The 2025 Volkswagen Tiguan improves on its predecessor in almost every way, transforming it from a car you probably wouldn’t mind renting to one that can go toe-to-toe with the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4. We were therefore not surprised that Volkswagen increased the starting price of the Tiguan. Now, for the 2026 model year, Automotive News reports that VW has once again raised the base price by just over $600. Only this time it is not because the Tiguan has again received a completely new design. Instead, it appears that tariffs are to blame.
For 2026, a base model Volkswagen Tiguan S with front-wheel drive costs $32,280, including destination, which works out to an additional $610 or 1.9%. It also marks the second price increase since the redesigned Tiguan first went on sale in May, where it initially cost $30,920. This means that the new Tiguan is 4.4% more expensive than in March. It comes with an updated driver assistance system, but other than that, the 2026 model doesn’t offer much that the 2025 model doesn’t.
The $610 price increase also only applies to S and SE models, regardless of whether you get front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. However, if you want an SE R-Line, that price is $1,090 higher for the 2026 model year, bringing the price to $38,720 for the front-wheel drive model and $40,220 if you want all-wheel drive. In March, you would have paid $36,880 or $38,380, respectively, for the same models.
At the top of the range there’s now the SEL R-Line Turbo, which replaces the previous SEL R-Line and now costs $44,560 instead of $41,930. However, the engine of the SEL R-Line Turbo now produces an extra 67 hp, so you at least get something extra for your money.
Rates are taxes
As Petar Danilovic, senior vice president of product marketing and strategy for Volkswagen of America, said Car newsAccording to him, it is normal for car manufacturers to increase their prices from model year to model year. Although it sounds like he’s also suggesting that the tariffs that Republicans are so giddily supporting are behind these latest price releases, with Danilovic saying, “Like all other brands, we look at what’s happening in the marketplace, what our competitors are doing. And what is the cost of business on the other side? Then we make our decisions: ‘Okay, where do we think it’s a reasonable price increase?'”
Danilovic was vague enough there that you could read his statement in a way that didn’t specifically refer to tariffs, but in September, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume was a little more blunt, telling reporters at the Munich Motor Show that Volkswagen, in response to tariffs, couldn’t raise its prices all at once. Instead, his plan was to take a more strategic approach, pushing them out a little here and there. “We have to do it carefully,” Blume said at the time. “We cannot pass on everything we lose to our customers and to one segment.”
In light of that statement, it appears that Danilovic’s answer was actually about tariffs. Is it reasonable that cars become more expensive every year? Not necessarily, but if one man in the White House can make everything more expensive just because he feels like it, then it’s perfectly reasonable for companies to raise their prices. Because that’s what happens when you start a tariff war. Prices go up. Sure, tariff revenues are also going up, but every time Trump brags about how much money those tariffs make him, he’s just bragging about raising taxes on the American people.
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