Talking about Volkswagen’s large Toureg SUV, released late last year. A premium five-seat diesel-powered SUV it’s a competitor for Mercedes latest GLE, which has finally toppled BMW’s X5 as the long-standing best seller in the premium large SUV class. The new VW Toureg may not have the same prestige cachet as those two but makes up for it with a very sharp price. In two models, the base 190TDI at $79,490 and Premium 190TDI at $86,790. I took both on extensive drives, for my money the entry model impressed the most – both variants utilise a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel V6 engine driving all four wheels through an 8-speed automatic.

In short the drivetrain is the high point – super quiet, lusty in nature with 600Nm of torque and super frugal – I managed 7.6 L/100km over 600 kms of driving in each  – impressive for a vehicle tipping the scales at 2047 kilos – providing a 1200 kilometre range from a full tank. The base Toureg features a standard steel sprung suspension on 19-inch alloy wheels with 55 series tyres, the Premium gains a fully adaptive suspension and larger 20-inch wheels on 45-series tyres – it rides harder on these and for my money the base Toureg is the nicer on-road package.  Now with five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty this latest Volkswagen Toureg SUV really surprised me – a quality offering at a very sharp price.

I’m David Berthon

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