Tiguan a killer on dirt - Motor Magazine

[Mr Messy]

Have you guys seen Motor's latest mag with the Tiguan 2.0T vs Forester turbo and Mini countryman 4WD?

They gave all three to a rally driver on dirt and the Tig was well faster than its rivals.
The Forester (a new S-Tune WRX alternative thing) was a little quicker in a straight line, but the VW was better off road.

Pretty cool.

[team_v]

I should have lent them my Stage 2
Really want to try it out on a gravel/dirt track but it's so new i don't want to get scratches all over it.

[jimbomort]

well I have tried out my stage 1 (last year) and lots of fun

just tons of go in second and third of course, emphasized greatly by being on narrower roads. Second often lost grip under full acceleration

I didn't go too hard (ie four wheel slides etc) as site distances on those roads (back of Coffs) weren't good so unsafe, and yes the new car thing, though I am a little less worried about scratches, figure I bought thing to use it

I'll look forward to reading that article with interest

[Captain Bungers]

Yes, interestingly I got my stage I completely sideways on the way home through a chicane. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it maintained its shape, and even more pleasantly surprised that there was no understeer! I was also a little bit surprised in general. I know I was driving in the wet and this is about the off road capabilities, but I just had to share it...

I drive on dirt a bit out here and I can understand why it would rate so well against a lot of other cars.

[team_v]

Yes, interestingly I got my stage I completely sideways on the way home through a chicane.

WHAT!
That shiz is crazy!
I have only ever had mine lose control to understeer once and that was in teh wet on an oily road lol.


And Jimbo, we need some google maps location so we can do a time trial run please

[Captain Bungers]

Yeah, I was surprised, it reminded me of my Toranana days! ECS light was flashing, but not doing much.

[jimbomort]

WHAT!
That shiz is crazy!
I have only ever had mine lose control to understeer once and that was in teh wet on an oily road lol.:

Team V sideways is oversteer (ie the car is turning more than it should if it was tracking true to steering inputs, and understeer of course is when the car is turning less than). Agree that is crazy Bungers. I use to push a series 2 liberty pretty hard (on the dirt) and dont think I ever got that seriously sideways, though my brother and I did get a porsche boxter seriously sideways once on the bitumen and that had serious grip, so I can see how it might be done. But hey that was in the past, wouldn't do that now. My liberty didn't have the power of the Tig......hmmm, but something I would like to try out on the right piece of dirt road

And Jimbo, we need some google maps location so we can do a time trial run please :cool :

?not sure I understand what you mean?? anyway wouldn't recommend the stretch of road I was referring too, something with good sight distances be much better. If you want to see how the Tig drives on the dirt and have a quick squirt, should be some good stuff out Beaudesert way? or some in northern nsw I could suggest

[team_v]

Team V sideways is oversteer (ie the car is turning more than it should if it was tracking true to steering inputs, and understeer of course is when the car is turning less than). Agree that is crazy Bungers. I use to push a series 2 liberty pretty hard (on the dirt) and dont think I ever got that seriously sideways, though my brother and I did get a porsche boxter seriously sideways once on the bitumen and that had serious grip, so I can see how it might be done. But hey that was in the past, wouldn't do that now. My liberty didn't have the power of the Tig......hmmm, but something I would like to try out on the right piece of dirt road




?not sure I understand what you mean?? anyway wouldn't recommend the stretch of road I was referring too, something with good sight distances be much better. If you want to see how the Tig drives on the dirt and have a quick squirt, should be some good stuff out Beaudesert way? or some in northern nsw I could suggest

It was understeer, the car should have turned 90 degrees instead i was sliding towards a wall at 45 degrees.

Might have to find some forestry tracks up here to see how she handles off road.

[Captain Bungers]

All I can add is that I had the rev's up around 3000 and the turbo was spooled up, so power transfer was instantaneous. Maybe something I was doing had the Haldex transferring more power to the rear already

[jimbomort]

Have you guys seen Motor's latest mag with the Tiguan 2.0T vs Forester turbo and Mini countryman 4WD?

They gave all three to a rally driver on dirt and the Tig was well faster than its rivals.
The Forester (a new S-Tune WRX alternative thing) was a little quicker in a straight line, but the VW was better off road.Pretty cool.

I had a quick read of that article and the 147 tsi with dsg posted about 15 sec standing quarter which isn't bad. Indeed the forester was only about 0.3 of a sec quicker than that, though a full second quicker in rolling acceleration 80-120. They liked the launch control on the Tig, which made up a bit for the lower power in the standing start acceleration.

However while the Tig was quicker to drive on the dirt, they weren't all that complimentary, suggesting both the forester and clubman were a more engaging drive and the forester had better clearance. Neither were they very complimentary towards the looks of the Tig, though of course they noted the obviously more upmarket interior of the Tig.

Upshot is I was expecting the article to be more complimentary than what it was, though I may have missed some bits, I scanned over it more than read it in full.

Quite frankly I feel let down by the motor mags most of the time, not because of what they say but how they say it and what they dont say. A lot of the stories are as much about infotainment as they are useful evaluations. I think there is a lot they could do to better inform the motoring public about the new cars they are testing.