2018 Tiguan SEL has had acceleration issues (engine & transmission) from day one. Took to dealership over 3 times to look into issue. Every time and every shop foreman, working on the car, told me that the issue is related to the turbo kicking in too late/delayed since the initial power of the engine is not enough for this heavy of a car. So the engine heavily relies on the turbo to do the heavy work. The mention this is how it is for all the newer models of the Tiguan starting from 2018. Apparently, the 2016-2017 models did not have this issue...

There is no solution since this is built into the engine and how it was designed.

The overall build of car itself is good for the money. However, the engine turbo kicking in so delayed and lack of power of the engine itself is the major issue. The overall car works well, yet this lack of performance is a major issue and I will be returning it very soon. There have been a number of incidents when turning left onto a street or driveway, with oncoming traffic, could have caused accidents due to the delay in accelerating. The car has no power when you need it !!!!

Another issue relating to the engine is the transmission shifting delay and lack thereof for the accurate timing of gear changes. Even in Sport mode, which is the only way you can drive this car, the gear changes have the worst timing. You either have to press the gas pedal all the way down, ALL the time as this is a major problem. I believe, it might be related to the turbo kicking in late and when it does, it feels as though the engine and transmission do now know when and how much power to provide during a ride - even if I kept the accelerator at the same level.

I have a 2018 Tiguan SEL and like most new owners I am experiencing very slow or delayed acceleration at a stop. The engine and transmission tuning is geared to improve gas mileage over the previous years but the hesitation or delay is so bad that is can be dangerous if you are not giving yourself enough time for the car to accelerate. The transmission also shifts from first to second to third gear so fast that the rpms drop and now the gear is too high which also contributes to the lag time from input of gas pedal to actual acceleration. I feel the 2018 Tiguan is in desperate need of a re-tune of engine management and transmission shift points.