Geneva show: VW previews tweaked Tiguan

VOLKSWAGEN has revealed a facelifted version of its Tiguan, just two and a half years after the all-new compact SUV went on sale in Australia.

The revamped model, for which Volkswagen Group Australia is currently negotiating pricing and specifications, will make its global debut at the Geneva motor show on March 1, before following its larger brother – the lighter yet larger second-generation Touareg that arrives here in mid-2011 – on sale here in the second half of this year.

Full details will not be revealed for three weeks, but it is clear the Tiguan’s midlife makeover brings a sharper, sleeker new front-end with horizontal lines that aim to bring Volkswagen’s smallest SUV into line with the German giant’s latest corporate look.

First released here in May 2008 before petrol models were added later that year, the Tiguan has been a smash hit since being launched globally in 2007.

With 572,000 examples sold worldwide, the Tiguan has been one of Volkswagen’s most popular models bar none in Europe, Russia, North America, China, Brazil and Australia, where VGA sold more than 6200 examples last year – up 32.2 per cent on 2009 figures.

Volkswagen said the revised Tiguan’s launch was brought forward following the current model’s sell-out success in Germany, where its share of the compact SUV segment has grown to 21 per cent – almost double its overall European segment share (12 per cent) and four times its penetration in Australia (5.4 per cent).