Volkswagen Tayron review

Is the Volkswagen Tayron a good car? 

The Volkswagen Tayron only really makes sense as a seven-seater – its core differentiator to the smaller, cheaper Tiguan. That means the plug-in hybrids quickly lose their appeal, despite their impressive electric-only range, because they only seat five. It’s far from the greatest driving SUV out there, but if your primary focus is how many people you can fit in it, then this shouldn’t have much bearing. The Tayron is a new Tiguan Allspace in all but name and manages to provide an appealing step between the Tiguan and Touareg, with the Tayron’s excellent kit list, strong variety of engines and solid interior standing out as real positives. 

How much does the Volkswagen Tayron cost? 

The Volkswagen Tayron has been available in other markets for some time, but now the name has been brought to the UK as a replacement for the Tiguan Allspace. It borrows plenty of the same design and technology as the new Tiguan, but the Tayron (like its Allspace predecessor) offers up to seven seats – a unique feature in Volkswagen’s range of SUVs. 

Prices for the Tayron kick off at just under £40,000, with the most powerful R-Line versions costing just over £50,000. Overall you can expect to pay a premium of around £5,000 for the Tayron over its Tiguan sibling.

As with many other VWs, the Tayron’s range starts with Life trim and includes as standard 18-inch alloy wheels, a 12.9-inch touchscreen with a 10.25-inch driver’s display, wireless smartphone charging, integrated sat-nav, adaptive cruise control, LED exterior lights, ambient lighting, a rear camera and Volkswagen’s park assist plus. That central touchscreen can be upgraded to an optional 15-inch unit. 

Next is Match trim, priced from around £44,500, and adding two panoramic sunroofs, a memory feature for park assist, an electric bootlid with gesture control, keyless entry, tinted windows and silver roof rails. The Match is plug-in hybrid only, so Elegance is actually cheaper at around £42,500, despite having more kit as standard. Elegance features 19-inch alloys as standard, along with heated and massaging front seats, a wider array of ambient lighting choices, cornering lights and entry or exit illumination. 

As usual, R-Line focuses on a more sporty design and from around £42,800 this adds 20-inch wheels, more aggressively styled ‘R-Line’ bumpers and sport seats, although it does away with the panoramic roof. The R-Line Edition is the top-spec trim and comes with a unique set of 20-inch rims, panoramic roofs front and rear, plus all the goodies found on lower trim levels. 

The Tayron’s powertrain line-up is familiar to the Tiguan’s, with an entry 148bhp 1.5-litre mild-hybrid petrol offered in every trim level bar the Match and R-Line Edition. There are also two 2.0-litre petrol TSI units with 204bhp and 262bhp, plus 4MOTION all-wheel drive. Diesel is offered in a single 148bhp 2.0-litre TDI engine with a seven-speed automatic transmission and front-wheel drive. 

Despite losing the option of seven seats, Volkswagen expects the biggest sellers in the UK to be the two plug-in hybrid options that have either 201bhp or 268bhp. They both feature a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and a six-speed dual-clutch transmission, paired with a hybrid system consisting of an electric motor and 19.7kWh battery pack. The Tayron PHEV almost matches the Tiguan PHEV’s 77 miles – it can cover 75 miles on electric-only power with a maximum 40kW recharge rate available. 

Being based on the heavily updated MQB Evo platform, the Tayron also comes with optional ‘DDC’ dual-valve adaptive dampers, plus the next generation of VW’s progressive steering and XDS virtual limited-slip differential tech. 

20

Volkswagen has tweaked the Tayron’s suspension to be softer than its ‘all-rounder’ Tiguan counterpart because the larger SUV with its optional seven-seat layout is designed to be a more practical, less sporty, family-focused model. However, with the same architecture and powertrains as the Tiguan, you’d expect a similar driving experience – even with the Tayron being larger in every dimension than its sibling and having a longer wheelbase.

We thought the Tiguan’s ride should be a little more angled towards comfort when we first drove it last year, and it appears Volkswagen has been taking notes for the Tayron. At low speeds, the body bobs around with sharp steering inputs that you’d probably expect of a jacked-up SUV with a high centre of gravity, but speed bumps and large potholes are dealt with easily – even on the larger rims found on the high-spec trim levels.

There’s a degree of chassis control in flowing corners and the DCC adaptive damping system (with its 15 different modes) has a broad range of adjustability. Get too keen with your steering, though, and the Tayron will lose composure. Once you’re up to motorway speeds the VW settles down well, managing to smother most imperfections in the road effectively. Standard-fit acoustic glass means wind and road noise is pretty hushed, although we’d wager the Tiguan is even quieter. Refinement is fairly dependent on what engine you choose as well. The 1.5-litre eTSI mild-hybrid doesn’t feel too stressed and grumbly, whereas the diesel is a little noisy. Although silent in EV-only mode, the plug-in hybrid’s petrol unit doesn’t cut in and out smoothly, either. 

The Tayron’s longer wheelbase means its turning circle is 40cm greater than the Tiguan’s 11.7-metre radius. Meanwhile, the electric auto-hold handbrake feels jerky and can allow the Tayron to roll by an alarming amount between forward and reverse gears. 

The mild-hybrid, despite only having 148bhp and 250Nm of torque, is well-suited to the Tayron so long as you’re on a gentle cruise. The seven-speed automatic helps it to cover the 0-62mph sprint in a leisurely 9.4 seconds, 0.3 seconds slower than the Tiguan. On the move, it’s responsive enough to throttle adjustments, although the gearbox can be a little too slow to swap cogs – a trait that can be found in every Tayron powertrain. 

The diesel’s low-range torque will make it the choice of those needing to tow caravans and trailers, thanks to its 2.5-tonne capacity. It has the same 148bhp as the mild-hybrid petrol, but produces 360Nm of torque, so while it’s not sprightly, the Tayron in TDI form feels like a more muscular offering. 

Despite having 201bhp and 268bhp, the plug-in hybrid models’ 0-62mph times are split by 1.3 seconds, with the lower-powered PHEV taking 8.6 seconds and the more powerful version 7.3 seconds. With a six-speed automatic gearbox, both versions have similar driving characteristics to the plug-in hybrid Tiguan – the body can pitch noticeably when accelerating, and the drivetrain prefers to use electric power at motorway cruising speeds. Volkswagen has done a great job of hiding the extra weight on the plug-in hybrid system in the Tayron. 

20

Being larger and heavier than the Tiguan, the Tayron unsurprisingly fares slightly worse in fuel efficiency and emissions, but it’s far better than the Touareg, which uses bigger, thirster V6 engines. 

Thanks to its mild-hybrid system kicking in at low speeds, the Tayron 1.5-litre eTSI manages a respectable 44.1mpg on a combined cycle, which means it’s pretty competitive against other seven-seaters such as the Skoda Kodiaq, Hyundai Santa Fe and Kia Sorento. The 2.0-litre TSI with 204bhp will return 35.8mpg and the 262bhp unit 33.0mpg – not bad considering their use of all-wheel drive and a lack of hybridisation. 

The 2.0-litre diesel provides a respectable 50.9mpg – that’s slightly off both the diesel Skoda Kodiaq and VW Tiguan. 

For those who want to prioritise fuel efficiency, the plug-in hybrids will be the most tempting. Available on every trim level, the Tayron PHEV in its lower-powered 201bhp guise can serve up 696mpg according to Volkswagen; in the real world we achieved close to 100mpg after mix of petrol and electric running. The more powerful PHEV scores a little worse according to VW, at 625.9mpg, although we suspect there won’t be much between them in daily driving. You’ll want to keep the plug-in hybrid Tayron charged up regularly, not just to maintain decent fuel efficiency, but also because the 45-litre fuel tank is pretty small. Non-PHEV Tayrons get a 55-litre fuel tank instead.

Just like the Tiguan eHybrid, if you run the battery down to below 15 per cent capacity in the Tayron, the PHEV’s electronics will favour petrol power to save the charge. Handily, there’s a fairly nippy (for a plug-in hybrid) 40kW recharge rate, allowing for a 10 to 80 per cent top-up in 26 minutes.

It’s too early to tell how well the Tayron will keep its value, although the Tiguan Allspace retained 51.74 per cent of its value after 60,000 miles and three years, with the regular Tiguan scoring better across the range with 53.33 per cent. 

20

For a car that is essentially a stretched Tiguan underneath, Volkswagen has gone through the trouble of making sure that none of its new SUV’s body panels are copied over from the Tiguan. The result is a car that’s almost indistinguishable from the Tiguan. Like that model, the Tayron comes with its ‘standard’ body kit or with the sportier stylings of R-Line, but there’s no getting away from the fact this is a big, bulky SUV with interior space at the top of its brief.

Paint colours for the Tayron range from a black and white ‘solid paint’, a white ‘premium paint’ and six metallic paint finishes, with the ‘Ultraviolet’ being the most eye-catching. 

You might expect the cabin to mirror the Tiguan’s, but Volkswagen has added a unique dash element that adds a ridge from one side to the other. The Tayron’s centre console, steering wheel, dashboard displays and doors are all taken from the Tiguan.  

Overall quality is good, but there are some small gripes. One of the cars we tested had a wood trim on the dash which looked good from afar, yet felt a little flimsy. The base Life trim also gets a rather dull silver and black colourway inside. Other than that, the Tiguan comes with plenty of solid surfaces, premium-feeling materials and a decent level of build quality. 

Volkswagen has recently U-turned on its touch-sensitive buttons, and while there are still no physical climate controls (it’s operated via the touchscreen in the Tayron), actual buttons on the steering wheel are a significant improvement over the touchpads you get in the Touareg. 

As seen on the Tiguan, the Tayron has a ‘driving experience’ switch in the middle of the centre console. This rotary dial can toggle between presets from ambient lighting, volume control or driving modes. We found it to work well, with a small display featuring, although it works best as a simple volume knob. 

Sat-nav, stereo and infotainment

The Tayron’s 12.9-inch touchscreen comes standard and we’d argue most wouldn’t feel the need to spend over £1,000 on the ‘Infotainment Package Plus’ to include the larger 15-inch screen, despite this option adding four USB-C ports, a head-up display, Volkswagen’s ‘IDA’ voice assistant, a wireless smartphone charger and sat-nav. 

Whatever size screen you go for, you’ll find a crystal-clear resolution with a neat overall design to the infotainment system. As we’ve said in the Tiguan and Passat, where this screen also appears, the menu layout could be better, with a greater emphasis on the features you’ll use more often. Touchsliders beneath for the climate and volume remain an annoyance. 

The central screen and the customisable driver’s display work well together, but with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto phone connectivity as standard, we’d recommend using these over the VW’s set-up. 

20

Interior practicality is where the Tayron is a more tempting product than the Tiguan, and in some respects the Touareg, too. Of course, neither sibling offers seven seats, either – as long as you eschew the Tayron’s plug-in hybrid powertrain, which puts the battery pack beneath the boot floor. 

The seven-seater uses a sliding middle row to make access to the rear two seats pretty easy, and you can sling those middle seats forward with one hand. Adults can fit in the third-row seats at a push, with a decent amount of headroom but not much legroom; those in the middle seats will have to sacrifice their legroom to accommodate rear passengers. The VW’s second row can also slide in a 60:40 split, with adjustable backrests and Isofix child points on the outer seats. A neat feature for middle-row occupants is the central armrest which has two cupholders and a tablet holder. 

Boot space is up to 885 litres in the five-seat model, or 850 litres for the seven-seater with the rearmost bench folded away. In full seven-seat mode, the boot space is still rated at 345 litres – about the same as you’d find in many superminis. All of these figures improve on those of the Skoda Kodiaq, which has between 725 and 640 litres of space, or 340 with all three rows up. 

20

The Tayron hasn’t been tested by Euro NCAP, but we expect a similar result to the Tiguan (which scored a maximum of five out of five), given their shared platform, size and safety technology. 

There’s a strong list of safety kit as standard in the Tayron, with autonomous emergency braking, cross-traffic control, lane-keep assist, nine airbags and traffic sign recognition. 

In the 2024 Driver Power survey, Volkswagen scored poorly for reliability and quality, ranking 28th and 27th out of 32 manufacturers respectively. Almost a quarter of Volkswagen owners experienced a fault with their cars, which given the high levels of platform and technology sharing across the brand, should make every owner a little worried. It’s far too early to tell if the Tayron will show Volkswagen is learning from its mistakes.  

Volkswagen Tayron alternatives

Volkswagen needed a replacement for the Tiguan Allspace because the seven-seat SUV game is too big to ignore. There are plenty of rivals in this segment, with the likes of the Skoda Kodiaq providing close competition to the Tayron, using the same platform and powertrains. There’s also the Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe, plus the Peugeot 5008 and the Nissan X-Trail. 

With prices starting from below £40,000, the Tayron is a rival for all of the above price-wise, with higher-spec variants lining up against more premium offerings such as the Mercedes GLB.