Just some anecdotal evidence: two of my friends, both car people, have each recently leased new Tiguan’s for their wives, both of whom are not car people, and both of whom are extremely happy with the car. (funnily, the two friends have extremely different enthusiast rides: one has a very ‘built’ Nissan Titan on BFG’s (or similar), the other, a pristine ’11 A4 Avant S-line.)
Both couples tested a lot of different CUV’s, and the Tiguan figured pretty low in the value/features for the husbands, but the wives obviously ranked the Tiggy very high indeed. This is not at all an observation on gender preferences or anything, more about car people vs. non-car people; and VW has obviously nailed that latter demographic. Low-but-acceptable power, good fuel economy, fashionable-ish nameplate, nice design inside and out, roomy for its footprint, fun colour choices (that bright orange that they both got, funnily enough). This Tiguan is obviously not an enthusiast – or even a value-laden – car, but VW knows enthusiasts aren’t buying the bulk of their inventory, and this refreshed Tiguan's feature set seems shrewdly devised.
