Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace 2023 review: 147TDI Elegance long-term | Part 1

Bigger is better, right? For a family car? A lot of the time that's true, particularly when you've got three child seats across the second row and it's in your best interests to keep a pram and portacot in the boot at all times.

This often doesn't leave much room for grocery shopping, let alone luggage for a weekend away or holiday. So I completely understand why so many families shoot straight to something as big as a Toyota Kluger, Mazda CX-9 or Hyundai Palisade when choosing their family truckster.

If you can afford it and have enough room to park it, why not? And as I've demonstrated twice now, life is even better if you go down the people mover route, with the Kia Carnival and Hyundai Staria both earning top spots in my family's car hall of fame.

But, not everyone's comfortable driving something so big, and newer houses often don't have garages big enough to fit them.

Thankfully, if you need to ferry three kids and their stuff, there's a bunch of seven-seat SUVs which are more in the mid-size realm, and one glowing example that's proven its worth with my family in the past is the Skoda Kodiaq.

That was a while ago, and kids grow fast, and two out of three of my child seats are now the bigger harnessed booster type. To see if we could still pull off the smaller family SUV idea, we're spending three months aboard the VW Tiguan Allspace, which incidentally is almost identical to the Skoda Kodiaq under the skin.

This also isn't my family's first rodeo with the second-generation Tiguan either, having spent six months aboard the shorter five-seat version way back in 2016. It was the petrol 132TSI, in the mid-spec Comfortline trim level that was available at the time. That was back when we only had one child seat and its precious occupant on board.

This time around, it's the more opulent Elegance trim level, which is the top-of-the-range Allspace without going for the flashy R-Line bits ($3200 extra). It's also the diesel engine ($1500 extra) for this test, so it'll be interesting to see how the bigger Allpace body goes with the most efficient engine on offer.

The diesel costs $1500 extra, but we'll see if it's worth it. (Image: Malcolm Flynn)

The Tiguan Allspace 147TDI Elegance currently wears a list price of $57,190, and if it were competing for my hard earned, it would be facing stiff competition from the new Allspace 162TSI Adventure. This loses two seats for an even bigger boot, but keeps the more powerful petrol engine and will save you $5200 over the spec we're testing.

Speaking of tests, the most important one to pass if the Tiguan Allspace is going to do the job for my family at all is whether it will fit all three of our child seats across the second row. As I hinted above, these are now comprised of two harnessed boosters and a forward-facing 0-4 seat. Because the kids and the boosters are now too heavy, it means only the 0-4 seat can use the sturdier ISOFIX mount, leaving the others to just top-tether and each seat belt to hold them in.

I am very pleased to confirm that they just fit within the Allspace, with the door trims just touching each outer edge when you shut the back doors. Given all three seats are wall-to-wall across the back, they're nice and sturdy, with none of the rattles that can often emerge as a by-product.

Our 2x harnessed boosters and 1x 0-4 child seat juuust fit. (Image: Malcolm Flynn)

Next on the list of make-or-break tests for my family was whether the Allspace can carry enough luggage for a weekend away. The seven-seat Allspace boot measures a very impressive 700 litres with the third-row folded (or a still-reasonable 230L with all seats up), but we'd grown accustomed to taking all the luggage, plus three kids bikes, plus Dad's bike, plus a child seat for our youngest to ride on the back.

This test wasn't made easier by the fact that our holiday destination was effectively a less glamorous form of glamping, where we still had to bring pretty much everything aside from a tent and bedding.

Eek, but I must say the Allspace pulled it off. Loaded to the absolute gunwales - with everything above the back seat carefully supported to prevent movement during an emergency stop - the Allspace managed all you can see below, including a portacot hidden deep within and folding chairs for all. The only necessary concessions were swapping our usual pram for a more compact umbrella stroller, and leaving Dad's bike at home. Time for a bike rack, methinks.

There’s a portacot in there somewhere, but we had to leave Dad’s bike at home. (Image: Malcolm Flynn)

This trip ended up painting a very impressive overall picture of the Tiguan Allspace 147TDI Elegance, with its compact size making light work of the inevitable last minute direction changes and U-turns that come with any family holiday. It's just less daunting than a bigger SUV or even a people mover in this regard, and VERY impressively retained a sense of relative lightness even with all the people and luggage on board. Often SUVs become sloppy and ponderous when fully laden, but this little one somehow didn't.

I also really appreciated the sense of robustness and suitability for rural roads you just don't get with the snazzier-looking R-Line with its painted lower bodywork and lower profile tyres. Yes, the Elegance's ‘Auckland' wheels still measure 19 inches, but their 50 series profile gives you a bit more confidence of surviving potholes with inflated tyres and round wheels.

The 4Motion all-wheel drive system that comes with all 2.0-litre Tiguans no doubt also made life a bit more relaxing on the numerous loose surfaces we encountered on this trip.

See, you don’t need a Prado to get here... (Image: Malcolm Flynn)

Now, on to the topic of whether the diesel is worth it, the 147TDI carries an official combined fuel consumption figure of 6.2L/100km. Which is pretty good compared to the 8.6 worn by the petrol 162TSI that'll cost you $1500 less to buy.

In the real world, we covered a full 2,194km in our first month, and I recorded (at the pump) a best figure of 6.33L/100km and a worst of 7.34, leaving an overall average of 7.01. If we can keep this up, I'll be impressed, but there was a lot of gentle highway driving involved. Keep an eye out for next month's update.

Distance travelled this month: 2194km

Odometer: 3703km

Average fuel consumption this month: 7.01L/100km (measured at the pump)