Volkswagen Touareg review

There are four trim levels - V6 SEL, R-Line, R-Line Tech and Black Edition - plus the full-on Touareg R, so no lack of choice. Although if you hit the VW website you may see that there is no option for a factory order at the moment. That’s not because you can’t get a Touareg, just that VW has stock available that it needs to shift, so the advice is to contact a dealer.

Still, the base SEL 3.0-litre TDI weighs in at £55,885, with a walk-up to the bells’n’whistles Black Edition up at just under £65,305. The R is just under £72k, but comes with 462bhp. The base diesel is a 231bhp 3.0-litre V6 connected to an eight-speed auto (as are all Touaregs), but the slightly higher-powered 282bhp version of the same set-up is probably the preferred option, especially if you do any towing. Which apparently nearly 50 per cent of Touareg owners do.

With the extra grunt, clogging the throttle will see 62mph off from a standstill in 6.1 seconds and onto a top speed of 146mph. Or 147mph if you’ve specced the optional air suspension. If you’re super careful, you can get 40mpg from it while it kicks out 214g/km of C02. There’s also a 335bhp V6 petrol available - beware mid-20s mpg - while the Chinese (the Touareg’s biggest market) have the option of a 362bhp plug-in hybrid version, we aren’t going to see that. Instead, we get the R, which combines a tax-friendly plug-in hybrid system with a 462bhp system output. 

Taking a mid-spec Touareg V6 R-Line with the lower-powered diesel and 34.4mpg officially, VW would be looking at PCP of 48 months at 10k miles per year at roughly £615 a month with three grand down. Though you can get that cheaper if you shop around a bit. So not cheap, but decent value for the vehicle on offer.