Soft Roaders certainley ripping sales off the family sedan!

Good choice Alastair, I had a Subie Liberty for 15yrs, great vehicle,..and what i like about subaru is the all the electrics doors etc, work just the same ten yrs later, Excellent build quality!.


Cheers Axle.

Phil,
Our Jetta which the Forrester replaced had the 2L diesel which is the same as in your Tiguan and gave us excellent economy typically averaged 6L/100km around town. We considered a Tiguan but could not get a deal near the Subaru and the space at the rear was a bit tight as we often need to carry 2 wheelchairs for elderly parents.

The Jetta was reliable until near the end of our ownership 4yrs/75K when we started to see the central locking being intermittent and the a/c sometimes losing track of temperature and blasting us with hot air. Turning off and on fixed it so I am sure it was gremlins in the electrics.

cheers

Gday Alastair,
Biggest criticism of the Tig is the small boot space. You can make it bigger by sliding the rear seat forward, but then there's no room for the rear passengers! It fits my MIL's walker so suits us fine. The Forrester is a better size.

Our Tig is almost 3 years old and done 45k. Gremlins in the electronics is what worries me too. We've had just the one problem so far - a throttle body was replaced after the engine fault light came on. We're thinking for the first time ever that we should extend the warranty - will cost $1390 for an extra 3 years, which might be good insurance. On a Toyota or Nissan, I've never considered extending the warranty. But the Tiguan has been the nicest car we've ever owned, so we're going to keep it.

Cheers
Phil

Phil,
When we were shopping around this time I became very aware of the differences between many of the 'extended' warranties. Unfortunately for the dealers I tend to read fine print & details.

We considered the Mitsubishi Outlander and its 5/10 warranty is without doubt the best on the market. Since I was not sure how long we will keep the vehicle we bought this time I decided to make sure we had 5 years warranty and made that part of the deal equation.

We found that many dealers were offering extended warranties that are provided by third parties and there were many exclusions. The only ones we found who were prepared to provide true extension of the 3 year factory warranty were Holden for the Captiva and Subaru, but these had to be paid at the time of original purchase. This became the clincher for us as the Subaru dealer offered the best package deal. I would have bought the Mitsubishi, even though the finish was very plastic, but the road noise was terrible.

So in long winded fashion I am saying read carefully the exclusions if you consider purchasing the extended warranty on the Tiguan. I did consider this for the Jetta when it came to near 3 years and decided the 3 party warranty offered by the dealers was just not worth it as too many things were excluded or had major limits on the sum covered.

I was up at Warraweena again recently and recalled the campfire chats we had during the ExploreOz gathering some years back.

cheers

Gday Alastair,
Time sure flies! That Warraweena gathering was where I put a lot of faces to names - good to see many are still on the forum. Haven't been able to make it to a gathering since unfortunately.

Thanks for the warning about extended warranty. I've read it up on the VWWatercooled forum and Allianz do the VW extended warranties. The broker who quoted me assurred me that I was buying exactly the same as if I bought it from the VW dealer. I've got the fine print to read this weekend and we still have a couple of months yet before we decide.

cheers
phil

Phil,
I haven't made it to another gathering either. Always seems something else in the way.

On the way back from Warraweena to Sydney I dropped in to see Willem. They are both relatively well and busy plus not enjoying the joys of getting older which I share. They were planning a trip to Qld this year for some archaelogical experience and have softened to a small caravan as I see you have.

cheers