When mentioning SAIC Volkswagen Tiguan, it can be said to be the embodiment of a national divine car. Since its launch in 2010, it has won widespread praise from users with its strong product strength and excellent cost-effectiveness, becoming the first choice for people when selecting a car, and even more so a kingly model that has dominated the joint-venture SUV sales champion list for many years. As a result, it has accumulated more than 2.8 million loyal followers in China.
In this test drive, we got the top-trim version of the Tiguan L PRO. Its equipped Volkswagen EA-888 2.0TSI high-output engine has a maximum power of 162kW (220Ps) and a peak torque of 350N·m, matched with Volkswagen's 7DCT wet dual-clutch transmission and equipped with an on-demand four-wheel drive system.
Anyone familiar with SAIC Volkswagen knows that this golden power combination is also installed in the larger Teramont. In terms of parameters alone, the 220Ps power output is more than enough for daily family use and urban commuting, and even looking across the world among comparable fuel-powered rivals at the same level, Volkswagen's golden power setup has never feared anyone.
During the test drive, the new car could obtain high torque output at relatively low engine speeds (350N·m/1600-4300rpm), which also made it perform very powerfully in starts and rapid acceleration, making it easy and effortless to drive without any sluggishness.
The new car is also equipped with four driving modes: Economy, Comfort, Sport, and Individual. In Economy/Comfort mode, the new car overall focuses on smooth, linear acceleration, without much emphasis on responsiveness or push-back sensation, and the engine speed prefers to stay in the low-range area, which also gives it decent fuel economy performance.
In Sport mode, the new car's temperament becomes more explosive, and the engine is more willing to stay in the high-rev range to extract more power. At this time, gear shifts also become faster, and power output becomes stronger and more direct.
It is worth mentioning that, as a mid-size SUV, the Tiguan L PRO does not feel unwieldy or clumsy to drive. The new car's multi-function steering wheel points accurately, and with electric power assistance, its steering feel is agile and light, which also makes it very easy to control whether turning or making a U-turn.
It is commendable that the Tiguan L PRO's chassis tuning is stable and substantial, still inheriting the excellent genes of German engineering. Its front MacPherson plus rear multi-link independent suspension system is overall tuned to be soft yet on the firmer side, which allows it to balance comfort while also providing good support to the body during spirited driving, thereby enhancing the new car's handling feel and fun factor.
In this test drive, the Tiguan L PRO's overall noise insulation performance was also excellent and surprising.
Intelligent Driving Moves Comprehensively Toward High-Level Electric Vehicle Standards
If power and driving control are still the Volkswagen we are familiar with, then in terms of intelligent driving, the Tiguan L PRO makes people feel unfamiliar. Its intelligent driving performance can be said to be completely transformed, a breath of fresh air among fuel vehicles.
In this update, the biggest highlight of the Tiguan L PRO is that it is equipped with the IQ.Pilot intelligent assisted driving system custom-developed in cooperation with DJI Automotive. It brings high-level intelligent driving from electric vehicles to fuel vehicles, endowing the new car with more than 20 L2+ level intelligent driving assistance functions, including ACC adaptive cruise, LKA lane keeping, AEB automatic emergency braking, and lane change via turn signal stalk.
This intelligent driving assistance system mainly relies on DJI Automotive's proud forward-looking inertial navigation dual-camera setup plus 4 3-million-pixel surround-view fisheye cameras, as well as 24 ultrasonic/millimeter-wave radars and other all-new sensors and 2 all-new main control computers to provide hardware support.
Take the "inertial navigation dual-camera" high-definition camera as an example. It is like a person's two eyes, not only offering a wider field of view, but also seeing things more comprehensively and three-dimensionally. The resolution of a single high-definition camera is as high as 8 million pixels, far higher than the 1-million-pixel level installed on vehicles on the market, which also makes it see things more accurately and more clearly.
These high-definition cameras and sensing radars can achieve precise distance sensing by perceiving the surrounding environment in all directions, providing environmental data and information support for high-level intelligent driving functions such as advanced adaptive cruise, lane keeping, intelligent response to cut-ins, and intelligent obstacle avoidance.
During the test drive, the Tiguan L Pro's advanced adaptive cruise function could support the vehicle automatically following the car ahead within the full speed range of 0-140km/h. If traffic congestion forces it to stop, as long as it does not exceed 360 seconds, it can still start and move again by following the car ahead on its own. Moreover, when following a car in congested sections, the new car can not only automatically adjust the following distance and adaptively adjust speed when going through curves, but also proactively yield and avoid pedestrians, which is extraordinarily practical in congested urban sections.
The new car's lane keeping system can precisely identify various lane markings through the "inertial navigation dual-camera." Even when encountering chaotic lane markings that suddenly break off or are obviously misaligned, it can intelligently judge like an experienced driver, seamlessly fill in the blanks, and automatically connect and transition.
The Tiguan L Pro's emergency obstacle avoidance function is even more practical during travel. Whether the obstacle ahead is a pedestrian, an animal, or another irregular object, it can respond intelligently. If conditions allow, it changes lanes to avoid it; if not, it brakes to a stop and waits. During the urban road test drive, we encountered a delivery rider quickly crossing in front of our car. Although it was only a fleeting moment, it still triggered the Tiguan L Pro's emergency obstacle avoidance function, and the vehicle was forced to actively brake to a stop.
During the test drive, we found that the Tiguan L Pro also handles cut-ins with ease. It can intelligently respond to abrupt cut-in behavior during peak travel within the rolling traffic flow. Even when facing forced cut-ins at extreme distances of just over 1 meter, it can predict danger in advance and defuse the risk of scraping caused by cut-ins by actively slowing down and yielding or even laterally avoiding within its own lane.The Tiguan L Pro's parking is also very intelligent. Its IQ. Parking Assistant can automatically park into spaces, and can also provide memory parking assistance, rear exit parking assistance, and even functions such as door opening warning after parking, so novice drivers no longer need to worry when going out.
There is no doubt that the Tiguan L Pro's IQ.Pilot intelligent driving system has already far exceeded fuel-powered models and is moving closer to the intelligent driving functions of high-end electric vehicles. It makes high-level intelligent driving functions such as active safety and driving assistance no longer exclusive to electric vehicles, bringing more consumers the inclusive enjoyment of cutting-edge intelligent driving technology.In fact, the Tiguan L Pro is also Volkswagen's most intelligent strategic model to date. It has achieved "equal intelligence for fuel and electric" for the first time. It can not only rival mainstream new-energy internet-famous intelligent driving, but even compared with BBA luxury cars such as the Audi Q7 and BMW X5, it has formed an absolute suppression in intelligence.
Exterior and Interior Advance Together Toward Fashion, Intelligence, and Comfort
In terms of exterior, the Tiguan PRO adopts a dual-front-face design. Among them, the Pioneer version's grille is decorated with horizontal chrome trim, appearing refined and steady. The R-Line version adopts a large area of diamond-shaped honeycomb decoration, looking more sporty and more tension-filled.
It is worth mentioning that the new car is equipped with the segment-exclusive IQ. Light high-resolution intelligent projection headlights. In addition to adaptive front-lighting, sequential turn signals, and welcome/goodbye projection lighting effects, it can also provide multiple black-tech functions such as exclusive lane light carpet illumination, dynamic light assistance, and vehicle width indication on narrow roads. Its high-tech content is even cooler and more practical than what the lighting specialist brand produces.
At the rear of the body, the new car has switched to a dot-matrix through-type taillight, and together with the illuminated Volkswagen LOGO, it not only looks bright and novel, but also more fashionable and sporty.
In terms of interior, the Tiguan L Pro's intelligent cockpit is also fully armed. In addition to the 15-inch intelligent 2K giant screen on the center console, it also arranges a HUD head-up display, an 11.6-inch front passenger high-definition entertainment screen, a black crystal flowing-light intelligent control knob screen, and of course a 10.3-inch full digital LCD instrument screen. Combined with a mobile phone, the whole vehicle can achieve 6-screen interconnection.
The new car's instrument screen integrates AR real-scene navigation, which is very practical. The front passenger entertainment screen being applied in a fuel vehicle can also be regarded as creating a new trend for fuel vehicles. This screen also integrates mainstream audio-visual applications and supports screen projection and gesture control, which is equally practical. The center screen is equipped with the IQ. Smart Connection system and iFlytek voice interaction technology, supporting voice control of multimedia, navigation, phone, air conditioning, and more, making it appear even more intelligent. Overall, the Tiguan L Pro has surpassed fuel vehicle standards in terms of intelligence, bringing consumers a new intelligent experience that is "smart and understands you."
In addition to the intelligent experience, the new car's interior texture is also refreshing. The cabin extensively uses Alcantara material similar to suede, which not only shows rich layering and three-dimensionality, but also feels warm, full, delicate, and soft to the touch, offering a luxurious texture in terms of grade that is in no way inferior to genuine leather.
The new car's cloud-feeling seats are also surprising. Not only do they use high-grade genuine leather plus suede materials, along with careful stitching and perforation treatment, the new car also thickens the seat foam layer by 10mm, making seating more comfortable, while the soft upholstery material's extensibility is also increased by 20%, making the wrapping feel stronger.
More worth mentioning is that for a car costing around 200,000 yuan, SAIC Volkswagen has given the new car's seats equipment comparable to BBA million-yuan luxury cars: in addition to conventional ventilation and heating, the front driver and passenger seats are both equipped with seat memory and seat massage functions. In particular, the massage also has humanized service functions such as 10 massage points, 8 massage techniques, 3 massage intensities, and 5 massage durations, bringing comfortable driving and riding with instant decompression upon sitting down.
Test Drive Impressions: In today's auto market where fuel and electricity are intertwined and involution continues, how should a fuel vehicle break through the siege? Under the name "Pro," the Tiguan L has achieved a breakthrough and comprehensive upgrade in intelligence, thereby endowing a generation of divine car with higher-level vitality and even fuller cost-effectiveness. Having said so much, we still recommend that you personally go to a 4S store for a test drive and experience for yourself the charm of a generation of divine car reborn.
