Should you buy a used Volkswagen Tiguan? No.

By Jason Allan, former head of vehicle reviews and ratings at Kelley Blue Book and Autotrader

The Volkswagen Tiguan is one of the best compact SUVs in this group to drive and one of the hardest to recommend once the warranty runs out. On the road it feels like the European car it is: accurate steering, a composed chassis, a cabin that stays quiet at freeway speed, and a raised seat with good outward visibility. Car and Driver puts it in the top third of the 13 compact SUVs Bestest scores for those reasons, and it's the least worn car in the segment on Orange County lots: two- and three-year-old Tiguans average about 7,700 miles a year, the lowest of the 13, the mileage of a leased car rather than a rental.

The ownership record is where the Volkswagen Tiguan falls apart. The 184-horsepower turbo four is slow for the class and hesitates off the line before it surges, the touch-sensitive climate controls on the 2022 to 2024 cars are hard to use without looking, and Kelley Blue Book and Edmunds both rank it near the bottom of the 12 compact SUVs they score in Bestest's set. Bestest measures reliability by repair bills, what insurers expect to pay to fix a used car bought with about 30,000 miles, and the Tiguan's are the highest of the 13, nearly three times the lowest in the class. Consumer Reports also puts the 2023 car near the bottom. Resale is mid-pack, so a used Tiguan isn't discounted enough to cover the risk.

So the Volkswagen Tiguan isn't a Bestest car, and I wouldn't let a friend buy one. The drive and the cabin are the trap: what you pay for is the first mile, and what you own once Volkswagen's 4-year, 50,000-mile warranty expires, which on a used car is soon, is a spotty reliability record with no cushion in the price. The compact SUVs Bestest lists do the same job with a cleaner record behind them and give more back when you sell. If you want a Tiguan anyway, here's how I'd shop for one.