SCAS.: Sudden Cage Acquisition Syndrome. A derivative strain of the much more virulent SMAS (Sudden Motorcycle Acquisition Syndrome). Subject exhibits the uncontrolled development of four-wheeled growths in the garage and/or driveway of their domicile. SCAS is generally milder than SMAS as the growths tend to replace old growths, only newer, with more fiddly-bits. SMAS generally presents with multiple non-regenerative growths, often of varied types, sizes and styles.
What all that means: We got a new car. Or truck. Or whatever you’re supposed to call the crossover/tall wagon/short SUV category vehicles these days. Based on a number of factors (all of which I won’t get into here), we traded in the Nissan Sentra on a brand new 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan. The marketing folks at VW decided to meld the name of two animals based on a poll done in Europe. The first was Tiger (German word = Tiger…). The other was Iguana, and Iguan is apparently German for Iguana. Their conjunction into Tiguan is even weirder than the big-brother Touareg being named after some nomadic tribe from the Sahara.
At any rate, it doesn’t exist without photos, so here’s a walkaround.
Driver’s front:
Driver’s rear:
Passenger rear:
Passenger front:
I took some interior images with the wide-angle camera, but since it was late in the day and I was running low on ambient light, they mostly came out blurry. Here’s the best one, showing the cockpit layout up front:
Badges? We don’t need no steenking badges!
Basically, we had either done the ‘monkey bars’ thing or actually test-driven pretty much every vehicle in the class, or anything near it. Dodge Caliber, Journey, and Magnum; Mazda CX-7 and CX-9; Jeep Compass, Toyota Venza, FJ Cruiser, and RAV4; Honda CR-V; Ford Edge; VW Touareg, and the Tiguan.
Here are some impressions of the various vehicles (the ones we drove), in the order we drove them:
Ford Edge – Composed, good driver, adequate though not exciting V-6. Roomy, and reasonably well laid out. A good all-rounder priced a bit above where it should be to be competitive.
Toyota FJ – Stylish. Good V-6 power. More toward the Jeep Wrangler end of the handling spectrum. Atrocious visibility. Felt like driving a pillbox.
Dodge Caliber – Peppy, even with the I-4. Automatic transmission was reasonable.
Dodge Magnum – Very planted, with little body-roll and ample power from the mid-level V-6. Hemi would be nice but gas mileage would have been pretty bad. She thought the roofline was too low and would be an issue loading kids in the back seat.
Jeep Compass – Caliber re-skin. Exact same motor, except instead of a competent slushbox, they decided to fit a rubber-band (CVT). Worst. Transmission. Ever. Period.
Dodge Journey – Most capacity hands down (only one with 3rd row of seats). Storage everywhere. Mildly anemic, with body-roll issues. She liked it better than the Magnum, and I would agree, as long as you never have to drive it anywhere.
Toyota RAV4 – The 2nd generation car adds an additional 2 feet to the vehicle, which means it comes second behind the journey for interior space. Best laid out. Best motor. Major torque-steer issues. Otherwise handled okay.
VW Touareg – The Touareg we drove had some engine issues (check engine light came on), otherwise it would probably have been in the running for best motor. Handled well, felt muscular on the road. Not actually that much more space than the Tiguan, though the one we drove was loaded with options. Pricier than we were looking for, which is why we test-drove a used 2005.
VW Tiguan – Best handling and drivability of anything we drove, period. 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 isn’t quite as beefy as the V-6 from the RAV4, but mated to the 6-speed manual transmission, it will get out of it’s own way with sufficient hustle to keep this adrenaline junkie happy. Very minimal body roll, corners much more adeptly than the other options. Simplest rear seats available (pull one tab and fold seat all the way forward until it locks). None of the “pull latch, twist knob, remove headrest, stand on one foot and squawk like a goose” nonsense that seems to pervade the seat design with most of the other cars we tested.
Other than the manual gearbox only being available in the FWD S-model and not the SE or SEL (nor with the AWD option), the only real issue we’ve noticed is a loud thrumming that occurs when you roll down one of the rear windows w/o opening the opposite front window. Wind flow past the window causes a “Whop-whop-whop-whop” beating noise similar to a Chinook landing on your roof.
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