Expert Reviews

I love the monsoons. The bright green of new grass, the lovely cool breeze, and since it's not hot or sultry, there is no awful odour come end of day to really turn the missus off.
So, to celebrate this gorgeous season we rounded up a bunch of capable SUVs at a challenging off-road location, which is 19 Degree North at Aamby Valley, with the idea of spending a day having fun and also finding out how these burly machines cope with Mother Nature.

Let’s admit it, a majority of crossover owners prefer to keep their set of wheels on tarmac. Now if my ride costs Rs 37.30 lakhs (on-road Mumbai) like what the Volkswagen Tiguan Highline retails for, I would probably never let it taste dirt, so plunging through deep mud is certainly out of the question.

With the high price-tag, the Volkswagen Tiguan didn’t start on the right note. Expected to rival the Hyundai Tucson, its Rs 30 lakh plus price tag ended up it being compared to the ladder frame shod Toyota Fortuner and the Ford Endeavour. But going through the Volkswagen presentation, the German giant is aiming the Tiguan as a cheaper alternative to the Audi Q3, Mercedes GLA and the BMW X1. So does the Tiguan feel premium enough to justify the claim? We took it out for a long drive from Bengaluru to Chikkamagaluru to find out.

The Tiguan in its second generation has been introduced in the global markets recently. The five-seater model from Volkswagen is scheduled to debut in India soon and we took a short trip to Berlin to sample the car ahead of its India launch.