The 2025 Volkswagen Taos gets its first major update, and VW tweaked pretty much everything.
While we’ve had the Tiguan for nearly two decades now, Volkswagen had no subcompact competitor to entice budget-minded buyers until late 2020, when it introduced the Taos in the U.S. Even among the least expensive cars in the segment, though, you have to keep things fresh in order to compete. As Toyota introduced the Corolla Cross, Honda revamped the HR-V and Nissan made major strides with the 2025 Kicks, to name just a few, VW definitely needed to update the Taos as an appealing option for American buyers. So, did they actually pull it off? In the video below, the automaker brought Tommy and Kase out to test the 2025 Volkswagen Taos lineup.
From its styling to its powertrain and virtually everything else in between, the updated Taos at least gets minor changes. Up front, it gets the smoother corporate face similar to VW’s other vehicles including the larger Tiguan and the Jetta sedan, with standard projector LED lights across the whole lineup. Around back, you get new LED taillights, with a thin strip connecting the light assemblies at each end of the car.
As you typically see with a light to moderate refresh, the 2025 Volkswagen Taos also gets new wheel designs ranging between 17 inches for the base S and 19 inches for the more feature-rich SEL (and there are more for the mid-range SE and SE Black).
The 2025 Volkswagen Taos also sees gets a new infotainment screen, while new materials and contrasting colors give the Taos a more upscale look. An 8-inch unit comes standard on the S, while the SE and SEL get a larger 10.3-inch display (shown above). To somewhat bridge the technology gap, though, all Taos models get VW’s Digital Cockpit instrument cluster as standard fare.
Under the hood, you still get a 1.5-liter turbocharged engine with the updated Taos. This time around, it helpfully gets a bit more grunt, now putting out 174 horsepower (up from 158), with the same 184 lb-ft of torque. What you don’t get this time is a jerky DSG transmission. Instead, VW fits an 8-speed automatic across the board, rather than just the front-wheel drive models. With that change, the new Taos has much better feel in everyday driving. Fuel economy on the AWD models also improves a bit, as well.
While Volkswagen made a host of changes for the 2025 Taos, it is still one of the more expensive options in the segment. Pricing starts at $26,420 for the base S, which puts it well out in front of the new Nissan Kicks and other major rivals like the Toyota Corolla Cross and Chevy Trax/Trailblazer. Shop for an SEL model, and you’re suddenly in the mid-$30,000s range, which is a little scary for an entry-level subcompact crossover. Nevertheless, there are plenty of improvements to like with the new model, and the guys cover those changes in greater detail below:
