Test Drive: 2007 Volkswagen Touareg V6

T'regging Lady

The Good

Interior fit and finish
Feature list
Power liftgate

The Bad

Color selection: silver, blue silver, dark grey silver, beige silver, green silver, white or black
Availability – VW isn’t making the 2007 anymore, so you have to find what you want already built

Chris and I had only looked at the Touareg at auto shows, but after trying to fold down the seats at the 2006 show, I decided that the Touareg was archaic and not worth my time. I don’t actually remember anything else about the vehicle besides folding the back seats down.

But today I found myself between a rock and a hard place: The BMW X5 is sweet but way more than I want to spend, and the VW Passat is just too small for car seats and in-laws. Since we were at the VW dealer, I thought, well, why not at least look at the Touareg (pronounced TOOR-egg, according to www.volkswagen.de).

The dealer’s showroom proudly displayed a V10 diesel, which is laughably expensive for a VW ($70,000), but has the same interior as the V8 and V6, so we gave it a test sit.

Interior Wows

As I climbed into the driver’s seat, my first thought was “wow,” followed by “I don’t like this car?” First impression of the interior was that it’s very high end, with a nice array of materials, textures and colors. This model had dark wood and a black and teak interior. They call it teak but we call it saddle because that’s what it looked like. A deep, rich, reddish brown like a saddle or ball glove. The seats and door inserts were in the saddle color; the dash, doors, and carpet were in black and the headliner was grey. A lot of color going on in one interior, but VW pulled it off well.

The driver’s seat was fairly adjustable and I found a comfortable spot right away. The passenger seat isn’t quite as comfortable due to a hump in the floor that reminds me a bit of sitting on the wheel hump in a school bus or in the passenger seat of Chris’s old Firebird. Both seats offer many power adjustments and lumbar, and with some packages even the passenger seat has memory.

The backseat was firm but roomy and had one feature I was really excited about: Rear air controls. Not only were there vents, but there were two separate controls so the rear seat had dual air. And seat heaters! The a/c vents were in the center console (knee level, or what I like to call “panty a/c”) and also in the b-pillars closer to face-level.

Folding Seats A Hassle

Folding down the back seats was still a hassle, just like at the auto show. The process involved several steps. First, make sure the front seats aren’t too far back (perhaps a good use for one of the memory positions). Then pull a loop under the bottom seat and flip the seat bottom so it’s leaned against the front seat. Then pull a handle on the seat back to tilt the seat slightly forward. While it’s in the forward position, push a button on the headrest while pulling on the headrest to remove it. Once the headrest is out, lay the seat flat, and then store the headrest in the upright seat bottom. Then repeat the procedure for the other seat one wishes to fold down (the seats are split in a 60/40 configuration).

A huge hassle actually, but I think it took longer for me to type it than for the salesman to actually do it, so it’s obviously something you’d get used to. And the other thing to remember, at least for us, is that once we put a car seat in the middle, well, we’re really not going to be folding the seats flat all that often anyway. So it’s a great perk to have when we need the extra cargo room, but not something we’d want to do every day.

I think the trunk (with the rear seats in sittable position) is about the same size as my A4 wagon. It’s certainly taller, but I don’t think it’s as deep. However, the rear seats fold completely flat, which is something that I wish my A4’s did because it makes hauling things like large picture frames easier.

Functional Trunk Liftgate

The rear window glass opens or you can open the whole door. I like that the window opens so I could easily toss things in the back, but the Touareg is tall enough that I wouldn’t be able to get anything out that way, and I can barely reach the glass to close it (probably couldn’t if I was barefoot). The brochure says the power liftgate is adjustable and the dealer can lower it for shorter drivers so it’s easier to reach the close button. Neat, although I’m not sure what effect that would have on the glass.

Increased Horsepower

Enough with the interior, let’s take the V6 for a drive. The six cylinder Touareg has more horsepower this year: 276 in the 3.6 liter V6 engine, up from 240 horsepower in the 2006 model. I tried sport mode when getting on the freeway and was able to easily merge with Houston traffic. One nice thing about the sport mode was that once on the freeway, I didn’t notice I was still in sport mode. When I leave my A4 in sport mode, it’s louder on the highway and sounds like it needs to shift, so once I’m done merging I usually shift out of sport mode. No such problem in the Touareg, perhaps because the transmission has 6 speeds.

The ride is fairly quiet, especially for a vehicle that feels so tall. Chris and I commented several times about how high we were; we hadn’t noticed that in other SUVs we’ve driven. And I’m happy to report that I could cruise on the freeway at 70 with the sunroof open. No thumping and no need to crack the rear windows. And we could still have a conversation (although we both talk loud enough to wake the dead anyway). Sweet! The wind deflector is a little odd looking however (looks like it’s made from wire and fabric), and from the backseat you can actually see it fluttering in the wind.

The model we drove was equipped with backup sensors and front sensors. When we pulled over in a parking lot to switch drivers, a man walked in front of the car and set the front sensor off. We both thought that was pretty funny, and since we live in a neighborhood full of children, it’s probably not a bad feature to have.

Chris thought the V6 had plenty of pep despite the Touareg's massive weight – a compliment coming from a guy shopping for a cam because his 405 hp Corvette feels slow. However, the V6 doesn’t get much better gas mileage than the V8, so if you’re a horsepower junkie the 340 hp V8 might be worth the extra money.

The engine also has a decent amount of torque, 265 foot pounds, and the Touareg is rated for towing up to 7700 pounds. That's an impressive 1700 pounds more than the truck-based Pathfinder.

Firm Backseat

I rode in the back seat behind Chris on the way back to the dealer. The seat was really firm, almost uncomfortably so, but the rear air vents were nice. This model did not have the rear air controls so I couldn't adjust where the pillar vents were aimed, but I could direct the knee level vents in the console towards my face. I didn’t have any problems with motion sickness at all.

Overall Impression

A very nice interior in an SUV that can actually go off road. Definitely a car to consider if you want the fit and finish of a BMW X5 without the Bimmer price tag.