In short: A sporty city-sized crossover.

With the downsizing of America hitting the SUV market hard, compact sport utes have become viable options for those who don't want to cram themselves into small sedans. Volkswagen's Tiguan could not have joined the fray soon enough. Already dubbed the GTI of compact sport utilities, the Tiguan does indeed look like a stretched version of the hot hatch, with the added benefit of 56.1 cubic feet of cargo room when the rear seats are folded down.

Slip into the driver seat and you’ll notice that the interior is classic V-Dub: functional and no-nonsense. Three trim levels are available — S, SE and SEL — and a sharp DVD satellite navigation system with a 30-gigabyte hard drive and backup camera is a $1,950 option on SE and SEL models. Also available on the top two tiers is a large panoramic sunroof, which lets in thirteen square feet of daylight for front and rear passengers. Vampires, beware: the retractable sun block is perforated, and doesn't offer an opaque option to block out light completely.

Fire up the engine, pop the shifter in Drive, and hit the gas and you'll get decent acceleration from the 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder. A speed of 60 mph is reached in a respectable 7.9 seconds, and the turbo's high-revving power makes the engine especially lively at the upper reaches of the powerband. Driving with a lead foot, however, will sacrifice the EPA-rated fuel economy of 18 city/25 highway mpg. The 4Motion all-wheel drive option, which is available on SE and SEL models, drops the highway figure by a mpg. A six-speed manual is available, but it only comes on the S model.

Handling is relatively agile for a 3,631-pound car, and if you allow the revs to rise, the Tiguan can be responsive and fun to toss around curvy roads, though the steering is a bit overboosted. Our drive covered the smooth-as-glass highways of Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine, so it was difficult to gauge how the Tiguan would handle irregular road surfaces; if other VWs are any indication, ride quality should be firm and controlled.

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Warranty/Service: Three-year/36,000-mile basic warranty; five-year/60,000-mile powertrain limited warranty; twelve-year/unlimited-mile warranty against corrosion perforation; four-year/50,000-mile roadside assistance; three-year/36,000-mile no-charge scheduled maintenance program.

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Text and photography: Basem Wasef