Living with a VW Tiguan; 1 year & 7,000 km ownership update

The 1st year service of my Tiguan - this was by far the best service experience I have had, from pick up to drop.

BHPian Maky recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Ain't no mountain high enough

The past year has been an incredible experience. Whether short local market runs, or venturing far and climbing the highest of mountains. No matter how short or long the journey, driving the Tiguan has been an immense pleasure.

Complete bliss from the moment I step into the drivers seat to the moment I step out. What used to be long tedious journeys are now a relaxing endeavour, what used to be quick short trips now disappoint.

I went through some 18 cars across various segments before finalising on the Tiguan and had to endure a 2 year wait before I could comfortably afford it outright, and it was well... well worth the wait. After having driven it for a year and some ~7000 kilometers I can now confidently say that I am extremely satisfied with the decision to have gone for this vehicle, over the other ones, where I would have gotten perhaps more space and features, or simply more badge.

Such a tremendously well designed vehicle. Perfectly sized to be practical, while being fun to zip around in the city and a powerhouse on the highways. The ghats have been especially impressive in the Tiguan. When you think Germans you usually think solid straight line and planted high-speed lane switching stability but never does it cross your mind on how it would fare on the twisties, now that I think about it I'm not sure I saw it being mentioned in any review, written or otherwise. The ghats performance have been a pleasant surprise. I'm not sure in how many more words can I keep singing lyrical of the Volkswagen Tiguan. Das Auto.

Now for some honest negatives,

- I would like to start by taking back a comment I made in my original thread post where I disagreed with Team-BHP's official Tiguan reviews take on the suspension being too stiff. It is definitely on the stiffer side, not at all unlivable but definitely stiffer than would be ideal for our indian road conditions, I look forward to a change of tyre to Michelins super soft compound in the future.
- Another negative I would mention is the front seating, it definitely took me a long while to find the perfect driving position for the Tiguan. I initially thought maybe its because the narrow seats are meant for european builds, but having come across many tiguan owners, one of them a tall and slender individual who also complained about the same, It's safe to say that the seat ergonomics were not well planned for this car, the front ones to be specific, the rear bench is wonderfully comfortable.
- Now, not so much a negative but I imagine most will see it that way so might as well put it in here, an unfortunate 5-6 kpl in the city but an impressive 14kpl on the highways from this 187 bhp 2.0L Turbo.

And finally, I shall move on to a subject that matters a lot to the typical Indian car buyer, the Service experience.
I had provided updates earlier in the thread on my 1st and 6th month 'check-up' services, however I'll briefly go over them again.

I keep a paper record of everything. One envelope for each service so far.

1st Month check-up:
After a month has passed since your purchase you are called in for what Volkswagen calls 'Swagat' service. This can be done earlier if you hit the 1000 Kms. mark before the first month finishes. They do some 10 point checks on the car to see if everything is in order, I do not recall what the 10 things were that they had a look at though, nor does the service page mention anything in detail except simply 'Swagat service' under particulars. They also provided a Car Care kit which is basically a little VW branded cardboard box with a wiper fluid concentrate bottle and a microfiber cloth inside.

I have full body PPF so I wasn't concerned by how long the Paan stain had been there but still not a good first impression.

My very first VW service/check-up experience wasn't great. I had opted for a pick-up and drop service provided for free on their end. The car came back not cleaned at all and instead a lovely Paan spit streak on the side of my car. I would also like to mention that the rear wiper on my car was making noises from day one of delivery and accordingly I told the service advisor person about this. It was hard, as in the kind of noises the wiper rubber makes once it has either exhausted its life, or when it's been hardened due to prolonged sun exposure. I suspect my car was parked out in an open air stockyard for a while prior to delivery. Nothing was done when I requested that it please be changed on their end/cost. I would later find out he did not even note my complaint down on service record. A quick note, this particular service advisor mentioned my tyres were under pressure and was nice enough to ask me if he should top it up before doing it, as my tyres were filled with nitrogen and them not having a nitrogen pumping station I declined.

6th Month check-up:
Unlike the first month 'service' which felt more like a formality rather than anything meaningful, the 6 month check-up supposedly gets more detailed and thorough If one is to believe the '40-point vehicle inspection' as stated on the VW site, again the actual post service record slip mentions nothing in detail, just a single line reading '6 month General check-up' under jobs done.

During the 6 month check-up I once again mentioned the hardened rear wiper rubber which had now gotten much more noisier, this time I went to give my car in person and show the service advisor the noise. He heard it as well but gave a well versed non-response. Looking back I really should have been more assertive as my monsoon Mahableshwar trip was coming up but again I let it go. When the car was returned to me it was returned with my rear quarter panel sunblind completely bent just thrown in the dickie.

I was fairly annoyed after this, immediately called and demanded he replace it with a new one as it was a paid accessory on my end. He asked me to send the bent one back with the person who did the drop-off. Afterwards calling me and coming up with ridiculous excuses to avoid providing me a replacement.. the call ending with him telling me he would call me back in a few days. A few days for what? it's a basic godamn sunblind that was bent by your employees and flung in my dickie. Anyways, days go by and I call him for an update on it and he again tries to escape it, I responded as I saw fit and I finally got a replacement about a week afterwards. I still don't know if it was legit a new replacement or if he just straightened my old sunblind and returned it. Also, this particular service advisor filled air in my nitrogen filled tyres and I had to go deflate and re-inflate with nitrogen later that night. Good times.

Just to finish up on the rear wiper story, I have now come back from Mahableshwar and I am pissed off. I literally could not keep the rear wiper on auto as it had become unbearably loud. The Bombay monsoon season being now in full swing I could endure this only for another couple of days before having had enough. This time I decided not to waste time with the VW Downtown Service center anymore and instead shot off a tweet to VW's official twitter account mentioning in detail my above experiences, and simultaneously filed a complaint through their website - https://www.volkswagen.co.in/app/site/write-to-us/
I received an automated reply back within hours and a phone call from the VW Downtown dealers Customer Relations officer the next day. I thought that would be the end of it but no, she requested over and over again that she see the car in person even after me telling her that I've already mentioned the issue twice. I politely repeated to her... The rear wiper either came defective from factory, Or prior to delivery, you stored the car incorrectly for an extended period of time without shelter which caused the rubber to harden. Regardless this is how I received it and I want a replacement from dealer/VW. On her insistence I drove to Downtown's Sewri service center and showed it to her. Just my luck the rear wiper sound magically disappears! I insist on a replacement regardless, they also tried to persuade me with some pointless 3M solution that they sprayed on my rear window saying it will now be fine. Also, they then say that they've no prior record of me telling the two service advisors that I had dealt with previously about the hard rubber. I waited there well past an hour going back and forth before they finally gave me my replacement. Huzzah!!(?)

It's a cheap low cost item. It's not about the cost It's about the principle.

1st Year Service:

Time for the first proper service of my Tiguan. This was by far the best service experience I have had, from pick up to drop.
Upon inquiring with the assigned service advisor a certain Mr. Shaikh, he explained in detail what was to be done. The following work was done:

- Air Filter replacement
- AC filter replacement
- Complete Oil change
- Misc. unclear mention of washer and plug replacements and lubricant/consumables

He returned the car some 7 hours after pick up, clean spick and span. No bent sunblinds and no complimentary paan spit this time. After the first two interactions with VW Downtown Service center this was a breath of fresh air.
Dear Volkswagen India, no amount of marketing will ever be as good as word of mouth.

I think I have covered all I could think of in my first years journey with the Tiguan. I hope it has been informative and helpful.
If anyone has any queries please feel free to ask.

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