2025 Volkswagen Tiguan First Look: More American Appeal

The third generation of VW's best-selling nameplate drops its European wagon looks

Transcript

00:00We are in LA for the global reveal of the 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan. This is a really important

00:17vehicle for Volkswagen because the Tiguan, this compact SUV, is in a competitive segment and it

00:22is their number one bestseller, not just in the U.S., but globally. This is the third generation.

00:29It first came out for the 2007 model year. It was updated in 2022, but this is all new. It's

00:36all new sheet metal. It's got an updated powertrain. It rides on a new platform. It's got more safety

00:42features. It's got a whole new look. So this is a vehicle that Volkswagen is really betting on to

00:48propel the company forward. So in the past, Tiguans looked, well, European. They looked

00:55more like wagons. The idea for this model year was to make it look more American, more like an SUV,

01:03and also to incorporate things like the new lighting that has, you know, if you've ever

01:08seen cars on the road today, it's all about the lighting at night. So we do. It's a little more

01:13upright. It's a little more athletic. If we go along the side, we've got four wheel choices

01:20all the way from 17 up to 20. These are 20s and they are on the top trim. This is an SEL R-Line,

01:27which means standard all-wheel drive and pretty much as loaded as you're going to get.

01:32So Volkswagen thinks that key to winning customers in this segment is its upgrades in the interior,

01:40and it's things like this American walnut wood or quilted leather seats, which are heated and

01:45cooled, and you can adjust where the heat and the cool vibes actually hit your back. You can

01:51customize it. The really big deal is the screen. The outgoing model had really tiny screens. They

01:57weren't competitive. Now you have a standard 12.9 inch screen or on the top trim 15 inches. Very

02:05customizable, easy to use, and also little clever features like the phone. Instead of using a lot of

02:13real estate for a tray, you now have this handy little charger. Slides right in there. I think

02:20that's very clever. Under the hood, we still have a two-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine,

02:28but they have engineered it to get a little more power out because that's what customers wanted.

02:33So it goes from 184 to 201 horsepower. Torque is likely to stay around the same at about 221

02:41pound-feet. There is no hybrid yet in this vehicle, which is something that you see from

02:48other competitors in the segment, but given that this vehicle is sold globally with hybrids, both

02:55mild, regular, and plug-ins, we would not be surprised to see in future model years a little

03:01bit of an electric boost underneath this hood. The 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan goes on sale early next

03:10summer. Pricing will be announced closer to the sale date, but it really can't go that much higher

03:15than the $30,000 to $40,000 range that it sits in today. For more details on this vehicle, go to

03:23motortrend.com.