The Volkswagen Tiguan is one of the most popular SUVs in America. Clearly, Americans are enjoying their Tiguan, as they wouldn’t be buying so many of them otherwise. That said, it’s not a perfect car by any means. Here’s a look at the reliability of the Tiguan based on the available evidence.

What Consumer Reports had to say about the Volkswagen Tiguan

Overall, Consumer Reports did not rate the reliability of the Volkswagen Tiguan very highly. In fact, despite having a great road test score of 84 out of 100, the Tiguan’s flaws, many of which were due to its reliability issues, lowered its overall score to just 61 out of 100. This low overall score puts the 2020 Tiguan at just 11th out of the 16 SUVs in its segment. 

The Tiguan had a very low expected reliability score of just 1 out of 5, according to Consumer Reports. The main reason for this low score is due to the unreliable history of the Tiguan. For example, while most parts of the Tiguan had decent or good reliability ratings, the power equipment of the Tiguan had the worst reliability rating possible in the 2017 and 2018 model years. 

Various other parts of the Tiguan suffered from severe reliability issues in other model years. For example, Consumer Reports gave the body integrity of the 2016 Tiguan the lowest possible reliability score. The brakes of the 2013 and 2014 model year also had a similarly low score. Due to this long history of unreliable parts, the overall reliability score of the Tiguan remains really low.

What RepairPal had to say about the Tiguan

RepairPal is another site that judges the reliability of cars, and RepairPal was even harsher on the Tiguan. RepairPal says that the Volkswagen Tiguan is the least reliable SUV in its segment, as it is in last place among the 26 other similar SUVs. 

In terms of its score, RepairPal gave the Tiguan a 3 out of 5 for reliability, which is below average for its segment. RepairPal also estimates that it’ll cost Tiguan owners about $730 a year for repairs and maintenance, and that’s significantly higher than the $521 a year for the average compact SUV.

Furthermore, RepairPal says that the Tiguan is three times more likely to need a repair in the first place compared to its peers. That said, in terms of the severity of those repairs, RepairPal says that the Tiguan has the same chance to need severe repairs as any other compact SUV will. This means that while the Tiguan will need repairs far more often, those repairs probably aren’t major ones. 

What U.S. News had to say

While Consumer Reports and RepairPal had few kind words for the Volkswagen Tiguan, the same can’t be said about U.S. News. U.S. News bases its reliability verdict on J.D. Power and Associates’ verdict for reliability. U.S. News gave the Tiguan a 4 out of 5 for reliability. This score means that the Tiguan has an above-average reliability rating when compared to similar cars. 

Overall, it’s clear that the Tiguan has had its fair share of reliability issues in the past. As a result of those issues, both Consumer Reports and RepairPal gave it poor grades since looking at the Tiguan’s past performance is the best way to predict it’s future performance. 

That said, the latest model year of the Tiguan seems to be free of those past issues, so the only way to tell which reviewer is right about the Tiguan’s reliability is to wait and see. After a few thousand miles, Tiguan owners will surely report any issue that they find. But so far, the Tiguan’s reliability seems to be not the best.