Every day, VW sales consultants encounter “diesel ups.” (For those unfamiliar with car lot lingo, an “up” is a browsing customer, bound for service by a revolving pool of salesman.) For the last three years, California-based “diesel ups” have been a shortcut to nowhere. Since 2003, the Golden State’s rigid emissions laws have outlawed diesel-powered Vee Dubs. Meanwhile, hybrid owners, cheapskates and other mileage-crazed customers pester commission-hungry staff about TDI’s that get 50 mpg on spent French fry oil. So, after three years of consumer anticipation and wasted ups, CA has finally given the A-OK to a diesel VW: the Touareg TDI. It’s a great landing at the wrong airport.
The Touareg’s Teutonic style has attracted a well rounded demographic of admirers. Side on, it’s spot on; short overhangs complement subtle, well-integrated fender bulges. A beefy hood, bi-xenon headlamps and an assortment of visually balanced front vents create a butch prow that maintains the familial resemblance— and makes the Porsche Cayenne look decidedly goofy. The TDI's rear hints at the ill-fated Phaeton luxobarge, with horizontally arranged taillights, a VW badge big enough for an 80’s rapper and twin letterbox exhausts large enough for a couple of FedEx overnight letters. Subtle chrome accents complement the clean lines. In total, the Touareg’s exterior is so clean and classical that Wolfsburg rightly decided to forgo the usual mid-model cycle cosmetic surgery.
Once inside the watertight doors, the Touareg’s cabin is beginning to show its age. The cockpit is rich looking and well appointed; well-judged wood and chrome accents prevent drabness without looking cheesy or contrived. But the overall style clearly springs from VW’s last gen design, when it was hip to be square: square vents, square steering wheel, square buttons. To be fair, all the controls and knobs are extra large for a welcome dose of Volvo-esque utilitarianism. But the driver is quickly overwhelmed by the plethora of mysteriously labeled buttons.
The DVD-navigation system is almost as easy as folding a large map, and obviates the dead simple in-dash CD player. The on-board air compressor is a thoughtful inclusion, but using it to pump up the deflated spare is a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Features like the flat-folding rear seat, 115-Volt power outlet and heated steering wheel are less essential to Mom’s Taxi than [the missing] third row seating, DVD entertainment system and a power lift gate.
Then again, my Mom’s taxi never had 553 lbs-ft. of torque underfoot. Twist the switchblade key and the 5.0-liter twin turbo's muffled chattering evokes unpleasant memories of school bus rides gone by. Yes, well, the Touareg TDI’s three-point automatic safety belts and active head restraints are all that’s between you and whiplash when you punch the accelerator. The twin-turbo diesel V10 moves 5825 pounds of fully galvanized steel and aluminum body, 4-wheel drivetrain with locking differentials, Vienna leather hides and Vavana wood trim to 60 mph in 7.6 seconds— and would still do so if you tied it to a tree. The TDI would be even faster if the transmission let the engine wind out properly…
At highway speeds, the TDI’s air suspension deflates slightly, so the body can hunker down over the wheels. At that point, the TDI Touareg glides with all the ease and quiet of the V8 version. The Touareg’s low center of gravity, four wheel independent suspension, 4XMotion all-wheel-drive and rack and pinion steering make for solid, sophisticated handling at reasonable speeds. At unreasonable speeds, the nose heavy monster plows into understeer like an old S Class Merc. A tight steering radius, folding side-view mirrors and rear-view camera make the V10 as easy to park as any Volkswagen.
The Touareg’s off-road prowess is equally impressive– or so I’ve heard. I’d love to traverse sharp rocks with the air suspension holding the body at maximum height or test the fording depth in a two-foot stream. Suffice it to say, the majority of Touareg owners will never engage the low-range gear, let alone the locking differentials.
Which raises an interesting question: who’s the buyer for this dignified, sprightly, capable machine? Like VW’s Phaeton, this exotic farvergnugen-powered space shuttle will serve as a showroom oddity, dealership fixture and joy-ridden jungle gym for service customer’s children. Touareg sales continue to maneuver a rough patch thanks to handsome styling, not off-road or towing capability. Well-funded Suburbanites are opting for trendy crossovers with three rows of seats, automated finger slammers and DVD babysitters. And at $70k plus tax, the V10 TDI’s uninspiring gas mileage (17/22) is pretty inconsequential.
The TDI Touareg makes no attempt to attract the tree-hugging Super Beetle-turned-hybrid drivers or the diesel junkies hanging out behind fast food restaurants at closing time. A robust, capable, TDI powered 4X4 might be the perfect car for desert runners at half the price and twice the gas mileage. Until then, California's “diesel ups” will continue to be fruitless and frustrating for customer and salesman alike.
I had that model for a week and absolutely loved it. Esuvee in a tux.
It’s been discontinued up here for three years now, but we do have a V6 version.
IMO, VW would have done better with fewer cylinders in their diesel rather than more. A less expensive 6-cylinder oil burner that achieved 30 MPG and delivered performance similar to their V8 gasser would get some needed attention from a larger swath of customers.
I remember when the TDI’s first came out, and Volkswagen dealers were prohibited from even using the word ‘diesel’ in their sales pitches. They had to go through some fairly complex verbal contortions to avoid admitting that these wonderful new “Turbo Direct Injection” powerplants were, in fact, diesel engines. They *would* go so far as to admit that you had to put diesel fuel in the tank, but that was about it.
Ten years later, it sounds like VW is till unsure of itself when it comes to promoting these engines in the American marketplace. Too bad. The time is now.
Moving 5800 lbs in 7.2 to 60 @ 22mpg highway is impressive to say the least.
V6 Gas – 16 / 21
V8 Gas – 14 / 18
V10 Diesel -17 / 22
Thanks for half the story.
CA (and other 4 states blindly following CA) will have this model available to them mid/late 2006–when low-sulfur diesel is widespread enough at US pumps– to Januray 1, 2007 when CA enforces yet again, stiffer, more inane emissions regulations. So, we in the good states have, maybe, 3 months to pick one up.
Also, after my time spent with a V8 ‘egg; I would be THRILLED to see 17/22mpg. Hell, I would have been thrilled to see what the EPA suggests.
Lastly: Did you really need to mention that a 5000+lb suv is gong to understeer if you drive it stupidly?
Regarding emissions regulations in California, I’ve always advocated the legislature doing something to directly reduce greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) emissions. I think that they should all just hold their breath. :-)
Right MikeM, they are sneaking in the TDI’s as ’06 models. The change to low-sulfur diesel opens the door just wide enough for a few Touaregs. We still get no Jetta or Passat TDI’s. In other states, VW bulked up supply of ’06 TDI’s in an effort to circumvent new emissions laws, as there will be no ’07 TDI’s for sale anywhere in the US.
You’ve got more than 3 months to think about it, these tanks are gonna sit a while. Pony up the 70K, I got your 17/22 ready to go.
A blue ribbon for Walter on the analogy:”a great landing at the wrong airport.” I don’t doubt that the VW is very well engineered and highly capable. I just don’t know why someone would pay $25K above what an MDX or X5 costs. Or Denali for that matter.
gearhead455, I think you nailed it. This is an impressive rig, just not one that will sell. This is a left-over from the Piech era, when Vee Dub aimed to match M-B model for model.
The TDI is a great product. Anything with good mileage is in high demand, so it’s really frustrating not to have Rabbit, Jetta, and Passat TDI’s to sell. A Duramax is OK for CA roads but a Jetta TDI isn’t?
When diesels are finally offered to American buyers, they will take the market by storm. As Walter points out, the pent-up demand is enormous.
The California Clean Air Resource Board’s (CARB) ability to decided which vehicles are sold throughout America (carmakers can’t make money without CA) is a usurpation of the federal government’s power to set air quality standards nationwide.
It’s high time the feds sorted this out. America wants and needs diesels. If they’re clean enough for Brussels, they’re clean enough for me. Set my people free!
Oh, and as far as the Touareg TDI is concerned, if you don’t get it, it’s not for you. A $70k VW SUV? Huh?
Ok let me see if I’ve go this right…. Diesel is dirty to burn, dirtier than gasoline, but you get more mpg than gasoline, so that’s good. Part of the reason diesel is dirty to burn is becuase of the poor diesel fuel on tap here in the US. So this year dirty diesel is being replaced with cleaner burning diesel. So the TDI’s which are illegal in CA because of the pollution they give off when burning dirty diesel will be legal when they start burning cleaner diesel later this year. BUT, CA is changing the rules, so that even with the new cleaner diesel, TDIs will be illegal once again next year because of stricter standards?
I would think we should encourage more cars to get ~50 mpg like TDIs and not make them illegal. What’s with all the picking on diesel? When is CA going to make gasoline vehicles that poor mpg illegal because they have to burn more gas to go the same distance as a more effcient gasoline car?
The DVD-navigation system is almost as easy as folding a large map, and obviates the dead simple in-dash CD player.
I’m always interested in the audio systems. I suspect you misused the word obviate here, and I’m wondering what it is you meant. Does it have a CD player separate from the DVD Nav unit? Or is it one integrated unit or what? Thanx
Thanx Kevin. Cars equipped with the DVD Nav use a seperate 6-disc changer, usually mounted in the glovebox or the trunk. The DVD Nav uses a nav DVD where the CD usually goes. The head only reads the nav DVD. Sorry for the confusion.
RF — Americans may flock to diesel engines, but only because most of their inherent ‘diesel-ness’ will have been eliminated. People want a smooth and quiet delivery of real horsepower, with nothing smelly (including the nasty pump at the filling station) and no clouds of billowing smoke following them everywhere.
In essence, they want a gas engine.
Unfortunately, everything it takes to make these things happen increase the cost of production and decrease the two distinct advantages that diesel engines naturally have — longer engine life and significantly better mileage.
Diesel engines have never caught on for cars, SUV’s and compact pickups with these two advantages firmly in place. Wiithout them, I’m skeptical that they ever will.
my dear Brian Myrkle,
You should probably watch outside the USA to bring you back to reality… Diesel has already took the world by storm. As a matter of fact Europe ratio of diesel/gasoline is already 1:1 and keeps tilting towards diesel.
Granted, americans have other tastes in automobile (although i seriously doubt it… ) but light duty diesel vehicles given the appropriate opportunity (read: remove the legal advantage that gasoline has) could easily cease being a nice market and become mainstream. How a 35% market share sounds (world average)…
VW badge big enough for an 80’s rapper? Oh, that was great! Nice review. This TDI is a step in the right direction and certainly tows high-end sports cars to track better than a Cayenne ever dreamed of.
Other than that I hope it ushers more bread-and-butter TDI diesels to market, since its kinda pointless at $70k.
GM needs to bring out a Duramax H2. Where there’s room for one there’s room for two, right?
Wow you really missed who this car is for.
Tree hugging suberbanite mom’s don’t buy $70k SUVs, there seems to be a whole class of people who TTAC has never met, their middle age people with gobs of cash and more than a couple cars. I’ve seen more than a few of these towing monster trailers down the highway with 60 year old men at the helm. There’s no shortage of them at the country club either piloted by mom’s who’s kids have their own VWs and houses. It’s not about being useful it’s about being giant high seated quick pulling and “different” The same people who bought the W12, it’s not about milage :P
Sajeev — you can tow 7700 pounds with a Cayenne.
What high end sports car are you thinking of? Jay Leno’s tank-car?
rashakor,
I am well aware of diesel’s global popularity, and wish it for the US, too.
However, my confidence in the average American’s ability to make a rational buying choice when it comes to automobiles is limited. And, I’m afraid many of the hoops that manufacturer’s will have to jump through to put these vehicles on the radar screens of the average American buyer will reduce or eliminate diesel’s two basic advantages.
Kudos to the Europeans and others who have embraced light-duty diesel engines.
A nice post again, I feel that we cannot talk enough about diesel in the USA. As a European I must confess that I am very partial towards diesels. Ever since in highschool physics class we draw the work cycles in a PV diagram for both the gasoline and the diesel engines and calculated their efficiency, I always supported the idea of using an engine that is just by simple thermodynamics is capable of making a better use of the heat obtained by burning the fuel. While gasoline cars gets a 40% efficiency, diesel can get 60% (rough numbers). When I arrived to the States I was quite surprised by how much americans reject the idea of a diesel car – until I had to drive a diesel U-Haul truck on a highway. If that is the image that diesel has in this country: smelly, dirty, noisy with billowing smoke – that needs to be fixed: all that needs is just a few new european diesel cars running around. We came a long long way from those diesels. In Europe if you can, you choose diesel. They are clean, fast (TDI, CDI), and have more torque than gasoline cars. They also make more sense as they are way more economical and to add to that: diesel fuel is significantly cheaper in most parts of Europe than gasoline (and naturally it should be cheaper as it is easier to manufacture, although I admit that taxes in Europe play a small part in that as well). Biodiesel can be made out of soybeans and this process of growing soybeans/making biodiesel has a much higher efficiency than doing corn-based ethanol. Why then, choose something that is less efficient ?
Another thing that is bugging me is that most of the manufacturers that have excellent diesel engines in Europe simply don’t bring them Stateside. It’s not that they need to develop anything better, they just need to ship it, that’s all. Volvo has the D5, Audi has a full line of excellent diesels, basically all european carmakers and everybody that sells cars in Europe has to have diesels otherwise they die in that market – yet it is only VW that gets something here. Europeans still think that america is thinking the way it did 10 years ago, because they extrapolate their own slow way of changing to the US: so they still must love pickup trucks, SUVs (how else do you explain the Q7 that was brought in recently ?) and big, very powerful cars. Audi could capitalize on their recent LeMans victory with V10 diesels to promote the diesel in the USA, yet they do nothing. Well, hello Europe, this is the country that can change mentality very very fast ! And they just did so regarding how they view cars. So before everybody here starts believing that gasoline hybrids (in particluar Prius) are the nonplusultra of fuel economy just bring them some of the regular size diesels from Europe (I said regular size european, like a Jetta – this Touareg is the biggest VW there is, that is what they think of what america wants). Talking about hybrids, if you really want economy than the hybrid diesel is the way (building a hybrid of an already better solution makes sense) – Peugeot and Citroen built some HDi prototypes recently and Pegueot can claim 70 mpg in a medium sized car.
So yea, go down Moses, and tell the Pharaoh !
RF: As someone who grew up in LA in the 70s and 80s, and has lived in the SF bay area since…
God Bless CARB.
Those pollution-weenies have done wonderful things for the California air, you can actually remotely breath it some of the time!
Same for Mexico city. The air is breathable because emissions were severely limited. But not directly. Because people were not allowed to circulate 1 or 2 days of the week with their car… people started buying a second small car to be able to drive all week. Many people soon realized that most small, new car could drive every day of the week because of very little emission.
The overall effect is that the size of the cars decreased and the automobile pool got renewed.
This and the emission rules in CA are 2 bright example of how policies affect the market way beyond what it is intended.
I am convinced that americans have nothing against diesels, if diesels are proven superior to gasoline cars. It is just a question of poorly designed, obtuse laws that have hampered the development of the light duty diesel in america (and incidentaly in Mexico as well…)
JL: the last open track event I went to had a Cayenne S towing a race-prepped 911. They were a cute couple, but no doubt the Diesel Touareg tows better with its extra torque…and gets WAY better fuel economy when towing.
Forget about tow ratings, that’s only part of the story. Diesels are made to tow.
Ahem,
7700 pounds, dude.
With 553 lb. ft. of torque… I guess so!!
I drove it straight up a ski hill in winter, damn thing was unstoppable. Fully loaded, the press car was over $100,000 Canadian. No smell, and you really had to be looking for clatter to hear it.
When getting one’s car (or truck) serviced, especially when the warranty is gone and youre’ going to an independent shop, you want to go to one that specializes in the kind of car (or truck) you drive. Additionally, once they know you, you get better service and a bit better deal on the financial end. Shops, as much if not more so than dealerships of all kinds, want repeat business. The smarter ones would rather cut your a deal on one job, than lose you as a customer.
With dealerships, as this piece attests, things vary. The main thing is an old maxim I once heard from a Volvo salesman, way back in 1982: the back of the store oftentimes keeps the front going. I think this applies more now, to all makes, than it did back then.
A neighbor of mine who now is the sales manager of a Saturn store, told me when he was selling Land Rovers, “Ever since Ford took them over, we can’t make any money on the sales.” Of course, that means it will come from sales or parts or both.
That Land Rover store he was working at also sold Jaguars. No wonder he left. What a sad thing has happened to that proud old marque. But that’s for another post.
Opps! Meant to leave the last post at the editorial on auto service. That’s what I get for writing on just four hours sleep.
Lesley — the Cayenne Turbo can Tow 7700 lbs. The TDI Touareg — 7716 lbs.
I think both are limited by the identical Unit Body construction.
Sajeev — Cayenne owners do not worry about gas mileage.
CARB is an excellent example of how one can go from pulling a string to pushing a string. One of the “problems” of science is that its’ ability to measure things continues to increase, thus since we can now measure parts per billion, legislators get to legislate in parts per billion, even if the scientific rationality of the dangers of parts per billion become non-existent. Truly rational legislators would have realized a decade or so ago that the EU safety/emission rules and the US’s were so close as to differ merely by ‘parts per billion” and we would have recognized each others’ rules and let it go at that. But that would have been too easy. Meanwhile the US environmentalists’ hystery about diesel particulate emissions will keep those things out while the Kyoto Accord environmentalists in Europe are diesel enthusiasts. Gaaaahhhh.
Why don’t the car reviews show the price and the star ratings for the different aspects of the car at the end anymore?
Can you get it with a sleeper cab? Will it pull a double bottom? How does quality compare to Peterbuilt?
10 cylindars is necessary to keep emmisions down. Diesel fuel burns slower than gas. A smaller cylindar ensures complete cumbustion within the timeframe alotted for combustion. It also allows for higher revs, which translates to higher horsepower.
On the Diesel question: I live in Europe (Hungary) and I (sometimes) drive a 2003 BMW 530D (E39), which has an inline six 3 liter TDI engine. It delivers about 200 hps, 368 lbs/feet torque and accelerates the BMW in about 7,5 seconds to 60 mph and it’s top speed is about 150 mph. It has an urban mpg (and I am not kind on the gas) of about 30. So, yes diesels have every right to be in cars like these. (It is another question however that I also drive (sometimes) a Z4 3.0i and I would never ever want a diesel sportscar, but not because of performance or mpg, but sound, rpm and stuff like that.)