2005 Volkswagen Touareg Preview

2005 Volkswagen Touareg V-8

You can drive it anywhere. But do you need a SUV that can cross the Sahara?

In the first three months of 2004, BMW Group sold nearly double the number of Mini Coopers and Cooper S units as Volkswagen sold Golfs.

In the same period, Volvo's XC90 outsold VW's Touareg by 1,000 units, even though the Volvo has been around nearly two years longer and the Touareg should still be benefiting from serious buzz, if only because it's newer.

Overall, in fact, Volkswagen sales (which also include subsidiaries Audi and Bentley) are off 15% through April 2004 in the U.S., and it's doubtful the carmaker will be able to do much to stem this downward slide. The reason is that while Volkswagen continues to fight aggressively in Europe, the carmaker waits way too long to introduce new cars to the U.S. By the time "new" models get here, they are often nearly two years into their European life cycles. This has the effect of looking as if VW is responding to last year's challenges rather than next year's, a criticism we car-industry writers used to reserve for American makers.

 (And we won't even go into the problems VW is having with its new luxury Phaeton sedan.)

General Motors, Ford Motor and DaimlerChrysler were consistently guilty of such myopia, until quite recently. But now that's a harder statement to make about the Big 2.5, with GM especially going on offense against its European and Japanese competitors. Ford, too, is finally coming out with what looks to be good -- and uniquely American -- product, as is Chrysler. (Although the latter is mired in horrendous management infighting, and that alone could easily undermine any success the German-American carmaker finds in the next few years.)

But back to VW and, more to the point, the subject of this review: the $40,700 V-8 Touareg. As we said when we first drove the Touareg, this is one tremendously capable off-road SUV. Its suspension can rise up to give you 11 inches of ground clearance, so you can easily rock crawl up the most washed-out, miserable "road" you might find in the state of Utah. There's 4Xmotion all-wheel drive and you get a low range, so that driving at 1 mph up the steepest incline is no more trouble for the Touareg than idling in traffic is for most other SUVs. And should the wheels actually spin on such steeps, there are locking differentials and adaptive torque distribution to place that power where you need it. Getting a Touareg stuck in the mud would take way more craft than never once getting it stranded anywhere.

But as the owner of this vehicle, you would still face challenges. Where do you put a sixth person, for instance?

Consider, for example, that an equally priced Volvo XC90 can be had with an optional third-row seat, and that a third row comes standard on the Acura MDX, which can be had nicely equipped for about $40,000 as well. Now, unless you really do live at the end of mining road traversed by a raging river, which vehicle seems more flexible? The one that can ford streams easily, or the one that can swallow more of your kid's friends on the way home from baseball practice?

OK, so what if you're really smitten with the looks of the Touareg -- and its whole VW-ness? Keep reading.