NEW volkswagen touareg 2010

Blings:

• Impeccable interior
• Innovative side headlights that light up when the car is in a turn
• Adjustable ride suspension really works and it adjusts the auto height automatically
• Auto sensing rain wipers worked flawlessly
• So many controls to play with and I never had to open the manual
• The electronic parking assist is a great tool. The rear camera also displays graphics to indicate where the car is going.
• Ahh luxury. Driver and passenger both have powered seats; the kids in the rear have their own climate control and their own heated seats.

Dings:

• Cargo room is limited
• Folding rear seats is painful to operate
• Sunroof is tiny
• Exterior styling seems unchanged from the previous Touareg
• No iPod dock

Our test car was equipped with the 4.2-liter V-8, four-corner air suspension with towing and off-road options. The car is a dream to drive with its 350 hp V8 engine and adaptive 6-speed automatic transmission. It accelerates effortlessly at any speed and torque is available with minimal downshifts. The Touareg doesn’t feel like a rocket as verified by its 7.6 second 0-60 acceleration. It is a heavy car after all and the driver is insulated from exterior noise and road imperfections. We can say speed comes effortlessly for this car with 324 lb-ft of torque under your control.

As we threw the car around some twisty roads, it did feel a bit high and body roll started to rear it’s ugly head. So we put the suspension in “sport” mode and the car felt more responsive in corners and road feel was improved. The car lowered itself by a couple of inches as well and that improved body roll. We hit the Auto-Height button once more and the car squatted down another inch. Mountain roads were actually quite fun when “sport” mode was engaged.

As the weather got worse, the Touareg 2 seemed to feel more comfortable. We were insulated from the wind and the pelting rain outside as we enjoyed the Dynaudio speakers inside. The rain-sensing wipers worked flawlessly without a single adjustment from us. During our long drive in the wet and less than friendly weather, the wipers kept pace with the rainfall rate and kept the water out without that dreaded wiperblade squeak.