The Volkswagen Taos represents your best chance to get a similar driving proposition as the standard Golf without having to dish out all the dough for an upspec'd GTI or any Golf R. I've been curious if it's related to the front wheel drive model and the eight-speed gearbox, and I talked to my colleagues at Kelly Blue Book Mike Muzio said he had the same issue in the seven speed all-wheel drive one but to a different degree.

So there's nothing nothing nothing and then it comes on like a rocket which is odd for a one and a half liter engine so there's nothing nothing nothing. And then and then you're spitting tires through the corner it's it's so weird. I've been curious if it's related to the front wheel drive model and the eight-speed gearbox and I talked to my colleagues at Kelly Blue Book Mike Muzio said he had the same issue in the seven speed all-wheel drive one but to a different degree.

Where it was nothing nothing nothing and then it built up eventually which makes sense that it wouldn't come on as strong because you're feeding multiple wheels and a different gearbox and more weight at that point. So it makes sense that it wouldn't be as much of a punch as it is in the front wheel drive model. I'm sure if you owned it and drove it for a while you would learn how to modulate the throttle properly but it shouldn't even be an issue.

It's so weird and the rest of the car is fine this actually has decent size brakes for a vehicle like this. It drives fine once you're out and going but if you floor it right there it's fine because we're already underway the turbocharger is doing what it needs to do and you get up and you go. It even feels kind of sprightly for the amount of power we have literally every time you come to a stop it's lag then boost.

It's not progressive or linear it's neither one of those it's not either because I would take either one if I could control that better. It's literally off and then on and that does not make for a good driving experience and it's a shame because the cabin tech in this price point is really nice. The comfort level is totally there the design features going on are great.

But I'd be remiss if I didn't offer up some competition that might offer a better overall experience than this especially because a vehicle like the Mazda CX-30 exists and they're all playing in the same place financially but they don't have the engine issues this one has. Take a moment to consider what else is out there before you dive headlong into the Volkswagen Taos.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthere's a format the automakers are following right now create a vehicle that customers will buy then resize it up and down to fit the various spaces and needs of the other customers that's how we get vehicle lineups filled with same shaped different size crossovers and that's how we get a vehicle like the 2022 volkswagen taos you can immediately tell this is a volkswagen product with a quick glance at the exterior it looks like a shrunken down atlas base s models get black roof rails and side mirrors and 17-inch alloy wheels while the sc and sel versions have silver rails and body colored mirrors the sc gets 18 inch wheels while the front-wheel drive sel gets black 18-inch wheels and the sel all-wheel drive jumps up to 19-inch hoops on the nose you'll find led headlights and on top spec models you'll actually get a light treatment that's the same as the one found on the atlas cross sport inside the taos is far more spacious than you might expect based on the exterior shape size-wise it's the smallest volkswagen crossover in the family but in its segment it packs a great amount of space standard features include push button start apple carplay android auto and volkswagen's digital cockpit display on the base model the digital instrument cluster appears on an 8-inch display while sel models jump to a 10 and one quarter inch digital cockpit pro setup where you can fully configure it to show vehicle status navigation phone info and more as for power the taos has just one option it's an updated version of volkswagen's ea211 turbo four-cylinder this is a one and a half liter mill making 158 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque front-wheel drive is standard and backed up by an 8-speed automatic the four-motion all-wheel drive system is available and swaps the 8-speed for a 7-speed dsg dual clutch front-wheel drive models will see 31 miles per gallon in combined driving fuel economy while the all-wheel drive version dips to 28 miles per gallon combined so we've got some good news and bad news from behind the wheel the good news is once you're up and rolling things are fine the seats are comfortable forward visibility is good and the steering feel is light which most the average driver will appreciate the bad news happens pretty much every time you come to a stop and have to start going again because whatever is going on with the engine and gearbox tuning isn't adding up for me at all it's almost like an on off switch with respect to the turbocharger tuning it's hard to describe it it's when you leave the line initially there's no boost pressure there's turbo lag and then it comes on like a rocket which is odd for a one and a half liter engine so there's nothing nothing nothing and then and then you're spitting tires through the corner it's it's so weird i've been curious if it's related to the front wheel drive model and the eight-speed gearbox and i talked to my colleagues at kelly blue book mike muzio said he had the same issue in the seven speed all-wheel drive one but to a different degree where it was nothing nothing nothing and then it built up eventually which makes sense that it wouldn't come on as strong because you're feeding multiple wheels and a different gearbox and more weight at that point so it makes sense that it wouldn't be as much of a punch as it is in the front wheel drive model i'm sure if you owned it and drove it for a while you would learn how to modulate the throttle properly but it shouldn't even be an issue it's so weird and the rest of the car is fine this actually has decent size breaks for a vehicle like this it drives fine once you're out and going but if you floor it so right there it's fine because we're already underway the turbocharger is doing what it needs to do and you get up and you go it even feels kind of sprightly for the amount of power we have literally every time you come to a stop it's lag then boost it's not it's and it's not like progressive or linear it's neither one of those it's not either because i would take either one because i could control that better it's literally off and then on and that does not make for a good driving experience and it's a shame because the cabin tech in this price point is really nice the comfort level is totally there the design features going on are great but i it's hard for me to say you should definitely get one of these when the engine tuning and all that is doing what it does now let's talk about the differences between front wheel drive and all-wheel drive though because the front-wheel drive version though it rides fine your backseat passengers might prefer the all-wheel drive version because the front-wheel drive version has a torsion beam rear and the all-wheel drive version actually gets a multi-link setup the front-wheel drive one does have a sport mode which is just transmission mapping i believe the all-wheel drive one does get different drive modes normal sport and individual which does affect steering throttle and transmission response so there are differences between the two models the base price is twenty four thousand one hundred and ninety dollars for the s and claims to start at thirty two thousand six hundred and eighty five dollars for the sel if you check nearly every single option on the volkswagen build your own page you have to work hard just to get this to 38k so a properly spec version should land safely in the mid 30 000 range and it's very easy to keep it even closer or under 30k if you want with volkswagen saying goodbye to the golf for north america coming up the taos represents your best chance to get a similar driving proposition as that standard golf without having to dish out all the dough for an upspec'd gti or any golf r i'd prefer to still see the golf in the lineup but the taos might make a lot of sense to a lot of car shoppers right now and it's hard to find bad things to say about any new car in the mid to low 30 000 range with all of these great features the taos is a smart proposition at the moment so hold up a minute i know i just said this is good value for the money and i still believe that but i've taken a day to reflect on some of the other stuff i've said about the volkswagen taos and i'd be remiss if i didn't offer up some competition that might offer a better overall experience than this especially because a vehicle like the mazda cx-30 exists the kia celtos exists and they're all playing in the same place financially but they don't have the engine issues this one has so take a moment to consider what else is out there before you dive headlong into the volkswagen taos youthere's a format the automakers are following right now create a vehicle that customers will buy then resize it up and down to fit the various spaces and needs of the other customers that's how we get vehicle lineups filled with same shaped different size crossovers and that's how we get a vehicle like the 2022 volkswagen taos you can immediately tell this is a volkswagen product with a quick glance at the exterior it looks like a shrunken down atlas base s models get black roof rails and side mirrors and 17-inch alloy wheels while the sc and sel versions have silver rails and body colored mirrors the sc gets 18 inch wheels while the front-wheel drive sel gets black 18-inch wheels and the sel all-wheel drive jumps up to 19-inch hoops on the nose you'll find led headlights and on top spec models you'll actually get a light treatment that's the same as the one found on the atlas cross sport inside the taos is far more spacious than you might expect based on the exterior shape size-wise it's the smallest volkswagen crossover in the family but in its segment it packs a great amount of space standard features include push button start apple carplay android auto and volkswagen's digital cockpit display on the base model the digital instrument cluster appears on an 8-inch display while sel models jump to a 10 and one quarter inch digital cockpit pro setup where you can fully configure it to show vehicle status navigation phone info and more as for power the taos has just one option it's an updated version of volkswagen's ea211 turbo four-cylinder this is a one and a half liter mill making 158 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque front-wheel drive is standard and backed up by an 8-speed automatic the four-motion all-wheel drive system is available and swaps the 8-speed for a 7-speed dsg dual clutch front-wheel drive models will see 31 miles per gallon in combined driving fuel economy while the all-wheel drive version dips to 28 miles per gallon combined so we've got some good news and bad news from behind the wheel the good news is once you're up and rolling things are fine the seats are comfortable forward visibility is good and the steering feel is light which most the average driver will appreciate the bad news happens pretty much every time you come to a stop and have to start going again because whatever is going on with the engine and gearbox tuning isn't adding up for me at all it's almost like an on off switch with respect to the turbocharger tuning it's hard to describe it it's when you leave the line initially there's no boost pressure there's turbo lag and then it comes on like a rocket which is odd for a one and a half liter engine so there's nothing nothing nothing and then and then you're spitting tires through the corner it's it's so weird i've been curious if it's related to the front wheel drive model and the eight-speed gearbox and i talked to my colleagues at kelly blue book mike muzio said he had the same issue in the seven speed all-wheel drive one but to a different degree where it was nothing nothing nothing and then it built up eventually which makes sense that it wouldn't come on as strong because you're feeding multiple wheels and a different gearbox and more weight at that point so it makes sense that it wouldn't be as much of a punch as it is in the front wheel drive model i'm sure if you owned it and drove it for a while you would learn how to modulate the throttle properly but it shouldn't even be an issue it's so weird and the rest of the car is fine this actually has decent size breaks for a vehicle like this it drives fine once you're out and going but if you floor it so right there it's fine because we're already underway the turbocharger is doing what it needs to do and you get up and you go it even feels kind of sprightly for the amount of power we have literally every time you come to a stop it's lag then boost it's not it's and it's not like progressive or linear it's neither one of those it's not either because i would take either one because i could control that better it's literally off and then on and that does not make for a good driving experience and it's a shame because the cabin tech in this price point is really nice the comfort level is totally there the design features going on are great but i it's hard for me to say you should definitely get one of these when the engine tuning and all that is doing what it does now let's talk about the differences between front wheel drive and all-wheel drive though because the front-wheel drive version though it rides fine your backseat passengers might prefer the all-wheel drive version because the front-wheel drive version has a torsion beam rear and the all-wheel drive version actually gets a multi-link setup the front-wheel drive one does have a sport mode which is just transmission mapping i believe the all-wheel drive one does get different drive modes normal sport and individual which does affect steering throttle and transmission response so there are differences between the two models the base price is twenty four thousand one hundred and ninety dollars for the s and claims to start at thirty two thousand six hundred and eighty five dollars for the sel if you check nearly every single option on the volkswagen build your own page you have to work hard just to get this to 38k so a properly spec version should land safely in the mid 30 000 range and it's very easy to keep it even closer or under 30k if you want with volkswagen saying goodbye to the golf for north america coming up the taos represents your best chance to get a similar driving proposition as that standard golf without having to dish out all the dough for an upspec'd gti or any golf r i'd prefer to still see the golf in the lineup but the taos might make a lot of sense to a lot of car shoppers right now and it's hard to find bad things to say about any new car in the mid to low 30 000 range with all of these great features the taos is a smart proposition at the moment so hold up a minute i know i just said this is good value for the money and i still believe that but i've taken a day to reflect on some of the other stuff i've said about the volkswagen taos and i'd be remiss if i didn't offer up some competition that might offer a better overall experience than this especially because a vehicle like the mazda cx-30 exists the kia celtos exists and they're all playing in the same place financially but they don't have the engine issues this one has so take a moment to consider what else is out there before you dive headlong into the volkswagen taos you\n"