2025 Volkswagen Tayron review: Australian first drive

A Tiguan under the skin, but marginally taller and wider, the 2025 Volkswagen Tayron is the latest VW entrant into an ever-more crowded SUV lineup. With seven seats available, it’s got the sales success of the Tiguan Allspace in its sights. 

First up, dimensions, and while the Volkswagen Tayron replaces the popular Tiguan Allspace, it aims to do the same thing, slightly differently. Namely, it offers a practical three-row SUV for those buyers with an 'occasional use' scenario that has become popular in the medium SUV segment.

The Tayron is only slightly wider than the previous Tiguan Allspace, by 14mm. However, it is longer – 4792mm – and has a longer wheelbase – 2791mm – than the popular medium SUV it replaces. 

Crucial to the family appeal will be the useful luggage space on offer beyond the seven-seat layout. The third row isn’t the kind of place you’d want to be for a long drive if you’re a tall adult, but that’s also the case for many large SUVs, where we find ourselves recommending a more utility-focused people mover if you need that third row regularly.

Only the 150TSI Life variant gets five seats, the rest of the range offers seven, but the five-seater lifts luggage capacity to 885 litres behind the second row, against 850L for the seven seater.

There’s a bit to dissect with the Tayron range, beyond the new nameplate, and our pricing and specification guide details everything you need to know. The luggage space is even more useful when you factor in that the floor is almost flat right through when the seats are folded down.

You can also tailor the way in which you fold them, to suit the space you need. There’s a space-saver spare under the floor and room to store the luggage cover as well, when it’s not in use. 

Pricing basics show the range starting at $48,290 before on-road costs for the 110TSI Life, right up to $73,490 before on-road costs for the 195TSI R-Line. As you can see from our range guide, the asking price has stepped up from the Tiguan Allspace, which is par for the course at the moment, with any new model arriving into our local market. 

The design of the Tayron – exterior styling and inside the cabin – lends a genuine premium air to the new SUV. It looks classy, the lighting signatures are distinctive, and it stands out on the road.

I’ve read reports out of Europe that criticises the styling, but I think the new Tayron looks good out on Aussie roads, especially the front and rear LED light signatures and illuminated badges. I'm not sure I’d want to have to replace them in the event of a minor impact though… tell us what you think of the styling in the comments section below. 

Once you close the door and you’re inside the cabin, that feeling of quality continues with the design and execution matched by excellent noise suppression, even on coarse chip surfaces at highway speeds. It’s clear that Volkswagen has put time and effort into ensuring there’s a polished, refined sense to the way the Tayron behaves on the move, so that occupants get a comfortable experience inside the cabin.

The fitment of acoustic glass makes a significant difference, playing its part – along with the cabin insulation Volkswagen has added – to keep the cabin calm and quiet.

Across the range, Volkswagen has done a neat job of delineating the models from each other. The Life variants get a 12.9-inch touchscreen, 10.25-inch instrument display, LED headlights, 18-inch alloy wheels, an electric tailgate, keyless entry and start, a 360-degree camera and a series of advanced safety systems.

That’s more standard equipment than the Tiguan Allspace 110TSI Life it replaces, which, in part, will be used to explain the price hike. Step up through the range and you get more premium, standard equipment as you’d expect. The cabin of the entry-grade model presents well, though, and is executed to a high standard. 

At launch, we tested Apple CarPlay and it worked well across a variety of different vehicles. We had one wireless snafu, but disconnecting and reconnecting my phone sorted that.

When you’re getting into and out of multiple cars in a day, connecting and deleting devices multiple times, that can happen, so we’ll test that again when we have the Tayron through the Drive garage.

Aussies love the most expensive variant of everything, we know that, but Volkswagen reckons the mid-grade 150TSI, either Life or Elegance trim levels, will make up the bulk of sales once the new Tayron settles into the market.

It’s hard to argue with the value equation of the 150TSI variants, but I was genuinely impressed with the entry-grade 110TSI Life. If you don’t need seven seats, the ride quality, bump insulation, cabin ergonomics and general driving dynamics are more than acceptable for a medium, family-focused SUV. And it is of course, the sharpest price in the range as well.

The 110TSI is powered by a 1.4-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which makes 110kW and 250Nm, with power put through a seven-speed DSG. Even though it’s front-wheel drive against the all-wheel drive models further up the pricing scale, it never feels underdone, low on power or lacking in grip. Even pushed hard into a rutted corner on a country road, the 110TSI holds its line neatly and doesn’t ever feel skittish. It’s a good thing to drive on any road. 

Step up to the 150TSI and you get a 2.0-litre, turbocharged petrol four-cylinder with 150kW and 320Nm, a seven-speed automatic and AWD. The range topper gets Golf GTI power in the form of a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol four-cylinder, generating 195kW and 400Nm, meaning it feels fast, and is fast. Whether you need that much grunt in your family SUV, is your call. 

The 150kW variants, with AWD, feel sharp when you get moving, and are arguably much more rapid than you need in this segment. It’s why the entry-grade Tayron feels as good as it does, but if you want the added performance, then the 150TSI delivers.

Step up to the range-topping variant and you get a genuinely rapid seven-seat SUV, with handling, steering and braking beyond the expectations of the segment buyer. Even though it’s a spacious and practical SUV, the sharp steering is worthy of mention for its direct ability on a twisty section of a tight country back road. 

Introducing a new nameplate is a reasonably large exercise for any manufacturer, especially when the previous model had such a stronghold on the market.

While Volkswagen gets down to the business of ensuring Aussie buyers know what the Tayron is, they will decide if it is as popular as the previous seven-seat Tiguan Allspace. I suspect it might be, with the 110TSI the smart way to spend your money, but the 150TSI Life is my early pick of the range. 

Trent Nikolic has been road testing and writing about cars for almost 20 years. He’s been at CarAdvice/Drive since 2014 and has been a motoring editor at the NRMA, Overlander 4WD Magazine, Hot4s and Auto Salon Magazine.

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