Test Drive: 2010 Volkswagen Touareg TDI

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By Kevin Harrison

A few days ago, I was on my way to Halifax from Dartmouth via Metro Transit’s superb bus services. It was around lunch time and I expected it to be quite busy. It was. However I was able to get myself a seat near the front of the bus which is typically reserved for the elderly, people who are disabled or have  young children. At one point a woman got on the bus and sat down next to me. This annoyed me because at no point during her time on the bus did she do anything remotely surprising. I had her ‘type’ pinned down as soon as the bus pulled up. She was clearly a crazy woman. Now, normally I don’t tend to judge books by their covers, but there seems to be a law in the universe that anyone that is remotely ‘loony tunes’ will interact with me, no matter what the circumstances.

I knew that this woman would choose to sit next to me rather than take the empty seats across from me. I knew that she would hit me in the face a few times with her bags as she attempted to sit down. I knew that she would ask me to hold her travel mug while she composed herself, then once settled in, act like the mug wasn’t hers. I knew that she would spend the majority of the trip talking to me about her dog “Jack” who may or may not exist. Seriously, the way she spoke about him made me question whether he was all in her head. It was at this point when I had started to pray that an elderly woman would get on the bus so I could give up my seat and get a break from hearing about how she once met a man with the same name as Tom Cruise, but wasn’t Tom Cruise, yet she still asked for his autograph anyway.

Sometimes you can nail down the personality of a car before driving it too, which is also irritating. For instance before you get into a Toyota Corolla (it does not matter what year) you know you will be in for a rather boring ride, but at least nothing will go wrong the gas pedal you’ll be able to save some gas. Before you get behind the wheel of a Ferrari 599 you know you’ll be in for one of the most thrilling adrenaline inducing rides of your life, but only if you can get it started first without jumper cables.

I thought I had the Touareg nailed down too. Turns out, I didn’t.

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With its massive eye-catching 20 inch wheels, low profile tires, silver exterior trim, and blinding xenon headlamps I had VW’s mid-sized SUV pegged as another wannabe off-roader that only saw city streets and spent more time in mall parking lots than on a gravel road. In fact during my time with the Touareg, one guy referred to it as “a wannabe Cayenne”. It seemed this SUV was but one in a very crowded luxury ute market that only had big wheels to help it stand out in a crowd.

But the fact is, this Touareg is a capable machine that does stand out and adsc03792 lot has to do with what’s under the hood. The V6 TDI is a new option for 2010. With 225 horses and 425 pound feet of torque, it’s a wonder why VW waited so long to drop it in the Touareg’s engine bay. It’s perfectly suited for this kind of vehicle. Due to all that torque, the optional tow hitch can actually be used to tow pretty much anything, which gives some credibility to the Touareg’s rugged appearance.

Power is readily available at low RPM’s, and is most noticeable when the automatic switches to second gear. The Touareg TDI can run a respectable 8.1 second sprint from 0 to 100. Not bad considering this porker weighs just over 5000 pounds. All that weight doesn’t necessarily translate into bad fuel economy either thanks to that impressive diesel. Rated at 11.9L/100 kms city and 8.0L/100 kms highway, the TDI gets significantly better mileage than its gas engine brother which is rated at a dismal 14.6L/100 kms city and 10.4L/100 kms highway.

VW likes to make sure the words ‘Clean Diesel’ follow the TDI, and a big reason why is to enhance public perception. The TDI emits 5508 kg of carbon dioxide (C02) per year. That’s roughly only 300 kg better than the gas version but a whopping 2000 kg worse than the Jetta TDI. Again, if the TDI went on the Jenny Craig diet, this would like help with better Co2 scores. Still, it’s on par with the BMW X5 diesel and Mercedes-Benz Blutech diesel. Less C02 and particulate matter is always a good thing, no matter how small the improvement, so kudos to VW for the effort.

On pavement around town, the Touareg TDi is quite comfortable, despite those large 20 inch wheels, low profile tires and a sport suspension, which are part of the optional $3,500 sport package. In fact, the handling is quite decent because of it – it’s not just all for show. The suspension isn’t so firm that you need to drive it like you have hemorrhoids, yet is firm enough to take a corner at relative high speeds without that unnerving feeling that you’re going to flip if you don’t slow down. It is very possible to have fun driving this vehicle, but again, fun is relative for a heavy SUV. BMW’s X5 Xdrive35d handles better despite it’s awful name (and having a name worse than Touareg is hard to do). The BMW just feels a tad tighter in the corners and the stability control doesn’t interfere as much.

dsc03793I was lucky enough to get a snowfall of around 15 centimeters during my time with the Touareg TDI. I initially was a little concerned as low profile tires are usually hopeless in snow, so I drove it cautiously on the main roads. The TDI handled it fine, but admittedly any vehicle would’ve handled it fine considering how I was driving it. So, to really let loose, I found an empty parking lot. It turns out, the Touareg’s all-wheel drive system can handle snowy conditions with ease, despite the tires (that’s not to say that winter tires aren’t necessary as I believe the Touareg would’ve done even better with a good set on).

With no one around, I let out my inner nine-year-old and turned off the traction control. The Touareg felt right at home, slipping and sliding between doing donuts and and some slalom exercises, all the while feeling composed and almost relaxed.
dsc03790The interior is the place to be if you have a button fetish. There are way too many. On top of that, they are all mostly on the small side so pushing them with a glove hand means you unintentionally hit two buttons at once. Using a dial for the heated seats made it even worse.Eventually you become frustrated and just take your gloves off. A heated steering wheel would be appreciated in this instance. But despite the button overload, the interior presentation is excellent with superb quality materials for fit and finish, with only one exception of the dials which made very cheap clicking sounds. At night, the soft blue backgrounds over red dials really gives it a unique futuristic look. VW really does know how to make a great looking and feeling interior.

Cargo room is definitely not lacking as it can easily swallow up 31 cubic feet with the rear seats up, and 71 cubic feet with them down. The only issue is that the seats don’t fold completely flat. Otherwise, you’ll have no trouble fitting cargo back there.dsc03789

Likewise, you won’t have any problem fitting three average sized adults in the back seats either. There is more than adequate leg and foot room, even with the drivers seat set back all the way. The rear leather bench is just as comfortable as the two bucket seats up front, and the middle seat is actually usable. When no one is sitting in it, it makes a nice arm rest or can turn into a cup holder for two. The cup holders actually fit North American sized drinks, which is both great and embarrassing at the same time.

There are a few issues, however. For a vehicle of this size and of this price, the windshield wipers seem like they came from a salvage yard. They’re absolutely dreadful, including the rear wiper as well.

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Secondly, about a day after picking up the Touareg, the computer had decided I was an idiot. It kept telling me I was out of windshield wiper fluid by popping it up on the disaply screen literally every seven seconds or so. Yes, I get it. There’s no washer fluid. There’s no need to repeatedly tell me this, I understood it the first time – English is my first language after all. There should really be a “read” button like Volvo has where you can push it to let the computer know that you understand what it’s telling you and wish to continue on without interruption until you have time to buy windshield wiper fluid.

After passing a slow moving vehicle on the highway, with much gusto thanks to that torque-y engine if I’m honest, the engine light came on. I made sure I checked the gas tank cover and it was sealed properly. This engine should be able to handle passing any vehicle no matter how aggressively without issue considering how new it is.

Then there were the front sensors which seemed to consistently warn me that I was immanently going to hit something when there was clearly nothing there. The first time I thought maybe a cat or something had ran out in front of me and I hadn’t noticed so I slammed on the brakes just in case. But then it kept happening. It happened five more times throughout my time with the Touareg. Again, no cats or any objects, just the Touareg apparently messing about with the driver.

Then there’s the issue of the price. The over $63,000 as tested price is quite the sticker shock – not what you’d expect from “The People’s Car”. You can get the BMW X5 diesel for the same price and it has a better engine and better handling, although admittedly, if it is optioned out like the Touareg, the price climbs steadily from there.

But in a way that doesn’t even matter. This is one of the few SUV’s that can actually be proud to be one and which surprises in a good way. It has excellent ruggeddsc03786 looks (despite being an eight year old design), it proves to hold its own in bad conditions, the interior is great, there’s lots of cargo room, it handles exceptionally well and it has a tremendous engine under the hood. If you take away the shaky VW reliability and cut the price down you’d have yourself one hell of an SUV. And that’s something people just might not expect, which makes the Touareg TDI refreshingly non-irritating.

Base Price: $58,300

Price As Tested: $63,380

Pros:

  • Excellent engine
  • Great looks
  • Handles decently for its weight as size
  • A bit of piece of mind for the environment

Cons:

  • Shaky reliability
  • Steep price
  • Too many buttons on the dash

Score: 8/10

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