Meet the VW that’s built like a Bentley
Touareg makes most of posh platform
TWO decades ago a very clever engineer called Ferdinand Piech had a brainwave.
This member of the Porsche family was in charge at Volkswagen and cooked up the idea of platform sharing. In other words, the same car base could be used for many different models.
It wasn’t a new idea but Piech turned it into an art form. The Golf platform, for example, was used for the Beetle and on numerous other cars around the group, including the Audi A3, Skoda Octavia and Seat Leon.
But no platform demonstrates Piech’s genius better than the MLBevo platform that’s the basis for the Touareg SUV.
This is also used for the Porsche Cayenne, Audi Q7, Bentley Bentayga and the new Lamborghini Urus. Just think of the economies of scale: the same infrastructure used on everything from a relatively affordable Volkswagen to a very unaffordable Lamborghini.
No Italian exotics today though as we’re testing the new thirdgeneration Touareg itself.
The new car is longer, wider and lower than the old one. Lower I don’t mind but wider and longer simply make the car more of a pain to park and thread through traffic. Mind you, it’s shorter than the Audi Q7 because it doesn’t have the option of a third row of seats. That does mean that rear seat passengers get a massive amount of space and that there’s a lot of luggage room.
It’s a handsome looking car, certainly much better looking
than the hideous Bentayga. LED headlamps are standard but our car has optional LED matrix lamps.
Other options fitted (£19,000 worth of them) include air suspension with rearwheel steering. It’s a hefty £2,370 to be tapped into the calculator but it makes the car easier to manoeuvre.
Only one engine is available in the Touareg at the moment and that’s a 286bhp 3.0-litre V6 diesel. It’ll be followed shortly by a lower powered version of the same unit with 228bhp, a petrol V6, and eventually a plug-in hybrid powertrain.
The current engine fitted to our R-Line Tech test car (£58,195 without goodies added) is a great engine that has a huge amount of torque and is very sophisticated. It’s matched to an eight-speed auto ’box which is smooth but spends too much time hunting for the right gear.
Sitting inside the Touareg is like a visit to the cinema. In front of you is VW’s Innovision Cockpit – a combination of 12in and 15in screens with every bit of information you could possibly need.
The larger screen deals with infotainment and navigation, which uses Google Earth mapping.
It’s all straightforward to use and the graphics are very high quality and easy on the eye. However, I’d rather have a simple knob for temperature control rather than having to enter the system to knock the cabin temperature up a few degrees.
The system is standard on this level of trim but an option costing £2,500 on lower SEL and R-Line versions.
The Touareg was first introduced in 2002. It’s a very sophisticated and comfortable large off-roader that’s not cheap, but considerably better value than its posh cousins with whom it shares its basic platform.
Talking of cheap, you can get an early Touareg for well under five grand now. Well worth a look if you’re after a solid big runabout and the £56k – or lease payments – on a new one are more than your budget allows.
V6 diesel is a great engine with a huge amount of torque on tap