By Gary S. Vasilash

The verb whelm means to roll over something so that it is submerged.

Which gives rise to the terms overwhelm and underwhelm, with the former being a sense of being overcome by something and the other, well, provoking a shrug.

However, it doesn’t seems as though whelm on its own has the sense of being in the middle of those two conditions, one being, in effect, excited and the other indifferent.

If you are submerged, then there’s a bit of overwhelming going on.

This exercise in the state of whelmedness is provoked by the VW Tiguan S, which left me feeling in a neutral zone between like and dislike.

It is just sort of there.

Some people give the compact crossover high marks for styling which resembles the midsize VW Atlas. While the Atlas is a handsome vehicle, somehow the scaling down the lines for the Tiguan doesn’t seem to be an distinct advantage for a vehicle that is competing in one of the most fierce of all, the compact crossover.*

There are nice touches, such as the LED lighting fore and aft.

But inside—and recognize that we’re talking about the S, the base model, so that needs to be taken into account here—things are a little iffy.**

Like the 6.5-inch infotainment display that resembles what one found on a Game Boy—which has been out production since 2003. The backup camera display lacks the sharpness that is now common in vehicles in this category.

There is an 8-inch digital instrument display that, like displays when there were physical gauges, with needles that moved around a spindle, is nonconfigurable.

For years, German interior design was by far best-in-class. The fit, finish and particularly materials were top-notch, and it seemed as though this was not only an Audi thing, where it began, but was manifest just as well in Volkswagen products, too.

While there is still the appearance of this execution, the plastics are a bit, well, plasticly, which is not a good thing unless you are a fan of plastics. (Lest it be thought that I am being a bit persnickety about this, a friend, who is not in the auto business, climbed in the Tiguan and immediately commented about the “hard plastics.” Admittedly I wouldn’t have likely used his observation if it didn’t tally with mine, but that’s why you should take impressionistic reviews with a boulder-sized grain of salt, no matter what the source.)

Staying on the inside, as this is a front-drive version of the Tiguan (there are also AWDs), there are three rows of seats (the AWD version gets the more reasonable two): the first row with 40.2 inches of leg room, the second row with 36.6 inches of leg room and the third, with 27.7 inches of legroom—which really isn’t much in the way of legroom at all.

Cargo capacity, however, when you fold that third row flat is a good 33 cubic feet; with that seat up it is 12. If the second and third are folded it goes to 65.3 cubic feet, which means a lot of stuff can be swallowed.

Where German engineering comes to the fore in the Tiguan is under the hood. The 184-hp turbocharged four (mated to an eight-speed automatic) responds to right-foot input with remarkable alacrity. You want to merge: no problem. This was my favorite aspect of the Tiguan.

If there was a pleasant surprise, that is it.

Look: as stated, this is a tough category. But it is worth noting that the third-generation Tiguan will be introduced later this year, so. . . .

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*This “familial resemblance” is something that many vehicle manufacturers pursue with their products, presumably thinking that if someone likes X but can’t afford it or X is the wrong size, then having W and Y that look like X is good. To be sure there can be cues from one to the other, but shouldn’t something have its own visual characteristics that make it special? The Beetle became the icon it did because it looked like nothing else, not something else.

**Car and Driver recently did a comparison of The Dodge Hornet, Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, Mazda CX-50, Nissan Rogue, Toyota RAV4, and VW Tiguan and the Tiguan came in number two. . .but it was the upper trim SEL R-Line model, so that needs to be considered.