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Although dealership inventories in the U.S. are now slowly making a comeback, the global shortage of parts still exists in other parts of the world. Volkswagen Australia recently announced that it would stop taking orders for the Tiguan – including the Tiguan R – and the Golf R hatchback and wagon models due to severe parts shortages.

Volkswagen Australia’s halt in production has to do with the all-wheel drive systems

2023 Volkswagen Tiguan R Aus
2023 Volkswagen Tiguan R | Volkswagen Australia

Those looking to get into a Volkswagen from the land down under will have to wait longer if they’re looking for an AWD model. According to The Drive, “orders for the Golf R range, and the four all-wheel drive variants of the standard wheelbase, five-seat Tiguan – the 132TSI, 147TDI, 162TSI, and R – will be paused ‘until further notice.’”

Volkswagen Australia said that the halt for orders of the Tiguan 132TSI, 147TDI, and 162TSI is due to parts shortages for the AWD system, while orders for the Tiguan R are halted for other parts. Some of those parts include those for the reverse cameras, which the Golf R shares with the rest of the Golf range. Fortunately, the parts should start trickling in soon.

Other models are still available

2023 Volkswagen T-ROC
2023 Volkswagen T-ROC | Volkswagen Australia

Although the orders for the Tiguan range are being paused, the orders for the Tiguan Allspace range will remain open because those models are built in Mexico. Other models, like the 12000 T-Roc R SUV, are still on hand as well. There are also plenty of allocation orders for the Tiguan R, despite the pause. As of now, there are 1,000 Tiguan R orders being held.

In a statement, VW Australia noted: “Only the Tiguan R has a higher overall order bank (than the T-ROC R), and improved production for Australia has meant that a greater number of these orders are being fulfilled.”

Volkswagen went on to say that it also has a stock of the Tiguan Monochrome special edition – in addition to the Passat wagon, Passat Alltrack, Arteon, and Touareg.

Do the shortages in Volkswagen’s Australian market affect the U.S. market?

2023 Volkswagen Golf R
2023 Volkswagen Golf R | Volkswagen Australia

No. Although it’s clear that the parts shortages for the Australian market include parts that could we could find on any of the Tiguans or Golf R models that we get here in the states, none of them are affected. Interestingly, though, it does look like some Volkswagen ID.4 model orders were affected by missing all-wheel drive parts during the latter part of 2022.

According to some forum members on VWidtalk.com, a message forum for current and future Volkswagen ID.4 owners, some orders were halted due to missing all-wheel drive parts. No one said exactly which parts were missing, but we suspect it was a similar situation to what’s going in Australia. Fortunately, with paused orders, there’s a chance that the factories can catch up with the rising demand for the affected models. At least, that seems to be the case with the Tiguan R models.

We only wish that they could bring some of those Tiguan R models over here. Maybe someday.