We review the Volkswagen Tiguan SE 2.0 TDI from price to economy and all its features

SOMEWHERE, buried deep beneath the Volkswagen HQ in a lead-lined room guarded by an angry dog with a huge appetite, top engineers meet to plan how the firm’s next cars will look.

They talk only in numbers and equations, looking at graphs of market trends and brand positioning, in pursuit of the perfect car in any given genre.

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Once complete, the binary code is fed into VW’s supercomputer, which uses a small army of robotic arms to flawlessly make the code a reality.

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That is what the Volkswagen Tiguan is — VW’s essence in medium-sized SUV form.
You can dislike a Volkswagen for any reason you like but you can never say it is poor. It is an automotive Coldplay.

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Every now and then, Volkswagen will let someone leave the room to try to make the cars sound interesting, more rock’n’roll.

It holds five more packages of sausages when you’re shopping for a big party

So you end up with phrases like the one Matthias Thom, head of vehicle packaging, said of the Tiguan’s improved boot: “It holds five more packages of sausages when you’re shopping for a big party.”

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This is what happens when the masters of perfection try to add charm.

Unless, of course, that was a brilliant bit of satire or innuendo.

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Regardless, let’s just stick with the numbers that make the Tiguan so excellent.

It has 29mm more rear knee room than the old one, while the boot goes up by 145 litres to 615, or 1,655 litres with the rear seats down. And the rear seats slide back and forth 180mm, 20mm more than before.

Weight is reduced by 43kg in some models and wind resistance is down by 13 per cent, both improving efficiency and CO2 emissions.

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The CO2 emissions drop from 140g/km to 125g/km in the 2-litre TDI model that most will buy.

Heck, even the headlights are ten per cent brighter.

The result is an SUV that is, quite simply, the best of its type

The result is an SUV that is, quite simply, the best of its type.

Head and shoulders above the Nissan Qashqai and Ford Kuga you might be considering.

The driving position is beautiful, as is the build quality, the ride quality and the sound dampening. It’s just quality. Mind-numbing quality.

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There’s a glitch in the Matrix, though — the price.

Volkswagen usually hands its binary code to Seat and Skoda too, letting them generate the same cars re-badged.

The problem is that the Tiguan range starts at £22,500, while the near-identical Seat Ateca starts at £18,000.

Sure, the Spanish version is a little lower on quality and the boot a little smaller . . . but just think about how many sausage parties £4,500 will pay for.

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