One of the last of the Volkswagen family to get its makeup done, the Tiguan compact 'ute is finally getting a minor facelift. Our spy photographers recently caught it testing on both German streets and the Nurburgring wearing heavy camouflage on its nose.
From the looks of things, all the work has been done on the front end while the sides and rear appear to be the same as the current model. In front, we see new projector headlights with buckets that now include LED daytime running lights. In the center, the grille is sporting some fresh chrome on its twin horizontal slats, while down below, the lower radiator opening appears to have shrunk a bit and picked up some extra chrome of its own. To its sides, the openings around the fog lights appear to have kept their shape but seem to have grown a bit.
It's clear to see that Volkswagen has been fairly conservative with this update. No big chrome snout, a la Touareg, has been added, nor have the lights and grille been pulled out to the sides like the new Golf. While it does look a bit more like the Touareg with its spiffy new headlights, there is still a clear differentiation between Tiguan and Touareg styling. We'll know all of this for sure once the updated Tiguan makes its debut at the 2010 Geneva Motor