Review of the new Volkswagen Touareg - Travel Story

A lengthy motorway journey followed by a close encounter with some twisty, undulating B-roads, it was a trip with all the ingredients to provide an accurate impression of a luxury saloon's true abilities. The Peak District was the destination and Volkswagen's Touareg TDI was the car.

The general consensus of opinion pre-trip was that the big black Touareg would devour the motorway mileage with a flourish and barely a flicker of its fuel gauge. The Peak District's serpentine back roads, it was thought, would present more of a test for such a big smoothy. In the end, that's just about how things panned out but there were more than a few surprises along the way.

Like most cars of its ilk, the Volkswagen Touareg is well equipped to soften the hard edges of long distance motorway travel. Leather, wood, chrome, the interior has everything the luxury buyer could want with expanses of beautifully crafted trim apparent at every turn. Even where plastics are employed, they are plastics cunningly doctored to give the effect of leather, wood or chrome. The result is a relaxed, quality, drawing room ambience - a cocoon of tranquillity for the bothered executive and an ideal environment in which to undertake a trip of a few hundred miles or more. Two-zone climate control prevents cross-cabin arguments about who's too hot and who is not. Meanwhile, the outstanding sound system provides the entertainment and the satellite navigation system deals a terminal blow to the tired old road atlas. Actually, we took the tired old road atlas anyway - past experiences have taught that a healthy mistrust of satellite navigation is often, well, healthy.

Three TDI Touareg models are now on offer. We tried the awesome £55,200 5.0-litre V10 version but many will want to go for either the 2.5 TDI (from £29,880) or the impressive £32,640 3.0-litre V6 TDI variant. All three are as smooth as silk in their natural motorway habitat. Even at relaxed cruising speeds, a prod of the throttle rapidly puts on the 10mph you need to bypass a pair of overtaking HGVs and when it's time to rest those feet, a spell of cruise control works wonders. The torque emanating from the V10 turbo diesel engine means accelerating back up to speed out of heavy traffic is a breeze and even if you drop down to speeds of 40mph, the Touareg will still pick up quickly.

The wonderfully smooth and lorry-free M6 toll road threw the satellite navigation system something of a curve ball. The on screen map showed us, clear as day, ploughing across open fields and farmland with no road in sight. The audio instructions calmly requested all kinds of illegal manoeuvres every time our cross-country course intersected a local B-road that did appear on the map. An updated mapping CD in the boot-mounted drive would have solved the problem but so did the deactivation of the system's voice commands and on rejoining the M6 proper it soon regained its bearings.

"On our trip, the car went the whole way (nearly 500 miles) on a single tank"

The roads around the village of Warslow in the Staffordshire Peak District could have been created expressly to upset the equilibrium of a large luxury 4x4. Winding across the landscape connecting clusters of small stone houses, the narrow tracks twist up inclines and plunge into shallow valleys. These roads would ask big questions of a well-balanced roadster - an observation conformed when a convoy of day-glow Vauxhall VX220s, complete with grinning drivers, blasted past in the other direction. The Volkswagen fared better than many people would imagine here. The suspension still soaks up the undulations and ruts to a great extent, which can be a little disconcerting, but when you ask it to brake in a hurry or turn sharply around a dry stone walled hairpin, it does so with reassuring agility.

The gearbox isn't slick enough for this kind of driving and finding the required ratio quickly can be difficult. It's also far too easy to push the lever over into reverse when looking for first or second gear. Performance-wise, the TDI engine is a real pleasure to punt around. It's smooth and quiet but when you stir it up there's genuine bite to the acceleration. 0-60mph in 7.8 seconds is the official performance figure for the V10 TDI (9.9s for the 3.0-litre version) but powering out of a corner up a Peak District hillside, the flexibility of the powerplant makes it feel even quicker than that.

The Touareg's handling on some taxing but enjoyable roads felt very secure, which is more than can be said for yours truly during a night at Warslow's Greyhound Inn. The 17th century pub was brimming with character and hospitality but the landlord's spirited rendition of the ghost story attached to the building did little to facilitate a good night's sleep. Still, £35 a night for a well-appointed double room and breakfast seemed excellent value.

The next morning it was a short drive through rolling hills bordered by streams and criss-crossed by the dry stone walls to a destination that would put the Touareg's high speed manoeuvrability firmly in perspective - Alton Towers. With names like Nemisis, Submission and (I can hardly bring myself to type it) Oblivion, the rides at this theme park lead you to suspect that you're in for something mildly unpleasant but the reality made the Greyhound ghost story seem like an episode of The Tweenies. When you've had your sense of direction turned inside out by the dizzying Spinball Wizzer, been fired headfirst through the woods by Air and endured a 50ft vertical drop into a misty pit on Oblivion, the Volkswagen's cosseting interior was a joy to collapse into for the drive home.

The trip proved that the big Volkswagen is more than a long distance cruiser. It's actually very capable in the twisty stuff for a car of its considerable size. The engine was outstanding for powering up the Peak District's many inclines, traction was near faultless and the chassis remained poised on some testing thoroughfares. Touareg buyers will be pleased to know that their car can cut it cross-country but there's no doubt that the motorways and A-roads are its preferred habitat. Effortless performance, well-crafted interiors and a quality ride all help here but the biggest draw of all for diesel customers of this car will be the fuel economy. On our trip, it went the whole way (nearly 500 miles) on a single tank. That's better than 33mpg and that's very impressive for a big luxury 4x4 being driven reasonably hard.

TOP 5 TOUAREG DEALS

The results below show the top TOUAREG deals on buyacar

Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI CR DPF Altitude 5dr Tip Auto Diesel Estate
Price £37,461 Click for a Touareg Review	Save £3,729
Volkswagen Touareg 2.5 TDI DPF 5dr Diesel Estate
Price £28,551 Click for a Touareg Review	Save £2,739
Volkswagen Touareg 2.5 TDI DPF Altitude 5dr Diesel Estate
Price £34,302 Click for a Touareg Review	Save £3,378
Volkswagen Touareg 2.5 TDI DPF SE 5dr Tip Auto Diesel Estate
Price £33,015 Click for a Touareg Review	Save £3,235
Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 V6 TDI CR DPF 5dr Tip Auto Diesel Estate
Price £31,710 Click for a Touareg Review	Save £3,090