Test Drive with Nik Miles – 2022 Volkswagen Taos
March 22, 2022
Join Nik Miles as he goes over the ins and outs of the new 2022 Volkswagen Taos. Nik takes us on a test drive and tells us about all the newest upgrades, how the car feels while driving, and gives us an honest review of the vehicle.
After the video make sure to check out our amazing selection of Volkswagen Taos’ at our dealerships in Portland and Vancouver.
I’m Nik Miles and we’re at Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver to show you this, the VW Taos. This is named after a small village in New Mexico. It might be small in name but it’s big in heart. It’s the entry-level crossover from VW. It’s got a huge heart, a great driving presence, and one of the most exciting crossovers I’ve put on the road this year. I’m gonna tell you what it’s like to drive on the road, show you all the great exterior, interior features, and some of the technology that’ll make you smile.
So, this is really cool. VW has taken technology they learned from Porsche, which is part of the same company, and put it into the new engine in this Taos. It’s a 1.5-liter engine that has a different bore from the 1.4-liter engine which it replaces. Now the 1.4-liter engine you would have seen in vehicles like the Jetta in the past, but this engine now has learned to use less fuel and less oxygen which means it burns more efficiently and that means that you can get up to 36 miles a gallon on the highway. Now the vehicle actually has some of the same coatings around the piston area that Porsche uses in their vehicle so at dinner parties, you can tell your friends that the vehicle that you’re driving if you’re driving a Taos, uses the same technology that Porsche uses.
The acceleration of the vehicle is great, and the handling of the vehicle is great. Now in the all-wheel-drive, you get a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic and in the front-wheel drive, you get an eight-speed automatic transmission which both translate really well in the vehicle. Now let’s look at acceleration. You can see at 158 horsepower this vehicle has no trouble getting up and going. Fifty miles an hour happened just like that. It positions itself well in the road. It can get around vehicles or away from off-ramps quite easily even with two of us in the front seat that weigh around 400 pounds together. This vehicle is perfect for the whole family. It’s able to haul a lot of stuff with the space and it actually is fun to drive.
VW has done a great job engineering the new Taos and making the driving dynamics something you actually want to drive on a day-to-day basis. So, acceleration-wise this vehicle picks up really smoothly. It has a great take-off from a standing still position and there’s no lag going up this hill. It’s a good acceleration, a perfect family vehicle. Now let’s talk about this vehicle in steering. When you want to plant between lanes it moves quite smoothly from lane to lane. It’s exactly the position I want it to be in the lane. I have great turning when I’m going between traffic. It’s exactly where I want it to be and the steering’s nice and firm. It’s a good VW drive and the modern convenience of how this vehicle drives is just absolutely perfect. VW has great driving dynamics. I drove this vehicle while it was under development in Phoenix at VW’s testing facility, and I have to tell you that they’ve done an absolutely stellar job with developing this vehicle.
Let’s talk about technology on the inside of the new Taos. There are no traditional gauges in front of you. It’s a thin TFT screen. That screen gives you all the information including things like a digital compass. Everything is in front of you. It gives you your nomenclature for whether you’re in drive or whatever gear that you’re in. It also gives you your odometer and gives you your miles per hour as well as if you have your cruise control set it will actually tell you what the cruise control set is and also give you the distance that you set between you and your car in front of you. Steering wheel controls on the left is your cruise control sets for you setting the distance between the car in front of you on or off and then the right-hand side it gives you your choice of information. You can toggle between screens. Also, with your voice command controls, you can change the views between traditional gauges or your number gauge for your miles and hours. So, you get to choose how your gauge system is set up.
Then the infotainment screen is very simple to use. It’s VW’s new system of touch screen. You can just use your finger to go front to back. It’s quite simple. And then whatever you want to use radio, just touch it and it’s quite simple. And then you can do that while you’re driving without taking your eyes off of the road and putting it on the screen. It’s right there in an arm’s reach so I’m not trying to reach to something which is maybe too high on the dash, too low, where it’s down, or where I have to take my eyes off of the road too far to look down below.
There are two USB-C ports, a traditional cigarette lighter support below that, as well as a wireless charging pad in this SE version of the vehicle. And then down below my stop/start button is right by the gear shifter, parking brake. So, there is a lot of useful space in here one thing VW is really good at doing and that is finding space inside a vehicle. Remember, this is a car company that makes small vehicles, so they are used to being able to compact everything into small spaces even things like making large fuel tanks fit in small spaces. So, they’re able to find lots of extra little spaces inside this vehicle. And they’ve done that with this. Everywhere you look they’ve taken a little space and put a big cup holder or put a big pocket somewhere to fit a big water bottle or to fit a map or an extra charging space. They’ve done that inside this vehicle, so you’ll discover lots of storage spaces have been used in every single space.
When designing the Taos, the design team told me they really wanted to make something that beat the competition in its design and its looks and in the quality of technology and materials that this vehicle gave you. And that’s what I think VW has done. Just take a look at how it looks. I mean it looks like a very capable and good-looking CUV. And I think they’ve succeeded in everything they set out to do. It does look like a VW even if I was to cover the badge up here at the front. It still looks like the VW family member that it is. Now it is the entry-level family member. It has this nice grille which is separated by the black bar in the middle, this sort of very interesting boomerang-shaped lower bumper valance, and then what looks like a skid plate at the bottom. So, it already looks like it’s ready to go off-road. It has some nice piano black features around the middle, as well as the body-colored piece here, and an air intake. The hood has got a lot of definition to it. It’s got a lot of bulges on the middle section here, on the edge, so it looks like it’s got quite a muscular engine. There are LED lights, LED daytime running lights, and incandescent turn signals on this SE model. As well there are some very big shoulders up front.
A bit of an optical illusion and something very clever that VW has done, they put a piece of cladding here which makes the wheels look a little bit bigger. They are 18 so they’re fairly big already, but it makes the vehicle look much more capable. These wheels are two-tone, they are black and silver, and I think some of the best-looking wheels that I’ve seen. There is the option of power-folding mirrors on some of the vehicles. There’s a nice silver accent on the side of the doors and the front fender that has Taos written on it. And the door has a lot of shape to it as well. Monochromatic door handles with the touch button, so if you have the key in your pocket, you can actually open it. And continuing down the side of the vehicle it has this nice flick up at the back, so it has a bit of a coupe-like feel. Again, muscular shoulders, a big piece of cladding at the back here, so it does look capable when we get to these very muscular hips at the back. Now don’t forget the roof rails. The roof rails are fairly low so these two roof rails, one on each side, allows you to be able to put things like canoes on the top of the vehicle or something that you bought like skis, or if you want to go snowboarding it’s fairly easy to get your stuff on top of the Taos.
Now come round to the back of the vehicle here. There is an arrow spoiler at the top. There is an automatic rear wiper, and of course, getting into the back of the vehicle there is almost 28 cubic feet of space back here. That’s almost enough room for my two labradors to stand when I’m going somewhere if I take out this parcel shelf at the back. There’s a ski pass-through, a 40/60 split seat, if you put that down you get almost 66 cubic feet of space, and that is huge.
Again, VW really knows how to package the interior of their vehicles. Wait until you see how much space there is in the second row. There is a ridiculously large amount of legroom in the back of this vehicle, almost 38 inches of legroom. And then in the front, there is over 41 inches of legroom. There is also a USB charging port option, and there are air vents back here so those sitting in the second row can actually direct their own air. And if you only have four passengers in the back here, you can put down the center armrest and have the option of cup holders as well. There’s so much room in the back of here that adults can ride in the back on a long journey and be absolutely comfortable.
I encourage you to come down to Dick Hannah VW in Vancouver and test drive the brand-new VW Taos. It’s one of the most fun CUVs I’ve had the opportunity to put on the road this year.