New Volkswagen Touareg review, test drive

With just 240bhp to haul its 2135kg kerb-weight around, you would expect the Touareg to be a modest performer at best. However, in cars like this, it’s the torque that counts and this is something the 3.0-litre V6 diesel dishes out in spades. It makes 56kgm of the stuff and most of it is accessible from as low as 1500rpm. Pair this with the eight-speed gearbox and a reasonably chunky powerband and you have an SUV that performs like you expect it to.

When you step on the heavily sprung throttle pedal, there’s an initial pause before the nose gently rises and the Touareg defies its weight. Performance is strong and acceleration doesn’t let up until you are well past 150kph. Even then, 200kph is just a few seconds away and it feels entirely comfortable blitzing distances at this speed all day long. For the record, it hits 100kph in an impressive 7.47sec and will cross the 200kph mark in under 40sec.

Part of the reason it performs so well is because of the eight-speed gearbox. The first six gears are for thrust and the last two super-tall ones for cruising. This provides the Touareg with a delightfully flexible range of performance – it’s long-geared and lazy when you want it to be, yet urgent enough when you ask for more acceleration. That the gearbox is pretty intuitive and responds reasonably well to throttle inputs only makes it all the better.

We’ve praised this V6 TDI’s refinement in the past (it’s similar to the one in almost every Audi sold in India), and its no different here. Apart from a really slight whine at low engine speeds, you will find nothing else to complain about. It even sounds very petrol-like from the outside, so the Taj valet won’t think any less of you either.

We did have an issue with the brakes though – despite posting an impressive emergency stopping distance, the brakes felt too wooden and slightly tricky to modulate.