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AUTO REVIEW

2018 Volkswagen Tiguan

By Steve Schutz, MD

“We understand Europe, we understand China, and we under- Anyway, the US automotive market in 2013, like now, was moving
stand Brazil. But so far we understand the US to a limited extent.” rapidly away from family sedans--cars in general, really--and towards
So said then Volkswagen Supervisory Board Chairman Ferdinand SUVs and crossovers. While VW back then had two SUVs, the
Piech in 2013 when asked about declining sales in this country. As Tiguan aimed at Honda CRV/Toyota RAV4 buyers, and the Touareg
was always the case when Dr Piech expressed displeasure with one charged with attracting Honda Pilot/Toyota Highlander intenders,
aspect of VW or another, changes happened in short order, and here neither vehicle sold well because they were both too small and too
we are four years later with a very different Volkswagen USA. pricey (among other problems).
A quick aside, in addition to customer tastes, VW obviously also Fast forward to 2018, and Volkswagen, now without the leader-
had a limited understanding of US emissions laws. In Europe prior ship of the aforementioned Ferdinand Piech, has nevertheless taken
to the big VW scandal, all manufacturers had to do to make regula- his advice and learned more about the US market, which is the ob-
tors happy was roll their vehicles onto government dynamometers vious take away if you’ve driven either two new crossovers launched
and pass their proscribed emissions tests. If they drove out of the in 2017, the Atlas and (all new) Tiguan.
testing facility polluting much more than they did during the test, The Tiguan is the crossover we’ll focus on here, and it’s a much
that was OK. It was the test that mattered. That’s not how the laws better fit in the US than the last one was. For starters, the new Tiguan
are written in this country, which is why Volkswagen has had to is significantly larger than the previous one, adding 7.3 inches of
spend billions of dollars in fines and restitution here but not in Eu- wheelbase and 10.6 inches of length. Not only does that make it big
rope despite using emissions defeat devices in both places. (Those enough inside to fit a third row of seats (standard in FWD models
European loopholes have since been closed, by the way.) and a no-brainer $500 option in AWD models. I know, weird. Blame

44 San Antonio Medicine • February 2018