SA Road Tests

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This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.

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*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the reports.

We drive the 2011 Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 V6 TDi Tiptronic with BlueMotion Technology

SUV that drives like a sports car

Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday January 19, 2011

Marketers know the difference between sizzle and steak: helping you give your child a decent tertiary education rather than selling just another endowment policy or assuring comfortable retirement rather than signing up a common pension plan. VW's Touareg picked up some new sizzle in the form of a facelift this past October, but let's be vulgar and deal with the steak, instead.

The 3,0 litre diesel introduced in 2006 has gained 11 kW of power and 50 Nm of torque. The body is 41 mm longer, 17 mm lower and 12 mm wider, while its wheelbase grew by 38 mm. Body modifications, new materials and a lighter powertrain helped it lose over 200 kg. A new eight-speed transmission, geared for economy in the upper two ratios (maximum speed is reached in sixth) helps it save fuel, as does low-friction automatic transmission fluid (ATF) and a new heat exchanger, to reduce friction losses. Stop-start technology and regenerative braking assist the economy effort as well.

These changes make the car noticeably bigger inside, about seven-tenths of a second quicker to 100 km/h and 14 km/h faster. As a boring side effect (he grins wickedly), it uses about three litres less fuel per 100 km than it did before.  The Car magazine fuel index for the new car is 8.9 l/100 km vs. 11.9 for the old one. Our informal real-life consumption test over 300 km worked out to about 8.6 l/100.

Our Galapagos Anthracite (what we blokes would call Charcoal) test car arrived with R145620-worth of accessories. These included metallic paint, a fold out towbar, keyless entry, tyre pressure monitor, rear side airbags, shift paddles, area- and rear-view with park distance control, air suspension, power closing tailgate, terrain tech package, satnav, and comfort seats with electrical adjustment and three-way memory for the driver's chair.  Depending on your point of view, some of these would be very nice to have, while others might be considered a waste of money.

Buyers looking to turn the already-capable Touareg into a serious bushwhacker would probably select the terrain tech package, air suspension and area-plus-rear view, and ignore the rest. The combination of terrain tech and air suspension increases ground clearance by 80 mm to 300 mm, approach and departure angles from 22/23 degrees to 33 degrees at both ends and fording depth from 500 to 580 mm.  Satnav with music storage and DVD playback ability is always nice, but rather than spending R28 290 one might consider just an add-on GPS unit instead.

When Volkswagen developed the Touareg back in 2002 (in SA since 2004), the idea was to produce a luxurious SUV that drove like a sports car. In this, they succeeded because the Touareg is not only extremely comfortable but is equipped or available with all the little touches that make life pleasant. It handles very competently as well. If you're curious, Touareg shares its floor pan and some basic equipment with both Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne.

Cargo capacity is 580 litres with the adjustable back seat in its rearmost position and 660 litres with the seat moved forward; its range of movement is about 150 mm. Seat backs fold one-third, two-thirds in response to switches on the right side panel of the load bay to increase volume to a maximum of 1 642 litres. These figures are respectively 25- and 72 litres greater than in the old model, with the space being 190 mm wider. There are four lashing rings, plus a side pocket and elastic straps for smaller items. Loading height is at about mid-thigh, with no sill.

Apart from the forward and backward adjustment mentioned earlier, the backrests of the rear seat recline through a fair range. Headroom and leg space with the seat at its rearmost position are almost limousine-like, while entry and exit are easy thanks to no side sills to scramble over. A nice touch, if you're going camping with a small mains appliance, is a 230-volt, 150-Watt Euro plug socket at the back of the centre console.

Up front, the computer and satnav controls are quite easy to work with, while the "paddled" steering wheel supplied includes phone, music and trip computer buttons. The optional 'comfort' seats boast lumbar and side bolster adjustments in addition to the usual fore-aft, height and recline. The driver's chair can store up to three settings.

While we fully understand its usefulness as a fuel-saving measure, the constant automatic stopping and starting did get a little irritating in traffic jams. It can apparently be switched off when scrambling in the dirt, so it might be a plan to occasionally disable it for crawling along in snailway traffic too?

Whether you're after the 'sizzle' of an upmarket SUV or the 'steak' of a genuinely competent off-roader, the VW Touareg is worth looking at - twice.

The numbers

Prices: R622 000 (basic) or R767 620  (as tested)

Engine: 2 967 cc V6 turbodiesel

Power: 176 kW at 4 000 rpm

Torque:  550 Nm between 2 000 and 2 250 rpm

Zero to 100 km/h: 7.8 seconds

Maximum speed: 218 km/h

Real life fuel consumption: about 8.6 l/100 km

Tank: 100 litres

Off-road figures: See text

Warranty: 3 years/100 000 km

AutoMotion maintenance plan: 5 years/100 000 km

What We Do

This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.

What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.

Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.

I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax. 

So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!

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