2020 Volkswagen Touareg detailed review: It's a luxury SUV on a budget, but is it any good?

CarExpert

Did you know, the Volkswagen Touareg shares a platform with the Audi Q7, the Bentley Bentayga, the Porsche Cayenne and the Lamborghini Urus?! That means you're getting a cut-price Bentley that wears a Volkswagen badge. Not bad, right? We also review Volkswagen Discover Premium, which is a huge 15" infotainment screen. But, does the Touareg feel like a quality proposition? Watch and find out!  Read the full review: https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-reviews/2020-volkswagen-touareg-190tdi-premium-review/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=review&utm_term=&utm_content=&utm_campaign=single-car-review  Skip Ahead: Intro: 00:00 Exterior: 00:56 Interior: 03:02 Infotainment: 04:39 Features: 12:11  Practicality: 13:50 On the Road: 18:23 Verdict: 23:45  We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.  Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.  Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1  You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.  Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you! #volkswagen #review #touareg  Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!  CarExpert: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au  Paul Maric: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric  @volkswagen @volkswagenaustralia

Transcript

00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. The last Volkswagen Touareg was a personal favourite of mine.

00:04 On the outside it was like a family SUV, but beneath the skin it could harbour like this

00:09 big six-pack in the form of a W12 engine. And this new generation Touareg shares a platform

00:15 with the Audi Q7, the Bentley Bentayga, the Porsche Cayenne and the Lamborghini Urus.

00:20 So, it can't be too bad, right? So today we're going to do a detailed review of this.

00:24 This is the 190 Premium. It starts at just under $90,000, but this one here has almost

00:31 $30,000 of options on it. So, we want to figure out whether this is good value for money and

00:36 whether you should be sticking it on your family SUV list. If you do want to skip ahead to other

00:40 parts of this review, you can use the time codes up on the screen there, or if you're on YouTube,

00:44 just scroll down to the description where you'll see the links. And if you haven't done so already,

00:47 I would absolutely love it if you could hit subscribe and also press the bell icon,

00:51 so you'll find out every single time we drive a Lamborghini Urus in disguise.

00:54 Let's talk exterior. I think the Touareg looks really good. And by the way, is it Touareg,

01:00 Touareg? I don't know. Remember, I'm Australian, so I'll probably pronounce everything wrong.

01:04 It's always had a bit of a muscular look to it, and they've retained that. It's got that

01:07 stance on the road. You know that it's a premium SUV, and you know that it's coming at you.

01:11 This one here has the R-Line package fitted. You can see because it says R-Line. It gets the front

01:16 and rear R-Line treatment. It's about an $8,000 extra to add on to this. And keep in mind that

01:21 while we talk about this car, some of the stuff that you see fitted to here is going to be

01:25 optional. I'll call out as much of it as I can, but make sure if you do buy one of these, you

01:29 just double check to see what is standard. Big proud Volkswagen logo there, and that big imposing

01:35 grille with all the chrome highlights. Six colours available, all but the base white is an extra

01:40 $2,000. I love how colours just become more expensive the bigger the car is. What I find

01:45 weird though, have a look at this. There's these holes that I thought initially were for a camera

01:49 or something, but there's just a screw in there. There's another one on this side as well, so it's

01:53 just a random placement of things. Very strange. Full LED headlights. This one has the matrix LED

01:59 lights as well, so it will see around other cars and dip the beam as traffic approaches you. And I

02:04 love on the inside there, there's like alligator teeth just in front of the light. If we jump

02:09 around to the side here, you'll see 20-inch alloy wheels, 285mm wide tyres, air suspension,

02:15 and they're a pretty cool design. They don't look too fancy, they're not too big, they just look

02:20 nice and elegant, and I'm keen to see how this rides, because with air suspension and 45 profile

02:25 tyres, this should be nice and cushy, and I hope Volkswagen's managed to retain that in this body,

02:30 given that it is shared with a number of performance SUVs. Come around to the side,

02:34 more R-line badges, indicator built into the wing mirror. You get these nice looking roof rails,

02:40 chrome highlights around the side, privacy glass fitted to this car as well. Then around the back,

02:45 I think this is probably my favourite angle of this car. It kind of retains the design of the

02:48 previous generation, but it gives you the addition here of LED lights. Just looks really good,

02:55 especially at night time. If you're following this car, you're going to know exactly what it is,

02:58 and it has that nice low slung stance on the road. Welcome to the inside of the Touareg.

03:04 Have a look at this. This is one of the biggest interior flexes I've seen since, I don't know,

03:09 I reckon the Tesla Model S when it had that 17-inch screen. This is cool. That's a 15-inch

03:14 screen, and then ahead of the driver is almost a 13-inch screen. I'm going to go into a lot more

03:18 detail about this new infotainment system soon, but on first glance, this is a really nice looking

03:24 interior. Now, muttering journalists all harp on about soft touch plastics, so we've got a device

03:29 here to test out our soft touch plastics. This is called a durometer, it's a hardness tester,

03:33 measures on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 is super soft, 100 is super hard. Let's see what that

03:40 dashboard is like. That's pretty impressive. That's in the 50s there. What about this

03:45 center console lid? Yeah, nice. That's not too bad as well. Pretty impressive.

03:51 But what about the build quality? Hmm. Well, while I was driving over here, I heard

03:57 some creaks and rattles, and I was like, I wonder what that is, and then I started poking around.

04:02 Have a listen to that. That sounds terrible. So while you drive, all the thumps kind of make that

04:09 flex, and then the sun makes it flex as well, so it is pretty disappointing that this has been

04:15 built like this. And then the other thing I noticed, the bottom of this screen sits flush

04:19 with the screen adjacent to it, but this part up here sticks out. It's only by like three or four

04:24 millimeters, but there is a clear difference there. So, I don't know, this doesn't feel as

04:29 premium as something like a Bentayga or a Q7. Yes, I understand it is cheaper, but I don't really

04:34 get it. The Touareg's built in Slovakia. They all share the same platform. Why can this be built

04:38 like this, and the others aren't? Okay, let's talk infotainment, and what we're going to do is split

04:43 this detailed infotainment review into three sections. First, we're going to look at the

04:47 15-inch screen over here, the screen ahead of the driver, and then the heads-up display. So,

04:52 let's kick off with this screen. It's called Discover Premium. This is now on the Touareg.

04:58 It is an option, so it's part of the $8,000 option package. The standard screen's much smaller and

05:02 has the buttons integrated beneath it. They don't really look that good. It has gesture control,

05:07 as you've just seen. Using your hand, you can swipe between menus. Sometimes works,

05:11 sometimes doesn't, so who knows what's going on there. This is the main screen. You can see it's

05:16 divided into three sections. You have your navigation map on one side, telephone, and then

05:20 FM. Let's jump through navigation first. This is a really high resolution screen. It's a super-fast

05:27 processor as well, so you can zoom in and out very easily. And then, I love the fact that you have

05:32 an auto-zoom mode here as well. What that means is that as you approach intersections or you're

05:37 on a highway, it's going to zoom in and out, respectively, so that you don't constantly have

05:41 to keep fiddling with it if you don't necessarily need to see the streets that are coming ahead.

05:46 And then, check this feature out. Rocket mode. No idea what that's for, but it has rocket mode.

05:52 What about entering a destination? So, you'll notice there, as your finger gets close to the

05:57 screen, it's got a proximity sensor on it, so right now it's empty. As the finger approaches,

06:01 it brings up extra context menus that allows you to go to a new destination. So, let's just try

06:06 Melbourne Airport. We'll see how quickly that finds it. That's actually going really fast.

06:12 There we go. We've got the airport there. That's really quick, and you can see in the background,

06:17 it's processing and giving you more options as it goes as well. So, navigation, big tick there.

06:22 What about phone connectivity? Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is standard, but both of them require

06:27 a cable. They're not a wireless system. I'll show you what that looks like. Despite the fact you

06:31 have a 15-inch screen, that's all you get for CarPlay. I would have thought they would take

06:35 up that entire screen and really just give it a detailed, sophisticated look, so it is a bit

06:40 disappointing that it is shoeboxed into that little slot just there. Over on the radio menu,

06:45 you would expect to find AM/FM, DAB+, online streaming. Unfortunately, you're only getting

06:51 AM and FM radio. There's no DAB+ digital radio, which seems entirely bizarre when this car that

06:57 we're sitting in has every single option pack available, and you still don't get it. You do get

07:00 a voice recognition system, though, so a push of this button allows you to call contacts, enter

07:05 navigation addresses, and it works really well. You can also use that button to interact with your

07:09 CarPlay or smartphone mirroring system, which is far more accurate and will get the information

07:14 across through the cloud. Now, when you do disconnect your phone from CarPlay, it will

07:18 then connect over Bluetooth. Using Bluetooth, you're able to stream music, make telephone calls,

07:24 so I'll show you what the phone menu looks like. Here you can add favourites, you can see your

07:27 recent calls, contacts, and also manually dial numbers. One more push of this button takes you

07:32 to the second home screen. This gives you a bit more detail. You've got a clock up there,

07:36 you can switch between two different styles, vehicle status, so if the car has any errors,

07:40 it will tell you what's going on, it'll tell you what state the tyres are in, and finally,

07:44 oil level. Positioning, so I often say this, you're probably never ever going to need to use

07:49 this, but if you are involved in an accident or you're first to arrive on an accident scene,

07:53 it's very, very relevant that you know where to find your global position. You'll be able to give

07:58 this to authorities so they can come and find you, and then here it'll also tell you how many

08:01 satellites you're currently connected to. Let's have a closer look at the other menus you have

08:05 along the top here. So, your media menu allows you to stream over Bluetooth audio, the inbuilt SD

08:10 card slots, or the internal jukebox, which is internal drive storage, and if we jump over to

08:16 car, if you do any off-roading, the off-road menu will tell you your inclination, the tilt angle

08:20 that you're on, and what the all-wheel drive system's doing. You can change the different

08:24 modes here, so when you are in off-road mode, you're presented with more information, and that's

08:28 going to be handy if you ever go to the bush or you're going to a favourite camping site, all of

08:33 that information is contained within this screen. You can then deep dive further into the available

08:37 menus for the car with convenience consumers, so what is consuming energy inside the car,

08:42 the driving data, so how much fuel you've been consuming over the long term, short term,

08:46 you can reset that as you go, and finally the vehicle status, so any errors that appear here,

08:51 you'll be able to find them, such as tyre pressure, oil pressure, the whole works is

08:55 going to appear on that centre screen there. The other fascinating thing is the animations they've

08:59 been able to integrate here, so with the seat heaters, they come up nicely there, you can

09:03 switch those on and off, and then when it comes time to adjusting your climate, check this out,

09:08 so it gives you an overlay of the car, it allows you to set climate through the different zones,

09:12 including in eco mode, where it only heats part of the cabin that you're in, so because I'm the

09:17 only one in the car at the moment, you can see it's only heating the driver's cabin, and if you

09:20 then press this, it shows you what's happening in the rear of the car. You've got four zones of

09:24 climate, so you can change those as you please in the Tourig, and this screen allows you to

09:28 visualise everything as you go. Heated steering wheel button is here as well, with three different

09:32 heat settings. The last thing I want to show you here are the cameras. The car is loaded with

09:36 cameras, and normally we complain when it comes to 360 cameras that they don't present a high

09:41 enough resolution screen, well, different story with the Tourig. Have a look at that, you can see

09:46 very clearly there, and then I love this, press 3D, and then it allows you to skip around the car

09:51 and find different views, and it literally looks like there's a little drone above the car

09:57 controlling everything, then you can manually come in and move things around yourself if you want,

10:02 and then you also have the Park Assist Plus, which allows you to go in perpendicular, parallel,

10:07 in and out of parks. It has you fully covered if you're not overly confident with parking.

10:12 Last thing I want to show you here as well is this. You can configure the car to back up to

10:17 a trailer properly, so that you're not going to ding the car as you're reversing, then you also

10:21 have a super wide-angle camera if you're reversing out of a spot where you can't see cars coming

10:27 either way. Moving on from the 15-inch screen to the 12.3-inch screen ahead of the driver,

10:32 this is another pretty impressive flex as well, because it is incredibly high resolution,

10:36 and it seems quicker than the screens they use in Audis. I'll quickly walk you through what this is

10:41 able to do and how to operate it. So right now we have it in map mode with the dials on either side,

10:46 tachometer on the left, speedometer to the right. One push of a button changes that into a full map

10:52 screen. Look how quickly that transitions. You can see the speed in that processor,

10:56 there's really no lag there at all. Then using this button on the steering wheel, we can switch

11:00 between different displays, so I can have audio on the screen and the station that we're listening to,

11:04 telephone and anyone that I need to call, vehicle status, so this is important if the car has any

11:10 problems, this is where they're going to appear. You can see we've got a door open there, so it's

11:13 telling us on the screen, and again in any of these menus you can switch between small and

11:17 big screen. Head-up display, you can switch it on and off. Off-road menu, if you are going off-road,

11:23 you can get the same display that you have here with the inclination and the angles that you're on.

11:27 Driving data, so again trip computer data is all stored in here, and then you can move between the

11:32 different screens that are available to you. You can configure all the assist systems on the go,

11:36 so you can switch those on and off as required. Come through here if you don't want the side

11:40 assist on, you just give that one click and then it switches off. And finally we're back to the

11:44 map menu. What you'll find here is that this map menu is extremely handy if you don't really know

11:48 where you're going. It'll zoom in close enough so you can see the streets that are coming up,

11:52 and if you are looking for anything in particular you can zoom in a little further just using the

11:55 steering wheel controls. And finally, ahead of the driver we have the heads-up display.

12:00 Shows you the radar and how far you are compared to other cars. We've got a speedometer there as

12:04 well, and if you have any navigation data that's going to appear ahead of the driver too, and again

12:09 just on and off here, it's all very straightforward. Let's talk other features. So remember I said

12:14 earlier that this car has virtually every single option ticked on it, so if you are buying one,

12:18 just make sure you double check the options that are standard with the car. I'll run through what

12:23 is fitted to this car. So heated and cooled seats, four-zone climate control, low and high

12:28 speed autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection, and this has quite an innovative feature

12:33 when it comes to pulling out of side streets. If you do pull out and don't see a car coming

12:37 across the other way, it's able to detect that car and stop before you hit it. That also works

12:42 in reverse as well with rear cross traffic alert, so it's all standard. Panoramic glass sunroof

12:47 adds a fair bit of light to the cabin. Like I mentioned before, this screen is optional. The

12:51 standard one is smaller. You also just get traditional gauges in front of the driver

12:56 instead of the full display. Heads-up display optional as well. DynAudio sound system. You

13:01 have an LED lighting package. You have 30 colours to choose from, so they light up beautifully at

13:07 night. You can set the intensity and the shades that you want to be displayed inside the cabin.

13:11 There's also massage function on the seat, 18-way power adjustment, memory for the seats,

13:17 electric steering adjustment, and the R-Line package adds this pretty neat looking wheel

13:22 with R-Line down the bottom. Now, what does the key look like? Let's fish that out. This is the

13:26 new generation of Volkswagen key. So there's the front of it. Lock, unlock, and boot. Then if you

13:32 flick it around, there's the Volkswagen symbol. This is the old Volkswagen symbol. There's a new

13:38 symbol coming on the new Golf, so this will be replaced soon. It's a proximity key, so you just

13:43 keep that in your pocket and then grab the door handle to open the door. Then once you're inside

13:48 the car, it's a push-button start. Moving on to practicality. What's the storage like? Let's grab

13:53 our phone. That fits virtually anywhere, and there is a wireless phone charger down here,

13:57 so you tuck your phone in there. Lights up to say that it's charging. What about bottle storage?

14:02 Well, two cup holders up the front here, and they have these retractable grips on them,

14:07 so you can fit pretty big bottles or small bottles or small coffee, and then inside the door you have

14:12 generous door bins with bottle holders and then room either side. It's in a console.

14:16 Not massive, not overly small either with one USB port. Your other USB port is here. There's also

14:22 this little cubby hole here. There's netting down the side here for bits and pieces, and then the

14:27 glove box has storage for your manual, although there's not a great deal room in there for

14:31 anything else. You then have SD and SIM card for remote connected services in there too.

14:36 What about comfort? Yeah, these seats are nice, so they have the in-built massage function,

14:40 and the R-Line gets the R-Line treatment there in that faux carbon weave up the top. It's a really

14:46 nice place to be seated. I do like that this is an R-spec steering wheel, but I think it looks a

14:52 tiny bit cheap. I don't know, this is the kind of thing you'd expect fitted to cheaper versions of

14:56 Volkswagens. I would have thought the Touareg has a thicker, meatier steering wheel, especially in

15:00 the R-Line trim. Let's talk second row. As a grown adult, I can fit beautifully here. I've got loads

15:07 of knee room, heaps of toe room as well, and it's just a really nice accommodating space. If someone

15:12 was sitting here, I wouldn't feel too close to them. I think you'd probably even be able to fit

15:16 three abreast at a pinch. There's also a centre armrest with three cup holders, but let's see if

15:23 they fit. So yes, no, no. So it's like a normal bottle, small bottle, and then like a piccolo

15:29 cup or something like that. You can also put this in the door, and you know what's interesting?

15:34 Right down the bottom of the door, this has like plush pile carpet at the bottom. It's going to

15:39 be impossible for you to see, but you just have to trust me that it is really nice and soft inside

15:43 the door bin. Map pockets in the back of the seats, and then this is where you control your

15:47 four zones of climate. So up and down with the temperature, you then have heated seats for the

15:52 outboard seats, and check this out. You get two USB outlets plus a 12 volts, and if you've got

15:57 kids in the back, two ISOFIX anchorage points on the outside seats, and then the ability to move

16:03 yourself forwards and backwards, and there's also a recline function too. There is one more feature

16:09 I want to point out. You remember the old school method of having to do the child lock on a car?

16:13 You had to get the key, put it in the back door while the car was stationary, and then your kids

16:16 wouldn't be able to run out by pulling the handle. Well, these days, it's far more advanced. On the

16:21 driver's door, there are two buttons. One push of it will stop the window going down, and also

16:26 lock this door from being opened on the inside, so the kids won't be able to escape or get

16:30 themselves into trouble accidentally. And just on kids, here's something for them to break.

16:35 A retractable blind. One of the advantages of not having to have seven seats is that you get more

16:42 boot space. So crack this open, power tailgate, and by the way, you've got an auto close function.

16:47 So with the key in your pocket, you push that button, you can walk away, and the car will close

16:51 and then lock on its own. 810 litres of cargo space in here, which is really impressive for

16:57 an SUV that is under five metres long. I've got a little carpet there, which is nice,

17:02 and then under the floor, you have the SpaceSaver spare tyre. Now, this one's interesting. If you

17:07 have a look at this, it's got like a gap in the middle there. It's quite thin. The way this works

17:11 is you pull it out and you hook it up to that compressor. The tyre expands, and then it pops

17:15 into position. It's quite daunting to see this in action, because it just bursts into place all of

17:20 a sudden. That's where they're going to save even more space in the boots of cars with SpaceSaver

17:25 spares. Under here as well, you have the big subwoofer for the optional sound system fitted

17:29 to this car, and then the car's battery is over there as well. I love this feature too. So if this

17:34 is too high for you, and if you're loading in bigger bits of luggage or shopping or something

17:38 like that, it can be. With the air suspension, push and hold this, and it will drop the car by

17:43 40 millimetres, which means getting things in and out is far easier. You can see it lowering there

17:49 on the air springs, it's reached position, and then the retractable cargo blind closes on its

17:54 own with the door, so you never need to touch this. That is a really cool feature. Okay, let's

17:59 drop these seats. Pull of that, pull of that. They also go flat. I'll show you how that works quickly.

18:04 They just lock into position there, and once they are down, that expands the space to 1800 litres.

18:12 I'll put my bag in there, just so you can get a reference for how big this is.

18:17 There it is there. You get a 12-volt outlet here as well, and then also a couple of lights on either

18:22 side. We've hit the road in the Touareg, and let's talk engines to start with. The one under the

18:28 bonnet of this car is an interesting one. It's shared with the Volkswagen Amarok. The Amarok is

18:34 the dual-cab ute that Volkswagen sells in Australia and other markets around the world.

18:38 It's a really trusty 3.0-litre turbocharged V6 diesel, makes 190 kilowatts of power,

18:44 600 newton-metres of torque, but it's not quite the engine that's sold in Europe with this car.

18:49 You're getting more torque, more power, and it's just a much better driving experience. We're

18:53 lumped with quite an old engine, unfortunately. There is a V8 diesel coming to the Touareg range,

18:58 but for the moment, you're just going to have to stick with this one. That torque is all sent

19:02 through an eight-speed automatic transmission. For the most part, it does a pretty good job of

19:07 handling the 600 newton-metres, but you can catch it napping at times. So here's an example. I'm

19:13 just going to roll onto the throttle. You kind of have to wait for stuff to happen, and while you do

19:18 get that big surge of torque when it is ready, there is quite a lag there, and I just wish it

19:23 was a little bit more responsive in gear. In terms of fuel economy, 7.4 litres of fuel per 100

19:29 kilometres is the official average. We've been averaging around 9.7, so it's close enough to

19:34 that figure. If you do just get the standard Touareg, you get a 75-litre fuel tank that gives

19:39 you just over 1,000 kilometres of driving range, but with the Sound and Comfort package, you get a

19:44 90-litre fuel tank, which means you're getting well in excess of 1,000 litres per tank of fuel.

19:49 Zero to 100 kilometres an hour is dispatched in six and a half seconds,

19:53 and this is what that looks like.

19:54 You have a litany of drive modes to choose from, so by pushing this button here,

20:06 it presents everything that's available. So we have Eco, Comfort, Normal, Sport, Individual,

20:13 Off-Road and Snow. Individual, of course, is the mode where you can select the characteristics of

20:18 the car, so if you want it to be firm but don't want it to be sporty, you can set that up,

20:22 or vice versa. What I will do is slot this into Sport, and see what that feels like.

20:27 Okay, so that has instantly become a whole lot firmer. You can see that platform sharing has

20:33 kicked into action here, because this feels a whole lot more like a Cayenne than it does a

20:39 Touareg. Let's pile it into this corner and see how it handles.

20:43 Yeah, that is really impressive. It's sitting dead flat through there, and it just feels so

20:49 nice and hunkered down to the ground. The steering's become a whole lot heavier. It just

20:53 feels really capable. Oh, you're going to get tired of that Sport mode pretty quickly. I'll

20:57 just drop that back into Comfort. Now, the Comfort's interesting because the air suspension

21:02 really levels the ride out. It has adaptive dampers in there as well, so it does feel nice

21:06 and smooth, but I don't know, it's weird. You hit some potholes, some bumps, and some other sort of

21:13 weird bits of road, and then it can get quite brittle. It's really hard to explain. It's not

21:17 soft and cushy like a Q7 is. It feels like they've tried to engineer a tiny bit of sportiness in

21:22 there as part of this R-Line package. If you do need to do some towing, this will support 3,500

21:28 kilograms of brake to towing capacity, and that's about right for a car this size. Q7 with a

21:34 slightly more powerful engine does the same, so it won't be as capable as the bigger Q7, but it is

21:40 capable enough to tow something like a caravan or perhaps a camper trailer. Let's talk off-roading.

21:45 So you get 213 millimetres of ground clearance, but if you do put it into the off-road mode,

21:50 and also you can adjust it manually, the car will lift by 70 millimetres, so that means you can do

21:56 some decent off-roading without clipping the undertray. In the off-road mode as well, it

22:00 adjusts stability controls and the amount of torque that's being sent to each wheel. It also dulls the

22:04 throttle response a little bit so that it is more capable and less edgy over rocks and other rough

22:09 terrain. And then of course, the suspension works in sport mode as well by lowering the ride by 15

22:14 millimetres. Let's talk visibility. So it's not as big as something like a CX-9 or a Volvo XC90,

22:20 but I have good visibility out the front. The wing mirrors are big enough, and then they have the

22:24 blind spot monitor built into them. Visibility out the back isn't the best. I was expecting a

22:28 little bit more, and that's partly due to this mirror being quite thin, and then the window at

22:32 the back being quite thin as well. But outside of that, it is quite easy to manoeuvre and easy to

22:37 park as well, especially with, again I'm using that word, optional Park Assist Plus that's fitted

22:42 to this car. Now regularly the turning circle is 12.2 metres, but fitted to this car is a

22:48 four-wheel steering system. So I'll go full lock here, and it turns like it's on a dime. That is

22:55 unbelievable. So that feature will be really good if you're doing a lot of city driving or

22:59 if you're in narrow car parks. Basically inverts the wheels, it allows it to tuck in nicely,

23:04 and then in sport mode you get the benefit of effectively reducing the wheelbase of the car.

23:08 Okay, what is cabin noise like? It is pretty damn serene in here. Even on course chip roads,

23:14 it's dead silent. You really don't hear anything as you drive along. It wafts along nicely. The

23:19 diesel engine is quite quiet as well, and then it has that nice thrum when you do step on it.

23:24 Now in terms of stepping on it, once it does finally wind up, you get a mountain of torque

23:31 just punched into your back. That 600Nm really works well with this car. It weighs around 2,000kg,

23:38 so it's not that heavy. In fact, it's a little lighter than an Amarok, so that means that you

23:42 are getting really sprightly feel behind the wheel. So I said at the start of the video I've

23:47 always been a Volkswagen Touareg kind of guy, and I think I still am. It's an SUV that has luxury

23:53 inside it, and to me this is just a cut-price Lambo. I know, different engine and all that sort

23:58 of stuff, but it shows you what the platform's capable of, which means the way they've packaged

24:02 it works really well. It is let down though by some very cheap stuff inside. I just don't know

24:08 how this feels so different to something like a Q7 in terms of build quality. It just feels a little

24:12 bit let down by that. The ride could be slightly better as well, and I think it's time to ditch

24:17 that V6 diesel. Leave that for the Amarok. There is a V8 diesel coming to Australia, so that's

24:22 going to appeal if you do need to do some towing. I think it's got almost like 1,000Nm of torque. So

24:26 this is a really good car. Be careful of options pricing, but outside of that, you should go have

24:31 a test drive if you need a luxury SUV. Let us know in the comments below. Did you buy one? Are you

24:36 looking at one? What else have you cross-shopped with this? It's kind of in a weird segment on its

24:40 own there. And if you haven't done so already, I'd love it if you could hit subscribe for our

24:44 channel. Press like on the video if you've enjoyed it, and also press the bell icon so you can get

24:48 notified every single time we publish a new review. But until next time, drive safely.

Category

Transcript

Recommended