• High-quality cabin ambience a Volkswagen trait
• Finding an ideal driving position is easy
• Later touchscreen-heavy infotainment can be annoying

How is the quality and layout?

VW has honed its reputation for producing high-quality cabins over decades and the one installed in the Volkswagen Tiguan is no exception. Not only is there a satisfying degree of squidginess from the upper dashboard plastics, but this time around the Tiguan’s treated to a unique interior, rather than one shared with the Volkswagen Golf SV.

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It’s a quiet cabin with an upmarket tactility and precise, well-damped actions for the switchgear, the whole thing feeling as though it’s built to stand the test of time.

Infotainment and tech

Infotainment is a prominent feature in the Tiguan’s dashboard, and for the 2020 facelift most models got an 8.0-inch touchscreen system. A larger 9.2-inch version was optional, but loses out a little on ease of use, due to the removal of shortcut keys and physical knobs.

Underneath it sits a touch-sensitive climate control panel, which is much less successful in its implementation. Here it simply feels unnecessary – a step forwards that isn’t really any better than the system it replaces.

The same can be said for the touch-sensitive steering wheel buttons standard on R-Line and R trims – they simply don’t work as well as the standard, clicky units you’ll find on lesser trim levels, being all too easy to activate the wrong function.

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As with other SUVs you sit high in the Tiguan, with a commanding view of the road ahead. We like the relatively shallow dash, helping the Tiguan feel more like a conventional hatch, while finding a comfortable driving position is no problem – especially with the ergoComfort seat on high-end models offering 14 different kinds of adjustment.

The biggest change you’ll notice in the high-performance Tiguan R will be the large sports seats up front in a rather fetching blue check pattern. You also get stainless steel pedals, blue stitching, usefully bigger shift paddles, a drive mode button on the steering wheel and carbon-effect dash inserts, but the differences are otherwise subtle compared with the rest of the range.

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Comfort

• Spacious passenger compartment front and rear
• Little exterior noise enters the cabin
• Adaptive suspension option improves ride quality

Up front the seats are comfortable and supportive, especially the ergoComfort driver’s seat with additional adjustment including a tilt function and electrically controlled lumbar support. The Tiguan R seats remain comfy, but are much better at holding you in place during hard cornering.

Volkswagen worked hard to make sure the Tiguan’s cabin remains quiet with little engine, road or wind noise permeating into the cabin at a cruise. Impressively, that’s also true of the Tiguan R despite massive 21in wheels. On this front, it is worth noting that the diesels are much louder than the petrols, especially on a cold morning.

The 1.5-litre TSI petrol engine has been a little hit-and-miss in terms of refinement within the Volkswagen group. Thankfully, it’s a little bit smoother in the Tiguan than it is in the more expensive Audi Q3, which sounds rough and feels lethargic in comparison.