo with 150PS, is more sprightly than you might expect when you’ve got one or two people aboard. However, it starts to struggle a bit more when you load the car up with people and luggage. If you do so regularly, then you’ll be wanting the extra pulling power of a diesel.

The Allspace hasn’t been crash-tested by Euro NCAP yet, but the regular Tiguan has, and it received the full five-star score.

Standard safety kit is very generous, with seven airbags, a driver fatigue sensor, all the usual traction and stability aids, cornering foglamps and high-beam assist headlamps all standard on entry-level Match trim. SEL and R-Line Tech trims swap those headlamps for brighter LED ones.

Also standard across the range is active cruise control that helps the driver maintain a safe distance to the car in front, and slams on the brakes if it slows or stops suddenly. It’s perhaps a little surprising, though, that only two Isofix child seat fixing points are supplied.

Depending on which version of the car you choose, towing weights for braked trailers stand at between 1800kg and 2400kg, which isn’t bad at all. Obviously, the weights are bigger on cars with four-wheel drive, and their extra traction will also help make these ones better towcars. Optionally, you can add a system that does the steering for you when reversing with a trailer. Simply tell it where you want to go using the electric mirror adjuster as a joystick, and the car does the rest.

We reckon entry-level Match trim is the one to go for for most buyers, because there’s not much you’d want that it doesn’t give you as standard.

The standard kit roster includes alloy wheels, a space-saver spare wheel, automatic lights and wipers, three-zone climate control, four powered windows, remote locking, an electric tailgate, front and rear parking sensors with a rear-view camera and a steering assistant for parking manoeuvres.

That’s on top of all the safety and infotainment equipment mentioned earlier. SEL trim gives you keyless go, a hands-free tailgate, a panoramic roof and heated front seats with electric lumbar adjustment that can also give you a massage. Go for one of the most powerful engines, and you also get adaptive suspension. R-Line Tech models give you styling goodies, along with a 360-degree parking camera, but not a great deal else. It’s a bit surprising that no version gets leather upholstery as standard, and it’s a pricey option.