The Vehicles Earth

The large SUV-shaped hole in CAR’s long-term line-up is about to be filled with a second-generation Volkswagen Touareg. Once again the big VW is twinned with Porsche’s Cayenne, though the new VW corporate nose means you’ll not mistake one for the other. There’s still no seven-seat option, but a longer wheelbase means it’s much more roomy inside, and we know from the short-term test cars we’ve driven that it handles brilliantly for its size.

In the old days speccing your car meant a trip to the local dealer for a brochure, but now you can research and option-out your car without leaving the house. So I should take an opportunity to praise the Volkswagen UK retail website, and in particular, its car configurator. The web is such an important tool in the car buying process, yet so many manufacturers get it wrong. The VW configurator is simple and logical, with every option clearly explained.

The Touareg range includes four engines, but at £60k apiece, the thirsty 3.0 V6 hybrid and 4.2 TDI V8, are of minor interest. For most UK buyers, it’s a choice between two 3.0-litre diesels. The basic motor produces 201bhp and does 62mph in 9sec but we splashed out £1615 on the 242bhp version that lops 1.2sec from that standing start time for a meagre 1mpg penalty. And speaking of mpg, its claimed 39mpg combined fuel figure is nearly 10mpg better than my old Range Rover Sport diesel’s, thanks to a kerbweight some 400kg lower.

Common sense suggests we should have gone for the basic SE spec: heated leather trim, navigation, Bluetooth and an eight-speed ‘box are all standard for £40,155. There’s an off-road-themed Escape version too, but to sample the version most UK buyers will choose, we stumped up another £2525 for the sporty Altitude. The colour palette is about as varied as food choices in a 1970s Warsaw supermarket, but the metal-look dash trim does differentiate it from the warmer wood decoration of the SE.

Having rubbished the hybrid for its £60k price I thought I’d better go easy on the options for our TDI. I passed on the optional electric seats (£1340), four-zone climate (£670) and driver assistance pack (£2095) with its radar cruise, lane departure warning and multiple parking cameras. And I decided to take a big gamble by not ordering the £2075 air suspension package. After that I promptly fell off the wagon and splashed out on a full-length sunroof (£1120), Dynaudio hi-fi upgrade (£1095) and £1310’s worth of Bi-xenon cornering lights. The only worry is those air springs. Will my meanness come back to haunt me on the first stretch of bumpy road? We’ll find out soon.

By Chris Chilton