It is as wide as a Land Rover LR3, but much shorter in height. Thanks to our air-suspension-equipped tester, step-in height was minimal as the car lowers itself when parked, and thus removing the need for unsightly side-steps. Externally, the Touareg looks small, it has a relatively long wheelbase which provided very good interior space, both front and rear. There was no shortage of legroom anywhere, better than many other midsize 4WDs, though headroom is notably less than those same competitors. The two front seats are reasonably bolstered along the sides, while the rear bench is spacious and comfortable. The effect of prioritising space for five passengers is that there is no third row seating. This offers a massive luggage area out back, even though closing the heavy upward-opening tailgate might be a chore for the skinny women who will buy this vehicle in droves for image alone. The cabin is protected by the usual front airbags as well as a multitude of side airbags, including for the rear. The front passengers also enjoy a couple of coverless cup-holders, but we couldn’t find any for the rear saps.
A quick look in the brochure revealed that rear cup-holders are optional. All the airbags in the world cannot replace missing cup-holders for the drooling kids! Not that we have any yet. Driving the Touareg in traffic is pretty easy. All-round visibility is good, even through the rear window thankfully. The front-and-rear parking sensors also help in navigating through tight gaps in traffic jams, with no danger of running into impolite drivers. And the light power steering makes one-handed parking easy, even with the slippery wood trim on the wheel. The quiet cabin effectively isolates passengers from the noise outside. Hit the open highway, and the cabin still stays admirably quiet at highway speeds, along with providing the smoothest of rides. It is here that we let loose the 4.2-litre V8 engine’s 310 horses. Power is fairly adequate for this quick 4WD, and the 410 Nm of torque comes in handy for quick passing moves.
Putting that juice to use yielded very poor fuel economy numbers, though we did appreciate the large 100-litre fuel tank. Our main gripe was with the standard six-speed automatic gearbox, which starts hunting for gears when the throttle is pressed enough to induce a downshift, thus delaying accelerative action. Anyway, out-of-the-way acceleration runs resulted in sprints from zero to 100 kph in a little more than 8 seconds. The brakes were also very strong, thanks in no small part to the massive discs visible through the rims, aided by ABS and other electronics. The Touareg handles so well for a 4WD that we believe many cars would do well if they could match it. While the on-road handling was revealing enough, it is off the road that the Touareg really astonishes. It is a true off-road vehicle, similar in vein to stuff from Land Rover and Jeep. Its ground clearance can be increased for dune-bashing, using the same console-mounted dial that turns it into a lowered sporting wagon. There is also a full suite of differential lock controls. On the same dial are controls for switching to four-wheel-drive and low-range gearing, though these dials could be left in ‘auto’ to let the computer decide appropriate settings. Combine this with V8 power, and we had ourselves a solid desert dweller. We started off with mild sand and moved up to steeper grades rather easily. The Volkswagen Touareg is the greatest combination of on-road handling and off-road capability we’ve seen since we drove the high-tech Range Rover Supercharged last year, and that one cost a good deal more. Our V8 Touareg also costs a good amount, and half the gadgetry we played with was optional, driving up the price. Its tame looks already attract a whole lot of upper-crust people using it as a mall-hopping school bus rather than for what it is designed to do. And it deserves more than that.
