Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace (2018-2024) Review

Are you after a seven-seater family SUV that doesn’t cost the earth? Do you want a high-quality, well-stocked cabin? A car that’s enjoyable yet comfortable to drive and that comes with a range of strong, refined and efficient engines? Of course you do. Why wouldn’t you?

If that’s the case, then - if we’re honest - the car you want is the Skoda Kodiaq. It does everything the Allspace does, some of them better, yet costs many thousands less to buy. However, some can't reconcile themselves with the thought of driving a Skoda. Wrongly, in our view, but there you go. If that’s you, and you’re prepared to pay handsomely for the extra gravitas that a Volkswagen badge brings, then the Allspace will be the perfect fit.

It's also worth noting that you won't be putting adults in the third row of the VW Tiguan Allspace. Or at least not for very long, and not if you actually like them. Several larger SUVs or people carriers are much better at seating seven. 

There’s lots of choice with the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace: six engines, three trim levels, front- or four-wheel drive, and manual or automatic gearboxes. 

The entry-level 2.0-litre diesel is powerful enough and delivers the best fuel economy of the bunch. It can be had with both front-wheel drive and four-wheel drive and a manual or automatic transmission. Many buyers stumped up for the upgrade in both cases.

If diesel isn't an option, then the 1.5-litre turbo petrol is another excellent choice. It won't be as efficient as the diesel, but it isn't thirsty, and it is cheaper and more refined, with strong enough performance for most needs. 

The entry-level Match trim gives the necessary kit but costs substantially less than the SEL and R-Line Tech trims.

SUVS - even seven-seat ones - come in all shapes and sizes, so the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace has no shortage of rivals. The closest ones are the Skoda Kodiaq, Land Rover Discovery Sport and Peugeot 5008, although you can also specify the Nissan X-Trail with seven seats rather than five. While big’uns like the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe are closer in price, despite their pumped-up size. 

The SEAT Tarraco is worthy of mention, but like the Allspace, it has been cancelled. Buyers can also opt for the SEAT Ateca, which doesn't have seven seats.

Although the Tiguan Allspace has been cancelled, its Tayron successor is handsome and capable and comes as a plug-in hybrid.  

Volkswagen usually does pretty well on this score, and it’s the same deal with the Tiguan Allspace. Most of what you look at and touch is pleasingly finished, with dense soft-touch materials and thoughtful trim finishes.

Meanwhile, every switch or button you use feels substantial and nicely damped, injecting an additional feel of solidity to the interior. Granted, there are one or two harder, scratchier plastics to be found if you really look, but these are tucked away out of sight (and out of mind) in the lower reaches of the footwell. 

Overall, the Tiguan feels like a classy product, even if it doesn’t have the design razzmatazz of a same-era Peugeot 5008. There are differences in decor between the trims, with SEL cars getting more glossy decorative inserts and R-Line Tech models adding some sporty flourishes, but all versions feel pretty posh. They’d feel more posh with leather upholstery, though, which none of the trims get as standard. Unusual, that.

All versions of the Tiguan Allspace get a standard 8.0-inch colour touchscreen that unites sat-nav, Bluetooth, DAB radio, speed limit display, SMS functionality and Apple CarPlay/Android Auto smartphone connectivity. 

Likewise, there are eight speakers for very presentable sound quality. It all looks good, with sharp graphics, slick screen transitions and generally smooth graphics. The logical menus also mean it's easy to navigate the system. Being a touchscreen, it does require you to concentrate rather hard on hitting the correct on-screen icon, which distracts you from the road for longer than necessary, but as touchscreens go, it’s one of the better ones.

A bigger 9.2-inch screen was also available as an (expensive) optional extra. It had the same user-friendly interface but added voice control, gesture control, a DVD player and a 64GB hard drive.

The Allspace differs from the regular VW Tiguan in that it offers seven seats. The ones up front are every bit as roomy as you might expect, and those in the middle also have plenty of head-and legroom, although carrying three across the rear bench is a bit of a squeeze. 

Life is pretty luxurious in the middle row with only two occupants. Each has a foldaway tray-table that can be angled to hold a book or tablet, and a cup holder in the fold-down central armrest. Similarly, there are separate rear climate settings, meaning those in the back can set a different cabin temperature from the front. There's 60mm more legroom back there than in the regular Tiguan, too, so it's roomier even in five-seat form. 

The extra two chairs fold out the boot floor, and once you’ve tipped and slid the middle chairs out of the way, they aren’t too difficult to get into. However, they are pretty tight on space. If you’re an adult - even a modestly sized one - you’ll need those in the middle row to slide their chairs a long way forward to have any prayer of fitting in, limiting their comfort, and even then, you’ll still be cramped on both headroom and legroom. 

Smaller kids in boosters will be okay, but it’s still best to think of the Allspace as a five-seater with occasional options rather than a full seven-seater.

That said, the boot is a useful size with all seven seats in place, with enough room for several carrier bags of shopping. It’s massive at 700 litres. Although there are estate cars with better carrying capacity, the Tiguan's tall body means greater load height. 

The middle seats split 40/20/40, allowing further options when folding them down for extra cargo space. The front passenger seat also folds flat so you can carry exceptionally long loads in the Allspace's 1,775-litre load bay. All six folding seats sit flush, giving a perfectly flat load area.

Regarding exterior dimensions, the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace is 4,701mm long, 1,839mm wide and 1,674mm tall. Unsurprisingly, it's the same width and height as the regular Tiguan, but it's around 200mm longer and a similar size to a Skoda Kodiaq.

Diesel engines are (or at least used to be) generally more popular than petrols in the Tiguan Allspace, and there are three to choose from, all 2.0-litre units. The entry-level one has 150PS and comes with either front or four-wheel drive, a six-speed manual gearbox or a seven-speed automatic. 

The other two diesels come exclusively in automatic four-wheel-drive form and have either 190PS or 220PS. 

The entry-level version will be fine for most. It’s not fast by any stretch of the imagination, but there’s enough muscle to haul the Allspace’s bulky body around with a reasonable amount of purpose. 

The 220PS unit, meanwhile, isn’t worth the upgrade. It’s a bit quicker against the stopwatch, but it doesn’t feel much perkier in everyday life, certainly not by as much as the increased power output would suggest. The twin-clutch automatic gearbox, meanwhile, swaps cogs smoothly enough most of the time, but the changes can occasionally feel a little slow.

There are three petrol options too. We haven’t tried either of the 2.0-litre choices, with 190PS or 220PS, but their thirst means that these won’t be popular choices anyway. We have tried the entry-level one, a 1.5-litre turbo with 150PS. 

It’s sprightly, more than you might expect when you’ve got one or two people onboard, but it struggles when loaded with people and luggage. If you do so regularly, opt for a diesel. Earlier cars had a 150PS 1.4-litre engine, rather than the 1.5.

Get up to cruising speeds on the motorway in the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace, and there’s a smidge of wind noise to be heard around the windscreen pillars, but you’ll be more impressed with the road noise isolation. There’s more of it on versions with bigger wheels, but even then, the Allspace is still very good. 

The engines do a cracking job here, melting away into the background at a steady cruise. The petrol engine we’ve sampled is smooth and quiet, even when you work its socks off, which is just as well because you’ll have to if it's loaded up with kids and luggage. 

The diesels are a wee bit more grumbly on start-up and at idle, and they make more noise when you accelerate hard, but they’re still quieter and smoother than the equivalent engines in most rivals. The 150PS version is noticeably better than the more powerful ones on that score.

The Allspace hasn’t been pulverised by the experts at Euro NCAP yet, but the regular Tiguan has, back in 2016, received the full five-star score. 

The two cars are mechanically very similar, and if there’s a reason the Allspace should behave any differently, we’re not aware of it. Standard safety kit is very generous, with seven airbags, all the usual traction and stability aids, a driver fatigue sensor, cornering foglamps, and high-beam assist headlamps all standard on entry-level Match trim. 

SEL and R-Line Tech trims swap those headlamps for brighter LED ones. Also standard across the range is active cruise control that helps the driver maintain a safe distance to the car in front and slams on the brakes if it slows or stops suddenly. Automatic emergency city braking is also included. It’s perhaps a little surprising that only two Isofix child seat fixing points are supplied.

Volkswagen secured position 17 of 33 manufacturers in the latest Honest John Satisfaction Index. 81.19% were satisfied with their car. 

The Tiguan is an older VW model using an older platform than the latest Golf. While that may put some people off, it shouldn't because it means the mechanical bits are all well-proven, and the infotainment system shouldn't suffer from the same glitches as the new Golf's.

Newer cars will still fall under Volkswagen's three-year warranty scheme. 

Insurance groupings for the Tiguan Allspace range between 17 at the very bottom of the range to 29 at the very top. However, most versions sit somewhere around the early twenties. That means premiums won’t be too steep and shouldn’t be any more expensive than those of rivals. To keep premiums down, choose a version with a lower power output.

The VW Tiguan Allspace was launched in 2018 after the government introduced updated road tax rules. As of 1 April 2025, a flat tax rate of £195 will be introduced. Cars that exceeded £40,000 (incl. options) when new are still viable for the 'luxury car tax' fee, which is an extra £425 per year. 

C02-based 'Showroom tax' still applies for cars registered after 2017. From year two, the standard rate is applied. Some newer Tiguan Allspace trims emit sub-200g/km C02 figures, meaning you'll be £1,650 lighter for the first year. It's worth checking what band your car falls into before purchasing. 

We reckon entry-level Match trim (called SE Nav on earlier cars, with some differences in specification) should suffice for most VW Tiguan Allspace buyers because of its generous equipment. 

The standard kit roster includes alloy wheels, a space-saver spare wheel, remote locking, automatic lights and wipers, three-zone climate control, four powered windows, an electric tailgate, front and rear parking sensors with a rear-view camera and a steering assistant for parking manoeuvres. 

That’s on top of all the safety and infotainment equipment mentioned earlier. SEL trim gives you keyless go, a panoramic roof, a hands-free tailgate and heated/massaging front seats with electric lumbar adjustment.

Opting for a potent engine gets you adaptive suspension. R-Line Tech models give you styling goodies inside and out, including lowered sports suspension and a 360-degree parking camera, but not a great deal else. No version gets leather upholstery as standard, and the original owner would’ve had to pay top dollar to add it.