Our Volkswagen Tiguan

We just got back from the registry office, where the plate from the Mazda was transferred to our new car.

For the record, if you’d put money down, Dad, you would have won.

This all started last winter, in a way. Last winter was pretty rough, and I found myself wishing for the old Subaru from time to time. It figures: we buy an all-wheel drive Subaru when we’re in Prince George, then move to Victoria. We buy a front-wheel drive Mazda, and we move to Calgary. Early this winter, I was in Edmonton when the city got pounded with snow. It was a huge mess, but David the account manager was shuttling me around without breaking a sweat in his 4Motion-equipped Passat. We got to talking about cars, and at that time he suggested the Tiguan.

Fast forward a while, and the winter hasn’t been bad. The Golf has performed admirably with its snow tires on, and has taken us back and forth to Nakiska a hatfull of times. The whole “upgrade to an AWD car” thing was back-burnered. I’ve continued looking at the cars in the compact CUV category. I had really narrowed it down to the Subaru Forester XT, the Mazda CX-5 and the VW. We looked at them at the auto show. The Mazda CX-5 GT in the dark blue was a real looker, but the VW was simpler.

I had to take the Mazda in for it’s service, so I decided I would test drive the CX-5. I also got a bonus ride in one, since that was their shuttle. My impressions were:

• Tons of bells and whistles
• Comfortable seats
• Bone-shaking ride
• Meh engine

We did the numbers, and Mazda really exceeded my expectations on what they offered for the 5 on trade in. Enough to make me sit up and take notice: a full thousand over the maximum black book, even with the rock chip crack in the windshield.

I was tempted. But I wanted to compare it with the VW. The Subaru was a long shot, only because the dealer is a long way from our house: it’s in the Northeast. We went to the VW dealer, and scheduled a test drive for the next day.

The story there was that VW had a significant deal on. There was $750 off for the auto show, $1750 off from the “Autobahn for all” sales event, and while they didn’t quite go as high as Mazda on the trade, it was still max of what I would have hoped for. Then the test drive wowed the socks off Tammy. So much so, that she is now planning to sell her Golf, and return us to a one-car family.

So we put a deposit down, and scheduled the pickup for today. Everything went smoothly with the insurance transfer and the registration. We’re just going to have a spot of dinner and then go out again for a drive.

Ian thinks the Tiguan is the best car ever.  Really? Better than an Audi R8? 😉