I've owned the
Tarraco for about 3 months/4000km and wanted to summarize my experience with the car. Overall I'm quite happy with it, good family car. However there are some quirks or small annoyances that I'll list here:
* I have Navigation plus option. To be honest it has been quite pointless extra option. The built-in wifi is almost useless. There is an app (SEAT Media Control) where one can change radio station or volume on the car via wifi. I personally don't like the idea of kids changing volume or changing songs from back seat. Other use of wifi is to give internet access through the phone's 4g connection. There is SIM card slot. Most phones already have wifi hotspot option which is easier to setup and achieves the same result. The SSD for storing music is nice but the car already has 2 SD card slots + 2 USB for keeping music. And SD/USB memory card contents are easier to maintain. I would not miss the SSD at all. The infotainment has been rock solid though, no crashes or restarts what so ever. I have heard this may not be the case for non-plus option.
* I have optional DCC (adaptive suspension). To be honest the difference between suspension settings is barely noticeable. It first I even thought it is not working. I use it comfort setting most of the time but it is not much different from normal or even sport. Generally the suspension is not too harsh, even with 20" wheels.
* I use Waze (commuting) or Google Maps (going to unfamiliar destination) with Android Auto for navigation. But I have tested the factory navigation system a little and it has been disappointing. You cannot find many destinations with entering the name (for example name of hotel), you need to have an address. But even that is quite limited: for example it did not have my home or my work address even though these are not some new development or in some obscure area. The map itself is quite detailed with even most buildings on it, including those but no address for some reason. Google Maps and Waze are leaps and bounds better at finding destination. Routing is also sometimes strange - it gives you three route options but once I tried they were exactly the same. But it still asked to select one of them. At least once it asked to do a shortcut to save 200m through a very narrow dirt road which I know Waze does use. So yea not happy with it but I don't use it anyway so no
problem for me. Also note that I am in Estonia, I realize most users here are from UK and it may have a better map info.
* As I said I use Android Auto for navigation. There are downsides of this - first of course is that you cannot show Google Maps/Waze map on instrument display. You cannot even show cars own map when navigation with phone (although strangely it sometimes works when using Waze but never with Google Maps). It cannot even display any navigation directions, it just says "navigation active on phone". I know this last one can be technically done, it works in Honda CRV for example. When using Google Maps then the right infotainment knob can be used for zooming but it does not work in Waze. One weird quirk is that when navigation is active on phone you cannot display compass on the instrument panel. I have no idea how is compass related to satellite navigation. Overall though for me Android Auto works great. You can listen to car radio while using Google Maps or car's own navigation while using music from Android Auto or any other combination.
* The car is really great for driving on highways. It feels very stable, like on rails. I have adaptive lane assist on which basically steers the car itself. The
problem I sometimes have is that it gives me warning to keep my hands on the wheel even though I have both hands on the wheel already. It detects my hands with smallest wheel movement but if I am cruising on a long straight the car is so stable that I don't even need to give steering input so it gives me this annoying warning. To clear it I have to move the steering wheel a little. It does not happen in winding roads, only with long wide straight roads. This issue is not unique to
Tarraco but I feel this is a limitation of the system. I hear some new cars have capacitive sensing of hands on wheels which would work better.
* It is my first car with start-stop system. I like it that car shuts down the engine when waiting for green light in the city. However it is often annoyingly shutting down just when the traffic starts moving. The user manual states that it can be controlled with how much pressure you apply to brakes to avoid start-stop shutting the engine. In my experience it doesn't always work though. Sometimes I barely press the brake to slow down but once it almost stopped it still shuts the engine. Start-stop can be disabled but it will be re-enabled every time you start to drive. Again this is not unique to
Tarraco but I feel the controlling of start stop with brake pedal should be better, maybe even be configurable.
* Clips for holding 3rd row seat-belt that are designed to keep seat-belts tucked away to the side of the car when the 3rd row is not used. However they are not very good and half the time I pull the trunk cover it catches one of the seat-belts which is very annoying. They are exactly the same as in Tiguan Allspace, I don't know why could they not improve these.
Other than that everything works well. It seems like many issues but these are all minor (for me). I use adaptive cruise quite often and it has worked flawlessly. Car interior looks and feels great, it looks more expensive than it is. I have used the third row of seats several times (mostly for kids). There is not much room there but its great option to have when you need an extra seat or two. One thing I have never used is park assist. With topview, cameras and sensors parking this thing is easy, never felt the need for it. Fuel consumption (2.0 TSI) is about 7l/100km on highway and 9-10 l/100km in city.
Now waiting for winter to test 4 wheel drive and see how good are the lights. Ordered winter tires with 18" wheels, interesting to see how that affects comfort and noise compared to factory 20" wheels. Attached are a couple of photos from day of delivery.