The body design I believe lacks flash, but that interior is amazing. I think as of now that and the FX stand as my favorite SUV's. I wish more auto makers would make interiors that nice. The V8 Touareg would be a fun SUV to own, quick (for SUV standards), adjustible height, awesome luxury, tons and tons of features, etc etc....

what do you guys think?

 

I think that it's amusing that Volkwagen named their new SUV after a godless, nomadic tribe in Iraq (or maybe it was Iran...). However, the actual vehicle itself is quite nice- isn't it the same platform as the Cayenne? I thought I read that somewhere.

 

Yes, it's the same chassis as the Cayenne. But Volkswagen used their own V6 and an Audi V8 in the Touareg (or is it an Audi V6 and a VW V8?) It's winning a lot of acclaim, but I just can't get over the fact it's a Volkswagen.

 

Got to see a couple close-up, and the exterior is a little bland for my taste, however the powertrain & interior are sweet.

I wonder how many VW plans to sell?

 

I'm pretty sure it is an VW V6 and the Audi V8 from the A8.

I even funnier twist is that the Cayenne will soon feature the V6 from the VW GTi R32 to better compete of the lower end of the price spectrum (about $50,000).

Everyone is sharing so many engines these days it hard to remember who originally makes what.

 

VW had to actually buy some back since they rigged the commercial where they show it pulling a huge trailer. Some guys bought them just for that and soon found out that it was real hard to turn with the front wheels off the gound. The trailer tongue weight was way over what it could handle. The VW marketing manager explained that the marketing department got a little overly enthusiastic with the commercial. In marketing I guess overly enthusiastic is politically correct for overly fraudulent.

 

it's a great truck, very attractive, though imo the exterior lacks character, looks nice and inoffensive but nothing special, and the rear end is ugly. mechanically it's impressive, vw went over the top, and as a result it's way expensive and i'd never shell out that much dought for a vw. plus it's assembled in yugoslavia

 

Just bought one to put beside my RX8. V8 Tour egg. Two chick magnets.

 

I think it was a tribe form Morroco.

 

Not only that, but the Touareg tribe continued the practice of slavery all the way into the 1970's! Not something most companies would want to be associated with, especially a company with VW's history

 

IRAQ?
Touareg are a nomad population of Sahara (morocco,tunisia, algeria,lybia, mali)

 

Well since it was brought back up.

I went to test drive one. The salesman tried to place importance on the Audi engine. I let him know I had an Audi A6 2.7 6 speed that went through 2 transmissions in 10K miles and Audi didn’t really impress me. Unfortunalty I neve got around to test driving one.

It’s amazing how different the Cayenne and Touareg are. There was a great article in one of the Auto mags I read that went over the differences in detail. Can’t find it on the web. They share the same transmission and not much else. Even the suspensions were different even though the driver settings are the same in both. The article described the Porsche version as the drivers version and the VW version as the cost effective version. The residual on the Touareg is higher than the Porsche percentage wise. My guess is that it’s a compensation for comparably equipped versions of both getting to the same resale value even though there’s about a $10k difference in price. For Porsche, the Cayenne has made their year. Not only is it allowing is US dealer network another vehicle to sell while the Boxster and 911 are aging, their sales worldwide of it have shifted their percentage of their business made up of US sales to the lowest it’s been in a long time allowing them sales diversity. Also, Porsche is coming out with a V6 version for 04. At least I think I got the year right. Regardless of engine, both models have a towing capacity of 7700 pounds. Not many vehicles go over that. Although I don’t think I want to tow my 24 foot trailer with the V6. Not to mention it would look strange going down the road. Such a small vehicle pulling a large trailer.

Sorry, I think I spend way too much time reading Auto mags and Automotive News…

 

My wife and I test drove one and the dealership happened to be next to a Mazda dealer... Needless to say I have an RX-8 and my wife is still driving her Audi :p .

 

There are only two SUVs I would ever consider. The Toureg is one and the other is the Infiniti FX45. I think I would end up with the Infiniti, but they are both very nice and it would be a tough decision.