The New Volkswagen Tiguan Is a Huge Step In the Right Direction: Review

Volkswagen’s compact SUV finally feels like a real competitor.

The Volkswagen Tiguan has always been one of the better compact SUVs in its class, but even after 18 years on the market, it’s never quite matched the dominance of rivals like those from Honda or Toyota. That could change with the all-new 2025 Tiguan, which makes massive strides to better compete with the CR-V and RAV4.

With sleek styling and a well-equipped interior, the new Tiguan checks all the right boxes. Built on VW’s versatile MQB Evo platform, the updated model is 170 pounds lighter than its predecessor. Inside, it features higher-quality materials, a cleaner layout, and a large central touchscreen.

Power comes from an updated turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, featuring a new turbo and a revised fuel-injection system. Output rises to 201 horsepower (up from 184), and torque improves to 221 lb-ft of torque (or 207 pound-feet on the front-drive model).

Overall, the new Tiguan is an excellent SUV.

2025 Volkswagen Tiguan Pros

• Sharp Exterior Design
• High-Quality Interior
• Surprisingly Fun
• There’s a Volume Knob

The previous Tiguan was never much of a looker, but the new model is genuinely sharp. While the large gloss-black grille might not appeal to everyone, the overall design is clean, cohesive, and uncontroversial.

Up front, slim LED headlights are connected by a narrow light bar that stretches across the hoodline, giving the Tiguan a modern, upscale appearance. At the rear, a distinctive taillight design and an (optional) illuminated VW logo assure you won’t confuse the Tiguan for a CR-V.

Inside, the cabin is nice—really nice. This fully loaded SEL R-Line trim comes standard with perforated leather seats, ambient lighting, and a massive 15.0-inch touchscreen. Materials throughout the cabin feel premium for the class, with wood accents and high-quality plastics on the dash and door panels adding to the upscale feel.

Power from the turbocharged engine is sent through an eight-speed automatic transmission, with front-wheel drive standard and VW’s 4Motion all-wheel drive system available. The model tested here came equipped with AWD.

In typical VW fashion, the Tiguan is a pretty fun thing to fling around. The turbocharged engine delivers strong low-end torque while still providing enough power higher in the rev range for effortless highway passes. The eight-speed automatic shifts quickly and effortlessly, too.

And finally—yes, there’s a volume knob. Despite adopting VW’s latest infotainment interface (complete with its typical touch-capacitive controls), the Tiguan has a physical volume knob just behind the gear selector. It doubles as a drive mode selector and proves to be surprisingly useful in everyday driving.

2025 Volkswagen Tiguan Cons

• Still Not Enough Buttons
• Somewhat Stiff Ride

As welcome as the Tiguan’s new volume knob is, it doesn’t fully make up for the abundance of touch-capacitive controls. While the steering wheel thankfully replaces the previous controls with real buttons, you still have to deal with finicky touch-sensitive sliders below the touchscreen for adjusting fan speed, temperature, and other basic functions. It’s still very annoying.

Also mildly annoying is the ride quality. The Tiguan isn’t an uncomfortable SUV by any means, but it rides firmer than some of its competitors and doesn’t handle rough pavement or speed bumps nearly as well. That could be due in part to the 20-inch wheels on this SEL R-Line model; drop down to the base model’s 17-inch shoes, and ride quality should improve.

2025 Volkswagen Tiguan Verdict

Frankly, there’s not much to complain about with the new Volkswagen Tiguan. It looks sharp, offers a refined and comfortable interior, and is genuinely enjoyable to drive. At $30,920 to start for 2025 (with destination included), it’s still a bargain, too.

While the touch-capacitive controls and slightly firm ride may annoy some, those flaws are easy to overlook in an SUV that gets so much right otherwise. Honda and Toyota—watch your backs.

Tiguan Competitors

• Chevrolet Equinox

The Lucid Air Feels Like Nothing Else: Review

The Lucid Air feels very much like a car from a startup. That’s good and bad.

Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1

By: Chris Perkins

Aug 25, at 12:30pm ET

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The Lucid Air doesn’t feel like anything else on the road. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, the Air is one of the best-driving, most efficient cars currently on the market, and that counts for a lot. But it’s also not without its quirks.

Lucid began Air deliveries in 2021, but the car still feels fresh, thanks to constant hardware and software tweaks. During a long weekend with this Air Touring, I installed a software update that enabled a new hands-free driver assist functionality that comes as part of the $6,750 DreamDrive Pro package. I’ve been reviewing cars for a decade, and that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to install such a big update during a test.

Quick Specs	2025 Lucid Air Touring
Battery	92.0-Kilowatt-Hour Lithium Ion
Output	620 Horsepower / 885 Pound-Feet
0-60 MPH	3.4 Seconds
Range	406 Miles
Base Price / As Tested	$80,400 / $101,850

Still, I’m more interested in driving with my hands than without them, and the Air remains superb to drive. There’s a bit of old-school BMW in how the Air goes down the road. The handling is excellent, but that never comes at the expense of ride quality. It’s just the right amount of firm yet compliant in all three of its drive modes: Smooth, Swift, and Sprint. Everything feels in harmony.

I was lucky enough to meet a number of Lucid engineers earlier this year, and it’s obvious they’re true car enthusiasts. Though that fact is obvious just by driving the Air itself, it’s clear that the people who honed the Air’s dynamics love driving.

This Air Touring falls in the middle of the lineup, yet it still has an astonishing 620 horsepower. Sure, that’s around half (!) as much as the Air Sapphire, but there is no world where you need more. Honestly, the car would be fine with even less. It just zaps from place to place in an instant in a fit of overkill. Still, Lucid gets points for calibrating the accelerator pedal so it’s not jumpy. It’s not hard to drive sedately.

Pros: Superb Ride & Handling, More Power Than You’ll Ever Need, Incredible Efficiency

One thing I wish the Air had was a blended brake pedal. The only way to get energy-saving regenerative braking is through one-pedal driving. While the calibration of the system is very good, drivers who prefer braking with the brake pedal shouldn’t have to sacrifice efficiency, or use one-pedal. 

Lucid’s whole thing is efficiency, and this Air makes a lot out of a little. I averaged around 4.0 miles-per-kilowatt-hour over 600 miles of highway, city, and country-road driving, and while that’s excellent, it would do much better without the sun heating the cabin through the glass roof, forcing me to run the air-conditioning pretty hard. Still, that translates to about 362 miles of range, and while that’s a little off the EPA estimate of 406 miles, it’s remarkable considering this is a fast, luxurious car. One with an interior that was getting heated by long summer days.

The Air is also space-efficient. An Air is about the same size as a BMW 5 Series or Mercedes E-Class, but the interior space is palatial, and there’s a ton of room in both front and rear trunks. It’s a cool interior, too, with the neat curved display panel for gauge cluster and infotainment, and then a separate lower panel for other vehicle/infotainment functions. Still, there are at least nice physical controls for temperature, fan speed, and radio volume.

The infotainment system is responsive, but it’s not the easiest to learn, and some functions are needlessly complicated. Switching the display to show range vs battery percentage requires digging into the settings menu, when the car should clearly just show both at all times. Lucid’s minimalism also means that steering-wheel and mirror controls are in the lower touchscreen as well, which is just irritating.

Cons: Build-Quality Issues, Buggy, Confusing Infotainment, No Blended Brake Pedal

Some of the interior materials don’t feel quite worthy of the Air Touring’s $80,000 base price, let alone the $100,000 of this tester. The brightwork is mostly plastic, for example. And the build quality is spotty in parts, with loose-fitting panels and various squeaks and rattles present. Outside, the panel gaps are also huge and inconsistent.

The hands-free driver assist system didn’t leave me convinced either. Generally, it worked well, but from time to time, it would ping-pong between lane lines, which left me second-guessing the way it handled traffic. Still, the highways of the Northeast aren’t the best for using any driver-assistance systems, as the roads are fairly narrow and windy, with lots of traffic. 

This very much feels like a car from a startup. It’s quirkier than most, and build-quality issues and software bugs are evident. But I found myself quite enamored with it. That’s an easier position for me to be in, given I didn’t spend $100,000 on the thing, but there is so much compelling engineering here. It’s one of the best-driving luxury cars on the market, and its efficiency—in all senses of the word—is remarkable. 

There’s a strange calculus here. The Lucid Air has a very specific appeal—it’s for people who value fine engineering, clever thinking, and efficiency. Other than, uh, not being able to afford one, in a lot of ways, I’m the target customer, a car enthusiast looking for a luxury daily driver. But I also know that I am not the norm. 

Another car enthusiast friend openly wondered if the appeal of this car is too niche. You have to be into cars in a very specific way to see why the Air is worth so much money, and why its peculiarities are worth forgiving.

The Air isn’t like any other car out there. For better, and for worse.

Competitors

The Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing Precision Package Is the Answer: Video Review

The CT5-V Blackwing was already one of the sharpest sport sedans ever made. The Precision Package makes it a handling nerd’s dream.

Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing Review | BMW M5 Who?!

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Photo by: Ralph Hermens | Motor1

By: Chris Perkins

Aug 23, at 10:00am ET

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It’s impossible not to love the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. It’s a sport sedan with a supercharged 6.2-liter V-8, a six-speed manual transmission, and one of the best rear-wheel drive chassis out there. With the new Precision Package, which brings a thoroughly revised suspension and carbon-ceramic brakes, the CT5-V Blackwing is just about perfect.

Compared with the likes of the Audi RS6 / RS7 and the new BMW M5, the Cadillac is the lightweight of the group, at a little over 4,000 pounds. That, plus a helping of GM’s typically expert chassis tuning, makes the Blackwing one of the best cars in the world with which to carve up a canyon road. It’ll do big, dumb burnouts like any old American muscle car—668 horsepower to the rear tires ensures this—but this car is all about handling. 

The Precision Package is a spendy bit of equipment, though, at $18,000. For that, you get carbon-ceramic brakes, stiffer springs and sway bars, retuned MagneRide dampers, new steering knuckles, and the option of Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires. On the road, the car is notably stiffer than the standard variant, but not so much so that it becomes unusable. 

Really, the biggest problem with the CT5-V Blackwing is just how fast it is. At the top of second gear, you’ll be breaking almost every speed limit in the country, and even if you don’t use all the revs, it’s all too easy to get into license-suspension territory. Don’t buy one of these if you don’t have a healthy sense of restraint. 

Seeing and hearing is believing with the CT5-V Blackwing, so check out our latest video review above. You’re going to want one of these things.