• Appealing choice of engines, including diesel
• All come with a DSG automatic transmission
• Better to drive than before

Petrol engines

The 1.5-litre turbo petrol engines are most popular in the VW Tiguan – and for generally good reason. These front-wheel drive only models are available with 130hp or 150hp and are badged eTSI to reflect their use of mild-hybrid technology, which helps save a little fuel and make the driving experience a little smoother.

We find these motors pleasant and engaging, generally speaking, and they enjoy being driven hard. Though if you’re careful, you should get something close to 40mpg, which is decent fuel economy for a family-sized SUV.

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The 2.0-litre turbo petrol engines don’t use mild-hybrid tech, and are badged TSI. They offer 204hp or 265hp and come with 4Motion four-wheel drive as standard. We’ve most recently been driving the 265hp version, and while it’s not quite a substitute for a Golf GTI it has plenty of performance, reflected in a 0-62mph acceleration time of 5.9 seconds and a top speed of 150mph.

All Mk3 Tiguans come equipped with a DSG automatic transmission.

You can see full engine details on our VW Tiguan specs pages.

Diesel engine

The Tiguan is also available with a 150hp TDI turbodiesel engine, which remains well-worth considering if you do a lot of long-distance driving. The car will easily exceed 500 miles on a full tank, and feels punchy and muscular – if occasionally a little lazy pulling away, which is typical for a DSG-TDI combination.

This is the best Tiguan to choose for towing as well since it produces 265lb ft of torque (pulling power) from just 1,600rpm. But as with the less powerful petrol engines, it only comes with front-wheel drive, so may not be suitable if you need to tackle to occasional slippery field while hauling something behind you.

What’s it like to drive?

Volkswagen has made an effort to increase the driving appeal of this latest Tiguan, and largely it’s succeeded. While the 265hp R-Line isn’t exactly going to trouble a true high-performance family car for thrills, it has enough character and engagement that we found ourselves looking forward to every drive.

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Not only is the engine impressively responsive, the suspension and chassis have some clever tricks as well. All R-Line models come with DCC Pro – Dynamic Chassis Control with almost overwhelmingly variable degrees of adjustment from soft to firm, assisted by advanced two-valve shock absorbers that use motorsport technology – and the 4Motion variants even have sportier settings for the four-wheel drive system.

The result is an SUV that offers a wide range of capability: from cushy compliance on bumpy roads when you’re not in a hurry to taut body control that reduces roll in the corners and meant that we felt safe even when driving quickly. In fact, there’s so much adjustment it may take you a while to find your perfect settings – but perhaps that’s part of the fun.

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The flipside to this is that we haven’t found the standard suspension all that alluring. On the 1.5-litre eTSI we’ve tested we felt Volkswagen had gone a little too far in the direction of sporty. This means the Tiguan is well-controlled in the turns but suffers with a hard-edge to the ride comfort that can often be annoying or unsettling in everyday use, especially over badly damaged road surfaces (in other words, much of the UK).

It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but make sure you get a test drive in a car that closely reflects the specification of the vehicle you are thinking of buying. Or budget to add DCC Pro if you possibly can. For an even keener driving experience, consider the BMW X1.