2017 Volkswagen Tiguan: Car Seat Check
CARS.COM — Volkswagen’s compact Tiguan SUV hasn’t changed much since its introduction for 2009. A new one is coming soon, however. Until then, the current Tiguan continues to fall behind the competition in terms of safety features, value and room for both people and stuff. Legroom issues and a complicated Latch set up caused the Wolfsburg edition of the compact SUV to earn marginal grades in our Car Seat Check.
How many car seats fit in the second row? Two
What We Like
- The Tiguan’s three top tether anchors are clearly marked on the seatback and easy to use.
- The seat belt buckles are on stables bases, which should make it easier for kids in boosters to buckle up independently.
What We Don’t Like
- If you’re expecting to find VW’s typical exposed, easy-access Latch anchors, think again. The Tiguan’s anchors sit about a quarter-inch into the seat bight and are crowded by the buckles, complicating connection.
- We had to move the front passenger seat all the way forward and set it to an uncomfortably upright angle to fit the rear-facing infant seat.
- Although we were able to move the front passenger seatback to a comfortable location for a 6-foot 5-inch passenger, installing the rear-facing convertible was complicated because of the Latch anchor placement.
- In forward mode, the convertible fit well despite the fixed head restraint, but we faced the same installation issues with the crowded Latch anchor.
- The fixed head restraint pushed the back of our booster off the seatback.
Grading Scale
A: Plenty of room for the car seat and the child; doesn’t impact driver or front-passenger legroom. Easy to find and connect to Latch and tether anchors. No fit issues involving head restraint or seat contouring. Easy access to the third row.
B: Plenty of room. One fit or connection issue. Some problems accessing third row when available.
C: Marginal room. Two fit or connection issues. Difficult to access third row when available.
D: Insufficient room. Two or more fit or connection issues.
F: Does not fit or is unsafe.
About Cars.com’s Car Seat Checks
Editors Jennifer Geiger, Jennifer Newman and Matt Schmitz are certified child safety seat installation technicians.
For the Car Seat Check, we use a Graco SnugRide Classic Connect 30 infant-safety seat, a Britax Marathon convertible seat and Graco TurboBooster seat. The front seats are adjusted for a 6-foot driver and a shorter passenger. The three child seats are installed in the second row. The booster seat sits behind the driver’s seat, and the infant and convertible seats are installed behind the front passenger seat.
We also install the forward-facing convertible in the second row’s middle seat with the booster and infant seat in the outboard seats to see if three car seats will fit; a child sitting in the booster seat must be able to reach the seat belt buckle. If there’s a third row, we install the booster seat and a forward-facing convertible. Learn more about how we conduct our Car Seat Checks.
Parents should also remember that they can use the Latch system or a seat belt to install a car seat, and that Latch anchors have a weight limit of 65 pounds, including the weight of the child and the weight of the seat itself.
