Seven beats five with the Tiguan Allspace
Volkswagen New Zealand boss Tom Ruddenklau spoke the obvious while addressing the motoring media in Auckland. ‘‘Seven is bigger than five,’’ he told the journalists.
It was an important thing to say though, because Ruddenklau was introducing a new sevenseater version of New Zealand’s most popular Volkswagen, the Tiguan SUV.
Ever since the Tiguan was first launched in 2007 the vehicle has gone on to become the world’s third-most popular compact SUV, behind the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CRV.
It’s also easily been the most popularVWin New Zealand, achieving 1892 sales last year – which, by the way, was a 101 per cent increase on the year before.
And those sales numbers were achieved only with five-seater models, even though one of the major selling points with SUVs of this size is that they are capable to featuring three rows of seats.
So now Volkswagen NZ has addressed that omission with the launch of a seven-seater version called Tiguan Allspace.
It’s offering the model in a total of six variants covering Comfortline, Highline and R-Line levels of power and specification, and they join the five-seater lineup which has been reduced to five variants.
Truth be told, this seven-seater SUV from the Volkswagen Group has already been on sale in New Zealand in another form – the Skoda Kodiaq, which is the current New Zealand Car of the Year.
But at the media function, Ruddenklau still expressed confidence that arrival of the Mexican-built Allspace will result in a jump in Tiguan sales, growing closer to 2500 overall over a full 12 months.
Little wonder that Volkswagen NZ product manager Rasika Versleijen forecast that the Tiguan Allspace will quickly cement itself as the next cornerstone of theVWbrand.
As would be expected, the new Allspace is essentially a stretched version of the five-seat Tiguan – although just about every body panel is different.
It’s built on an elongated version of Volkswagen’sMQB modular platform, and its wheelbase has been extended by 110mm to 2787mm, with overall length now 4701mm which is 215mm more than the five-seater.
Consequently there’s a lot more room inside – hence the Allspace badging.
And while the obvious news about this model is that the vehicle now has the third row of seats, they do lack leg room and are really only there for the children.
Perhaps the better news is that the stretch has resulted in more room for second-row passengers – leg room has been extended by 60mm, and knee room is up by 54mm.
Rear load space also benefits from the stretch.
Obviously there’s not a lot of room when all three rows of seats are in use, but when the third row is folded down there’s 700 litre of load space (the five-seater has 615 litres), and when that row is folded down it opens up 1775 litres of room which is enough to carry such items as surfboards.
All but one of the Allspace models come with Volkswagen’s 4Motion all-wheel drive, which gives them a towing capacity of 2500kg which is best in class in the seven-seater segment.
With the arrival of the sevenseater variant, Volkswagen New Zealand has reduced the selection of five-seater models to five. The five-seater range starts with a $43,990 two-wheel drive TSI with a Comfortline level of specification, and go through to an R-Line 4Motion for $68,990.
Meanwhile the Allspace selection begins with a $47,990 2WD Comfortline, which is powered by a 110kW/250Nm 1.4-litre turbocharged four cylinder petrol engine mated to a six-speed DSG automatic.
This vehicle is rated to tow up to 1800kg.
Next up are a pair of 4Motion models which are powered by a 132kW/320Nm 2.0-litre TSI engine and have a seven-speed DSG.
One has the Comfortline level of specification and goes on the market for $56,990, while the other is a more luxurious Highline and costs $64,990.
Topping out the Allspace range on sale now is a $68,990 Highline TDI, which has a 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine that offers 140kW and 400Nm.
In June two more Allspace models will arrive, both of them sportier R-Line models.
One will be powered by a 2.0-litre TSI turbo petrol engine that will develop 162kW and 350Nm, and will retail for $72,990.
The other will be a $76,990 2.0-litre bi-turbo diesel version which will offer 176kW and 500Nm, and which will be capable of getting to the open-road speed limit in just 6.7 seconds.
Standard features aboard all the Allspace models include an eight-inch glass-covered infotainment screen (9.2-inch for the R-Line models), LED headlights with separate LED daytime running lights, and a wide selection of driver assist systems including pedestrian monitoring, front assist, lane assist, side assist with rear traffic alert, and area view camera.