VW’s 268-HP Tiguan Just Won a ‘Best Compact SUV’ Award From a Program You’ve Never Heard Of
The $44,560 range-topper beat the segment in the first season of a New York awards program founded by ex-Good Housekeeping Institute executives — and it’s the one model keeping VW’s U.S. numbers afloat.
Volkswagen's quickest Tiguan has an award to hang on its grille: the 2026 Tiguan SEL R-Line Turbo is the Best Compact SUV in the inaugural Best of the Year Awards, VW of America said on Wednesday. The trophy comes from a brand-new program with no track record, but it lands on the one model Volkswagen can least afford to see stumble in the U.S.
Tiguan sales grew 27% in the third quarter to 28,091 units while the brand as a whole fell 10.9%, which makes the compact SUV Volkswagen's best-seller and, right now, its most important nameplate in America.
Who hands out a Best of the Year Award?
Not Car and Driver, and not Wards. Best of the Year Media LLC is a New York company that announced its awards program in May, with CEO Laurie Jennings and co-founders Birnur Aral and Rachel Rothman, all former Good Housekeeping Institute executives. Its "5P" judging covers performance, purpose, planet, people, and practices, and it combines expert review, independent judges, and at-home consumer testing. Brands pay to enter, and the first 50-plus winners across product categories were announced last month.
That is a different pedigree from the Wards 10 Best award Nissan collected for the Rogue Hybrid this week, which has decades of history behind it. VW's press release doesn't name any other automotive winners or which rivals the Tiguan was judged against.
What the judges were looking at
The SEL R-Line Turbo is the trim that fixed the third-generation Tiguan's main complaint. The standard 2.0-liter makes 201 hp; the Turbo version of the EA888 evo5 raises that to 268 hp and 258 lb-ft, paired with an eight-speed automatic and standard 4Motion all-wheel drive. VW quotes 0–60 mph in 6.7 seconds, roughly two seconds quicker than the base engine, according to Road & Track's test, which also recorded 22 mpg city and 29 highway on the EPA cycle. IQ.DRIVE driver assistance is standard, and heated, ventilated, and massaging front seats are on the options list.
Pricing starts at $43,085 before a $1,475 destination charge, so $44,560 on the road. That puts it right alongside the segment leaders' top trims as their makers priced them: Toyota set the 2026 RAV4 Limited AWD at $44,750 with destination when it announced pricing last November, and Honda listed the 2026 CR-V Sport Touring Hybrid AWD at $43,645 at the model's launch. Both rivals are hybrids; the Toyota's 236 hp and the Honda's 204 hp trail the Tiguan on power but return far better fuel economy, which is the trade-off our CR-V Hybrid and RAV4 Hybrid comparison lays out. The base 2026 Tiguan starts at $30,805.
What's next
The award arrives as the Tiguan carries more weight than ever in VW's lineup. The brand's U.S. electric lineup shrank in the third quarter, and the ID. Tiguan that will eventually replace the ID.4 is still some way off. Until then, the gas Tiguan, and this 268-hp version in particular, is the car Volkswagen needs buyers to keep choosing, badge or no badge.
