2022 Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace review: 162 TSI R-Line

Volkswagen’s Tiguan Allspace should probably be a bit of a curiosity, the kind of car a company the size and shape of VW can have around just because.

The company took its wildly successful second-generation five-door, five-seat medium SUV – already one of the roomiest and cargo-capacious in its segment – and stretched it in the wheelbase and the body to fit two more seats and offer a massive boot.

It’s not a curiosity, though – it makes up over half of global production and over two in five Tiguans sold here are the Allspace variant. You wouldn’t know it, though, because the badge is so small and the visual integration of the longer vehicle so subtle.

By staying well under five metres, the Tiguan Allspace is that rarest of things – a seven-seat SUV that doesn’t present as gigantic. And, if you’re to engage me in conversation, actually makes sense for all the people who ask me for a seven-seat recommendation when I know full well that they will never use that final row.

The Allspace returns to our shores with VW securing 4000 units, but they tell us it’s nowhere near enough – especially in 162 TSI R-Line specification, which the local arm says is overwhelmingly the most popular driveline.

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Pricing and features

Not only is the 162 TSI the most popular engine option but the R-Line is now a model in its own right after the success of the R-Line pack fitted to Elegance models.

For $58,490 ($61,690 if you want the diesel) before on-road costs it’s not cheap and is putting itself against large SUVs from Hyundai, Kia and Toyota, something VW is not afraid of doing.

The R-Line headlines with 20-inch alloys and its own bumpers, skirts and body kit, as well as a small wing over the tailgate.

You’ll also find heated and ventilated front seats, three-zone climate control, heated outboard middle row seats, adaptive damping, wireless charging, leather seats, Matrix LED headlights, a 9.2-inch touchscreen, tinted rear windows, interior ambient lighting and a space-saver spare.

The 9.2-inch touchscreen (the biggest you can get in a Tiguan) runs the Discovery Pro system that includes a built-in sat-nav as well as wireless connectivity for both Apple and Android phones, which goes nicely with the wireless charging pad. You can also connect via USB but annoyingly it’s a bit flaky.

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My wife and I found our phones refusing to connect or only half-connecting and playing the sound through the phone itself despite the touchscreen displaying CarPlay. It’s not the first time I’ve seen that in a VW so it must be something to do with the embedded software.

Every Tiguan Allspace ships with six airbags (the curtains reach to the third row), ABS and stability controls as well as adaptive lane guidance, forward collision warning, forward auto emergency braking, lane assist, side assist, rear cross-traffic alert and driver attention monitoring.

At least, the first batch available has all that. Unfortunately, subsequent Allspaces will miss out on both reverse cross-traffic alert and side assist from the safety package, which is annoying.

Selected models also lose out on the animated LED taillights and a powered tailgate. If you’ve got an order in, you should talk to your dealer about your allocation and what your options are (and you do have options).

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Comfort and (All)space

Believe it or not, the Tiguan Allspace is known simply as Tiguan in the US and they don’t even get the short wheelbase version, which is kind of a drag for them but good for us because we get the choice.

In order to earn its badge, the Allspace is 22cm longer than the five-seater at 4734mm, riding on a wheelbase of 2791m.

Mazda’s similarly niche idea of the CX-8 is noticeably longer at 4901mm but also has a longer wheelbase of 2930mm, so VW has done well to find all the extra space it needed for two extra seats or, with those down, a huge boot.

You start with 230 litres of cargo space, which is small hatchback territory. With the jump seats down you get 700 litres, an 85-litre improvement over the shorter car. With both back rows down flat, you get 1775 litres, which is 110 more than the short-wheelbase Tiguan.

The Allspace is 22cm longer than the five-seater at 4734mm, riding on a wheelbase of 2791m.

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Front occupants are well looked after with comfortable seats in all grades, the higher grades naturally more comfortable still and with leather. Two cup holders are in the centre console plus two USB-C ports in with the wireless phone charger.

The 40:20:40 split middle row is very comfortable, with supportive reclining seatbacks. The seats slide forward in a 60:40 split, which increases either the boot space or the meagre legroom for the third row.

There is heaps of head and leg room and good foot room unless you’re in the middle over the transmission tunnel, which also renders the middle seat a little hard to take if you’re over five feet tall.

The centre armrest has two cup holders and you’ll find both a 12-volt and a USB-C power outlet and the controls for the third climate zone.

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All four doors have big door pockets with space for big bottles and carpet lining to keep the noise down.

The third row is very tight and not super-easy to get into. You flip the middle row forward and then push the whole thing forward – no tumbling or the extra cleverness you’ll find in larger cars.

Legroom is non-existent for anyone over about three years old so you’ll need to slide the middle row forward. Yes, that will work for short trips, but this is not a “load up the gang for a long trip” kind of car.

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On the road

The 162 is the most popular and most powerful engine in both Tiguan ranges, with only the diesel out-torquing it and even then by only 50Nm.

The 162 TSI engine is a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder familiar in cars all over the VW Group. As the name foreshadows, it spins up 162kW and you’ll need to refer to the spec sheet to discover it has 350Nm, because that would be an even longer model name.

Power goes to all four wheels through the famous seven-speed DSG dual-clutch transmission.

It’s easy to see why buyers like this engine. It moves a big, 1773kg car with impressive enthusiasm. It’s incredibly smooth and quiet in this spec, with only a little turbo lag before a smooth power delivery. The transmission comes to the party whether you’re pootling about or somehow enjoying a back road.

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It’s easy to see why buyers like this engine. It moves a big, 1773kg car with impressive enthusiasm.

Obviously, that kind of power is extremely useful around town to break into traffic and with a reasonable if not astonishing amount of torque, performance won’t suffer too much as you load up with people and things.

You still know it’s a dual-clutch, of course, with the occasional short rollback on a hill (caught by auto-hold if you’re that kind of person, which I’m not) or hesitation. Sport mode takes away the latter but also fails to be one of those obnoxious sport modes that just holds lower gears for too long.

With the bigger 20-inch wheels, the reasonably plush ride of the Elegance suffers a little on poor surfaces, more so if you go into Sport mode on the adaptive suspension. It won’t throw a filling or unstraighten your spine, but the R-Line is slightly busier and concrete roads are a bit noisy.

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If it needs saying, those huge wheels will not be happy campers off-road, so set your sights on sensible camping trips on graded dirt roads rather than anywhere too challenging.

The Tiguan is an impressive car in either wheelbase version and really, the Allspace doesn’t feel much different to drive than the five-seater, so that’s a big win.

VW claims the Tiguan Allspace R-Line will use 95 RON at the rate of 8.6L/100km on the combined cycle.

The week I had the car for included the launch activity and a number of other drivers as well as a fairly sedate week running backwards and forwards doing errands and the dash readout yielded a 10.2L/100km reading.

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Ownership

Volkswagen offers a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty that is on the pace, beaten only by Kia and Mitsubishi.

Your dealer will offer you the opportunity to pay for your servicing up front with three or five-year service plans. For the R-Line, you’ll pay $1650 for three years and $2950 for five. Both plans offer double-digit savings over pay-as-you-go.

You’ll need to return to the dealer every 12 months or 15,000km.

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VERDICT

The R-Line is a lot of money, putting you over sixty grand to get it on the road. Despite its official large SUV classification, it’s still dimensionally a mid-size SUV, albeit with two small jump seats to make it a seven-seater or, in truth, a 5+2.

It impresses with its excellent drivetrain, excellent (if variable depending on build date) equipment level and a great cabin.

It looks great, maintains a small footprint and does it all just as well as the short-wheelbase Tiguan that remains the benchmark for the class.

This update isn’t massive but does push a lot more technology into the list; it’s just a great pity that there isn’t a hybrid or PHEV option, which would make it even quicker and more frugal.

It’s not cheap, especially after a price rise in the order of five per cent, but unfortunately, that’s the life of a car buyer in 2022 – cars are expensive and scarce.

So if you’re going to get one, you may as well get a good one.

It looks great, maintains a small footprint and does it all just as well as the short-wheelbase Tiguan that remains the benchmark for the class.

Related video

2022 VW Tiguan Allspace 162TSI specifications