Used 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan Consumer Reviews
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2018 Tiguan SE - In service 18 days and counting..
W. Gallup, 10/27/2017
updated 10/30/2018
2018 Volkswagen Tiguan SE 4dr SUV (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A)
79 of 90 people found this review helpful
Purchased a new 2018 Tiguan SE on September 15th - within a week I started hearing a rattle from both B Pillars, excessive road noise from the drives door and a flicker with the back-up camera. Took the vehicle in for service on 10/9 and have yet to receive the vehicle back. VW corporate is now involved, including their resolution department and they have attempted to stall my filling of a lemon law claim until 10/31. My only request is they buy the car back and return my deposit and first payment. I have lost all faith in the Volkswagen brand based on the way I have been treated. *Update* The B Pillar rattle is a known issue and this vehicle was purchased back by Volkswagen.
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Look at something else
Brian, 12/26/2017
updated 07/02/2018
2018 Volkswagen Tiguan SEL Premium 4Motion 4dr SUV AWD (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A)
53 of 60 people found this review helpful
The car has a great look and smooth ride down the road. That's where it stops. The 8 speed transmission feels like riding with someone the first time they drive a manual transmission. They told me that's normal for the new 8 speed transmissions....except it's not. I have since driven most of the competitors and the shifting is smooth in all the rest. The biggest issue is the noise in the B pillar (support post between the front and rear drivers side doors.) Also, rattles in the front passenger door persist. They tried fixing the problems and tore out the entire interior but with no luck. They said it was a manufacturing issue with not enough tack welds between the seven layers of metal in the pillar so when the car flexes they rub. Needless to say, I dropped it off October 4th and haven't seen it back. I've been in a loaner car for 3 months. I gave them an opportunity to make it right rather than file lemon law paperwork as they said it would be quicker and they could do more for me. I should have filed. I opted not to do another Tiguan and to get into an Atlas. My latest update is my replacement it's due mid January. Communication was lacking between VW corporate customer care and my dealership. I have been stuck in the middle. After over 30 emails and numerous calls over the last three months hopefully I'm about 3 weeks away from being in a new vehicle. They are finally talking to each other. Hopefully the Atlas is a better build. The people are nice but the process is horrible and vehicle defective. Update: Total time in the loaner was 4 months. My Atlas arrived. I took it for a test drive and there was a rattle in the roof by the sunroof. They took it out with me and said they would have to have the regional guy come out to look at it because the Atlas is a new model. It would be a week. I bought a Jeep the next day. It took another 4 to 6 weeks I believe but VW honored their word on refunding my entire purchase price, clearing the loan and reimbursing for GAP insurance, WeatherTec floor mats ect. Hopefully I was just really unlucky and this is not representative of the majority of vehicles.
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2018 Volkswagen Tiguan for sale near you
3 of 63 listings
- S 4dr SUVMSRP: $13,59980 mi away
- SEL Premium 4dr SUVMSRP: $18,08580 mi away
- SEL Premium 4dr SUVMSRP: $18,49085 mi away
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Was Excited about this Ute. upset about shifting
C Frizzell, 03/06/2018
2018 Volkswagen Tiguan SE 4dr SUV (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A)
21 of 23 people found this review helpful
I dont have noises or quality issues with materials or rattles. I am VERY unimpressed with the Gear shifting from 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd. Doesnt matter if you are in D or Sport. The Vehicle feels like you are in a manual transmission and often makes your tires scratch in wet weather due to the violent shifting. Its almost like your in a manual vehicle with a VERY novice driver. Its NOT smooth, it does bother me and I have to correct how I drive to not have it throw me off. Dont like it, and wishing I made a diff move.
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98% Awesome, 2% "What the hell?"
John S., 05/29/2018
2018 Volkswagen Tiguan SEL Premium 4Motion 4dr SUV AWD (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A)
15 of 16 people found this review helpful
To start, I love this car... more than any other car I've owned (well, almost - I had a 2011 BMW 550i, but it was so expensive to buy, keep, maintain, and sell - like $40K more than this car - I don't put it in this equation). The color, the build quality, the top-notch materials, the dealership, literally EVERYTHING except two (2) things, are absolutely fantastic. I'll get to the two things in a second. I leased a Habanero Orange, 2018 SEL Premium 4Motion AWD Tiguan two months ago. I'll start at the front. The grill and headlights look terrific. The LED headlights are terrific, they swivel with the steering wheel and the light of the corner your turning into lights up and is actually useful when driving at night. The auto on-off works well and quickly. Moving back, the rims are really good looking and top notch quality. The engine is... well, 90% of the time (this is one of the 2 things dragging the score down to 98%), great. However, at slow speed - such as switching from a slow lane to a faster lane - this engine will scare the crap out of you. I really mean that. You drop the accelerator pedal and... nothing happens. For, like, two seconds nothing happens. What the hell!. After two of the most stressful two seconds of your life, the engine accelerates briskly. It is genuinely terrifying when you're not used to it. I cannot figure out what is happening. It does not feel like turbo lag or the engine waiting for the gearbox to shift down. It simply feels like you have caught the engine taking a nap. Once it wakes up (if you're not dead from the faster traffic you were trying to merge into), it kind of shakes a bit and then gets back to the business of being a really good VW Tiguan. Everything else about the engine is great. I've managed to get over 27 mpg on my morning commute. I'm ok with that. It's not spectacular, but (not counting the 2 seconds of terror noted above) considering how peppy the engine is most of the time, I'm ok with it. The front windshield is great, the view is great, the front dash is great, the view out of all the other windows is... great. What's not great? What's not great is the other thing keeping this car from being really great... the windshield wipers. I know, it seems like a small thing. They either work or they don't, right? Well, the wipers "auto" feature is simply useless. If it just did not work, I'd almost feel better. You turn it on through the menu screen and, once selected, your suppose to turn the wiper stalk to the first position and the auto feature should take over (I think that's how its suppose to work. The manual isn't really clear as to whether, when armed, the wipers will work automatically no matter what position the stalk is at or is at the first position. I chose it because it appears to be the most correct.) I have tried every combination I can think of but the same thing happens each time. When the feature is on, and in the first position, they work as I expected... for about a minute, i.e., if its really raining, they will come on and go faster, if its intermittently raining, they will work intermittently. After that first minute, all hell breaks loose. They may go full force, they may go to long pauses in-between wipes or anything in between. What they will not do after that first minute is work correctly. They are useless to the point that I've turned the feature off and do the wipers the old-fashioned way. I guess i'm thankful I can turn the feature off. Also, I don't know why this feature not working correctly bugs me so much, but it does. After the "HAL" of windshield wipers, their is simply not another flaw in this car. The seats are great and work as advertised AND are very comfortable. The ride is terrific considering the large tires the car rolls on. The AWD system is seamless. All the safety bells and whistles work perfectly (auto cruise control, lane keeping, auto stopping, etc. - the camera system is the best I have ever seen. Very clear with lots of choices of views and the back up feature beats my old 550i by a country mile.). The speedo and tach display were the new video-screen kind. All I can say is, I will never go back to the old analog dials. The Tiguan’s is AWESOME! Truly exceptional. Again, except for the 2% described above, this is the best car I have ever owned, period. Lastly, the dealership (Honolulu VW) was terrific. I’ve had good dealers and I've had bad dealers and these guys were truly the best of the best.
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Don’t buy this lemon!!
Heather, 11/09/2018
2018 Volkswagen Tiguan SEL 4dr SUV (2.0L 4cyl Turbo 8A)
26 of 29 people found this review helpful
I was so excited to be making my first SUV purchase with Volkswagen back in June. Needless to say, stay far away from this vehicle!!! I’ve owned it for about 5 months and it’s been in for repairs 5 times for 8 different issues. From day one it had issues! The first day I purchased it, the CarPlay did not work but they reassured me that they probably just forgot to put the fuse back in from it being shipped overseas. It ended up going back 4 times just to get it to work. Meanwhile, one day while I was driving, the rear view mirror just fell off. Then while it was being fixed for that there was a recall for the ambient lighting for the sunroof because it was a fire hazard. The solution for the sunroof was to just unplug it which is not acceptable! About a month later I noticed that there was engine oil leaking from it and when I would brake, the drivers seat would slide forward. So again, it went back in for those two major things along with a rattling noise on the drivers side and sometimes the driver side window would make a hesitation sound when opening and closing. They told me that the housing for the oil filter had cracked and they needed to replace it. Then for the seat, they basically had to replace everything but the actual seat itself, which is another huge safety concern. Whilst it was in the shop this time, I received yet another recall!! This time it was for the hood cowl which was allowing water to get into the cabin of the vehicle and the appalling solution for that was water tape. After I saw the recall, it dawned on me that my car had been recently having this musty smell come through the vents, which to me would mean water damage. They told me there was no water damage and couldn’t resolve the smell so they put a deodorizer in the vents. Lastly, for the window they told me there was dirt in my windows track so they cleaned it out and the rattling wasn’t currently present while it was in. However, as soon as I get a video, it’s going back in and also once the deodorizer wears off and the musty smell comes back. I totally understand that there are going to potentially be some recalls on new vehicles because it’s so hard when they are being mass produced and have so many parts because something is bound to malfunction. However, this is unacceptable for only 5,600 miles. You would totally expect all of these issues on a vehicle with 80,000 miles or more but for a brand new vehicle, this is totally unacceptable. When purchasing a new vehicle, you should be excited and have total confidence in the vehicle for years to come. It makes me sick to stomach to think I just spent my hard earned money on a lemon and not knowing what’s going to go wrong next. I will say, the dealer has had excellent customer service and taken really good care of me but this vehicle is absolutely awful. Update: 11/23/18 It is going back in next week again already!! Now the rear windshield washer is not coming out. The musty smell has come back since the deodorizer wore off. Now this morning there’s something wrong with the stereo. There’s absolutely no bass now and the music sounds very tinny and cheap.
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