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Touareg Talks the Torque
Volkswagen has a history of raising the bar. They set it high with the introduction of the Beetle in the 1940’s and have since continued to raise it time and time again. In the 70’s Audi’s quattro system changed the face of rallying for ever and more recently Bugatti produced a car with 1000 horsepower. Now they use standard Touaregs to tow 747 aircraft.
Actually, I had this in mind when I had this same 5.0l V10 twin turbo diesel version to look forward to having the use of, but was unable to find a 747 that was free for a few hours. It’s not the prettiest “truck” on the road and it’s not the cheapest, but when it comes to all round performance, like most Volkswagens, it does all things well and what I wasn’t expecting was to have so much fun.
A few manufacturers such as Audi, Lamborghini, Chrysler, Ford, Porsche, and BMW have V10’s in their line up, but none has a car for the price with anywhere near the torque (apart from the Viper) and certainly not a diesel. The standard Touareg V10 TDi puts out 230kw of power & 750nm of torque. But there’s more. The recently release Touareg R50 sports version, puts out 258kw and 850nm of torque and accelerates its 2550kg to 100 km/h in just 6.8 seconds. Its top speed is 235 km/h, and it rides on 21-inch alloys shod with 295/35 R21 tyres. Bring it on.
So forget about the fact that your hands are full, you only need to grab the door handle to unlock the Touareg and use the ‘push button’ start to fire up the engine, as long as the key is in range. Listening to the engine, like listening to the sound under acceleration of the Golf R32, is so addictive, even if it does empty your wallet quicker while listening to the whistle of the bi-turbo. That said, I regularly managed less than 10 l/100klm, with a low of 8.5 helped by cruise control at a steady 105kph, and averaged 13.3 over 682klm of off-road, country, freeway and city driving. With the official figure of just under 13, you’ll still get over 1000klm out of a tank, but make sure you have enough in your wallet to fill the 100 litre tank, and then don’t be shy sitting next to an XR6 or SS at the lights. You just might shock them with a 0-100 in 7.4sec, which is not shabby for a 2550kg vehicle.
Initially I thought the number of red lit controls in the Golf and Jetta was overwhelming, but one lonely night in the driveway I stopped counting when I passed 200 in the Touareg. The front electric seats are fully and I mean fully adjustable with 3 memory settings as is the steering column. The 4 zone air conditioning gives front and rear occupants their own controls to keep themselves comfortable in the leather seats listening to Fall Out Boy or The London Symphony Orchestra alike. The “come home” auto adjusting bi-xenon head lights that also “look around corners”, the auto sensing wipers, 6 stack CD, a large display for the driver, including the pressure of each tyre and when off-road how many degrees of turn the front wheels are being fed and the functional as well as luxury technology, goes on.
Externally the Touareg looks wide, but parking sensors front and rear though helpful in tight situations, can thankfully be turned off when taken off-road down a narrow bush lined track. Headlight washers are handy and I highly recommend opting for the auto lift tailgate executed via the key. This was particularly useful when the Touareg became filthy. But not only that, there is a button on the underside of the tailgate that closes it so you or the kids don’t have to reach up and/or get your hands dirty.
The big Touareg almost drives itself. It is a ‘real’ 4X4 having won the 4WD of the year in 2005. It has hi and low range plus a crawl mode that limits acceleration, auto ‘hill hold’ and air suspension that automatically adjusts to the vehicle’s speed in either sport, auto or comfort mode. The entry and exit angles are class topping and it squats at about 120kph but can be raised to traverse 500mm deep water. But just in case it’s 501 everything is double sealed. No dust or mud entered the cabin for me (see photo). It has all the standard Volkswagen features like ABS, EBD ESC, front side and curtain airbags and lots of cargo space.
Most people would see the Touareg’s competition as the BMW X5, Mercedes M Class, Lexus RX 330 and the Volvo XC90 if they were to get dirty, as well as the better Jeep Grand Cherokee and Range Rover Sport. But apart form the last two, I wonder how these would go against the Touareg when taken off-road. To be able to sit in the vehicle and make use of the air suspension to raise the vehicle, lock a centre dif and let it pull itself out of a deep sloppy muddy rut, gave me perhaps too much confidence in the over engineered Touareg’s ability to “go anywhere” apart from suburban front yards. This thing has grunt to burn and with a towing ability of 3500kg (1000 more than the X5) which makes it ideal for towing horse floats and boats and pulling more skins off rice puddings than anything else.
So where can Volkswagen improve the Touareg? 1- A full size spare as standard would be better, although a rear mounted full spare is an option. 2 - At an angle the front door on the high side wouldn’t stay open and 3 – I wonder what a 7 seat version would be like?
Finally, on the way to take the Touareg back, I called into the local BMW dealer to compare. Well, really to give them a hard time. But I didn’t have to, as I became the salesman. He didn’t know much about the Touareg at all and judging by the number on the road in Peth compared to X5's, obviously the general public doesn’t either.
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