Feelings after 2 years 11 months and 55,000 k's

[IGW84]

Just thought I would drop in a summary of our feelings and experiences of our Tig after 2 years 11 months and about 55,000 ks on the odo. Manual, TDI, base model.

Likes:

• still nice to drive
• good seating space front and back
• middle rear seat is reasonably comfortable
• (diesel) fuel efficiency is good
• we are, in general, very pleased with our purchase
• seats are comfortable (I used to get sore back in the old car (prado) on long distances, not in the Tig in any of the four main seats and even the middle rear is pretty good for the first few hundred ks.
• excellent car for beginner drivers, good seating position, interesting enough to drive, full safety alphabet soup
• it has been a good car for us (single car family of 5 with two teenagers now driving), at times smaller than would be ideal, but this is for just a few percent of trips (if that) and we knew this but thought we could deal with this by trailers, pods, bike racks etc in order to optimize the car size for the 99% of trips - and this is how it has worked out.

Reliability:

• been pretty good so far but two warranty issues in the last month (just coming up to end of 3 year warranty) is a bit of a worry.
• one warranty call for hard to latch front passenger seat belt (after about 6 months I think)
• one warranty call for rear door unlatching switch (the hand switch on the boot door) hard to operate - seems switch came off bracket or bracket was flexing/bent. We were not rough on it. (I would be interested to know if this is a design issue and others are getting increasingly difficult to operate rear doors). This was just recently.
• another warranty call, just recently, for engine block/exhaust warning light and MDF alert. Car drove OK, no-one of our 4 drivers noticed any driveability issue. Fault was "flap for the throttle body" according to service invoice. Discussion with service rep said there was a small leak of oil or lubricant and this was causing miss readings on the fly-by-wire throttle. This one is a bit concerning actually, given the potential for mis-reading of the driver's desired throttle setting and the engine doing something different from the driver request.
• battery has had to be replaced (after about 2.5 years)
• tyres (stock as delivered) had to be replaced after about 47,000k. A bit less than we are used to.

Dislikes:

• foot brake takes a bit of getting used to in order to provide a comfortable ride for passengers. It is close to a "digital" brake - either on or off. It requires quite a deft touch to make for a smooth ride. But this is learnt soon enough.
• Small boot, but it has not been a huge issue for us. We use a roof pod(s) when necessary. We also have removed the foam surround around the spare and use the extra space to store rarely used stuff.
• still very nervous about the space saver spare - though we have not had to use it yet (we do end up on plenty of dirt and rural remote roads)
• rear boot light is crap - worse than none as it shines in your eyes (affecting night vision) but does not effectively illuminate the boot area
• sun visors - these are most annoying. They will not stay where you put them. If you push then way forward so they are close to the glass, and so out of sight line, but still blocking the sun, they just slowly droop back to hang vertical and make you have to drop your head to see under them. This is a design flaw in my view. Not good at all.
• Some of our drivers don't like the electric park brake, but the L and P plate drivers are OK with it. My wife doesn't like it. I am Ok with it, except I distrust more electrical things that could fail when we are a bit remote.

We fitted an Chinese no-name GPS/sound/DVD etc player. Has worked fine. This was not the one that drained battery through the CAN bus connection.

I am interested in whether our experiences are typical

[STIDUB]

125TSI - 13months 41,000ks
only issue is the dash trim around the stereo poking out in one corner from basically new, supposedly nothing they can do about it
multiple trips from bris to syd, one to melbourne, 2 to goulburn,
fuel economy is awesome, trips i did in 2 tanks in my previous car N15 SSS pulsar i now do in one, F3 freeway BP to home via interesting detours & stopping at friends places, not ideal fuel economy run but still 800~ on one tank, done that 2x now
agree on the sunvisors though being tall & the seat at the lowest setting its frustrating but i seem to hate sunvisor size/position in almost every car i drive.
autohold/handbrake has made me lazy, proven by driving the outlaws new focus, horrid pedal setup & miserably balancing pedals on my part, very out of practise. -im curious if the people doing driving tests would even allow it to be used, its pretty much cheating...
the boot is great for myself, even with a "lightly packing" other half, remove the false floor & foam & its suddenly huge, you can fit 2x full size wheels upright & still have decent space i found - may be worth doing for others on long drives that are concerned about the space saver.
cracked the 40,000ks just south of grafton last week, couldnt be happier - pretty much $1per km of use JUST over a year since new, love it - to think i was about to change my mind on the purchase that said an amarok is mighty tempting, its the only diesel ive actually liked driving

[jimbomort]

190 tsi (125 with APR stage 1) - almost 2 years, 31,000ks.

very happy with ours, still look forward to driving it every time I do. Engine best I have ever had and given the power, extremely happy with fuel economy for a powerful, and heavy for its class suv.

no real warranty issues etc to date.

agree rear boot room hasn't proved a problem. Just not an issue for 99% of our driving and easy solutions for the other %. We removed the biscuit spare and foam ages ago and yes that makes the boot quite spacious. Can of goo is 'our spare' solution for tarmac trips.

haven't experienced the drooping sun visor issue

our only real desire, was a more serious 4wd tig option, but guess the beancounters figured this wasn't important. However on that I think on street cred they may have missed an opp, but maybe thats just me. for eg most impreza's aren't rex's, but all (well most!) enjoy the association. Could have been the same for Tigs, had VW bought out a more serious 4wd version.

[clip]

125 TSI (Stg1 APR most of it's life) must be getting close to 60,000k's. One of the first TSI in Aus.

Pro's: It reverse parks itself, it starts in the morning.

Con's: not enough power (need 230+), too much body roll / doesn't handle good enough, sits too high, seats not firm enough, brakes not good enough esp from +240k/h, gear ratios wrong (1st too low), clutch too soft, too much front wheel drive action, too heavy, and worst of all -it's not black


Would I buy another one?: Yes

[Pullstarter]

125 TSI (Stg1 APR most of it's life) must be getting close to 60,000k's. One of the first TSI in Aus.

Pro's: It reverse parks itself, it starts in the morning.

Con's: not enough power (need 230+), too much body roll / doesn't handle good enough, sits too high, seats not firm enough, brakes not good enough esp from +240k/h, gear ratios wrong (1st too low), clutch too soft, too much front wheel drive action, too heavy, and worst of all -it's not black


Would I buy another one?: Yes

Always knew you wanted a black one John

[clip]

Always knew you wanted a black one John

next time for sure!

TBH, the Tig has been awesome. Absolutley no complaints, no problems (other than the early brake booster replacement), and still drives like it did 60000k's ago. BUT I would like one that had 230kw, less body roll, sat nice and low, had recaro seats or similar, better brakes, taller 1st gear, more positive clutch, less front wheel drive action, was 300kg lighter, and of course - black!

[IGW84]

... BUT I would like one that had 230kw, less body roll, sat nice and low, had recaro seats or similar, better brakes, taller 1st gear, more positive clutch, less front wheel drive action, was 300kg lighter, and of course - black!

So why buy a mini-truck otherwise known as an SUV?

[aussietig]

next time for sure!

TBH, the Tig has been awesome. Absolutley no complaints, no problems (other than the early brake booster replacement), and still drives like it did 60000k's ago. BUT I would like one that had 230kw, less body roll, sat nice and low, had recaro seats or similar, better brakes, taller 1st gear, more positive clutch, less front wheel drive action, was 300kg lighter, and of course - black!

Absolutely disagree with your last point or want!!!

[clip]

So why buy a mini-truck otherwise known as an SUV?

Becuase I really think there is a market for one and for good reasons. In fact it's simple, and makes perfect sense to me.

The Tig is in it's current form is:
1. practical (good sized hatch)
2. one of the best passenger vehicles on the road IMO (eps. overall comfort levels for all passengers, rear legroom, vision -rear theatre style seating etc)
3. but most importantly is the seat height from the floor - you can't often get this in a 'car' and I need it (or did, maybe still do yet), anyway it makes a massive difference to comfort levels. I don't need the ground clearance, just the seat clearance and headroom.

The Tig is really good at nearly everything and I don't want to change it too much, just give me a true "sports" utility vehicle that retains all these things, but with real performance enhancements, charge me another 15k for it, market it properly so others want it too, and they'll sell a million - well at least 2

[203132]

well for my Tiguan of 2 years and 45,000km. Superchip ECU tune done at 40,000km because I just found out that the engine and hardware had so much potential.
Had P6 Pirelli tyres when bought and decided to get them again after 43,000km on them. I reckon I could've gotten much further on them but one of the rear tyres had been punctured 3 times by nails and kept losing pressure.

Ride: Damn it's hard. Didn't really notice it brand new but I feel every crack and inconsistency in the roads now a days. Maybe the roads in Sydney are getting worse or my dampers are screwed. (i have 16s)

Average fuel consumption:11.2L/100km.

Dislikes: There's some rattle behind the speedo, which is very loud during bumps but it goes away on some trips. Very noticeable in the early stages of a trip. (going to try and get it fixed at the service)

Left lower door speaker is starting to make buzzing sounds everytime there is bass.

Cruise control: increasing the speed via the controls. I wish it would tell me how much I am increasing it by.

Should've gotten the rear sensors/self park or the touch screen unit. Not the best car to reverse park with 3 tall people in the back seats.

Likes: the way the door closes, very solid and heavy. After driving my tiguan and going into a friends X1, the X1 doors feel cheap. I have to close it twice to get it to close properly because the doors are lighter. (gotta slam that thing)

The fact that it feels solid and stable at cruising speed.

Turbo.....

[Phillslats]

Just would like to know any others thoughts. I have had my Tig now for it's 4th year. We got one of the first 200 into the country. Beautiful engine! but the car is crap. I guess I made the wrong choice but in my view it is neither fish nor foul. It is barely a 4wd with such limited ground clearance and a limited 4wd system (idiotic haldex diff) and it is certainly not a sedan. The boot space is pathetic, headlights are a joke and has anyone tried to change their rear brake pads or done a service themselves (like you need to when your out of town. If anyone tries to sell me a car with electric hand brake again I'll be telling them what I really think.

[Transporter]

All the things you pointed out were there at the time when you were looking at the car to buy, weren't they?

[MGV]

I gotta say if mine were written off or stolen, i would have no hesitation in getting another one! That's my thoughts...

[ethosguy]

Comfortable with our 103TDI (125kw Oettinger flash)
Driven weekly on dirt roads, usually running late and it is surefooted and confident.
Don't love the ESP threshold or that diesels don't have the intrinsic power delivery of the petrol but at 6.9 over 3500km mixed driving, including the being late with a dirt bike on trailer on unpatroled roads I'm not complaining...I knew what I was agreeing to when we went with the diesel.

Not particularly playful to drive but again I knew how it drove...

Very pracitcle 2 young kid family car. We cope with the boot space and after over 2 1/2 yrs havn't yet sprung for the roof boot we allowed for.

Has anyone else noticed the Euro spare tyre spec...I'm guessing a can of sticky gooey air...the boot floor seems lower than Aussi spec?

Tyre wear is higher than anticipated from the OE Hankooks at 35k, they won't likely see 50k. I'm going to look at wheel alignment options.

Would we replace it with another if if was written off? Most likely.

[Phillslats]

Oh yeah it was all there when I bought the car. But the broken plastic clips, seat side panel falling off, too many squeaks and rattles to list, the Inability to remove a rear brake calliper without special tools were all discovered along the way. Can't wait to sell it.