VOLKSWAGEN TAYRON

The Tiguan's publicity-shy bigger brother joins the Autocar fleet

- RACHEL BURGESS

Volkswagen has a host of very well-known cars - Golf, Passat, Tiguan, ID 3 - but our new long-termer isn't one of them. Since it's arrived on our fleet, not a single person I've come across has known what the model is. Perhaps that's why VW has kindly leant it to us... This is the Tayron, then, described by more than one colleague as 'a bigger Tiguan'. It is indeed an indirect replacement for the Tiguan Allspace, and it sits between the Tiguan and Touareg. If it sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because the Tayron did exist already as a Chinese-built model produced in a joint venture with FAW. As of this year, it's a global car, now built in China, Mexico and VW's gargantuan Wolfsburg factory, which is where our European model is from.

My first instinct is that the Tayron isn’t integral to VW in the way many of its models are: it doesn’t grab headlines like the new electric cars, and it doesn't feel especially evolved or fresh - more like a Tiguan with a bit extra stuck on the back. Sales figures are minimal compared with the Tiguan, at little more than 1% of its smaller sibling’s sales, but VW believes there's a place for it, and for a premium volume brand that aims to cater for everyone, it would be remiss not to offer a seven-seat SUV with multiple powertrain options.