Volkswagen Touareg R 2023 Review | First Drive

The Volkswagen Touareg has become a fully formed adult in all senses of the word. At 21 years old it would be able to buy a drink in every US state. But 21 is a tricky time. Are you an adult or still a bit of a kid? Who among us knew exactly where our place in the world was as we entered our third decade?

Where the Touareg sits in the world of luxury SUVs has always been the biggest question we have. If we’re about to spend north of £80,000 on a big SUV, the Q7 and Cayenne existing in the same space has made the case for buying a VW a difficult one at the top end of its specs. Can the mature Touareg make a proper case for itself?

Outside the changes for the 2023/2024 Volkswagen Touareg aren’t major. At the front the black grille section now sweeps up to join the outer edge of the headlights rather than rapidly rising on the inside. The lower grille is also larger, not just for image reasons but to bring more efficient cooling.

The major change up front is the addition of the first full-width light bar to the front of any Volkswagen. This thin strip runs from the DRLs to the centre of the VW badge. The Touareg has grown a full-width light bar at the rear too and, for the first time in Europe, a fully lit Volkswagen badge on the back bumper that lights up red to go with the rest of the bar unit.

Full width rear lighting has become the norm for many companies, but VW’s plastic recess is wider than the rest, although not the lighting inside. It’s akin to some cars of the mid 1990s – we’re looking at you Renault Safranne – and I can’t decide if the light up red badge is fun or slightly sinister. Interesting lighting choices aside, the new Touareg is a handsome thing, with perhaps even more road presence, and an altogether nicer visage, than its Audi Q7 cousin.

The old Touareg R was withdrawn from sale in the UK after really not very long. This one isn’t perhaps a full fat R car, rather a trim level on top of the range with a decent whack of power. The hybrid system provides 462PS (340kW) and 450Nm (332lb ft) and is sent through an eight-speed automatic gearbox to all four wheels via a self-locking differential.

The 3.0-litre V6 petrol hybrid system produces its peak torque at just 1,300rpm and keeps giving the full load until over 5,000. There’s a very enjoyable thump in the back of initial acceleration from the electric motor which works nicely with the petrol motor to throw the big 2.4-tonne SUV at the scenery with quite surprising pace. The big Volkswagen will hit 62mph in 5.1 seconds, all while not really making much of an audible fuss about its work.

To match the power delivery, the Touareg manages to hold onto the road, even in the build up to a storm, well enough. There’s very little sign of the front axle wanting to scrub too much as it launches into a corner, and the air suspension does a decent job of holding the chassis together without letting the raised mass of the Touareg overcome its adhesion.

But that doesn’t mean the R badge has added real sporting intent. If you’re after something to really attack some roads that’s based on the VW Group’s MLB platform then you’ll need to have a Porsche badge on the nose. Even with the chassis in full sport mode you’ll never really attack a corner, even if you feel confident to carry pace.

Where the Touareg really comes into its own is munching away the miles. It has a relatively small battery pack and will manage just 31 miles on a full charge, but the balance between electric and petrol motivation is good, a smooth transition means they work well together. The air suspension is comfortable without ever being pillow soft, so it won’t wallow around but it takes some very sharp pot holes to really put the Touareg off its stride.

The updates to the new Volkswagen Touareg’s interior are far more toward the tech side than a major design overhaul. Central to this is what Volkswagen describes as a single piece dashboard screen, combining the monstrous 15-inch infotainment system with the digital dials. In reality this is two separate screens, but the units are housed within the same mount giving the impression of a screen that cascades down the dash.

There are no buttons on that dash, every control is now in the massive infotainment screen and the centre console contains just the chunky gearstick, and rotary dials for the driving modes and audio volume.

Interior space is good and the overall design feels like it’s been geared toward making the driver feel snugly cocooned in the cockpit. I like the integration of that giant infotainment even if the elimination of the buttons is a negative, but the sheer size of that screen means the replacement touch buttons are very easy to find.

Perhaps the things that Volkswagen are most keen to talk about are the technological upgrades to the Touareg – “technological tour de force” may have been uttered once or twice. These include the much-vaunted parking assistant which can now be controlled from your phone from up to two metres away from a car. While there are plenty of reasons to be sceptical about how often such a system will be used to actually park your Touareg, the idea of being able to pull such a massive car out of a parking space when cars are parked close to the side without having to squeeze in is appealing and genuinely works. It’s controlled via an app that’s Bluetooth connected to your car, so you don’t need to worry about any data issues.

The other major new tech is the trailer assist, which helps even a towing novice like myself to master reversing a trailer around a corner. It’s not the most intuitive system – you steer using the wingmirror controls – but once you master it it’s really rather clever.

But the main tech has to be that humongous screen and as far as I was concerned the news was mostly good. The sheer scale of it means controls can be nice and large, which makes the transfer from physical buttons to touch slightly easier. The main screen is simplistically laid out in blocks and easy to work your way around and there’s even quick select buttons for the driving aids, which makes a big difference over many recent VW products.

It’s not all good news. The controls for the climate might be big but they aren’t always totally clear and while those quick use buttons are great, they don’t reverse the entry process the same way, leaving you tapping back through menus. On the steering wheel Volkswagen’s haptic controls have made an unwelcome return, but do seem to more readily respond to inputs than they once did.

As mentioned, the plug-in system isn’t the beefiest the world has ever seen and it will fill from empty on a 7kW charger in 2.5 hours. Standard features include cruise control, climate control, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless charging, automatic windscreen wipers and lights, wireless phone charging, heated seats and steering wheel and keyless go.

As the Touareg turns 21 it joins the adult world as one of the few to get there seemingly knowing what it is. Perhaps giving it an R badge isn’t right and you might want to look instead at the less powerful and less thirsty version of the eHybrid, but I could easily see Q7 buyers being diverted to the latest little brother.

It’s not a car to be chucked around a-roads, but with a good ride and an unfussed chassis you can swing the Touareg around the countryside without fuss. It’s near silent in electric mode and barely much noisier when the petrol engine kicks in making the cockpit an extremely nice place to spend an hour or two. The extra tech and clever additions mean that the Touareg is a real prospect in the luxury SUV world.