GENEVA MOTOR SHOW: Volkswagen Touran unveiled

Volksagen's outgoing Touran was a favourite of taxi drivers and families across Europe.

Built off Golf VI architecture, the Touran found its niche as an honest, comfortable, well-built people mover with room for plenty of luggage.

The new one, which makes its debut at the Geneva Motor Show on March 4, is bigger, has a longer wheelbase and will sit on the same MQB architecture as the current Golf and Passat.

And, unlike its predecessor, the architecture has been designed with the Touran in mind from the very first engineering drawings, rather than being a vertically stretched rehash of something Volkswagen had lying around.

It will also be larger and more economical than the outgoing model, with a choice of five- or seven-seat layouts. Even so, it has dropped 62kg of weight and improved its economy across the board, with up to 19 per cent less on the dual-clutch version of the 1.6-litre TDI.

Even though it's an all-new car, Volkswagen has tried hard not to shock anybody with a sudden leap in visual excitement, even though the top-end xenon headlights have been replaced with optional LED units.

"We refined the design concept, reinventing it in places to give it a sharper look while retaining a strong underlying continuity," Volkswagen design boss, Klaus Bischoff, said.

"What emerges is an original with a much enhanced light and sporty look thanks to the long side windows and precise lines."

At 4527mm long, it is about 190mm longer the Golf Sportsvan but shorter than the Sharan. Somewhat amazingly, those lines have helped the Touran to deliver a drag coefficient of just 0.296Cd, which has helped fuel economy across the board.

The Touran will initially use three petrol engines and three diesels, with the petrols ranging from 81kW to 110kW to 132kW of power and the diesels delivering 81kW, 110kW and 140kW of power.

The most economical, the 1.6-litre TDI with 81kW, uses 4.1 litres/100km.

"The new Touran is the first multi-variable MPV to be built on the Modular Transverse Matrix [MQB] basis developed by Volkswagen," board member for the development of the Volkswagen brand, Dr Heinz-Jakob Neusser, said.

"This brings many advantages as far as design and construction are concerned, including much more powerful-looking exterior proportions and a distinctive long wheelbase with very short body overhangs that enable us to achieve a groundbreaking use of space.

"A seven-seater MPV like the Touran 1.6 TDI that consumes 4.1 litres/100km may well be considered a milestone in sustainability," Dr Neusser claimed.

The best of the petrol fuel sippers, the 1.4-litre, 110kW TSI, uses 5.4 litres/100km.

Volkswagen insists the Touran is 25 per cent stiffer than it was, and with up to nine airbags on offer (plus adaptive cruise control, post-collision braking and side- and rear-traffic assist, it's far safer than its predecessor, too.

Inside, the Touran offers up to 47 different storage areas, though the five-seat version doesn't really need them, thanks to an astonishing 1040 litres (plus 48 litres on the old car) of luggage capacity with the rear seats in their standard position.

Part of the reason for all this space is that the rear seats slide fore and aft by 200mm and another part is that the wheelbase has grown 113mm to 2791mm. The Touran is also 41mm wider, at 1814mm, though the roof has come down 6mm to 1628mm.

It's longer inside, too, with an added 63mm of interior length taking it to 1799mm.

The driver sits higher in the Touran than in the Golf. The Golf GTi's hip point is 496mm off the ground, but the Touran's is a comfier 625mm to make it easier to get in and out of and to increase driving vision.

It borrows the same motion-sensitive touch screen from the Passat (and the Golf) and uses a mix of leather and high-quality plastics around the cabin.

Mirrorlink will be available, as will Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, while the multi-media screen will rise from five- to eight-inches as it rises through the trim levels.

There will be three of those at the Touran's Geneva launch, from S to SE and topping out at SE-L.

ISOFIX seat mounts are standard across the board, as is air conditioning, while the middle level brings emergency city braking, 16-inch alloys and a better entertainment screen and speakers. Ambient lighting, bigger wheels and a three-zone air conditioning system top the bill for the SE-L.

It's not just air conditioning, though, because the Touran now comes with an active biogenic filter in the air quality sensor to keep pollutants, fungal spores, pollens and other allergens out and keep the air quality high.

The seven seater's second row of seats fold flat into the floor when not needed, which bumps the luggage capacity to a commercial-vehicle like 1890 litres, so you can expect some opposition cringing at its golf-bag count. Those luggage figures shrink slightly to 917 litres/1857 litres for the seven-seater. Still not bad.

For the oft-ignored sixth and seventh passengers, there is a 54mm increase in legroom and 13mm more headroom.