2015 Volkswagen Tiguan R-Line

23 July, 2015   By: Alex Forrest

Among Western Australian buyers, the Tiguan is Volkswagen’s third most popular vehicle after the Golf and the Amarok.

It’s an important vehicle for the German car-making giant, which has a vested interest in keeping it appealing, especially amongst the cut-throat competition of the medium-sized SUV market.

The Tiguan range is priced at just above its key competitors, with the base model 118TSI about $1,500 more than its Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V and Ford Kuga equivalents.

To keep the appeal of the Tiguan strong, in October 2014 Volkswagen updated the range and added a special equipment package call R-Line.

The idea of the R-Line is to provide an opportunity for customers to add some of the sporty look and feel of Volkswagen’s other performance models to vehicles which are more affordable and practical.

So, the R-Line package is available as an option on specific models in the Golf, Golf Wagon, Beetle and Tiguan ranges.

However, in the Tiguan and Touareg ranges there are also a standalone R-Line models.

In the Tiguan, on top of the extra equipment of the R-Line package, the separate Tiguan R-Line model also gets a higher output 155kW petrol engine, leather upholstery and sat-nav.

It also gets VW’s Adaptive Chassis Control, which means adjustable dampers and variable steering weighting.

At $45,990 drive away, the Tiguan R-Line competes with the range-topping variants of the Mazda CX-5, Honda CR-V, Subaru Forester and others.

As well as being as practical as any other Tiguan, the R-Line also has a strong element of sporting luxury which the German manufacturers do so well.

While the Tiguan R-Line is indeed $8,000 more than the next petrol Tiguan down the list, the extra gear the R-Line brings would cost much more than this if they were added individually. Plus, there’s that gutsier 155kW engine.

Really though, with the 130TDI now in the Tiguan ranks and boasting an extra 27kW and 60Nm over the old  103TDI, we’d go for this.

If we were feeling brassy, we’d add the R-Line package, in which case we’d still be $2,500 in front compared to the standalone Tiguan R-Line.