Volkswagen Touareg TDI Review

Diesel-powered automobiles are more popular than ever in the U.S. Indeed, given Volkswagen’s long history with diesel in the U.S. ’s not surprising that almost 50% of Jetta buyers opted for the diesel version of that car. The 2010 Touareg gets its name from the nomadic Tuareg people, believed to be descended from the ancient Saharans. The Tuareg operated the trans-Saharan caravan trade that connected the major cities on the southern edge of the Sahara for two centuries. What the Touareg also gets from its namesake is excellent off-road handling, thanks to great ground clearance and a permanent all-wheel drive system with low-range gearing. Inside the cabin, one has to look at the badge on the steering wheel to remind oneself that it’s a Volkswagen. The high-quality plastics as well as the fit and finish are top notch as well. The optional hard-drive-based satellite navigation system is fairly easy to use and got us where we needed to go. The optional Dynaudio sound system has a great sound to it and the Lux Limited Package adds soft Cricket leather seats as well as metal trim and a good-looking ground effects kit to the exterior. The 2010 Volkswagen Touareg comes with front-seat side airbags and full-length side curtain airbags, which played a role in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s giving the Touareg a perfect five-star rating for frontal and side impact. While I didn’t get to take the Touareg for a drive in the desert, driving it on city streets and highways was very satisfying. The ride was unquestionably firm and the interior was an oasis of quiet luxury. For a car of its size and heft, handling was surprisingly responsive. The Touareg’s 3.0-liter TDI V-6 - while smaller than the petrol 3.6-liter V-6 - is an imperceptible 0.3 seconds slower but the 25% better fuel economy is palpable. The car consistently delivered or exceeded the EPA mileage rating of 18 mpg city/25 mpg highway.

The manumatic is more sensible, shove it to the right (and the display shows the gear), then forward to move up a gear and back to move down a gear. Sport mode seems to be identical to normal mode — shift quality and speed seems the same — but it apparently drops one gear down for faster responses. Generally, Sport mode seems unnecessary, given the fast kickdowns and general responsiveness. There’s no cup holder cover, which is an affectation anyway. A knob allows one to easily switch into off-road mode, which shuts off the forward sensors. The air conditioning is inadequate, requiring the blower to be on noisy mode much of the time, while still not cooling the SUV even in moderate (87°) weather — and on the highway. The huge moonroof (whose fabric cover was shut at the time) probably contributed but VW should have boosted the system’s capacity to compensate. Now, let’s look at the stereo. Volkswagen uses a proprietary cable which attaches to an extension for your iPod or iPhone, with different cables for the old 30-pin and the new attachment, and presumably other cables for Android devices.

There’s also a generic one for headphone jacks. This could all be replaced by a USB port, like Chrysler uses. However, if you want to be clever and put your music onto a cheap SD card instead, the car has two SD card slots, a CD player, and a hard drive; these go into the glove compartment. Pull the yellow lever, wait a while for the unit to slowly descend, and they plug right in and are quickly recognized. Moving from album to album is unreasonably hard. Like Fiat, Volkswagen is organized around, and demands, playlists, so verbally telling the system to play a particular album or artist won't work. So let’s say you’re listening to something and you want to change the record. Ah, but what if you just want to quickly change the bass or balance? Then you press the physical Setup button, then Sound, then Treble-Bass (say), then you get nice analog-style displays and you can press the point on the scale where you want to be. Too many steps, but you get there. There are some nice features, including physical/digital duplication and a special button just for traffic reports.

The sound in our Lux was good but not great for new cars, and some Jeep/Dodge systems beat it, while others don’t match it. One oddity is the ignition switch. Like Chrysler, they have a “keys stay in your pocket” pushbutton starter. Unlike Chrysler, they have a place to shove your keys in the dashboard if it's summertime. However, if you shove ’em into the slot, you can’t use the pushbutton; you have to start and shut off the car with the odd-feeling “turn right to start” setup. There are two positions rather than the traditional three — on/off rather than on/accessories/off. There's a sort of accessories-on if you don't have your foot on the brake when you switch to Start, just as on Dodge and Jeep, but it activates the fan and such. There’s no basic “radio and power outlets only” position. Speaking of not showing status, it’s impossible to tell whether or not the doors are locked; there are no visible indicators at all. This is an odd cost savings in a car that sells at a high premium (compared with domestic competitors; it’s cheaper than the similar Audi).