What happened on our road trip to Sepang in the Volkswagen Tiguan?

Motorist was invited to check out SKILLDRVN's track day in Sepang. We needed a trusty steed that would do the distance - and Volkswagen came in clutch with their new Tiguan.

306 kilometres of tarmac stood between us and the happenings at SKILLDRVN's first trackday in two years.

As we were on a tight schedule, we needed a vehicle that had the space, power and reliability to comfortably transport our crew of five, as well as all of our equipment to cover that distance uneventfully.

A couple of phone calls to our good friends at Volkswagen Singapore later, and we had just the vehicle - the Volkswagen Tiguan.

We've already reviewed this car within the confines of our island, and our first road trip post-border reopening was a chance for us to allow the Tiguan to stretch its legs.

It was an early start...

We began our journey in the early hours of Sunday morning, running around Singapore to pick up all our team members (a challenge in itself, as all of us lived quite literally in all four corners of the island).

This was a work trip, and as content creators, we had loads of camera gear (and all the barang-barang five dudes would have on them in tow), but the Tiguan's 520L boot took our load with aplomb.

Granted, we did have to remove the cargo cover, which allowed us to fit in all our bags with only some minor Tetris-ing.

On the road

As we all know, driving the North-South Highway is as much a means to get you somewhere as it is an excuse to give your car the good ol' Italian (or in this case, German) tune-up, and the Tiguan shone beautifully here too.

The Tiguan is powered by the venerable EA888 two-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine pushing out 187hp and 320Nm of torque through a seven-speed DSG 'box driving all four wheels.

All of which came into very good use on our trip. VW quotes the top speed at 214km/h and all I'll say is I believe them. Even at higher speeds, the Tiguan tracked straight and steady, which was really confidence-inspiring.

As you'd expect from an SUV, the suspension was a little floaty at speed as a result of the higher ride height, but it was never to the point where I didn't know what the car was doing.

The Tiguan also brushed aside every bump that we came across and settled itself right back, ready to keep on hustling. And when I got tired of driving, I could just turn the cruise control on and let the car do the hard work.

The in-car experience

On the drive, we were kept entertained by our own prattling as well as by cranking the tunes through the Tiguan's Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality.

 Apple CarPlay also meant I could use Waze to navigate, a die-die-must-have feature for driving in Malaysia. Interior space was also good, as our crew of five had no problems or complaints comfortably filling the seats in the vehicle.

It was so comfortable in fact, that some of us were even able to catch some shut-eye, no mean feat in a mid-size SUV.

The car's relative frugality meant that the journey was not as fatiguing as it should have been.

Our average economy was 9km/l, which may not sound all that impressive, but bear in mind that the car had at least an extra 100 kilograms of camera equipment/baggage, five occupants and we were also carrying some serious pace.

Over the course of our drive to Sepang, the Tiguan kicked up no fuss at all and brought us to the Sepang paddock quickly, safely, and in style!

Closing thoughts

We have our friends at Volkswagen Singapore to thank for loaning us the new Tiguan to bring up to the great North. They may have done us a big favour here, but their generosity isn't going to cloud our opinions, or sway our conclusions, about this fine automobile.

We genuinely think that the Volkswagen Tiguan is an overall immensely capable vehicle, working well not only in the highly urbanised environment we call home, but also as a long distance mile-muncher. It is refined at speed, has all the real-world boot space you'd ever need, and a trusted and reliable powerplant under the bonnet.

TL:DR - The Volkswagen Tiguan was great on our road trip up North, and handled what our crew and the Malaysian roads could throw at it like a champ.

We've prepared a video recapping our journey up North, which you can watch down below:

[embed]https://youtu.be/MwlebUX-6h4[/embed]

To watch what we got up to at Sepang, you can watch the video here:

[embed]https://youtu.be/5TlHyy14vOg[/embed]

Once again, we couldn't have done this trip without the generosity of Volkswagen Singapore so we'd like to extend our heartiest thanks to them for making it possible.

If you'd like to try the new Tiguan for yourself, you can hit them up here.

Specs

Model	Volkswagen Tiguan 2.0 TSI DSG
Price	Elegance: $209,900 R-Line: $228,900  VES Banding: B
Performance	Engine: 2.0L TSI Turbocharged four Cylinder Power: 187 hp Torque: 320 Nm 0-100km/h: 7.4 seconds Drivetrain: Seven-speed DSG, All-Wheel Drive Brakes: Discs
Measurements	Dimensions (LxWxH): 4,509 mm x 1,839 mm x 1,675 mm  Wheelbase: 2,679 mm Weight: 1,678 kg Fuel capacity: 63 litres Boot capacity: 520 litres
Features	Electric front seats  Panoramic roof  LED headlights LED taillights  Digital cockpit Apple carPlay Android auto Heads-up display (R-line only) Park assist (R-line only) Cruise control Blind spot monitoring

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This article was first published in Motorist.