We’ve been fans of the Volkswagen Taos since it arrived a few years ago. Since then, we’ve dutifully reviewed it every year, and every time, we’ve come away impressed with the little SUV, thanks to Volkswagen’s incremental updates.
For 2025, the Taos gets a fairly significant up-do with a refreshed look, notable tweaks to the powertrain, and more features. After spending some time with the new Taos, it’s clear Volkswagen has addressed the few complaints about the SUV while keeping it mostly as likeable as ever.
Refreshed Style
The Taos was always a handsome little thing. Where some of the competitors in the segment are quirky or cutesy, the smallest Canadian VW has always resembled a five-eighths-scale of the brand’s largest SUV, the Atlas. With its bigger sibling having undergone a significant (and successful) restyle last year, it’s not surprising that we see junior here follow suit.
Volkswagen has started a new trend reversing the gaping grille treatment, and we couldn’t be more pleased. The Taos’s grille shrinks in height with the large, lower opening outlined with big metal-looking lips on top Highline trims, and a cheap-looking matte-black piece on Comfortline and Trendline variants. It’s not necessarily elegant, but it is in keeping with the brand, and the new treatment to the squatter headlights – stitched together with an LED light bar – makes the Taos appear broader and squatter.
The profile remains essentially unchanged short of some new wheel designs that range from 17-inches on base model units, up to 19-inches available on top trims. The small fake fender vent from last year’s model is also now absent, and nobody will miss it.
The back end gets a fresh lighting treatment too with an LED strip connecting the two sides, and the VW logo now illuminated. Overall, the Taos remains a handsome, mature look in a segment that often follows trivial style trends too earnestly.
Updated Interior and Tech
Volkswagen’s research showed that potential customers saw the interior’s finishes as a weak point and sought to spruce up the new one. For the most part, it has succeeded with the range-topping Highline getting a snazzy two-tone option with faux leather inserts on the doors and dash, and genuine leather seating with a blue shade available with some paint colours. Still, there’s a considerable amount of glossy piano black surface area on all trims that will collect dust, smudges and fingerprints in short order. There are a number of other panels, like both the top and the lower parts of the dash that are comprised of hard, cheap-feeling plastics. These are the areas that will remind buyers that this is still a very affordable machine.
The eight-inch touchscreen infotainment unit is now a semi-floating affair rising from the top of the central dashboard. Whether it’s more visually pleasing or not is debatable, but presenting the information higher and closer to the driver’s sightline is smart. The system wirelessly connects for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto on all but the base trim, and during the test drive, it stayed reliably and consistently connected, offering responsive reaction to inputs, and crisp graphics. It's a simple system that offers intuitive navigation around its menus and features.
The digital gauge display continues and has been one of the features that helped the Taos feel a step above some of its competitors. It’s configurable to show a number of different information displays and presents it all sensibly and legibly. Highline trims can even show the embedded on-board navigation map in the gauge display.
The outgoing Taos had Volkswagen’s old familiar climate control switchgear with proper knobs and buttons. The new Taos gets the same unit found in other models that operates with haptic touch panels. While the old system is still superior for usability, the new one is likely a cost-savings for Volkswagen, and admittedly proved responsive to inputs. Dual-zone climate control is standard on all models.
Volkswagen offers five free years of its myVW mobile app with connected vehicle services, which enable a driver to remotely start and stop, lock and unlock, call roadside assistance, and present the last parked location on a connected smartphone.
The Taos’s interior dimensions are unchanged from last year with 2,818 L of passenger space that help its rear seat feel especially spacious within the class. Cargo space is 790 L for front-drive models, with all-wheel-drive units providing 705 L. That space increases to 1,866 L and 1,705 L respectively, when the rear seat is folded.
All Taos models feature a standard safety suite that includes forward collision warning and automated emergency braking, rear traffic alert, rear parking sensors (with front sensors standard on Comfortline and Highline models), plus adaptive, stop-and-go cruise control, and lane-keeping assist.
Improved Drivetrain
All Taos models continue with Volkswagen’s 1.5L turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine. Thanks to a series of incremental changes including a modified turbo housing, new piston rings, and a larger intercooler, the Taos churns out 174 hp, which is up 16 from last year. Torque remains unchanged at 184 lb-ft. Fuel consumption is expected to improve very slightly versus last year’s model.
The more notable change involves the transmission, which sees the Taos all-wheel-drive models get an eight-speed automatic like the front-drive models have had all along. This is in response to some buyers finding the old model’s dual-clutch transmission a little abrupt at times. While we appreciated the old transmission’s swift, crisp shifts when driven in a sporting fashion, most drivers weren’t treating their compact crossover as a sports car, preferring the smoother shifts that a traditional torque converter automatic provides.
Drive Impressions
Volkswagen claims that more than 97 per cent of Canadian Taos sales are all-wheel-drive models, which is the only version we drove. We always liked the way the old Taos drove with responsive handling and good steering feel. The new Taos continues that tradition, feeling buttoned-down and willing to entertain a driver with an engaging drive on a twisty back road should the occasion present itself. The price of that firm, sporty suspension (and the large 19-inch wheels) was a ride that could be harsh on anything less than perfect pavement, and the same is true with this new Taos that shows the limits of its compliance quickly over moderate potholes.
Volkswagen has added new acoustic dampening to help hush the interior, but at elevated highway speeds, we found wind noise pronounced, and the amount of road rumble that still transmits to the cabin means occupants won’t mistake the Taos for a luxury car.
The new transmission succeeds in being smoother and surely more in line with what most buyers will appreciate. Still, the automatic dulls the sharpness of the little turbo engine’s output, also reinforced by the reportedly taller gearing this year versus last. While the Taos’s willingness to playfully pretend to be a sporty hatchback was one of the outgoing model’s endearing traits, the new model feels tamed by comparison. The increased horsepower isn’t necessarily felt, but in fairness, the Taos is still spritely and competitive next to many of its key competitors.
Final Thoughts
The Taos was Volkswagen’s biggest seller for 2024 – a year that set all-time sales records for the company in Canada – so the importance of this model to the brand is not one it has taken lightly. Volkswagen has listened intently to critiques of potential Taos buyers and made some notable adjustments for this major refresh. The Volkswagen 2025 Taos continues to be a very stylish, yet highly practical compact SUV, and one that should continue to be very appealing to Canadian buyers.
2025 Volkswagen Taos Canadian Pricing
Trendline: $29,795
Trendline 4MOTION: $31,795
Comfortline 4MOTION: $35,295
Comfortline Black Edition 4MOTION: $36,995
Highline 4MOTION: $38,995
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