2025 Volkswagen Tiguan Now 100% Geared Towards U.S. Buyers

With the 2025 Tiguan, it’s obvious that Volkswagen now fully understands what its core buyers want. It took three generations to get there, though. The Tiguan was always sort of an odd duck in the compact crossover segment, with the first-generation model criticized for being too European and just too small for it to truly dethrone the competition.

Its replacement addressed most of these problems by being larger, more spacious and more practical, but the expected German quality and refinement took a hit. With this new one, however, it feels as though VW has finally hit a sweet spot.

2025 Volkswagen Tiguan: A Tighter, Prettier Package

I liked the first-generation Tiguan. I liked how it basically drove like a lifted Golf, because that’s essentially what it was underneath. That gave the Tiguan the same sort of puppy-dog handling characteristics as a hot hatch, a quality that matched beautifully with its punchy turbocharged drivetrain.

The second-generation model, wasn’t all that great dynamically. While still riding on Golf underpinnings, it was inflated to meet North American demands in terms of cargo and passenger space. It felt, well, fat. Tall. Not particularly athletic in the corners and was kind of low-rent in its overall execution.Still, the Tiguan remained a good-selling model for VW, with more than 100,000 units sold in the U.S. and Canada in 2024. You can therefore understand why Volkswagen is hanging on to this thing, and why it just pumped out an all-new, third-generation model for the 2025 model year.It looks, well, much better now. Gone is the baby Atlas look. In its place is a much rounder, more organic design language. This is also a much tighter package overall. Interestingly enough, this design gives the Tiguan the illusion of being a smaller machine, similar to the original Tiguan. In reality, its overall dimensions are roughly the same.This new model rides on the same platform as before, and its wheelbase is identical. But the Tiguan’s shorter overhangs lead to a shorter overall length. This is more in line with the what the original Tiguan was in the first place.

Familiar Hardware, But With An Entirely New Skin

It would be easy to qualify the new Tiguan as a major facelift of the old model given how similar it is over its predecessor. At least, from a technical standpoint. But all of its sheetmetal is brand-new, which also includes the use of lightweight materials to help (only slightly) reduce the vehicle’s overall curb weight. Structural and lateral rigidity were also improved over the previous generation.It’s the same story for the powerplant. There’s fancy new hybrid system here, or even a full electric version. What we get is the same tried and proven turbocharged 2.0-liter engine. Now dubbed the Evo5, it remains a slightly reworked version of the VW Group’s ubiquitous EA888 engine, and mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission. For the new Tiguan, it pumps out 201 horsepower and 221 lb-ft of torque in all-wheel-drive form, which is the only way to spec a 2025 Tiguan in Canada. There is, however, a more potent “Turbo” model coming soon. Essentially based on the same 2.0-liter engine, the Turbo is more a play on words akin to what Porsche does with both the 911 and the Taycan. But the Turbo will help boost the Tiguan’s output to more interesting 268 horsepower and 258 lb-ft.Because the base engine is really only fine. I mean, that’s ok considering what this thing was first and foremost designed to do, and the type of models its up against. Think Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Hyundai Tucson. None of those are rocketships.

Acceleration for the Tiguan is therefore peppy at best, but the turbocharged engine does provide decent low-end torque and really pulls at all areas of the rev counter. It’s just a lovely little mill. The eight-speed gearbox also does a bang up job of quickly handing you over a different cog whenever you ask for one.Handling is also totally fine. Not as agile as past Tiguans, and definitely not as athletic as, say, a Mazda CX-5, the new Tiguan leans more towards Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V territory. It’s nimble, but never too stiff with enough body roll to remind you that you’re at the helm of a family-focused machine. As a daily runabout designed to carry families safely from one place to the next, this is totally acceptable.

A More Grown-Up Cabin, With “Atmospheres”

But it’s really inside that the new Tiguan stepped up its game. General material quality and general build quality have been enhanced to deliver what is the most grown-up Tiguan yet.

It’s not just impressive for a Tiguan in there, but for the entire segment. My tester’s leather surfaces, leather seats and wood paneling on the dashboard really gave it a warm, upscale look and feel. More importantly, it’s how none of it feels like you’re in an Audi. The Tiguan rather feels like its own thing. This is clearly a more Americanized approach, but it should work at attracting buyers. Remove the VW badge from its steering wheel, and this could very well be a Chrysler.But there are elements of this cabin that remain frustrating. I don’t really get the large, piano black slab of plastic that was installed in front of the passenger. At first glance, it looks like a screen, but it’s not. It’s just there for deco. It’s weird.

And while VW has spent much time reworking its infotainment system, it remains a hot mess of icons, menus and complication. You do eventually get around its intricacies, and VW has improved its response times, as well as the sensitivity of its haptic sliders. It’s better, yes, but remains a tedious and somewhat complex system.Down on the center console is a third, smaller screen that acts as a knob dial for both the audio system’s sound settings, or the Tiguan’s new “Atmospheres”. In a nutshell, they’re a set of preconfigured drive modes that also change the vehicle’s cabin lighting and other features to create different mood settings.BMW started this with its Experiences, something that eventually trickled down to the MINI lineup. It’s now available in a Tiguan. It’s a gimmick, one I would have personally done without. But it should be a hit with the kids,While on the topic of kids, the Tiguan never forgets its mission of being a family hauler. Now strictly a two-row SUV, VW removed the complex mechanism that allowed the second row to move forward. The simplified setup gave way to more leg room, while head room remains class-competitive.Cargo space, however, is on the low side of the segment. For reference, when its rear seat is folded flat, the Tiguan will only swallow up to 1,668 liters of cargo. This puts it almost in the same ballpark as the equally small Mazda CX-5 (1,645 liters) and considerably behind a Honda CR-V (2,166 liters).The 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan therefore attempts to continue pleasing its core North-American demographic while preserving some of the quirkiness of the German-built original. And, honestly, it does a wonderful job of combining both.Finally out of its awkward phase where it was big simply for the sake of attracting American buyers, the new Tiguan is now more polished, more refined, better-looking, yet still just as pragmatic as it ought to be. This is the Americanized Tiguan Volkswagen was always aiming for. Just don’t say too loud that it’s built in Mexico.