The VW Taos is their new “subcompact” crossover that’s slotting in below the Tiguan. It is pretty much exactly what you’d expect out of a VW crossover smaller than the Tiguan. But, the Taos is far from the only smaller-than-Tiguan crossover that VW makes. It’s just the only one VW has decided to grace ‘Murrica with.
The vehicle sold in the USA as the VW Tiguan is actually called the Tiguan Allspace in the rest of the world. Our “compact” Tiguan is a full 185" long, which is at the very top end of the segment and borderline midsize. The regular Tiguan is 177" long instead, which is still safely in the compact segment.
Tiguan (Allspace):
Tiguan (rest of world):
Seeing both versions of the Tiguan in side profile you realize, wait a sec, the big one has crazy long back doors like Chinese-market stretched versions of regular sedans. But hey, it’s big for its segment in the US!
In the rest of the world, below the regular-size Tiguan, you have the T-Roc at 167" long, and the T-Cross at 162".
But...none of that’s coming to America.
Instead, we get the 176" long Taos. Which is suspiciously close in dimensions to the rest of the world’s Tiguan, and not exactly a subcompact, seeing as it’s the exact same size as the compact Hyundai Tucson and only a couple inches smaller than the Mazda CX-5.
So, why the hell does America get the Taos that’s within an inch of the already-existing regular Tiguan sold in the rest of the world? Profit margins. VW is playing the supersize-iest-crossover-for-your-money game in America. The Atlas and Tiguan (Allspace) are both very big for their respective segments, and give you a lot of equipment, but their interiors are somewhat of a letdown in quality compared to VW’s reputation for having such wonderful interior plastics compared to other mainstream brands, that VW heads will caress and sniff and frequently remind you that these plastics make their GTI feel so premium compared to other cars.
The regular Tiguan is sold in plenty of developing markets like India and Indonesia, but for North America, VW decided they needed to squeeze more sweet sweet margins out of whatever smaller-than-Tiguan (Allspace) car they eventually brought here. Enter the Taos. It’s on the same MQB platform as the Tiguan, it has some good tech on offer, and it’s cheaper to manufacture—in Mexico—than the Tiguan. It fits perfectly with VW’s strategy for crossovers in America.
Nothing about the Taos is especially interesting, but it does have a slightly quirky 1.5 liter turbo motor that runs a modified version of the Miller cycle for increased efficiency, and makes 158 hp and 184 lb/ft. The front-wheel drive version gets an 8-speed traditional torque converter automatic and twist beam rear suspension, while the all-wheel drive version uses a 7-speed DCT and upgrades the rear suspension to a multilink setup.
Otherwise, it’s a reasonably roomy box on wheels that has just enough good VW screens in it to seem premium even if it’s clearly made with cost-cutting and profit margins in mind.
I’m sure VW will sell a boatload of them.
