# Driver Personalization Missing - 2019 Tiguan SEL FWD



## Stiggosaurus (Feb 29, 2016)

Greetings everyone,

We just purchased a FWD 2019 Tiguan SEL last night and are mostly loving it. But one thing is bugging me.... Short version: I don't see any driver personalization options under car settings. I'm also not prompted to choose a driver when we start the vehicle up. Shouldn't all vehicles equipped with the Digital Cockpit have this feature? Any ideas on why I'm not seeing this?

Slightly longer version:
We ended up test driving an SEL 4MOTION since they were having issues locating the SEL FWD on the lot in the color we wanted. We were told the vehicles were identical except for 4MOTION (which honestly seems reasonable--I wouldn't expect something like this to be specific to a 4MOTION model). They eventually found the SEL FWD we wanted, I took a look to make sure it looked OK inside and out, and we were on our way. Only this evening did I realize I didn't remember seeing the driver prompt when I started the vehicle up. 

If it really and truly isn't available I'm both pretty bummed and annoyed. My wife and I both drive this vehicle in equal amounts and to be perfectly honest, the driver personalization was one of the things that put us over the edge to go with the SEL over the SE. This feature is even showcased prominently under the Technology section of the Tiguan page with no mention of it being tied to only certain vehicle with the Digital Cockpit (see here). 

Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated!


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## PeteC (Jun 13, 2013)

Stiggosaurus said:


> Greetings everyone,
> 
> We just purchased a FWD 2019 Tiguan SEL last night and are mostly loving it. But one thing is bugging me.... Short version: I don't see any driver personalization options under car settings. I'm also not prompted to choose a driver when we start the vehicle up. Shouldn't all vehicles equipped with the Digital Cockpit have this feature? Any ideas on why I'm not seeing this?


I think you can enable/disable this feature in the menu. You can also enable automatic driver personalization, which means the car will store the settings for each keys and it will not ask for to choose the driver, it just adjust it automatically when it detects, which key is used.
Do you have that little man shape logo on the car menu screen, bottom right?

https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com...t-roc-golf-and-co-recognise-their-drivers-853

If it turns out you don't have it, try to talk with someone on this forum who is good with coding, maybe he can enable it for you with OBDeleven.


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## Stiggosaurus (Feb 29, 2016)

PeteC said:


> I think you can enable/disable this feature in the menu. You can also enable automatic driver personalization, which means the car will store the settings for each keys and it will not ask for to choose the driver, it just adjust it automatically when it detects, which key is used.
> Do you have that little man shape logo on the car menu screen, bottom right?
> 
> https://www.volkswagen-newsroom.com...t-roc-golf-and-co-recognise-their-drivers-853
> ...


Thanks! Unfortunately no man-shaped logo on the car menu screen. All the places where I feel it should be referenced have nothing. No driver select menu on startup, no "Personalization" menu under Car Settings, and no man-shaped icon on the Car menu screen. Unfortunately it's looking more and more likely that this feature is specific to the 4MOTION since I find it hard to believe my car was coded incorrectly from the factory. Anyone ever heard of such a thing? 

Its such an odd way to handle this feature. I get driving modes being specific to 4MOTION, but the idea behind driver profiles (radio presets, seat position, etc) have absolutely nothing to do with 4WD. There is also no mention of this on VW's feature matrix. In fact, it's implied in that Technology section I linked before that it is included as part of the Digital Cockpit. 

Coding may very well be an option, but it's not something I've seen mentioned in any of the MQB Tiguan coding threads I've seen. I'll post in the coding thread here to see if I have any luck. Thanks!


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## theACN (Oct 20, 2017)

What good is selectable driver option if you don't have memory seats? What does it do then?


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## underscore (Nov 27, 2018)

Stiggosaurus said:


> Greetings everyone,
> 
> We just purchased a FWD 2019 Tiguan SEL last night and are mostly loving it. But one thing is bugging me.... Short version: I don't see any driver personalization options under car settings. I'm also not prompted to choose a driver when we start the vehicle up. Shouldn't all vehicles equipped with the Digital Cockpit have this feature? Any ideas on why I'm not seeing this?


For 2018, the digital cockpit was only available in the SEL Premium trim. VW moved the digital cockpit down to SEL for 2019. If you look at the ordering guides, the memory seats are only available in the premium trims.

https://di-uploads-pod16.dealerinspire.com/emichvw/uploads/2018/11/2019_VW_Tiguan_Order_Guide.pdf



Stiggosaurus said:


> Slightly longer version:
> We ended up test driving an SEL 4MOTION since they were having issues locating the SEL FWD on the lot in the color we wanted. We were told the vehicles were identical except for 4MOTION (which honestly seems reasonable--I wouldn't expect something like this to be specific to a 4MOTION model). They eventually found the SEL FWD we wanted, I took a look to make sure it looked OK inside and out, and we were on our way. Only this evening did I realize I didn't remember seeing the driver prompt when I started the vehicle up.


Not to take a dim view of sales people, but it's surprising how little they know of the cars despite it being their job to sell them. Since the SEL-P models are not badged differently, it's likely you drove a SEL-P 4Motion, then were sold an SEL instead. So no amount of coding, etc. is going to give you the driver profiles without you moving up to and SEL-P instead.


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## Stiggosaurus (Feb 29, 2016)

Thanks everyone for the input. I've been going back and forth with the dealer this morning and it turns out that we did actually drive an SEL 4MOTION, it's just that driver profiles are indeed 4MOTION specific. They scrounged up a very detailed feature matrix that apparently is only available to the dealers. This is what they sent me (it's not the greatest quality, but check out the highlighted portion):

https://i.imgur.com/emgt7Nc.jpg

This very clearly shows that driver profiles are only available on 4MOTION models. Very, very bummed to find out this is the case--perhaps aside from the digital cockpit itself, this was probably the feature I was most looking forward to in our new vehicle as I've never had anything quite like that in any other vehicles I've owned. Since I've got a fun car I drive when the weather is good and my wife has a company car, we end up sharing this car quite a bit. Profiles would have been incredibly handy! 

I do find it annoying that dealers don't know these things. I don't fault them completely though, as this isn't even documented very well in any of the public-facing VW resources about the Tiguan. I think VW could do a better job at making this more obvious. I still maintain that it is an odd pairing too--what about driver profiles is 4MOTION-specific? Here's what the manual says driver profiles allow you to customize:

Opening and closing door operation
Seat settings
Vehicle lighting
Mirror adjustments
Climate control system
Driver assistance systems
Driving mode (this is the only 4MOTION specific item here)
MFD and cluster settings
Infotaintment system
Even more annoyingly, its a feature that is literally standard in every 4MOTION trim level all the way down to the S. Not including this on FWD models just seems bonkers to me.



underscore said:


> So no amount of coding, etc. is going to give you the driver profiles without you moving up to and SEL-P instead.


Based on the above, do you still believe that to be the case? A cursory look through the coding thread seems to show others having success with enabling features their vehicle didn't originally come with.


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## underscore (Nov 27, 2018)

Stiggosaurus said:


> Thanks everyone for the input. I've been going back and forth with the dealer this morning and it turns out that we did actually drive an SEL 4MOTION, it's just that driver profiles are indeed 4MOTION specific. They scrounged up a very detailed feature matrix that apparently is only available to the dealers. This is what they sent me (it's not the greatest quality, but check out the highlighted portion):
> 
> https://i.imgur.com/emgt7Nc.jpg
> 
> ...


Note that if you click through the link I provided earlier, it's the same document you linked (ordering guide).

FYI, it's confusing because VW names things inconsistently, but personalization requires memory seats (only available in SEL-P). It's up to you to decide whether they're lying to you or they're genuinely confused. But for the record, below is the screen for the personalization (SEL-P):










While the driving mode (profile) requires 4motion:










Without memory seats (which is going to be missing on your SEL), there's nothing you're going to be able to accomplish in regards to personalization:










I suspect the easiest way for you to clear this up for yourself is to go to the dealership and sit in a SEL-P. Again, just so nobody else gets confused if they happen upon this thread. What you want is personalization (not driving profile), and it's only available in the SEL-P trim for the Tiguan.


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## PeteC (Jun 13, 2013)

I have a 2017 2WD (non-4motion) Tiguan with digital dash and electric seat and I have driver personalisation. It must come with the electric seat then, not with 4motion. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## myelumia (Dec 14, 2018)

theACN said:


> What good is selectable driver option if you don't have memory seats? What does it do then?


you can have different radio presets


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