Archive for the ‘Touareg’ Category

Introduced as a 2004 model, the Touareg sport utility vehicle was Volkswagen's first foray into SUVs, and its most expensive vehicle at the time. Now VW will unveil a redesigned, second-generation 2011 Volkswagen Touareg at January's Detroit Auto Show.

The Touareg shares a basic platform with the high performance Porsche Cayenne SUV, itself being renewed for 2011, and the Audi Q7, which uses a longer wheelbase for greater interior room. All three vehicles are being redesigned at the same time.

The 2011 Touareg will include a hybrid model in the lineup, its first, along with a TDI clean-diesel model. TheCarConnection drove the current 2009...

The 2009 Volkswagen Touareg V6 TDI makes a lot more sense than the standard gasoline Touareg V-6 and V-8 models, but it's still a niche vehicle with niche appeal. That's an assessment that TheCarConnection.com couldn't quite steer around after a week and some 650 miles with the TDI.

To see why, it's worth diving into the numbers and sheer practicality first. Diesels are gaining a new reputation as clean, economical engines for the type of driving that Americans do, but in this respect the Touareg TDI just isn't that satisfying. In around 50 miles of around-town driving and short trips we averaged just 16 mpg in the Touareg TDI. Then...

Volkswagen has released a more efficient, eco-honed BlueMotion version of its Touareg TDI in Europe and the U.K.

The new Touareg BlueMotion employs a host of efficiency improvements, including engine optimization, better aerodynamics, a more efficient alternator, and low rolling resistance tires, and the body has been lowered by about an inch.

There's a significant difference at the pump. The BlueMotion gets an improved combined-cycle fuel economy figure (usually roughly equivalent to EPA highway numbers) of 28.3 U.S. mpg, up from 25.3 mpg—a difference that could pay for itself much faster in those markets, where fuel prices are...