It’s not often a car launches and threatens to outdo its siblings before it even hits the showroom floor. Make way for the Volkswagen Tayron—a large, luxuriously equipped SUV sliding provocatively between the Tiguan and Touareg, like a middle child determined to be the favourite, but with enough muscle to challenge both big brother and little sis in a family wrestling match.
Form Meets Function (in Extra-Long Wheelbase)
Due to arrive in September 2025, the Tayron is Volkswagen’s debutante in the gap between their stalwart Tiguan and flagship Touareg. At roughly 250mm longer than the latest Tiguan (with an equally stretched wheelbase of 110mm), the Tayron invents roominess you could host a family meeting in—complete with space for luggage, pets, and a carefully regulated amount of sibling rivalry, thanks to genuine five-seat and proper seven-seat configurations.
Choose the five-seat 150TSI Life and you get a staggering 885 litres of cargo space—enough for bulk shopping, camping trips, or evidence of a mid-life crisis. Opt for seven seats, and you’re still rewarded with 850 litres (third row folded), a nice 150 litres up on the Tiguan Allspace it replaces. It’s the kind of boot space that makes IKEA flat-packs faint with excitement.
Tech Feast: Infotainment and Safety Aplenty
The base 110TSI Life struts out with 18-inch wheels, a 12.9-inch touchscreen (with satellite navigation and wireless app mirroring), digital cockpit, and the kind of safety tech to make Volvo nervous: Area View 360-degree camera, Travel Assist with adaptive cruise control, Lane Assist, nine airbags (including a centre airbag), traffic monitoring, park assist, and dynamic road sign recognition. These aren’t options. They’re standard. It’s as if Volkswagen’s engineers locked themselves in a tech lab and refused to leave until every plausible modern feature was included.
Power to (Almost) Everyone
Engine options cover a spectrum broad enough to suit city dwellers and adventure-seeking towing enthusiasts. The 110TSI Life kicks off with a 1.5-litre turbo, 110kW of enthusiastic front-wheel probing and a braked towing capacity of 1,800kg. The 150TSI Life and Elegance turn things up with a 2.0-litre turbocharged punch, 150kW, 4MOTION all-wheel drive, and an enhanced 2,500kg towing figure—plus a five-seat “wagon” layout unique in the class.
But for those craving hot-hatch performance in a family hauler, the flagship 195TSI R-Line doesn’t merely walk the walk—it sprints it: 195kW, 400Nm, 0–100km/h in 6.1 seconds, plus Golf GTI echoes in chassis and steering. It comes dripping in R-Line style, 20-inch alloys, adaptive DCC Pro dampers, head-up display, Harman Kardon audio, and HD Matrix LED headlights that could stage their own light show. There are even “Black Style” and panoramic roof options for the cosmetically committed.
Ride Comfort & Chassis: The Secret Sauce
Underpinning the Tayron’s claim to dynamic supremacy is the MQB Evo platform—the latest evolutionary leap in VW’s modular chassis wizardry. Here, Vehicle Dynamics Manager and adaptive DCC Pro dampers work overtime, conjuring up ride comfort, agility, and stability through electronically orchestrated braking and suspension tuning. Want the Tayron soft? Tap Comfort. Want it sporty? Go wild. Or configure Individual and let your inner engineer loose.
Design & Details: The Plush Factor
The Elegance trim gets leather, powered front seats with heating, ventilation, massage and memory, LED Plus lighting, illuminated grille, plus creature comforts like heated second-row seats and privacy glass. The R-Line’s upgrades make it the Tayron version of “best dressed at the awards ceremony”—progressive steering, exclusive styling, and a Harman Kardon system that might inspire you to host karaoke in the back row.
The Takeaway: Premium, Practical, or Both?
As Volkswagen’s Head of Product slyly promises, the all-new Tayron delivers a fresh take on the “premium and value” balance—remixing luxury, performance, and cavernous practicality in a package that’s as confident on the school run as it is on cross-state family holidays. Whether you want a luxe-lined cabin, hot-hatch turbo thrust, or seven seats and boot space for a rugby team, the Tayron insists: you don’t have to choose.
Now, all that remains is to argue over the colour—choose wisely from six, including Ultra Violet Premium Metallic (because why not stand out in the car park?).
Volkswagen Tayron: Saving families from boring cars and the rest of the large SUV segment from complacency—one cleverly configured seat at a time.
