Centralian Advocate, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 — 17

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The Volkswagen Tiguan 118TS shows show the German maker has a range that will appeal to a variety of budgets and buyers

Tiguan range sure tofind plenty of friendsEwan Kennedy

FOR the 2012 model season theVolkswagen Tiguan received anew frontal appearance to bring itinto line with the latest Volks-wagen horizontal theme.

It’s a theme used on VWs fromthe Polo through to the Amarokutility. Interestingly, though, thenew VW up! hasn’t received thisfrontal style as Volkswagen iskeen for its new baby car toestablish its individual identity.

The standard VolkswagenTiguan 118TSI starts at $28,490and provides a range of standardequipment such as cruise control,roof rails, rear fog lamps, alloywheels (17-inch on the 155TSI,16-inch on the other models withoptional 18-inch), auxiliary andUSB audio inputs, Bluetooth tele-phone and audio streaming, media

devise interface and leathercovered steering wheel.

The flagship 155TSI will set youback $42,990 and adds chrome sidemouldings, window trim and roofrails, front fog lamps, sports frontseats with storage drawers, rain-sensing windscreen wipers, dual-zone climate control air condition-ing, low tyre pressure indicatorand driver fatigue detection.

For those looking to take theirVW Tiguan off-road the AWDmodels come with a useful ap-proach angle of 28 degrees. In linewith its more suburban role thefront-wheel drive 118TSI is limitedto just 18 degrees.

In 2011, the Tiguan range ex-panded its appeal by adding a two-wheel drive (2WD) alternative tothe all-wheel drive (4WD) models.The entry level Tiguan 118TSI wereviewed combines a 1.4-litre

Twincharger petrol engine withVolkswagens BlueMotion tech-nology to combine performanceand fuel economy.

The Twincharger is a clevercombination of superchargingand turbocharging. The super-charger provides a rapid increasein power when you step on theaccelerator. The turbochargerthen adds extra grunt as it comesinto play at higher revs, the twoblowers work in combination asthe engine electronics calculateneeds from moment to moment.

We were able to drive both theTiguan 118TSI and the 155TSI aspart of our routine road test pro-gram. The 118TSI with a six-speedmanual gearbox, the 155TSI withVolkswagen’s self-shifting-manual DSG transmission. Whiledriving enthusiasts will clearlyprefer the semi-sporty perform-

ance from the 155TSI we feel thatmost buyers will be more thansatisfied with the economy model.

Interiors feature new seat trimand a redesigned steering wheel.There’s plenty of leg and headroom in both front and rear seats,with space in the back for three.

Rear storage space is a reason-able 395 litres, expanding to 1510litres with the rear seatbacksfolded. Both the rear and frontpassenger seats in the 155TSI foldflat and we were able to transporta couple of 2.4m posts easily.

All models include ABS withbrake assist and electronicbrakeforce distribution, auto-holdparking brake, electronic stabilityand traction control.

Our tests of models at each endof the range show the Germanmaker has a range that will appealto a variety of budgets.

Women

toot horn

in awardsPhilip King

WHY is there a Women’s WorldCar of the Year?

When champion British racingdriver Stirling Moss claimedwomen did not have what it tookto compete in Formula One a fewmonths ago, he opened scars inone of the final frontiers of thegender war: cars.

The predominance of men inmotorsport is just the most visibleexample of a gender imbalancethat runs from top to bottom ofthe car industry.

Just a few days before, a panelconsisting almost totally of menawarded World Car of the Yearhonours to the Volkswagen Golf.For next year’s award there will be66 male judges and three women.

That sort of inequity flies in theface of market reality.

Figures from Roy Morgan Re-search show those intending tobuy a car are almost evenly split:54 per cent male to 46 per centfemale. Most research suggestswomen influence up to 80 per centof vehicle purchase decisions butwhen it comes to handing outgongs, they barely get a vote.

A few years ago, some of themdecided to do something about itand began the Women’s WorldCar of the Year.

‘‘We felt there was a need for thecollective voice of women to beheard,’’ said one of the prime-movers behind the award, SandyMyhre of New Zealand.

This year’s judges, 18 womenfrom 10 countries, are all mo-toring writers and many are wellknown from motorsport or TV,such as Renuka Kirpalani of Indiaand Vicki Butler-Henderson fromthe UK.

Announced this month, theaward went to the Ford FiestaEcoboost. Previous winners in-clude the Range Rover Evoque in2012, a tie between the BMW 5Series and Citroen DS3 in 2011and the Jaguar XF at the inaug-ural 2010 event.

Butler-Henderson, a former TopGear host and for more than adecade presenter of rival UK pro-gram Fifth Gear, says makershave lifted their game over thepast decade when it comes tomaking cars appealing to women,with Mini leading the way.

Honda hits high notewith jazzed-up JazzNeil Dowling

SHARPER styling, a newhybrid system and a futur-istic cabin aim to put musi-cal excitement back intoHonda’s clever Jazz.

It comes to Australia inJune with a daunting task —to equal or better the bestsales year in Jazz’s history.

Details of the 2014 Jazz —fit for the Japanese and USmarket — have been re-vealed, showing a slightlybigger car with more ag-gressive styling though re-taining smart features suchas the ‘‘magic seats’’ cargoconcept, raked bonnet andthe short front overhang.

Honda hasn’t announcedany new engine changesexcept for the hybrid thatwill become more like theToyota Prius unit, allowingthe car to be driven onbattery power alone.

The third-generation Jazzis expected in Australia bythe second half of next yearand, says Honda Australia

director Stephen Collins,will include the new hybrid.

‘‘We’re planning on thepetrol models and the hy-brid,’’ he says. ‘‘Engine de-tails are still a bit sketchybut we’re confident the newJazz will retain all the vir-tues of the current model.’’

Collins predicts pricingwill remain ‘‘very competit-ive’’ and that there will be nochange to how and wherethe car is marketed.

But Australia has thrownthe next Jazz a major chal-lenge — to equal or betterthe sales of 2007, when 12,000of the light cars were sold.

‘‘We’re looking to do thosesales figures again and to dothat we have to make thecar as competitive as poss-ible,’’ Collins said.

Honda Australia willsource the new Jazz fromThailand, ending a ping-pong shipping route toAustralia between Japanand Thailand as natural dis-asters affected factories.

External changes of thenew hatchback include dra-matic creases in the sidepanels, perimeter tail lights,a s o l i d g r i l l e p a n e l ,shallower headlight designand a more slanted bonnet.

The cabin is completelyoverhauled, adding bettermaterials and cleaning upthe dashboard with the ad-dition of a central touch-screen monitor.

The new Jazz will includea hybrid. It will also be thefirst with a new gearbox tobe adopted by other models.

Honda has moved on fromits long-standing IntegratedMotor Assist design thatuses a 1.3-litre or 1.5-litrepetrol engine assisted bytwo small electric motors.

The new hybrid has a1.5-litre engine — a modifiedversion of that in the cur-rent model — and a singleelectric motor. It is de-signed for electric-only op-eration for a short range ofabout 5km.