# Why did the North America get the off-road front bumper only?



## D3Audi (Feb 18, 2016)

Why did the North American Tiguan get the off-road bumper only? 

I've been browsing European auction sites looking at tiguans just to see the euro spec tiggy's and to see what differences they have. There are a lot of differences, but the biggest thing that annoys me is the front bumper. In Europe the standard front bumper is different than the NAR front bumper. The NAR front bumper is what would be called the "off-road package" in Europe. I prefer the European "normal" bumper. It seems the previous generation Tiguan had a similar off-road bumper for the US market. I wonder why VW chooses to do this.









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## JSWTDI09 (Feb 22, 2009)

D3Audi said:


> Why did the North American Tiguan get the off-road bumper only?
> 
> ......
> 
> I wonder why VW chooses to do this.


Several possible reasons:
1: The "off road" bumper maybe is not popular in Europe, so they had a lot of them laying around.
2: They assumed (perhaps rightly) that the American market would prefer the "more aggressive" off-road bumper.
3: They didn't want to offer any bumper options (other than R-Line) to keep things more simple. 

There may be other possibilities too, but I suspect that one or more of the above reasons played into VW's decision.

Have Fun!

Don

P.S. I find the whole "off-road" name rather funny. If you look under our cars it is pretty obvious that it was never intended to be driven off the road.


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## M Diddy (Sep 25, 2002)

I find it ridculous as well. Would love to have the standard bumper instead of the "off-road" one. The NA bumper just does not look complete.

Also, it's utterly stupid that NA SEL-P doesn't get the ambient lighting or soft touch door tops in the rear as well. RoW does, just not us. VW always does these cheap-out crap things in NA and nowhere else.

If you look at the new Jetta, they didn't even add AC vents fro the rear passengers. The back seat looks so barren.


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## socialD (Sep 19, 2011)

Not really much of a difference to get excited about imo.


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## BsickPassat (May 10, 2010)

2009 to 2011 had the regular bumper.

2012 to 2017 got the off-road bumper 

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## jjvw (Jan 17, 2002)

D3Audi said:


> Why did the North American Tiguan get the off-road bumper only?
> 
> I've been browsing European auction sites looking at tiguans just to see the euro spec tiggy's and to see what differences they have. There are a lot of differences, but the biggest thing that annoys me is the front bumper. In Europe the standard front bumper is different than the NAR front bumper. The NAR front bumper is what would be called the "off-road package" in Europe. I prefer the European "normal" bumper. It seems the previous generation Tiguan had a similar off-road bumper for the US market. I wonder why VW chooses to do this.
> 
> ...


The top pic looks like the swb tiguan. Wonder if the "allspace" have the off road bumpers too?


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## jjvw (Jan 17, 2002)

Looks like I answered my own question. Looks like they have both options


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