Set fair with a Mazda 2 Hybrid for the summer and into the later part of 2024, Parkers content mogul Steve ‘Percy’ Lawman gets an unexpected quick car swop as an unannounced visitor jostles in on the action.

Report by: Percy Lawman – Last Updated August 23rd 2024

Update 1: Welcome and introduction
Update 2: Equipment, options and specs

Update 1: Welcome and introduction

Well, life is full of variety. Just when I thought I’d be running our newly arrived Mazda 2 Hybrid for 6 months, a newly arrived VW Taigo pushed its butt into a prime slot in the Parkers car park wanting to get in on the action.

So not being one for letting an opportunity pass us by, the team re-arranged the ‘Who’s driving what’ rota sheet and I’m now the proud temporary owner of VW’s 2024 Taigo.

Sometimes you get the ‘I’ve been here before’ feeling. Well, after jumping into our new Taigo, my mind shot back to the later part of 2018 as this car had a very familiar resemblance and similarity when compared to the SEAT Arona.

Checking over various data, it soon became apparent that I wasn’t far wrong. It runs on the same MQB A0 platform as the Arona, Ibiza, as well as VW’s Polo and T-Cross and Skoda’s Fabia and Kamiq. The Taigo is 150mm longer than the T-Cross and 37mm shorter than the T-Roc and has a ride height comparable with other SUV’s. It’s noticeable that there’s an increasing number of so called ‘Coupe/SUV’s’ appearing on todays roads. It seems you can mix and match any body style you want these days.

VW’s Taigo appeared in the UK in the first quarter of 2022 and is now part of an eight-strong line up of SUVs from the VW stable.

Our new arrival is KY24 RYB – a brand new 2024 Taigo in ‘Match’ trim with ‘Reef Blue’ metallic paintwork and Titanium black upholstery in ‘Sash/Austin’ cloth. Fitted with the 95ps 999cc 3-cylinder 5-speed manual TSi engine, this is the lowest power output offering of the Taigo range.

There are alternatives with the 999cc 110ps 6-speed manual gearbox, a 7-speed DSG transmission and a range topping four-cylinder 150ps version which is combined with a single option 7-speed DSG. VW have already announced that they believe the 110 ps 6-speed ‘Taigo Life’ trim level could well be the most popular in the UK. At the time of writing, there’s no diesel engine offering in the mix.

We’re keen to see how the lowest output engine performs over a variety of driving scenarios as a 95ps petrol manual is really quite small given the size of the vehicle. The 0-62mph is claimed at just over 11 seconds so not that stellar.

Part of our real-world driving assessment and testing will involve a trip from East Anglia down to Cornwall which will take in a mixture of Minor, ‘A’ and ‘B’ roads plus the odd motorway dash. It will be interesting to see how well the car copes with a run across Bodmin Moor and on the return ‘Exmoor’ – plus some twisty undulating Cornish roads thrown in for good measure. We’re not going to fully load the car and they’ll only be two adults so we are giving it a better chance of success!

Update 2: Equipment, options and specs

VW’s Taigo sports five different trim levels. These being ‘life, Match, Style, R-Line and Black’.

The basic entry level ‘Life’ trim gets 16-inch alloy wheels as standard, together with automatic LED headlights, rain-sensing windscreen wipers, adaptive cruise control and electrically heated wing mirrors.

Mid-spec ‘Match’ [our own car] doesn’t cost that much more and adds 17in wheels, keyless entry and a very useful reversing camera into the mix. ‘Style’ adds matrix LED headlights, sports seats, silver roof rails and a larger 10.3-inch infotainment touchscreen with built-in navigation.

The high-end ‘R-Line’, does without the LED matrix headlights but gets sportier exterior styling and the ‘Black Edition’ gets the chunky 18-inch wheel option and additional black edition styling.

Factory options on our ‘Match’ which are over and above standard equipment also include the following:

• Beats Audio Sound System with a digital 8 channel amp and 6 speakers at £680
• Air Care ‘Climatronic’ 2-Zone air-conditioning at £495
• Heated front seats at £340
• Carpet mats [Front and rear] at £110

We’ll have a more in-depth rundown of the ‘Beats’ audio upgrade later in the review as I’ve had similar experiences with this system in the past.

Our 999cc ‘Match’ EURO 6 petrol unit has the lowest output [95ps] of all available engines. Sporting a 5-speed manual gearbox, the claimed 0-62mph is 11.2 seconds and an engine torque of 175 N/m between 1600 and 3500rpm.

In the real-world we found the 0-62 figure to be rather optimistic especially with a [tight] brand new engine. The engine also seems happier revving above the 2000rpm mark. Below this, the car feels quite sluggish.

Top speed is shown at 114mph and the CO2 emissions [WLTP] are 126g/km. Fuel consumption [again WLTP figures] – varies between 40.9 and 58.3 mpg depending on the driving situation. Insurance grouping is set at 13 E and the annual first year VED [Road-tax] for the new vehicle is £220. On the road price is £26,045 and with factory fitted options tops out at £27,670. BIK tax is rated at 29% based on a 20% basic rate tax payer.

You can check out the full specs on our Taigo here on Parkers.

Stay with us over the coming weeks when we’ll report back on the experience so far.
Coming next in Update 3 – “beatsAudio Factory Upgrade” – worth it or not?

Report by: Percy Lawman – Last Updated August 23rd 2024