The 2025 Volkswagen Taos will not be an thrilling automobile. If you mat the gasoline pedal, pull again on the shifter and grip the steering wheel, you aren’t crammed with a deep sense that this compact crossover is supposed to be a bastion of driving enjoyment. As an alternative, you’re met with middling acceleration, a silky clean transmission and a steering system so mild you possibly can nearly hear it telling you to calm the fuck down. This would possibly make it sound like I’m not a fan of the Taos, however you’d be fallacious.
VW’s up to date tiny crossover builds upon a powerful basis the Taos had when it first got here out in 2020. What it lacks in driving dynamics and general pleasure, it greater than makes up for in good and easy-to-use expertise, handsome-enough styling, lots of intelligent packaging and stable however uninspiring powertrain choices. The Taos received’t shock you once you get behind the wheel, however that was by no means the purpose anyway.
Full Disclosure: Volkswagen flew me all the way down to San Antonio, Texas, fed me and put me up in a really good resort all so I may drive the 2025 Taos.
Compact crossovers like the Taos, Chevy Trax, Hyundai Kona and Mazda CX-30 are sizzling proper now, so it is sensible that Volkswagen would attempt to go the additional mile when updating its ‘lil SUV for 2025 to try to set it aside from some very stiff competitors. Volkswagen put some huge cash and energy into making the Taos really feel extra premium by upgrading the ability numbers, transmission, inside supplies, styling and including some options you don’t even see on each luxurious automobile.
The inside of the 2025 Taos appears like a nicer, extra premium place to spend your time due to a number of actually good tech options and higher supplies. A kind of materials highlights is the addition of a reasonably convincing leatherette on the door playing cards rather than arduous plastic. It’s little particulars like that that I can recognize. There are few issues I hate greater than arduous plastic in high-touch areas. Whereas the very cozy seats stay unchanged for 2025, the Taos does acquire a brand new blue inside possibility. How nice is that? Sadly, I didn’t get an opportunity to examine these out in particular person, however blue interiors rock.
General, the inside could be very properly specified by an aggressively Volkswagen method. What I imply by that’s it’s the identical fundamental inside format Volkswagen has been working with throughout its portfolio for over a decade at this level. Every little thing could be very logically positioned; you’re by no means going to must hunt for a button or management whether or not it’s on the dashboard or within the infotainment system. The eight-inch touchscreen works very properly, however I do want it was a bit larger. Eight inches simply isn’t sufficient as of late. Ask your girlfriend.
The three-stage (!!!) heated steering wheel feels very good to grip, as does the Tiptronic shifter. My solely gripe is with the haptic contact buttons used to regulate the local weather management system. I recognize they’re nonetheless bodily buttons that aren’t tied to a display, however rattling they’re arduous to function at velocity. Area can be plentiful. Volkswagen says the front-wheel-drive Taos has 27.9 cubic toes of cargo room behind the rear seats, and there’s greater than sufficient rear seat room for my 6-foot-1 body to take a seat behind my driving place. That’s a go should you ask me.
On the surface, Volkswagen did a really good nip-tuck job to the Taos, making it look only a bit sharper with out getting too aggressive. It good points the corporate-ish entrance and rear mild bars and illuminated badges. These mild bars, man. So sizzling proper now. These lighting methods spotlight the tweaks which have been made to the entrance and rear facias general. I hate that it saved the dumbass pretend exhaust suggestions, however that’s a minor sin I’m prepared to forgive. Not a lot else has modified. There are a couple of new, good-looking wheel choices to select from, and a few new colours. I can’t actually complain. It appears like a Volkswagen Taos. What had been you anticipating?
One other huge change for the Taos going into 2025 is that VW dropped the seven-speed DSG transmission it employed in all-wheel-drive fashions. As an alternative, all 4Motion Taoses will get the identical eight-speed computerized that was present in FWD fashions. Volkswagen apparently did this as a result of it was uninterested in individuals complaining that their automobiles felt damaged since they weren’t used to DSGs. Bunch of infants. Whereas it’s unhappy to see a dual-clutch transmission chew the mud, this eight-speed is actually fairly good. Shifts up and down are buttery clean to the purpose you barely even discover them. Fuel mileage additionally goes up with the addition of an eighth gear, and who doesn’t love that?
That mileage bonus comes regardless of the very fact the Taos now has extra horsepower for 2025. Volkswagen reworked a number of the internals of its turbocharged 1.5-liter inline-4 motor to present it a rip-roaring 178 horsepower. That’s up from the 158 horsepower of the earlier automobile. Torque stays the identical at 184 lb-ft. It’s sufficient.
I suppose I ought to not less than contact on how the 2025 Taos drives for all of the Taos-pilled pervs on the market. To begin with, what the hell is fallacious with you? Second of all, it’s effective. It’s not a monitor star, and also you greatest consider it isn’t attempting to be. That 1.5-liter turbo motor does an excellent job of getting you off the road pretty shortly. Volkswagen says 4Motion Taoses will mosey as much as 60 in 7.4 seconds; that goes up a tick for front-wheel-drive automobiles to 7.5 seconds. Tip-in is definitely kind of aggressive. Within the FWD Taos it wasn’t unusual to chirp the tires below hard-ish acceleration. A lot of the energy is reserved for the upper components of the rev vary, so passing on the freeway means a couple of gears are going to be dropped to get into the ability band. Fortunately, the engine doesn’t make that a lot noise and the transmission is extraordinarily clean, so it’s not an excessive amount of of a chore.
There are a couple of drive modes to select from together with Sport, Regular, Financial system and a Customized mode, together with a couple of different off-road modes on 4Motion automobiles (FWD are caught with a single default mode, however you possibly can shift the transmission into Sport). You received’t really feel an excessive amount of change with the drivetrain, apart from once you go into Eco mode when it turns into an absolute canine, and that’s kind of the purpose. It very a lot discourages arduous acceleration, and that’s how the Taos will get EPA-estimated 28 mpg metropolis, 36 mpg freeway and 31 mpg mixed scores. 4Motion automobiles take a little bit of a success, getting 25/33/28, in response to VW.
The Taos’ steering is nearly as vanilla as its powertrain. There’s little or no really feel, not that any Taos purchaser needs or wants a particularly communicative digital steering system. There’s additionally some play within the steering wheel on-center, however once more, who the fuck cares? It’s very mild — you possibly can just about drive it with one finger — and that’s precisely what Taosheads need. It goes round corners with little or no fuss once you’re driving arduous. In fact, the Taos pushes should you overcook it a bit, simply to remind you that it might prefer it should you relaxed for one goddamn second.
An actual spotlight of the Taos’ driving dynamics is its suspension. Not as a result of it’s sporty or something like that, however as a result of it’s extraordinarily comfy and way more refined than its $26,420 base worth would have you ever consider. The entrance strut and rear multilink suspension (FWD Taoses get a torsion beam) preserve whole composure over even the roughest of pavements Texas needed to throw at it. Don’t get me fallacious, it’s not a Rolls-Royce or something, but it surely ain’t too shabby, both. Yeah, it rolls or no matter within the corners, however in fact it does. That simply means it’s all of the extra cozy once you’re cruising down a shitty freeway floor. I can also’t fault its ambient quantity. For what we’re working with right here, the Taos is pretty quiet on the freeway. There’s some noise intrusion, that is an financial system automobile in spite of everything, but it surely may very well be a complete lot worse.
If this all sounds interesting to you, you’re in luck. The 2025 Taos is already displaying up on vendor heaps. To additional your fortunate streak, it isn’t too costly both. There are 4 fashions to select from, with the most cost effective S beginning at $26,420 together with $1,425 for vacation spot. You then’ve received the SE ($29,320), the SE Black ($31,570) and the top-end SEL ($36,120). All however the SEL get customary FWD, with 4Motion including $1,700 to the worth, and I promise you don’t want it. Spend a couple of hundred bucks on winter tires, and also you’ll be happier, get higher gasoline mileage and add 5 cubic toes of house to your trunk.
It doesn’t matter what trim stage you go for, all Taos fashions get the identical motor and transmission, projector beam headlights, the very cute mild bar on the back and front, keyless begin, an eight-inch infotainment display and VW’s IQ Drive suite of driver help tech. The upper up you go within the vary, you begin including issues like larger wheels, a ten.25-inch gauge cluster display, ambient lighting, an enormous panoramic sunroof in addition to heated and ventilated seats. That’s actually not too shabby.
Hear, like so many automobiles on sale at the moment, the Taos isn’t for individuals such as you and me. The typical Taos purchaser doesn’t care about off-the-line acceleration, mid-corner dynamics or how briskly their automobile can lap a racetrack. They need fundamental transportation with sufficient niceties to get you thru the day with out having a nervous breakdown. What extra can you actually ask for? The Taos supply actually zero surprises, and that’s a promise, not a risk. It is a automobile made merely for getting from point-A to point-B with out being annoying, and it does a rattling good job of that.
