Has VW reached the pinnacle of performance SUV's ?

The signs are clear that they have

I have a confession to make. I have aspired to drive a few cars in my younger years and have been privileged to launch and drive a couple of them these past few years. Most of them have exceeded my expectations. Some were exciting and some have brought me back to reality in terms of what I want to drive next as my car.

So, I speak of dream cars right at this moment because I think I might have tested one recently. But you know us, women, we’re known for changing our minds, so don’t hold this piece against me in case I have a new dream car next week. Okay, here it goes, I am absolutely in love with the new Volkswagen Tiguan R. The Tiguan R joins the sister products from Audi such as SQ5 and others. This special model Tiguan warms the heart and frankly has stolen mine in the process.

A performance SUV suitable for the whole family.

I will tell you why I used a strong verb like LOVE. The car made me feel like I belonged. We’re talking about VW’s most powerful performance SUV, now added to their T-SUV line-up. Back to how this car made me feel like I owned it for the seven days I spent with it. As a mom to a seven-year-old boy who doesn’t think I am “cool” enough these days, that narrative quickly changed when I fetched him from school in the Tiguan R. I must admit I also felt pretty cool myself. I am officially the favourite parent because I could select Sport or Race mode releasing the 234kW of power from this beautiful machine making whoever was left at the traffic light eat my dust. Power is distributed from the 2.0-litre TSI engine through the 7-speed DSG gearbox to the four wheels by the new all-wheel drive system 4MOTION with R-Performance Torque Vectoring, which is also available in the new Golf 8R. You can easily access the car’s agility and fair warning; might get over-confident behind the wheel because the handling is that great.

I came across a couple of confused VW lovers while driving the Tiguan R, most people thought it was an R-Line spec Tiguan. But to make it easier, I explained it in simple terms, this is an elevated Golf R, NOT R-Line. So, if you are looking for the Golf R thrill but want to be mature about it (No offense) then this might be the car for you. I am going to let the images speak for the car’s exterior, but my favourite feature has to be the blue brake calipers, and blue is this car’s official colour! There are a couple of other standard features that make the Tiguan R the beauty it is, the Akrapovic exhaust, for instance, yes you can still pull your vrrrphaas if you are into that sort of thing. The Harman Kardon sound system had me blasting some old-school hip-hop in the lush and comfy interior.

I will tell you this, if I had a million lying around in my mattress or couch cushions, I would have this blue devil parked in my garage faster than you can say vrrrphaa.