VW hits the soft-roader market
New Tiguan concept targets RAV4/CR-V
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Shaking up the soft-roader market and aiming straight at the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4, Volkswagen has unveiled the Concept Tiguan at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It reckoned that the first examples will be delivered to customers by the end of 2007.
The first news of the Tiguan’s development came with the debut of Concept A in Berlin earlier this year. This was followed by the naming of the model in July, the result of a poll of more than 350,000 readers of magazines of the AutoBild group. This latest development in Los Angeles takes the Tiguan one step closer to production and hints strongly at how the final version could look.
Front wheel drive will be standard, with 4WD as an option. It looks much like a baby Touareg, similar but toned down from the Concept A, the Tiguan is about the same size as the Touran.
Exterior designer Klaus Bischoff said: "It was very important for us to have the car appear powerful and muscular." Golf-based but with a wider track, the Tiguan’s face and side profile are trademark VW. Another feature is the Concept Tiguan’s tyre design. These 19-inch prototypes, developed by Continental, have an orange radial stripe beneath the tyre profile which matches the car’s paint colour. This colour is not paint but penetrates the rubber layer as a ‘baked in’ component of the tyre’s casing. The anthracite-coloured alloy rims are likely to feature in the production vehicle, said VW. At the rear, the lights are integrated into the shoulder section much like those on the Eos and Passat.
Inside, the black, silver and orange colour theme continues with vintage style black leather seats trimmed with orange. A panoramic sunroof adds light to the spacious interior which can seat up to five occupants, while the rear bench seat can slide fore and aft and be folded down to increase load space.
Under the bonnet, the concept car features a completely new type of diesel engine, called Bluetec. Developed in partnership with Audi and Mercedes-Benz and presented for the first time at the LA show, Bluetec employs a modular concept of different systems to reduce emissions significantly. One of these systems is the NOx storage catalytic converter which cuts nitrogen oxides by up to 90 per cent using injections of urea. This so-called Clean TDI will comply with the strictest emissions standards in the world.
More details will emerge in early 2007, but you can expect it to cost around £20,000 -- RAV4 money.
Why on earth would you have that over a Focus ST or Golf GTI? they only lose out on headroom. Width wise I wouldn't of thought there would be too much difference (forgive me if im wrong on this).
Maybe I am missing the point?
It's not on Pistonheads so we can think about buying one but so we can laugh at it.
Why on earth would you have that over a Focus ST or Golf GTI? they only lose out on headroom. Width wise I wouldn't of thought there would be too much difference (forgive me if im wrong on this).
Maybe I am missing the point?
Well I suppose RAV-4 buyers may be attracted by the VAG badge as long as there isn't too much price difference.
Still, I dunno why you would want a RAV-4 in the first place.
I like the tyres idea - about time those boring bts of rubber were livened up.... whatever happened to those tyres with union jacks printed in the threads that came out a couple of years ago....
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