World Premiere 2nd gen Touareg & Touareg Hybrid

[Spook]

A video of the new Touareg in action on Carsales

[phaeton]

Yeah just a mish mash of promo film not an actual test drive

[Transporter]

IMHO, it's looking good with the 7.4L/100km but it lost some off road abilities.

[Dirty R50]

It's beautiful but has now become just another 4x4 "capable" station wagon. Front and rear overhangs are enormous and for that reason alone I didn't consider buying a Q7. 4x4 is an option (Shall be extremely expensive), and in my humble opinion, defeats the whole object of the car. I'll keep my old model until VW once again builds a 4x4 where it isn't optional, or get an Amarok.

[Transporter]

I feel exactly the same. will be interesting to see what will VW use in Dakar race.

[phaeton]

I feel exactly the same. will be interesting to see what will VW use in Dakar race.

If they do the Dakar in 2011

[Transporter]

Yeah, the speculations...
http://www.marathonrally.com/news/da...1.14927.0.html

[Dirty R50]

Personally I don't see the point of doing the Dakar. I thought the point was to establish the Touareg as a serious 4x4. If they do, I'll bet that they'll keep the current race Touareg configuration. I hope they listen to the few here that agrees with us and returns the Touareg to a 4x4 in future. My car proves that you can have a good looking, good driving, capable 4x4 that mum can use for the school runs. Now it is school runs exclusively. I'm rather disappointed in that.

[Moonan]

I haven's lost hope yet...
Let's wait for the new tranny specs, and look at the gear ratios as well as the torque at various speeds.
For example, in the existing touareg, Low Range 1 & 2 are the only gears lower than High 1. Low 3 is exactly the ratio of High 1. And of course, the V10 has a higher diff ratio (due to its greater torque) and so effectively misses out on Low 1. V10 Low 1 = others Low 2. V10 Low 2 = Others High 1. In other words, to put it crudely, a current V10 has only got 1 crawler gear lower than a V6's High Range Gearbox.
Theoretically, if you could get enough torque to climb the steepest gradient at 1000RPM instead of 2000RPM you wouldn't need such low gears. My old 1976 2-stroke suzuki 4x4 could climb a hill as steep as a Touareg can, but it's little 3-cylinder motor was screaming at 5000RPM in Low first to do it!!
So, before we abandon the new Touareg completely, let's see if first gear in the 8-speed is any lower than the current first. If so, we may not lose too much.

And yes I did these same sums before buying the Q5, and it's first gear is way too high - but I bought it anyway. So now I just have to do those steep trails way faster than I want to!

[Transporter]

I think that the biggest drawback will be reduced ground clearance and more money to pay for the extra off road features.