No one—and we mean no one—can climb into the new 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan and reasonably say, “Gee, nothing’s changed.” Because gosh, just look at this compact SUV’s new interior. We’re talking about Volkswagen’s best-selling vehicle in the U.S. and the one tasked with challenging the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V.
So the 2025 Tiguan better bring its A-game in the interior, where owners will spend their time. This is one ambitious SUV; it’s not every day a VW has features we don’t always see on $50,000 luxury cars.
Is it enough, though? We spent some time with the 2025 Tiguan at the 2024 Los Angeles auto show to see whether Toyota and Honda have anything to worry about.
Is This an Audi or a Volkswagen?
Throw enough luxury features at a car and, sometimes, you can disguise its non-luxury-brand roots. That’s not the case here; explore the 2025 Tiguan and you see it for what it is: an extremely well-equipped compact SUV with surprise-and-delight features. The basics themselves are good—it’s been too long since we’ve been able to describe any VW product as Audi-like inside, a once common refrain among even the brand’s humbler wares.
You won’t find massaging seats or American walnut wood trim in a CR-V or RAV4, but this Volkswagen has them both. We especially like the way the wood trim curves around the bottom edge of the outer air vents.
We weren’t able to test the 2025 Tiguan’s massage, but you can change the duration and strength for driver and front passenger. The wood trim looks pretty good; the real value here isn’t the way it looks but the knowledge that it’s authentic wood. The last-gen Honda Accord, for example, had attractive but fake stuff.
The premium impression continues on the top-end 2025 Tiguan with orange-y/brown quilted leather seats with white piping, stitching, and black seatbacks. The entire effect is quite premium, a trend that continues on the dash. Covered in a soft leather-like material to match the seats, the 2025 Tiguan’s interior should meet the expectations of those who think VW has more cachet (that rub-off effect of sharing corporate VW Group parentage with Audi, for example) than other mainstream brands like Toyota and Honda.
Special Ambient Lighting and Piano Black Trim
One drawback? Tons of shiny piano black trim on the center console; we wonder whether that will stay clean over time. It appears there’s more of the trim on the doors and on the front passenger dash, but at night the ambient lighting creates a cool graphical effect on those trim pieces. Depending on trim, ambient lighting comes in 10 or 30 colors.
Like a 2017 Audi A4 I drove for a year, the 2025 Tiguan’s ambient lighting can be customized with one color on the upper part of the cabin and another complementary color on the bottom. The VW also offers something called Atmospheres, which are five preset combinations of synchronized ambient lighting and sound settings. Sounds like my kind of gimmick, one I personally look forward to testing.
Big Screens! But…
Volkswagen has gone big with its displays. Last year’s Tiguan offered a 6.5- or 8.0-inch touchscreen, but the new 2025 model comes in at 12.9 inches for lower trims and a full 15.0 inches on higher-end models. As with so many other modern VWs, the infotainment display is helpfully tilted toward the driver for better visibility.
We know those screen sizes sound enormous, but keep in mind the bottom strip is always dedicated to HVAC controls. Temperature, air flow, heated seats, and defrosters are all on the screen, and there are physical temperature sliders just below.
Most MotorTrend editors prefer physical controls like knobs and buttons, which the Tiguan lacks, but we know VW has made improvements to this basic infotainment system since it debuted a few years ago inside the electric ID4 SUV. We look forward to testing this button-less center stack of controls soon. One benefit about the new design: No button blanks like you find on the outgoing model.
A 10.3-inch digital driver display is standard across the line, and we know from experience that the tech is easy to reconfigure to find your desired display screen.
Does the 2025 Tiguan Have a Third Row?
In the past, the Tiguan offered a third row seat but that’s no longer the case. All 2025 Tiguans in the U.S. have a five-passenger set-up, and the rear outboard seats are very spacious. The center-middle seat passenger will need to share foot space with the outboard rear passengers because a huge drivetrain tunnel limits legroom in a way you don’t find in the flat-floored CR-V.
Smart Cargo Area
We like the 2025 Tiguan’s cargo area. The cargo lid lifts when the liftgate opens, and there are two depressed, open storage areas on the left and right edges of the space. I use these types of spaces for everything from soda to milk and eggs; I learned my lesson after one spirited drive turned a package of brownie bites into one giant bite.
The cargo area also has levers to fold the 60/40 rear seats, though we don’t yet have the actual cargo capacity. The 2025 Honda CR-V comes in at 39.3 cubic feet behind the rear seats while the 2025 Toyota RAV4 is good for 37.5 cubic feet.
With the 2025 Tiguan’s fresh design, rear visibility is not great. The Subaru Forester remains the best in this department, but the CR-V and RAV4 both have somewhat challenging rear views.
So Fancy, Tiguan
We expect automakers to put their best foot forward with auto shows, and that’s clearly the case with the fully dressed-up 2025 Tiguans at the L.A. auto show. It’s impressive for the most part, though it’s unclear how user-friendly the screen-based controls are, and we’d really like to experience a Tiguan whose price isn’t pushing 40 grand. Part of what makes the RAV4 so special is that a couple special design touches are spread across the model line, not just on high-end variants.
When the 2025 Tiguan lacks massaging leather seats with white piping, will the Volkswagen still impress? We’ll see. For now, the 2025 Tiguan is fresher and more relevant in the compact SUV segment than it’s been for years.
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