Used Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace long-term test: report 5

The car Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace Match 2.0 TDI 4Motion Run by John Bradshaw, senior photographer

Why it’s here To see how much more practicality and kit buying used gives you for your money, and to see if a traditional diesel engine can still make sense today. 

Needs to Be practical in all weather conditions, cut the mustard as a photographer’s workhorse, prove comfortable and economical on a mixture of journeys.

Mileage 3950 List price (2020) £30,704 Price new with options £36,845 Value now £24,651 Test economy 39.1mpg 

23 April 2021 – All for space and space for all

As I mentioned in my first update, my main reason for opting for the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace was the extra-long boot that comes as a byproduct of this seven-seat SUV being so much longer than the regular Tiguan. My photographic equipment comes in all shapes and sizes, and backdrops and tripods in particular are the kind of tall, thin items that can be a pain to securely stow. Just as I expected, though, with its third row of seats folded down, the Allspace has proven more than willing to swallow the kit I need for a typical day’s work.

Moreover, on the odd occasion that I’ve needed to fit even more in, when I drop both rows of seats the Allspace gives me the full lorry. Its appetite for furniture made light work of helping with a family house move and meant items could be stowed safely and securely, rather than being crammed in in a way that could lead to damage. What’s more, the front passenger seat can be folded flat; this is a very simple procedure that enables unusually long loads, such as the three-metre-long plank of wood in the photo below, to run the full length of the car’s interior. Handy stuff.

For the vast majority of my time with the Allspace so far, it’s been in five-seat mode, and while lockdown has prevented me from carrying a carload of tall friends around, I can speak for its rear seat room for myself. I’m just under six feet tall and there’s plenty of space for me to sit in comfort, with head room being particularly generous. Leg room varies depending on whether the second row is in its rearmost position or slid forward to maximise boot space; in the latter case, I’d want the front passenger to slide their seat a little way forwards, and I’d prefer not to sit behind the driver if he was an exact clone of myself.

I also experimentally installed myself in the third row, but while I can get in there, I’d not want to be there for very long at all. As our full review says, it really is best suited for smaller adults, becoming a bit more usable if you can persuade second-row occupants to sacrifice a bit of leg room. I must say, though, that the fold-down tables on the front seatbacks are far more useful than I thought they would be; they’re just about big enough to take an open laptop, and that helps to tick the mobile office box on my 'must do' list for the Allspace.

I wonder, though, if Volkswagen isn’t missing a trick by not offering the Allspace as a five-seater, without the third row. For all its occasional kiddie-carrying usefulness, its presence has the effect of raising the floor height when it’s folded down, and, as a result, there’s actually less load height beneath the retractable tonneau cover than there is in the boot of my previous Skoda Superb Estate. Items that I could stack in the Superb have to sit side by side in the Allspace. The floor is also a fair old height for loading heavy items.

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