But the focus of this late-stage prototype drive is centred more around sampling the fruits of a drastic chassis overhaul, with slick new two-valve dampers promising to substantially boost both refinement and response compared to the outgoing car, controlled by a new Vehicle Dynamics Manager programme shared with none other than the Golf GTI. Spicy.
All of which translates into impressively comprehensive variability in the suspension settings, simply illustrated and operated by a new sliding scale on the touchscreen offering some 15 degrees of variation between the extremes of Comfort and Sport.
In the former, the Tiguan makes mincemeat of shattered tarmac and cobblestones, separating the vertical movements of wheel and chassis so cleanly as to completely transform the secondary ride and imbue this humble family hack with genuine premium panache. VW didn’t want a ‘magic carpet’ ride, engineers tell us, referencing the cloud-like qualities of the old Citroën DS as an example. Instead the aim was to drastically enhance straight-line comfort while preserving a sense of connection with the road, the latter largely achieved through gentle but tangible feedback over imperfections through the steering column and – to a far lesser extent – the seat base.
Configured as such, the ride is floaty and soft, but stops short of wallowing, and the roll is kept in check remarkably well for what remains at its core a near-1.7-tonne, 1640mm tall family car with scant (if any) requirement to offer any sort of dynamic reward.
Which rather begs the obvious question: how many thrill-seeking Tiguan 2.0 TDI owners are really ever going to swipe right on the interface and set the suspension to Sport? VW reckons it’s for those occasions where you’ve had a long day at work, the kids aren’t in the car and you fancy taking the long way home, but be under no illusion that the Tiguan has been reinvented as some sort of physics-defying, apex-hunting Q car for its third outing.
