Volkswagen Touareg review

For its updated Touareg, VW has focussed on making the big 4×4 a comfortable drive on the road, backed up by all of the latest hi-tech kit to make it a luxurious drive. For the most part, it has to be said that VW’s done a great job.

The high driving position and comfortable leather seats combined with the spacious cabin make even the longest journeys an exercise in relaxed luxury. It helps that VW has designed the Touareg for road journeys, with it stable and comfortable through tight bends. A rotating switch in front of the gearbox lets you adjust the ride for Comfort, Normal and Sports mode, helping you get the most from your driving mood and type of surface that you’re on.

We road tested the 4.2-litre V8, which is certainly no slouch and will hit 60mph in under six seconds. It should come as no surprise that this monster engine provides plenty of power for fast acceleration, while overtaking, even at speed, is easy. There’s also a 3.0-litre engine available, which still packs plenty of punch, but improves on fuel economy and puts the car in a lower tax bracket.

We found the eight-speed auto gearbox smooth, plus there’s an optional Tiptronic addition, so you can manually take control of gear changes by flicking the gearstick forwards for up and back for down. For driving in traffic we’re big fans of the Auto Hold feature, which automatically engages the handbrake if it senses the car’s starting to role. Combined with the automatic gearbox, slow-moving traffic is a breeze to drive through.

Auto-hold means you can drive the Touareg through traffic with the greatest of ease.

One of the issues of driving such a big car is visibility, particularly of other vehicles. VW has a range of systems designed to make driving safer for you and other road users. The Driver’s Assistance pack (from £2,095) is the best option, getting you most of the kit that you could want.

It includes radar sensors for blind-spot elimination (Side scan lane assist). When turned on lights in the wing mirrors light up if there’s another vehicle coming up behind you or in your blind spot. Indicate and the respective light flashes quickly to warn you. In short, provided you indicate, with this system pulling out on another car unaware should be a thing of the past.

Lights in the wing mirror warn you if there’s another vehicle in your blind spot.

Lane assist is also included in this pack, scanning the road ahead and warning you if you drift out of lane. It’s a useful extra, but it doesn’t automatically keep the car in the right lane, which rival systems, such as those on the new Ford Focus, do.

Front assist uses a radar sensor to monitor the traffic in front, letting the car maintain a constant distance behind the vehicle in front up to the speed limit that you set. It works really well and is easy to adjust, both for speed and distance, using the control stalk to the left of the steering wheel. The system can’t be used to automatically apply the brakes in an emergency though, which is a shame as Ford has this on the new Focus.

You can easily adjust the cruise control speed and the distance to follow the vehicle in front at.

Parking sensors are fitted as standard to the front and rear, making parking such a big beast much easier, particularly in small spaces in London.

The clear parking sensor display makes it easy to part this large vehicle, even in tight spots.

They can be activated to come on automatically, but this can be annoying in some situations. Driving through rush hour traffic in London we were constantly bombarded with beeps as the parking sensors activated automatically by cyclists zooming behind us. Switching the system off so that it’s only activated by putting the car in reverse is pretty easy thanks to the central touchscreen control system, plus there’s a dedicated button to activate the system.

You can manually enable the parking sensors if you don’t want them to turn on automatically.

This touchscreen control system is also used for the satnav system built in. It’s clear and easy to follow, with postcode and town searches. We like the way that you can display the next instruction on the driver’s information screen in the middle of the instrument cluster, leaving the main screen for other uses, such as changing media.

We found the satnav system easy to program and easy to follow with a clear map and voice instructions.

It’s a little annoying that the car has to be in radio or media mode if you want the main computer turned on, as you don’t necessarily want to have audio just to turn on the heated steering wheel (an optional extra) or take control of the air conditioning system. It’s simple enough to mute the radio, but it shouldn’t be a necessity.

DAB and FM radios give you entertainment on the road, plus you can add TV, a DVD changer and even use an MP3 player.

Entertainment is provided as standard by the radio with both DAB and FM tuners present. If you want to listen to your own music, there’s a 30GB hard disk to load your music on to. Alternatively, there’s an input socket in the glove compartment, which comes with an Apple Universal Dock adaptor for iPods and iPhones. Connecting an Apple device lets you choose a song using the Touareg’s control system, either on the steering wheel or via the touchscreen, although it doesn’t support album artwork.

The iPod dock connector can be replaced with a standard 3.5mm audio jack for use with any media player.

If you don’t have an iPod or iPhone, you can replace the Apple dock cable with a standard 3.5mm phone jack to work with any audio device. Of course, you won’t be able to change tracks or do anything else clever but it does at least mean you can use any audio device inside the car. There’s also Bluetooth as standard for linking your phone to the car’s hands-free system.

Another useful optional extra is keyless entry, so you can just walk up to the car with the key in your pocket and open the door. This system also gives you keyless ignition, although it’s good to see that you can still slide the key into an ignition slot to keep it safe when you’re driving, or even turn it to start the car if you prefer the old-fashioned method.

It goes without saying that a vehicle this size has plenty of room. The main cabin is spacious and airy, with extremely comfortable seats for both the driver, side and rear passengers. There’s plenty of room for passengers to stretch their legs out and relax. The middle seat is perhaps a little less comfortable, but what you get is a supremely comfortable ride for four large adults. For this model there’s no option for adding two seats in the boot, which may put some people off.

The interior is both spacious and comfortable, although you can’t add two extra seats in the boot for seven passengers.

Open the boot using the buttons for auto-open and –close, and you’ll see that there’s a cavernous space you’ll have trouble filling even on the most luggage-laden holidays. It helps that the rear seats can be moved backwards and forwards to give more or less luggage space, and even folded flat using a button in the boot to open up the entire space.

The large vehicle size means that there’s plenty of room in the boot, which has flexible seating to give you more or less room.

We’re big fans of the Panoramic Sunroof (an optional extra), which encases pretty much the entire roof in glass. Open the sun shield and it lets in plenty of light, even on the dingiest days, but come to Summer and you can open it up and get that convertible feeling in a large 4×4.

VW has done a great job with the Touareg. It’s an extremely stylish 4×4 that’s brilliantly comfortable and relaxing to drive, with a great range of options. We love the V8, but the 3.0 V6 is the model to buy for most people, as it’s more efficient and puts the car in a lower tax band. It’s not cheap, but considering the entry level model comes with alloy wheels, leather seats, climate control, satnav, heated seats, cruise control and parking sensors, the Touareg is comparatively good value.