Diesel Tiguan on low mileage

[serendipity129]

We currently have 2 petrol Polos and are in the market for a different (used) car.

We really like the Tiguan but only do very low mileage per year about 5K. We like the style and the seating height and bigger boot but I have read a lot about low mileage and town journeys and issues with DSF and there are hardly any petrol Tiguans around and they also have bad reports of being sluggish uphill and we have a lot of hills.

Should we have a complete rethink on this?

[turboextreme]

I own a 2013 vw Tiguan 2.0 diesel which when I purchased it done around 25k a year using the long life service. In 2015 I purchased a new Vw transporter van to use for work use which I use more then the Tiguan so now my Tiguan does around 7k annual millage but is used on various long runs 20k miles plus. I found that the Dpf filter sometimes started generating at the wrong time in stop start traffic where you would get a whiff of a burning smell inside. I always fill up with shell V power diesel which seams to make the car do less regenerations due to a lower soot residue from the fuel.
You would be fine purchasing a Tiguan providing you are not going to frequently use it for short trips where the engine doesn't get up to Temperature which seams to be about 2 /3 miles. If you do short trips the dpf wont regen which causes it to fill up and block costing around £600 plus.

If you are doing frequent short trips try the 2.0 tsi petrol as its better then the sluggish 1.4 tsi when fully loaded.

[Rorry]

You would be fine purchasing a Tiguan providing you are not going to frequently use it for short trips where the engine doesn't get up to Temperature which seams to be about 2 /3 miles. If you do short trips the dpf wont regen which causes it to fill up and block costing around £600 plus.


The water temp gauge will show it's up to temp after 2-3 miles but in our Tiguan you can look at the oil temp in the cluster display. It's still blank after 3 miles! In rolling A road driving it takes about 14 miles to get into the 90's. That's the same as in my diesel Merc, so quite normal.

Having said that, our late mk1 (EU6) Tiguan is used mainly for short journeys (done 13,000 miles in 2.5 yrs) and, touch wood, has been fine. I did some research before buying and other owners (of EU5 cars, but still with dpf) reported no problems.

It is odd how often we arrive home to find the car doing a regen and it's hard to tell until you get out of the car. But it starts again next trip so it will work on quite short journeys.

One thing is we only used V-Power diesel. Yes, it's expensive, but I'm terrified of putting the lesser stuff in!